Geekseven's year in stories

Brantley yu are right, i red and i liked a lot, thank yu for your work !

Didn't mean to start a thread and then run, but things got very busy after I posted this.

I think the tone of my original post was too negative, for which I apologize. I didn't mean to whine. The intent was to try and be objective about what worked and what didn't and maybe to start a discussion about that.

I remember the virus attack wiped out the votes from the library, so judgments on how stories from earlier in the year were received were based on my memory, which may be colored by my generally negative outlook.

Thank you to those who have commented on my stories from the last year - I really appreciate it, whether you liked the stories or not! I am as guilty as everyone else of not giving feedback and I will try to do better in the new year.

Most of my Liberty Belle stories are in the library. The ones that are not are on my old site, sites.google.com/site/geeksevenstuff/Home/stories , which is still up, although hasn't been updated for a while. I will get around to making sure that everything there is available in the library, but it might take me a while.

G7,

For what it's worth, I think it would be a shame if the author of Firecracker and Fly the Deadly Skies stopped (or partially stopped) posting stories here. Those stories were great!

In my limited writing experience, I too haven't been able to resist watching the stats (hit counts, stars, hearts, comments, whatever). But despite the fact that I watch the stats, they don't really send me a clear message about what I should be doing differently. If one story gets fewer stars than another, is that because of something that I care about (ie, story line needs work) or something that I don't care about (ie, wish she was wearing a blue and red outfit)?

Ultimately, I just had to decide that I'm writing because I enjoy it. If other people enjoy reading it, than that's just a huge plus. But if they don't enjoy reading it, and I'm stuck with a fan club of one, then that's ok too. For me at least, the process of creating these stories has its own reward.

Since people seem to like to be able to see the stats of their own stories, I tweaked the layout for the "My stories" menu to be the same as the classic layouts. This way you can watch how your stories are doing without having to go through the not-so-abtly-named "Sort by popularity".

That being said these stats can be really confusing and counterintuitive. For some weird reason for example the story with the most hits has the least votes (thank you virus attack), the one with the most favorites having just as many (thx again virus) while being mediocre with the amount of hits and the ones with the most amount of votes having the least amount of hits. Can't really blame the virus for the last one, there are always other effects to take into account like a burst of stories by other authors that cause said story to drop out of the ticker quite fast, for example. The most curious part would be the one story with not a single favorite being the second most hit one - I've got no idea how to explain this one.

Long story short, the stats can help a bit but their meaning isn't absolute. A few comments either under the story or in the forum can be worth much more. And don't forget to show up in the chat every once in a while, the direct communication allows for an even better amount of feedback.

njae wrote: Since people seem to like to be able to see the stats of their own stories, I tweaked the layout for the "My stories" menu to be the same as the classic layouts. This way you can watch how your stories are doing without having to go through the not-so-abtly-named "Sort by popularity".

I like it! Thanks!

I searched for these stories, but sadly I can't find them any more. What happened to the "'Stupendous Girl" storyline on SWM?

Thanks!

I already searched them via the Wayback Machine, but I was not successful so far. Has anyone found them and can provide a link (also as PM if preferred).

Thanks so much.

I have a copy of most of his stories, if you PM me your e-mail address I can try sending them to you.

It seems to me that if a guy doesn't want his stories distributed any longer, that everyone should respect that.

Even if it's technically possible to tell Geekzeven to buzz off by digging back into the Wayback machine to find his stuff and share them.

Obviously, individuals can do whatever they want and Geekseven can't do much about it, but it seems disrespectful to me. If you appreciated his hard work (and most of know how hard it is to craft good stories), then you should appreciate his wishes after he retires.

Shadar

shadar wrote: It seems to me that if a guy doesn't want his stories distributed any longer, that everyone should respect that.

Even if it's technically possible to tell Geekzeven to buzz off by digging back into the Wayback machine to find his stuff and share them.

Obviously, individuals can do whatever they want and Geekseven can't do much about it, but it seems disrespectful to me. If you appreciated his hard work (and most of know how hard it is to craft good stories), then you should appreciate his wishes after he retires.

Shadar

Fair enough Shadar, I did think about what you say above before I posted the link. My post now deleted.

It was interesting to see SuperWomenMania in her various formats on a Wayback search since around 2005. Worth a look for nostalgia!

There are several old stories that I have read many times. Most of those are by Marknew, LFAN and DKC. I have often pondered what if one day I opened up my browser and this site and DTV had disappeared into cyberspace? I think I would be mad at myself for not downloading them when I had the chance. On the other hand, they are not mine and a part of me feels that it would be very wrong to do so. I am curious what others think about this.

ace191 wrote: There are several old stories that I have read many times. Most of those are by Marknew, LFAN and DKC. I have often pondered what if one day I opened up my browser and this site and DTV had disappeared into cyberspace? I think I would be mad at myself for not downloading them when I had the chance. On the other hand, they are not mine and a part of me feels that it would be very wrong to do so. I am curious what others think about this.

I think it’s perfectly Ok to download stories for your personal library. And if the author is still active and or wants their stories distributed, to share them.

But when an author removes their stories from the Net and no longer wants them shared, then I think we respect that by keeping them in our private library for our personal enjoyment.

Anyway, my two cents...

Shadar

I feel like a broken record. Writing is selfless, and selfish. Do it for you, and if a handful of people love it....then feel good about it. Geek7 received comparably just as much praise as some of the best. He even was declared a Legend of SWM. It still wasn't enough for him. And like an individual well below his maturity level......He left dramatically.

As far as his work is concerned. I look at it like this.....Whether its 50 characters, or a million. If you post it online...its' there to share. It's like someone posting something on twitter, then deleting it, and chastising people for continuing to share it...

Cmon....were old enough now to know how the internet works

This is a really interesting debate. Shadar makes good points but I don't feel it is clear cut.

It was G7 and no-one else who decided to publish his stories originally. As with the above-mentioned hypothetical ill-advised social media post, the past can't be altered because it no longer sits comfortably with the present. Fats is a good webmaster for responding to the request to remove the works from SWM, but I don't think people are doing anything wrong by sharing stories they downloaded or linking to wayback.

Fans of the works of Franz Kafka will know that he told his publisher to destroy all his manuscripts Many of us have been culturally enriched by the publisher's betrayal.

Besides, isn't all this why most "genre" writers don't sign off stories with real names?

I agree that it's not clear-cut.

It's not a legal issue.

It's not a moral issue.

It's not an ethical issue.

It falls into the category of the weakest of all forces in modern Western culture: respect. Do we respect someone else's wishes, even when we are not compelled to do so by ethics, morality or law?

Respect used to be a big deal. It still is in some aspects of Asian culture. But the word has been diminished almost to zero in the West.

But I'm not willing to let go of respect because I think it's an essential piece of glue in society. But I also realize that I'm fighting a losing battle. Lack of respect for other's wishes or beliefs or desires is the norm now. Still, when I see a chance to pay someone their respects, I still try.

Maybe it's just me. Like Tolkien's Elves, I'll fade away into the West.

Shadar

AuGoose wrote: Whereas I feel that the words 'public' and 'publish' share a root for a reason. When you PUBLISH you are putting stuff out into the world in a way that is no longer solely yours to control. The casual replication of digital content creates some new dilemmas, but up until the last 20 years or so there wasn't an author anywhere who thought they could 'unring the bell'. Publishing is a commitment, and one that doesn't especially care about an author's later hand-wringing. If there's 'respect' involved, then it should be respect what you're doing when you push the button. It is a definitive act. Own it.

I think it's appropriate and polite it's no longer in the library here per the author's wishes, but lets not pretend water isn't wet. Every aspect of your public and especially online behavior is recorded indelibly these days.

I totally get that. Pushing the button to send is as big a buzz as writing. I agree with what you say after the boldened part as well.
Looking at the start of the thread, it reads like G7 was unhappy about the lack of feedback on some of his work that he rated as some of his best, taking him a year to write. Could be one of the reasons he wanted his work pulled.

I completely respect Shadar's take on this. I also admire his insistence in sticking to his values.

My personal view is that holding someone to the 'norms' of the internet is not being disrespectful.

There is an element of "publish and be damned". There is an element of dubious morality in giving a gift and then demanding it be given back. It could be argued that G7 was not showing enormous respect for this community/forum or Fats by demanding a 1984-style history-cleansing.

Or how about this... if soneone, say an authority figure, asks for sonething, say a book, not to be published, to be destroyed and hidden forever, should that request be honoured out of respect for the authority figure or his office? Who draws the lines where respect overrules freedom of thought and expression?

Out of respect to G7 I won't pry into, speculate or comment on his reasons. Out of respect to G7 and Fats I won't ask for details of their private correspondence.

Let's respectfully agree to disagree on this.

conceptfan wrote:
Or how about this... if soneone, say an authority figure, asks for sonething, say a book, not to be published, to be destroyed and hidden forever, should that request be honoured out of respect for the authority figure or his office? Who draws the lines where respect overrules freedom of thought and expression?

It's a very different situation when it's not your book or your work that you're objecting to and want to prevent from being published. And we generally hold public figures to different standards than private citizens.

All of which makes this all the muddier.

In any case, I think this has been an interesting discussion, given that most of us are authors of one kind or another. Most of us who publish, even informally on SWM, do feel that we "own" our work and should have something to say about it.

In the world of formal publishing with ISBN numbers and copyrights, this is legally formalized. But for us, it's just whatever conventions our little community chooses to adopt. I wouldn't want to trade that freedom for a strict set of rules. We don't have to agree on everything to remain warmly welcomed members of the community.

Shadar