I noticed the change to everyone's autosignature in which there is now an apparent running tally of how many stories posted.
I am interested in where the Admins are going with this (I like it).
I am also interested in what the parameters of posting a story are. I tried several times to post my 'Quadra 950 bracket' as a story, but it was over 5MB as a pdf and kept dying on the up load or giving me errors back. - What are the parameters for uploading a file as a story and are there any special considerations that users must take into account when doing so (guidelines on pictures, file type/format, etc.)
Stories are anything that are submitted via the "Submit Article" link at the top of each page. They must be approved by an administrator before they're posted. Generally they're posted to the front page. Things like the "Review: Coldheat..." are stories.
File uploads are limited at 2MB at the moment I believe...though increasing it is somewhere on my list. When you submit something as a story, we encourage you to follow the guidelines laid out here http://www.applefritter.com/submit. This will greatly increase your chances of the story being approved.
You mention 'as a PDF'. Though a PDF file could be attached, perhaps with diagrams or other things that go better in PDF format, the main part of the story should be in text and graphics as much as possible. For a lot of people on older machines, this makes the story much more readable.
As for where we're going with this, I'll let Tom take that one if he'd like.
-BW
how long does it thak to get apporveal
If the article is suitable, needs no editing, and is properly formatted, it'll go up and soon as I see it. If it needs changes, or the submitter didn't follow directions, it can drag on a very long time.
Before I say anything, I just want to make sure everyone knows that this is intended to be polite, constructive criticism.
I don't know what the purpose of these new story counts are. However, my first reaction was that it seems to me that this system has the potential to devolve into the same sort of thing that happened with the post counter. People will begin to focus more on quantity, and perhaps ignore quality.
I do realize that there are marked differences between the two systems: the stories must be approved by a moderator. It is still possible, however, that the mods will be bombarded by stories as people try and get their story count up.
Personally, I rather enjoy reading the stories posted on AF. I find them to be very informative. I fear, however, that the quality of these stories will start to decline as people put more emphasis on the number of stories published, as opposed to the content and quality of those stories.
I do not want to come across as insulting or questioning the powers that moderate this site. I do, however, want to point out that I can see a potential flaw in this system, and I am hoping that steps will be taken to mitigate this risk.
Just my $0.02.
Cheers,
The Czar
The purpose of the tag is to encourage new stories. The quality required of submissions will not change.