Starting a story hour

Renna · May 10, 2006, 01:38:29 PM

How do you do this? I see how to make a blog entry, but I don't understand the difference between the blogs and story hours. Can someone help an idiot out?

Thjalfi · May 10, 2006, 01:47:02 PM

Quote from: RennaHow do you do this? I see how to make a blog entry, but I don't understand the difference between the blogs and story hours. Can someone help an idiot out?

ok, it's still kind of complicated, but we're working on figuring it out.

at the moment, Story hours are a function of the book system. You would submit a title/top book page for your story hour (give campaign basics and whatnot), then break it up in one of a couple of different ways. If you're interested in seeing how this is being done by El-Remmen, who's using our system for his Aquerra campaign story hour, it'll give you an idea of how he's using it.

currently, all story-hour pages are requiring approval in order to be seen - it's another something we're working on when we have the time. I'm usually pretty good about getting the page approved within 12 hours of it's posting though, so it's not too much of a hassle yet.

Renna · May 10, 2006, 01:54:07 PM

That sort of makes sense. But not entirely.

I guess I don't see the link to submit the title/book page.

On a similar note, for something to file away...it would be nice when clicking the Story Hours link at the top to be sent to a page that had a list of the current Story Hours with links to get to each one individually. I know you're still working on it, though, so I'll just offer it as a suggestion.

Edit: never mind, I think I found it.

Renna · May 10, 2006, 01:58:05 PM

OK, still figuring this out. I'm trying to submit the book page, but I can't chose a parent. It only lets me pick from existing books, not create a new one.

Thjalfi · May 10, 2006, 02:25:48 PM

Quote from: RennaOK, still figuring this out. I'm trying to submit the book page, but I can't chose a parent. It only lets me pick from existing books, not create a new one.

hmm.

ok, what's the name of your story-hour book? I'll go ahead and make a top-level book for yours.

Renna · May 10, 2006, 02:27:17 PM

The King's Guard

Thanks.

Edit: It's a general 3.5 D&D campaign.

Thjalfi · May 10, 2006, 02:30:41 PM

Quote from: RennaThe King's Guard

Thanks.

Edit: It's a general 3.5 D&D campaign.

http://www.nutkinland.com/node/240

you can either submit and use it as a top-level page now, or you can use the post child page link on the bottom.

you should be able to edit it also.

Renna · May 10, 2006, 02:35:42 PM

Thanks! I added a tag line to the top page, and now I can't see it. I guess it has to be approved now before I can do anything else. That's cool, though.

Should be fun! (I hope...)

el-remmen · May 10, 2006, 02:40:01 PM

Quote from: RennaThanks! I added a tag line to the top page, and now I can't see it. I guess it has to be approved now before I can do anything else. That's cool, though.

Should be fun! (I hope...)

Yes, every time you edit an entry it goes back to the approval queue. And while the admins have been great about approving them fairly quickly, I suggest doing as much editing as possible before posted.

One trick I recently picked up is reading entries aloud. It is a good way to pick up mistakes of grammar or confusing sentences that you would otherwise overlook.

Thjalfi · May 10, 2006, 02:43:27 PM

yep. And there's some wierdness about editing top-level pages too

.

my suggestion would be to type out your story hour in a word processor first, then copy-paste over the text.

Renna · May 10, 2006, 02:50:20 PM

Thanks! The reading out loud is a good suggestion. I have the first installment ready to post, so maybe it will be up today.

Now we'll see if anyone reads it.

Renna · May 10, 2006, 02:54:37 PM

Quote from: Thjalfiyep. And there's some wierdness about editing top-level pages too .

my suggestion would be to type out your story hour in a word processor first, then copy-paste over the text.

I definitely will.

A couple last questions before I start. When posting a child page, do I need to make a selection in the 'Group Projects' and 'Story Hour' pulldowns? Also, I'm going to post Part 1 right now. When I go to post the next part, do I want to create a child of Part 1, or another child of the top level page for my story hour? Does it matter?

Finally, what is the Log Message text box for?

Thjalfi · May 10, 2006, 03:02:03 PM

Quote from: RennaI definitely will.

A couple last questions before I start. When posting a child page, do I need to make a selection in the 'Group Projects' and 'Story Hour' pulldowns? Also, I'm going to post Part 1 right now. When I go to post the next part, do I want to create a child of Part 1, or another child of the top level page for my story hour? Does it matter?

Finally, what is the Log Message text box for?

log message is basically an editing log - you can note why you made the edits you did, etc.

the child/parent choice is up to you. If you choose to do something like El Remmen has done with his dm commentaries, it might make sense to emulate his setup (all sessions are children of the top level, the commentaries are children of the correct session).

If you want all of the entries to be link-accessible from the first page, make them all children of that page. If you want someone to have to go through session 3 to get to session 4, then make them children of the previous sessions.

leave the group projects field blank, but you want to click "campaign journal" on the story hour menu.

Renna · May 10, 2006, 03:03:30 PM

Thanks! I think I'd done with the questions.

Renna · May 10, 2006, 03:13:55 PM

Just occured to me that I should have titled my first section King's Guard: Part 1 instead of just Part 1. If you can change that, please do. Otherwise, I'll edit it later.