Fiction, Web Software, and You (aka: Sev's Desperate Plea For Help!)

[seventhe]

So I've been sitting here writing my share of the porn for HNtDB* and thinking about writing in general. I'm kind of peeved at fanfiction.net and their recent Crusades Against All Sensical Punctuation (including scene breaks of all kinds). One of the reasons I like LiveJournal for my writing is that I know once I post something in brokenprism, it's going to look like I intend for it to look, and since LJ is a blogging community the chance of them cutting out "---" is pretty much 0.001%** and so it's probably going to continue to look that way for a while. I liked the fact that lots of people read my stuff at fanfiction.net, but I also have readers here at LJ, and what I've lost in "raw number of random commenters" I've gained not only in "raw number of insightful commenters" but also in "community", per se.

The thing is, of course, that since I was writing porn while thinking about this, I started thinking a little harder. I don't understand what's been going on in the Livejournal Background, and I don't really care to, but kerfluffle after kerfluffle has made me just a little nervous about The Future of LiveJournal As Pertaining To My Porn***. I mean, I would also like to have my own archive of my own fanfiction work. I own http://seventhe.net for this very basic reason, but I never could maintain it. Flaw #1: Writing on breaks at work. I can't FTP into my website from work. I can, however, post to LJ.

So what I'm looking for are some recommendations of website-based software which will let me post stories to my website -- much like fanfiction.net's software -- without FTP. I know they're out there, and in fact I know that some of you use them for your own work. What do you recommend? Keep in mind I am severely PHP- and SQL-impaired, so anything that's super easy to use (think "Plug and Play") wins, even if it lacks certain features.

I already run Gallery on seventhe.net (which needs a good updating), so I'm not completely hopeless. That's really what I'm looking for -- something like that, that I can access anywhere, without having to HTML-code all my writing and then actually upload it. I am Le Lazy.

And now, back to helping poor tormented Quistis finally get a piece of ass, before I go to bed.


* at least, I'm trying. We'll see how it actually turns out, as I have to go to bed soon ><
** although it may be higher with our new Russian overlords
***PRIORITIES, DUDE

Comments

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Dude, just import a wordpress template into your site. It'll be under your domain, but it'll have their programming. Just like posting to LJ, only not, like, possibility of bahleetion.

~Cendri

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

I had a blog a long time ago, but it was basically over-run by spambots (remember the MHS blog?) and kind of ruined the rest of the site in general. So I'm leery about that sort of thing, mostly because if they found it once, they could easily find it again.

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Well wordpress has a damn good spam filter. All my fic is backed up on a wordpress account and I haven't had any spam get through. Not only that, you can set it so that you moderate comments, so you can pick out any spam that might get through (if any).

I remember that. XD But yeah, like, I'm just thinking of the laziest way to store stuff possible.

~Cendri

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Hey, I like lazy, and if it's spam-bot-free it might be the easiest and best way to go. I just had to take down all my blogs on that site because they ended up swamping all my stats with spambots (not that, y'know, a lot of people went to my website anyway, but... ;) )

[shanaqui]

Porn is clearly uber-important. :3

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

I HAS PRIORITIES ON MY PORNS

[lassarina]

*takes advantage of your lack of pants to molest you*

I HAS NEWS FOR YOU TOMORROW MORNING, OH YES I DOES.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE WHAT WHAT WHAT?

[girlshy.livejournal.com]

As said above, WordPress is quite good with stuff like that. It has a nifty email = update feature which I'm itching to try but have yet to find a good reason.

I've become enamoured recently with Google Docs which allows you to email/send attachments and then click a nice 'publish' button later but it seem less intuitive on that side.

...it is however, great for co-writing stuff...but that's not an issue.

So yeah, WordPress would get my vote. (^_^)

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

I absolutely LOVE Google Docs and I use it all the time. I'm more talking somewhere that I can post work to get comments, not for a collab. (Although all of my collabs use Google Docs, BTW. It is seriously made of awesome.)

[heyheyrenay.livejournal.com]

I agree with the suggestions of installing wordpress (or having someone inclined do it for you) and posting work like that. Bonus: there are loads of free themes available! I do suggest wordpress since I divorced MT LONG AGO.

Although I guess I am not yet jaded enough to believe LJ is going to come after people who post porn on its servers, I still like the idea of having work in multiple places (I love my website but it is hand-coded and that would drive most people insane). I love the idea of spreading stuff across. Fandom centralized scares me!

On the bright side, here comes OTW!? With their awesome software that will be ready in oh six months or so. XD

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Having my website hand-coded was basically its downfall. I never updated anything because it was so complicated to update, and basically I stopped posting any writing OR art there. (Other than photos of my cat, of course -- but even that's automated by Gallery.) I mean, ideally it's the best way to make sure you can do exactly what you want, but in the end, uh, I'm lazy (see Sev's Law) and just won't do it. This has been proven!

But yeah, mostly I realized that my writing isn't really archived anywhere other than LiveJournal. And while I don't really think LJ is going anywhere, and I also don't think they're really going to move to a PG webspace like most people seem to be afraid of ... I still need a backup! I mean, what if something happened to brokenprism, even if it was an innocent mistake? I'd cry. I have copies in random places, but I should really own my own freaking archive.

[heyheyrenay.livejournal.com]

Oooh, also ovo_lexa had good advice, too! eFiction = thumbs up!

This whole thing makes me sad, though. Why does FFN have to be such a cock? I do NOT want to edit all my work there, and I'm close to taking it down since they do this every few months. sdlkhflhfff

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

I actually just got really depressed about this entire thing like 20min ago when I started my lunch break and went to look at my ff.net account and found all my stories have been liusdk;jf;klsjdklj they look terrible. I mean ... Yes was basically a series of scene breaks! Now it looks like I am a robotard author who can't write. >.>

I'm also thinking of just bailing. It makes me sad, but then again, I haven't posted there in a while anyway. I use LJ more as it is.

random P.S. - there is a new FFDQ because I am also awesome

[heyheyrenay.livejournal.com]

Just think! All your work elsewhere formatted all pretty! This is what keeps me going, I admit, when I'm manually adding paragraph breaks to my 17,000n word stories. It's a hard life!

I feel bad for whining because I sort of only posted my longer work on FFN and don't even have that much available. And most of it is already available elsewhere so uh, deleting for me would just be, I dunno, not a big deal.

Except to my watchers. Sorry, guys. :(

It's a sign that we've exchanged this many comments and I've only made it two entries down my friends list! I'LL BE THERE SOON.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

Well, that's the thing. I only have two stories still going on ff.net, and I've pretty much lost interest and/or FAILED at either one, so I'm not too sad about that. I'd like to keep the other ones up because people seem to really like them, but I'm looking at all the scene breaks (apparently I overuse those things) and kind of wanting to cry a little because who knows? 3 months from now they might decide that Page Breaks Are Evil.

I just haven't added anything there since like 2005. Except for Yes, which I only posted because people here seemed to like it. I have not been good at updating it, which may end up being to my advantage, apparently. XD

hey, I just wanted to let you know! You've got all week, no worries

[rosencrantz.livejournal.com]

I'm going to go snooping *this* morning, while all you good little girls porn ficcers are in bed. :D

One thing about software - from what I've heard, *don't* go with FictionPress, it's supposed to have security holes in it like "Whoa!" from what I understand.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

oh jeez. I'm fairly sure it's terrible, which is why I gave up so early and went to bed. I did, however, set the scene for Quistis to have Limit Breaks pretty much the entire time they are making out. Ha ha. Maybe I'm a terrible person but I think that's hilarious.

[ovo-lexa.livejournal.com]

I suggest eFiction. I've got two of them for other projects; they're spiffy and keen and I'm thinking of booting up a personal one myself.

I could give you point by point instructions on how to install them, too... just... give me a minute to remember how.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

...that looks almost exactly like what I want. As long as it's not too hard to install for a complete assmoron like me.

[ovo-lexa.livejournal.com]

I'll install one when I have a moment and write up a step-by-step for you. I remember being tripped up by something, but I don't remember what it is. :D

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

That would be completely awesome. I probably wouldn't work on it for another month or so, just so I can get everything else organized, but I would really appreciate it.