If this isn't appropriate for here please move !

ETA - If you have a specific question to ask, you may find the Problems thread in Ask the Librarian to be useful, aswell. This is more for " Oh look I have found out how this or that works !" messages

I thought it might be useful to have a place where we can leave hints for things that we discover as we get used to the SDL. A more informal member led FAQ to note as we go along when we find things that make the SDL easier.

For example : It might seem obvious to lots of people, but I hadn't realised that you needed to add a story to favourite in order to be told that it had been updated - I had assumed that if I favoured the author then that was enough. It wasn't until I missed a few updates of Isobel that I realised that you needed to do both.

Any hints like this would be great I would imagine for readers, for example until I realised the above I was waiting for new updates but only getting notifications for new stories.

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"Go on, you old Beecharmer, tell me a good tall tale" Ruth to Idgie, Fried Green Tomatoes

Aha! That explains the long silences...... I had thought the same Beecharmer. Good idea.....

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Cestina's dolls houses - Where has the week gone?

I think this is a good idea. Here is another tip.

If you have added a story to your favourites and the author starts a second or subsequent 'volume' of the same story, you need to add each 'volume' to your favourites list separately in order to continue receiving notice of updates.

Are we not all members?

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Don't cry, eat a cake
Chalet School Big Bang - writers, artists, mixers
"Women who pay their own rent don't have to be nice" - Katherine Dunn

I would imagine that you're only really a member once you register Mia...

I guess the other thing which stood out to me was the whole rating system - each number equals half a star, not a whole star as I thought the first time I tried it out, then spent a good minute or two working out just why it didn't reflect the number I'd put there...

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'Joey, what do you think you are?’
‘A genius,’ replied Joey promptly. ‘Idiot! I didn’t mean that,’ laughed her sister. ‘No! Listen – and don’t burst with excitement – you are an – aunt!’

I meant 'member-led tips' seems a bit unnecessary as we are all members of the CBB/SDL.

I would prefer to have one FAQ in one forum rather than two spread across two different fora.

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Don't cry, eat a cake
Chalet School Big Bang - writers, artists, mixers
"Women who pay their own rent don't have to be nice" - Katherine Dunn

I think that hints like these are quite* useful, and since so far they are mostly about reading rather than publishing, this forum isn't an unreasonable place for them, though they'd also fit in Ask a Librarian. "Member Hints" was possibly meant to contrast with FAQ by the Squeen, who is after all more Squeenly than the average member. The other threads available seem to be more about asking questions than sharing discoveries.

*very

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Castor oil: Triacylglycerol from Ricinus communis containing hydroxy-fatty acids.

But other people have contributed to the FAQ apart from Liss so I'm afraid I still don't see the logic? If someone explains it to me using words of one syllable...

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Don't cry, eat a cake
Chalet School Big Bang - writers, artists, mixers
"Women who pay their own rent don't have to be nice" - Katherine Dunn

I do not argue that no one else contributed to the FAQ, but Liss is the author of record; since no other authors are listed on the official FAQ post, Liss would be cited as sole author in a formal paper. Moreover, she has explicitly asked that other posters use that thread only for "questions about the transfer of all the fiction from the CBB to the SDL." This thread, rather than giving a formal, authoritative summation or asking for help, offers hints that not everyone will have discovered on their own. Probably some of them will end up in a FAQ eventually, but at the moment I would consider this thread a laudable effort of members to help each other. Is not being helpful a proper CS attribute?

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Castor oil: Triacylglycerol from Ricinus communis containing hydroxy-fatty acids.

I look forward eagerly to the pearls of wisdom that no doubt shall be forthcoming.

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Don't cry, eat a cake
Chalet School Big Bang - writers, artists, mixers
"Women who pay their own rent don't have to be nice" - Katherine Dunn

I am getting a bit fed up with unnecessary witter about things like this on help threads to be honest, I am just trying to provide something that I had felt was missing, without filling up the FAQ thread or appearing to be posting in a forum like Ask the Librarian, where I would have thought only mods and Liss would be posting.

Thank you for supporting Kathy, and I'm glad to see that a few people have already found it helpful.

I took the FAQ thread to be people asking questions, and also to be a more formal setting than people just saying " I found this helpful" I also got the impression that it was for "Non Squeen or moderator members" ASKING for help rather than suggesting things they think might help. ( Edited as I spelt Squeen without the u )

I am sure that it will end up in the FAQs eventually, and to be honest I don't give a monkeys what it is called, tell me what you want to call it or where you want it to be and I will go along with that and change the thread title.

Just PLEASE can we have one help thread where something that is pretty simple doesn't turn into a completely unnecessary drama about where / why / who / when , as it is just not helpful.

Back to the reason I logged in to post -

Another fact that I am not sure whether people are realising is that the reviews can be used just as we used to comment on the old drabbles - a few people have mentioned it to me in PMs as if the review just disappears when it is posted. I think a lot of people WILL have realised, but perhaps not everybody - if you want to see what other people have commented on a chapter / drabble, you click on the little number next to the word Reviews, and it shows you the reviews for that drabble / chapter, not just your own.

I'm sure most people will find this obvious, especially those who have used the SDL for a while but if one person finds they enjoy the SDL a bit more because of an explanation it is worth posting it, which is really the point of this thread.

And having just finished the post and previewed, Mia, we know you obviously know all there is to know about the SDL, but a lot of people don't. The whole point of this is for people to provide hints for we lesser mortals who don't know everything

ETA: I previewed, saw what seemed to be an unneccesary sarcastic put down, and saw red, which is where the paragraph above came from. Since by the time I had calmed down I had posted it already I have left it as it was, however wanted to apologise if Mia didn't mean her comment the way it came across. I have edited rather than add another post since I don't want to divert from the point of the thread. Beecharmer

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"Go on, you old Beecharmer, tell me a good tall tale" Ruth to Idgie, Fried Green Tomatoes

Um I beg your pardon?

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Don't cry, eat a cake
Chalet School Big Bang - writers, artists, mixers
"Women who pay their own rent don't have to be nice" - Katherine Dunn

It is entirely possible that everyone is smarter than I am, and had no problems with this but...

I had a lot of trouble adding favourites - I click the "add as favourite" button, but it wouldn't show up as a favourite. I finally worked out that, after you hit the button, you are taken to a new page and must hit "submit" (to me, it appeared that the "submit" button was to submit a comment, since it is located under a comment box).

I now have favourites!

Hmm, I shall try this (although I thought I had ) because I got so fed up trying to add two favourite stories yesterday after reading the first hint on here that I flounced off in a huff.

(I do welcome this thread, I feel less daft picking up the hints from here. Of course we are all members but when I saw Mia's first comment the famous quote from Animal Farm about the differing equality of animals at once came to mind. I still don't feel at all at home on SDL, unlike on CBB where I had no problems finding my way right from the start, so it's really nice to have a thread where others are revealing that they too are feeling/have felt somewhat inadequate and have found a way through it)

ETA It worked Spoot! Thanks. It would never have occurred to me to a) scroll that far down b) click submit under the comment box had I even found it......

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Cestina's dolls houses - Where has the week gone?

Thanks Beecharmer.

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Don't cry, eat a cake
Chalet School Big Bang - writers, artists, mixers
"Women who pay their own rent don't have to be nice" - Katherine Dunn

You are most welcome. It was not at all obvious to me either (I'm still convinced I'm leaving empty comments somewhere, to be honest )

If you put a comment in there it shows up on your favourites list, thats all. For example, as I didn't know how it worked, I initially added the name of the author and if you look at my favourite authors list I have a few with double names because of it.

I would guess that you could comment along the lines of "I liked this because it is a gentle story and about frogs ..." etc, but if you leave it blank it doesn't seem to cause any problems that I can see.

I did feel the same about the empty comments etc however ! And cestina thanks, and glad you can now favourite properly - that was the bit that made a big difference to me in using the SDL in an easier way.

And Mia, thanks for the response and cup of tea

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"Go on, you old Beecharmer, tell me a good tall tale" Ruth to Idgie, Fried Green Tomatoes

*nods* I found that quite confusing as well...

The other thing which interests me is that there is one place where you can find all the comments by each member on their profile page. So if you decide that you want to know what one person or another has commented on - I often use that kind of thing to pick up sideline rec's, or to try and decide if I might be interested reading a story on other webpages I'm a member of - it's easier to see what other stories the commenter you've selected has commented on. And their favourite stories/authors are also easy to locate on the same page.

I found it interesting what the 'top tens' were about. Initially I was rather uncertain about them, but it seems they're just a place where you can find basic stat's - who has reviewed most often (with a note as to how many reviews they've written) same for authors - (note as to how many stories they've posted, not by chapters/word count), the 'most favoured' authors, and stories - plus with the most comments on. All interesting tools - plus giving you different ways to browse the collection of stories there are online, though that may well become more to the point as time goes on and the number of stories becomes bigger...

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'Joey, what do you think you are?’
‘A genius,’ replied Joey promptly. ‘Idiot! I didn’t mean that,’ laughed her sister. ‘No! Listen – and don’t burst with excitement – you are an – aunt!’

This is sort of a hint combined with a question.

I would imagine that if you 'favourited' a series then it would mean that you would get notification whenever any story in that series is updated?

Does anyone know if that is the case, and does it just notify for new stories in the series, the way the favourite author works, or would it work to notify you with every updated chapter the way that the favourite story system works?

I can ask this question over in Ask the Librarian if no one knows, I just thought it might also count as a hint, since it might make life easier for readers if they only have to favourite the series rather than every story in the series.

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"Go on, you old Beecharmer, tell me a good tall tale" Ruth to Idgie, Fried Green Tomatoes

Actually I was going to ask a similar question - I can't even see how to favourite (is this an example of verbing? ) a series....

I've just been treating them as stories but maybe that's quite wrong and I won't get any notifications

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Cestina's dolls houses - Where has the week gone?