Aphelion Author Index 2013

[TaoPhoenix]

Tao,

Let's save the GOOGLE/point-back discussion for another day. I'm not all that concerned about it, especially at this point in the development you are undertaking.

RT

Sure. When picking the engine I had to know a little about what the plusses and minuses are, and that's one of them. So for now we can say it works best from Aphelion forward and just point people to the top of the index.

But I am glad you're involved. What do you think about the size of the graphic on the top node? I used a small one in case people were on tablets and stuff but chime in as you like.

The graphic appears okay to me. The keys on the side are a tad grayed out.

My concerns, anywhere on line, are ease of locating the desired database from search engines, and then the ease of navigation and searching within those databases, which is what you're building.

BTW one minute there are more stories under my name, and then gone. FYI just in case.

RT

[TaoPhoenix]

The graphic appears okay to me. The keys on the side are a tad grayed out.

My concerns, anywhere on line, are ease of locating the desired database from search engines, and then the ease of navigation and searching within those databases, which is what you're building.

BTW one minute there are more stories under my name, and then gone. FYI just in case.

RT

Well, the search engine bit will be kinda tricky so that has to hold for now. It's not exactly a database - it's a web ebook. I do get the greyness of the fonts - that's the default output. I'll look for an easy fix with something like a minor manual font adjustment every time I produce a copy.

But tell me more about "stories are first there and then gone" because that sounds more serious.

Do you mean between the different versions I have posted? I do think I see a medium nasty bug that might be doing that.

Edit: Can you name a story you know you saw and now is/seems to be gone?

Dear little hornet,
You can now dry off out of the water! Whatever else doesn't make it into the update, you are in. See? Participation works!

This is a call to other authors who are interested in such matters and want fast tracking!

You are the man, Tao. Thank you very much for including me. Great work so far. I've had a look at the list and it makes me wonder where you get the energy!?

Sorry I haven't replied sooner. Work lost a person and I have to cover that shift as well as mine. 14 hour work days, 6 days a week is no bueno. Between that and spending time with the worlds most diabolical and unappreciative toddlers ever born on my one day off, this little hornet wants to do NOTHING extra.

[TaoPhoenix]

Okay then, I've got all the short stories from the "modern age" put in. (I haven't hard proofed the older issues against the actual old list, and I know for a fact there are some gaps.) However there's always more "cleanup" to do and that bug affects how I want to sort the Flash Challenges so when RT has a minute to give me some details on what he found I should step back and think about it for a couple of days.

TAO wrote: But tell me more about "stories are first there and then gone" because that sounds more serious.

when I hit the link in APHELION posted 14 February 9:51 the following are there:

Solid Cold 150
Finding Our Voices 152
The dark Night 153
Dutch 153
The incantations 155

When I went on through GOOGLE they were not there. BTW I had just been hitting the link in APHELION. On GOOGLE it looks very good and clear.

the ss list appears to stop at issue 138, then nothing . Very strange.
RT

[TaoPhoenix]

(RT Wrote)

TAO wrote: But tell me more about "stories are first there and then gone" because that sounds more serious.

when I hit the link in APHELION posted 14 February 9:51 the following are there:

Solid Cold 150
Finding Our Voices 152
The dark Night 153
Dutch 153
The incantations 155

When I went on through GOOGLE they were not there. BTW I had just been hitting the link in APHELION. On GOOGLE it looks very good and clear.

the ss list appears to stop at issue 138, then nothing . Very strange.
RT

(and also)

the ss list appears to stop at issue 138, then nothing . Very strange.
RT

I might know what's going on. Unfortunately the links here in the forum look identical and my versions are probably confusing at least a couple of people. You're seeing my progress as it goes along.

Version 5 was the Valentine's Day Feb 14 edition with this link:
http://www.freevoteusa.com/AphelionArch ... index.html
Indeed on that one Issue 138 was as far as I had gotten on the stories.

Version 6 was the Weekend Toys Feb 16 edition with this link:
http://www.freevoteusa.com/AphelionArch ... index.html
By then those stories had gotten into the system. I haven't posted it yet because I wanted to do other stuff to it.

By now they're all in completely, (barring fatigue goofs.)

But you bring up an interesting point. What search term are you using to even go in through Google? Because a couple of versions are sitting there live by this point so unless you really were on your toes knowing the soap opera in this thread, you could pick different links from Google different times and see stuff play Jack-In-The-Box. If Google is that fast spidering these, then I should take down the old copies as I put new ones up.



Version

[kailhofer]

Tao,

I remember you posting some stats in this somewhere... Do you have an estimate from your archival work of how many stories, poems, features, and Flash pieces that have appeared in Aphelion or in the Forum? I think it would be good to know that number for promoting the site.

I figure it must be at least 2,000. Right? More?


Nate

[TaoPhoenix]

Tao,

I remember you posting some stats in this somewhere... Do you have an estimate from your archival work of how many stories, poems, features, and Flash pieces that have appeared in Aphelion or in the Forum? I think it would be good to know that number for promoting the site.
I figure it must be at least 2,000. Right? More?
Nate

Hi Nate,

I am about to get back into this again fairly soon! I've been doing stuff adjusting to my city move for the last couple of months, and it will be ongoing, but another pocket of time is opening up. It's the kind of thing that I can't dabble in for 2 hours every couple of days (yet!) because once I get going it gets a bit complicated, so it's best whacked at in a 3-4 day heavy chunk.

For now I'll say vaguely yes, it's a whole lot! But I'm missing big chunks before I'm satisfied for what I have been calling the "Alpha" level, and I think I remember something funny about the Flash vs the regular story counts because of a (quite logical!) suggestion that I migrate-up the Flash stories into people's main indexes, which means at its worst that would double count all the Flash stories! But since that's been farther down on my list, I can get some early-ish data by subtracting out the people I have done some migrations for already, plus some of the missing stuff, and then we can just round it to a crispy number.

I'm not as Gnomish as you so I have real trouble focusing over long hauls, but glancing at the calendar I ought to really push to whack at it again before April goes out of Flip range and then again to pull in May! So I can have some info in a few-ish days, and then if I'm on form, that second pass will make it even better!

[TaoPhoenix]

Do please let me know if anyone has what looks like viewing errors on the index. For example except where noted I did manage to get all the letters into the main author index up to a fairly current point (should be near the end of the last year or so.)

[TaoPhoenix]

Do please let me know if anyone has what looks like viewing errors on the index. For example except where noted I did manage to get all the letters into the main author index up to a fairly current point (should be near the end of the last year or so.)

I am getting a site outage glitch on the index. I put a note to the server admin who is pretty good, so I should know something soon.

Update: I think it's back now, so holler if anyone still has problems.

Update 2: Note from the server owner: "It's an upstream issue I've noticed, that particular facility seems to have network issues from time to time that knocks it out for a few minutes. It usually recovers quickly without any serious issues. "

[TaoPhoenix]

Okay,

I got my challenge entry story to the May-June Flash Challenge, clearing part of that writer's block!

So then next up on the list, I might have a couple more day of focus to begin some Archive stuff. First I need to grab this month's info before they Flip. Then the next month's info early on.

So then I'll have a small gap for the last couple of months I was away from it.

We can get to that topic in a few days.

I also have a couple of Behind the Scenes tips I will start to put through.

[TaoPhoenix]

I have to admit part of the delay in this next stage of updating the author index was because back in February after some remarks by Rick T, Mark E, and possibly Lester regarding items being out of place. I knew I had placed them, and yet there they were back misplaced!

It was not my imagination. Due to a stunning showstopper bug, this otherwise great program with so much potential ... simply was scrambling data unless I had laboriously triple-filed it etc. Well, the new version came out a couple of days ago ... and they had made the problem worse!


So yesterday I went on the hunt for a replacement, and in the intervening 18 months since I did my last survey of the field, another program has caught up to be quite close... and in an early 10 minute quickie test, actually files stuff!

So since part of my search was on import-export abilities, most of the info came over pretty easily. (I have to re-paste some of my intro remarks etc, and some other things.) So then next on my roadmap are the following:

1. A fairly fast release with a few new items (including some of yours Richard! But not all yet!) Just as a medium level test of the new program. The output web page looks a little different, but the overall theme of it is quite similar. I should really push hard to get this month's info in there before the flip.

2. Then I can go back and actually add info like a more normal release. We're still a ways from when I can "Sign off" as satisfied, but I simply couldn't have devastating gaps of accuracy risking days of work. (The stuff I have in there is pretty solid - I parked it pretty soon after I found the problem. So there's little risk of whole authors having hundreds of stories wrong etc.)

Please note - especially the next couple of releases, I won't be doing much at all on the visual appeal! Especially because of the import process from the old program, the first two new versions will look a bit bumpy!

[TaoPhoenix]

Haha! It flipped!

So that's good too. I can use the names etc from the forum to get half way there.

Meanwhile, it's off to get some shell posts up for the new issue!

All hail the flip!

[kailhofer]

If you have a url, I really see no reason why I (or you) couldn't add it to the archives page. It may not be complete, but I bet it's actually got more info in it than the real archives so far.

[TaoPhoenix]

If you have a url, I really see no reason why I (or you) couldn't add it to the archives page. It may not be complete, but I bet it's actually got more info in it than the real archives so far.

Thank you Nate!

Just by raw mechanics, it does. However as an outsider watching some business trends in the software world, which are reflected in the "flavor" of my project reporting, I think we're a bit early for that.

Again thanks to Mr. Richard T, he remarked that I should have a "stable url" and he is absolutely correct - it is quite easy for me to put my version notes now in one of the top corners of the intro page for those who want to know why X is or isn't in what stage of development, but that otherwise they can bookmark/etc the link and it will stay "live" rather than keep going dead when I post updates. Plus with the visual changes from my last note, all that stuff is for "preview fans only" and would look bad in a general roll-out.

So do please be yet a bit more patient with me, and then soon (ish?) I think that's a great idea. I can try to answer individual data requests with a bit of a "fly by wire" approach.

[TaoPhoenix]

Tao,

I remember you posting some stats in this somewhere... Do you have an estimate from your archival work of how many stories, poems, features, and Flash pieces that have appeared in Aphelion or in the Forum? I think it would be good to know that number for promoting the site.

I figure it must be at least 2,000. Right? More?


Nate

Using the current program's export (a lot like the old one) quick info is that we're hovering right about a thousand items in the main index. Given that I'm missing some stuff, and time will pass as it does, maybe that will rise to some 1300 by say about August. The Flash side is a little harder to unscramble, and soon the flash entries will be double counted on the main author side (when $%^$%^ if the program doesn't unfile hundreds of stories that I file up there!) P.S. I have a lot of tests and experimental stuff down there right now.

So then what you'd do is a gross count of the main index, then subtract the Flash contests for the net number.

[TaoPhoenix]

All righty, let's do this!

This is the first version with the new program. For you technical types out there, it's Version 7a. There will be a couple more 7.x versions to come fairly soon.

Thanks to a suggestion by Richard Tornello, I made a "Stable" link.

http://www.freevoteusa.com/AphelionArch ... index.html

So "whatever is there" is the best copy. Version notes are now relegated to a couple text notes in the top couple of pages.

The big part of this version was the switchover and import. It cleaned up quite nicely, and I'm pleased with that! It could have really been a crunching 20 hours doing grueling stuff if I hadn't picked well on both the old and new programs.

However, there are some key things missing. Some of the Challenge info that used to be there didn't make it over, so there are a bunch of gaps.

Richard, if you expand down in Experiments/Flash Challenge Author Sort and then your name, you'll see what I was trying to do to gather up all your stories. A few are there as an example. (That was right when the old program blew up on me.)

Richard, per your old Google question, especially since the program switched over, I am deleting all the old copies tonight too. I'll keep the emergency backups as zips behind the scenes, but there should now only be one copy up there.

You'll see some strange things called "attachments". That seems to be something with the import - ignore those.

And then I found a little eye candy to put there. This program has fun little icons. The Authors are "People". The Flash challenges are "Flags". I even found how to make the current one green, and the "completed ones" are blue. In the "Experiments" section, I found a Thumbs Down icon indicating that it's for the curious only, and not ready for prime time!


So here's to getting back to getting real work done!

[Robert_Moriyama]

Holy crap... assuming that 7a is pretty much up to date, I haven't published a non-Flash Challenge story since August 2009 (and I'm not sure how long it has been since I entered a Flash Challenge, for that matter). No wonder my keyboard looks so dusty...

The very first "Nightwatch" story, "Dragon's Egg", is missing from my index list.

http://www.aphelion-webzine.com/serials ... Dragon.htm

Another "Nightwatch" piece, under the pseudonym "John R. Murray" could also be included (especially since "Mr. Murray" isn't in the Author list)...

http://www.aphelion-webzine.com/serials ... ockets.htm

[TaoPhoenix]

Holy crap... assuming that 7a is pretty much up to date, I haven't published a non-Flash Challenge story since August 2009 (and I'm not sure how long it has been since I entered a Flash Challenge, for that matter). No wonder my keyboard looks so dusty...

The very first "Nightwatch" story, "Dragon's Egg", is missing from my index list.

http://www.aphelion-webzine.com/serials ... Dragon.htm

Another "Nightwatch" piece, under the pseudonym "John R. Murray" could also be included (especially since "Mr. Murray" isn't in the Author list)...

http://www.aphelion-webzine.com/serials ... ockets.htm

Hi Robert! Thanks for looking my list over!

For your first paragraph, "I fear that may be true". The list is pretty good from about 2006 to about Dec 2012, which was that month you pulled in a couple of years of older issues for me last year. I'm missing a couple months of this year, so I'll have to get those later.

Meanwhile, for the ones missing, when I looked at them, it doesn't surprise me because it's a glitch I found myself last winter in the midst of other stuff. I started from the classic old list:
http://www.aphelion-webzine.com/authors/index.html
http://www.aphelion-webzine.com/authors ... obert.html
And then I rolled forward starting somewhere like January 2006 or so. So there's a gap right around 2003-2005. So "Mr. Murray" isn't there. (Do you want that under your name "writing as John R. Murray?). A funny example is the story I went glassy eyed over, Tony Ragas' "Flight of the Starhawk" isn't there either, because it's in the same time period.

So yes, a good idea now that the wheels seem to be turning is to do a deep sweep and pick up stragglers!

As for Flash, that's the same area I have been chatting with a couple of people on - A near future goal is to filter the Flash Challenges in reverse by name. I have you winning November 2012 Guilty Monster with "Hunter's Remorse".
viewtopic.php?f=48&t=4912&start=60#p65321

(Vignette at the Moriyama lair)
"Ho hum. I haven't entered a Flash challenge for a while. Let's go win one."

[TaoPhoenix]

DavidsonHero/John Rose/New Flash Demigod/Someone to make PG13 jokes at during the Flash process/_______ (Untranslatable Honorific from Beta Centauri) ...

... has noticed that there also seems to be a hole about 2010. So sorry for anyone whose Magnum Opus falls around that time period and isn't showing up! I'll take any and all "tickets" to go fix at the top of the list before I hunker down and do the big long sweep!

The next quick "Alpha 7b" version is slated to be rather soon, more on some back end and niggly technical stuff and a few more pokes at some different experiments.

[TaoPhoenix]

Hallo!

I have been getting some notes, and thanks to all you regulars chipping in so this isn't a "silence and crickets" enterprise! This time it is Lester who had some things to remark on, a couple of which rate a regular status post.

1. For all you regulars in the Flash Contests, the first place to look is under Flash Challenges/List By Challenge. *Holistically* all the Flash challenge info is there (except the last few months). Now later, I plan to migrate it up so the Flash entries hit people's main listings.

2. HOWEVER, the import process also ate some of the previously completed Flash Challenge entries! A typical example is May 2012. So they USED to be there, and then got chomped! Those are right at the top of my list to fix in the next release or two!

[TaoPhoenix]

The graphic appears okay to me. The keys on the side are a tad grayed out.
RT

Hi Rick!

Do you like the graphics better on this one now?

[TaoPhoenix]

Nate, in your new role of Short Story Maven, a wee part of that includes reposting the "back issues". In case you were busy and missed some of my posts, I can't easily get issue data once an issue leaves "go live" here on the site. My fault for not getting May - if I had my Eureka moment one week earlier I could have done it, but I missed it! (He says, intending to get June in there!)

But there's also a bit of a gap from the first half of this year now.

I don't need it right away - besides other "life stuff", I have plenty to do for a couple of versions. But maybe some time about July would be nice to put the First Half to bed! Feel free to post notes here in this thread as you like.

[TaoPhoenix]

A ways back, a couple of the Usual Regulars remarked that they wanted to chip in a bit of bit-part helping. Any of you who want to take on mini fragments of things? These fragments should only be a couple of days worth per item, meant to be nice and chocolatey and easy to finish!

[TaoPhoenix]

Just a couple of quick notes about stuff that's now unfortunately a ways out (again! eek!) while dousing fires has popped up:

Dan gets my Chocolate Ice-Cream-Bar-of-Apology for hoping to do the Editorials for a couple of versions now, but they are not forgotten!

Seanan McGuire's Essays are on the roadmap because they are of course great ... it's just all sequencing this stuff. I am trying to reduce my tendency to Hodgepodge, so whatever release I decide those will go in, I will try to put them in all at once, because all told there aren't that many of them. The worst days of "70-30 roughing it" are due to be over this year, which was the strategy to get the best initial impression of the surprisingly large amount of info involved to get people excited. Later on it will be much more of "more refinements" and occasional new features.

[TaoPhoenix]

DavidsonHero/John Rose/New Flash Demigod/Someone to make PG13 jokes at during the Flash process/_______ (Untranslatable Honorific from Beta Centauri) ...

Hallo.

FYI, the links I pull for the Flash section come from the "compiled list" that Nate put at the "top" of Fun and Games. So right now that goes up to March. I can do a partial list of basic text info around that, but I can't post the actual links until those get compiled. No need to panic on this either! I'm happy for it to be some time in July, after this double-month's challenges come in. Then you can "get in the zone" and do them all at once, and then I won't need any more for some three more months after that. : )

[TaoPhoenix]

The graphic appears okay to me. The keys on the side are a tad grayed out.

My concerns, anywhere on line, are ease of locating the desired database from search engines, and then the ease of navigation and searching within those databases, which is what you're building.

BTW one minute there are more stories under my name, and then gone. FYI just in case.

RT

Hi Rick,

I don't yet know what results from this program on Google searches, but I pulled down all the now obsolete old copies, so there shouldn't be any red herrings online. Either by now or in X days, those should begin to drift out of the "cache" of the search engines.

Per your suggestion, the link is now "stable", so your bookmark should work!

[TaoPhoenix]

Do please let me know if anyone has what looks like viewing errors on the index. For example except where noted I did manage to get all the letters into the main author index up to a fairly current point (should be near the end of the last year or so.)

A repeat on this request: View Errors encouraged. (Where it looks horribly confusing or broken.)

Known big one: a Paperclip and "[attachment]". Ignore these - they're something to do with the import, but they don't actually have an attachment and don't hurt anything as far as I can tell, so they're not due to be fixed for quite a while.

A Green Flag means that challenge is still open to enter! Still a day or two left on the May-June Challenge! However, it might artificially stay green for a few days past when it actually closes if I don't jump on it in real time. It's just a visual aid - the challenge thread is the actual rules thread.

A Thumbs Down is a cute thing I found - it means HIGHLY experimental stuff that I'm also NOT happy with for some reason. So you can poke at it if you're the scavenger type, but with two types of visual cues ahead of it, it means it's broken in any of X ways!