The difference between LJ and Skyehawke

[blamebrampton]

In one of my stories, I have a scene in which the bad guys attempt to take control of the Thames Barrier to hold it open while an artificial storm surge races up the river to flood much of London. It's told in fast snatches, but there are a number of very clear bits of information given to show what's happening, including:

The rest of Draco's Unspeakables arrive. He speaks quickly: "Thames Barrier, we think there's a team using dark magic to hold it open. Storm surge is coming, a big one."

A few people responded to its posting on LJ with "I had no idea what the Barrier was, so I looked it up, it's cool/was on Doctor Who!"

Last night I posted that chapter on Skyhawke. Today I received a comment similar to "Look, I liked it, but you'd have made the ending so much more gripping if you'd explained what the Barrier was." *

I was THIS CLOSE to answering with "Thanks very much for letting me know you liked it, but if you need more Barrier info, you can find it easily! In my day we did not have Google and you had to shag computer scientists to get internet access, so just count yourself lucky, young whippersnapper and use the tools Tim Berners-Lee gave you!"

I held back, but only because I knew I'd receive a reply saying "Berners-Lee? Who?!"

Ah LJ folk, Let me never take you for granted ...

* I should emphasise that I genuinely think this person meant to be helpful here. They were not being intentionally annoying, I am just the least patient closet librarian in the vicinity.

Comments

[sarcasticpixie.livejournal.com]

I do so love those reviews. I hope you gave them a worthy tongue-lashing. Although some computer scientists are very cute.

When I was a wee lass of 14, I wrote what was in my opinion a sprawling epic of delightful creativity. (It was not, but hey, practice is everything!) It's been on Fictionalley since that time, and sometime in 2000, I completely forgot about it. Fast-forward six years to me getting a scathing review and mean-spirited critique of my writing ability. I mean, there's something to be said for criticism, but what part of "posted on 4-11-2000" did they miss? I desperately wanted to reply with "Dude, I've earned a high school diploma and bachelor's degree in the interim," but I decided not to...

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I LOVE that! Faux tech is one of my favourite things -- your great-granddad rocks!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Nah, I know that they genuinely meant it kindly, and am just being mean pointing out their laziness.

I suspect that your 'reviewer' (actual term: pratface) didn't read your notes at all, LAZINESS AGAIN!

It's the one downside of the internet; my generation was able to burn its bad stories and lose its bad photos.

[deannawol.livejournal.com]

Good writing deserves readers and commenters (that looks like it's spelt wrong, doesn't it?). I've actually become really bad at commenting of fics that I've read and enjoyed 'cause it all got slightly formulaeic. It's rather odd, there's only a couple of people I actually leave comments for regularly anymore. Need to change that I think.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I have a similar problem; I try and leave involved comments and then think I'll come back and do it and never do, so now I am just working at leaving something ... Oh, and I think I left out a few words in the previous comment, should have been unable to resist mocking ...

[beatnikspinster.livejournal.com]

Hahaha! Your nephew is hilarious. And sweet. :)

I remember hanging out in my friends guitar school, and seeing a father rummaging through albums with his 5 year old son in tow. The boy looks at the huge black album with awe and fear and says, "Daddy, that's a big CD. What's on it?"

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHAHA! YES! Tell a 20-year-old that there were no CDs when we were kids and they look at you blankly ... then up their estimate of your age by a decade ...

[meredyth-13.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the hand me my information on a platter mindset, we know it well. I actually thought you described enough of the Barrier and the significance of the storm surge to satisfy the narrative drama of the scene, and additional information was more for mental padding than anything else.

How are you otherwise? I had a mixed day - involving random wall painting at the office, much walking in driving sleet storms (seriously, there were chunks), paying for airline tickets, and just now ... da da da dum ... booking a bloody hotel room in London. I 'talked' to a person in London. I think I may have squeed slightly. I hope they didn't mind.

Oh, I also watched two episodes of Spooks, drank possibly an excessive amount of liquid with interesting bubbles, and ate good thai food that was only an hour late being delivered.

Is that enough about me yet?

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

It's never enough about you, Mere!

I found a NEW book by Martin Millar the other day and was able to begin it today after finishing my Sherlock Holmes novel (read for nefarious purposes!)

It was beautiful here this morning and bitter this evening, I hope that you have been hving the odd clear and sunny day, too, amid the sleet.

YAY for hotel rooms! I need to book tickets at some point soon ... Wil be stalking people and companies who owe me money for the next week in a bid to sort some Melbourne tickets asap!

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

...huh. I had no idea what the Barrier was, but I thought you gave enough clues in even that little section to show that it's Important and Involved in Not-Flooding. :|

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

That's because you're a thinking type! It just amused me how self-sufficient all the LJers were by comparison. Clearly we are all more practical than we look over here!

[winterthunder.livejournal.com]

I've thought that several times. The rest of the world, unfortunately, doesn't agree with us.

[romaine24.livejournal.com]

I have to remember this one for the list of how to tell a story was written by me. In writing for my job, we have to put in references and links for everything. I'm so used to it that I put a list of links at the end of my stories (anon) or not for these things. I think I have about 5 for Survival of the Species. :) It's a habit I can't quite break. I've tried, but the twitching that comes upon me interferes with my being able to function. :)

[joanwilder.livejournal.com]

Of all the places that I archive, I've found that skyehawke reviewers (when then finally do decide to review) are the toughest.

[brinian.livejournal.com]

*laughs*

Back in the day we used to use *gasp* BOOKS! Egads!

I like reading at Skyehawke. It's easy to use and the formatting is more reader-friendly than ff. I generally leave comments on authors' LJs though. I like that LJ lets me friend people and then I see the chapters as they get posted and I don't have to check for them. And then we become friends and chat :-)

[dragonfly-lily.livejournal.com]

LOL! You should just google it for her and the first site that comes up your response.

[arcanetrivia]

I would have expected "Barrier" to have been at least vaguely explained in the fic because it is not part of the canon.

Who's Berners-Lee? *ducks*

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

In the context, it's pretty explained. And you Americans expect the rest of us to know that you don;t mean art school when you say college!

Tim Berners-Lee is THE FOUNDER OF THE MODERN INTERNET: html, URLs, you name it, he is The Man. Go and look him up you lazy Gen Y-er!

[arcanetrivia]

In the context, it's pretty explained.

OK. Haven't read the fic in question. Assumed the complaint was because it wasn't. Explained my position in sentence fragments.

And you Americans expect the rest of us to know that you don;t mean art school when you say college!

Ah, but we might, there's the rub! (+1 difficulty on your language translation roll.)

Educational terms are, um. Complicated. Let's leave it at that, else I'm likely to go over the comment character limit trying to talk about even the US and Canada.

Tim Berners-Lee is THE FOUNDER OF THE MODERN INTERNET

YOU MEAN IT WASN'T AL GORE WELL MY MY MY.

I shall look him up, actually, because now I'm curious...

P.S. I'm barely too old to be Gen Y. ha ha ha ha ha. *smirk*

[grey-hunter.livejournal.com]

haha whippersnapper... is that non-HP-speech for "dunderhead"? :D (Btw, my dictionary say that's an American expression. Is that right?)

I'd have felt like gripping their throat and shaking just a little bit. :P

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I think it means young and inexperienced person. It's definitely American, they use it all the time in old American films!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I know that the writer *meant* to be helpful, I did suggest Google search terms, so I was helpful back ;-)

[grey-hunter.livejournal.com]

hm. Then what business does Snape have using it??? (At least, I have a html copy which is said to be the English version and it's in it.)

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Snape is only a few years older than me, and my generation grew up using quite a few Americanisms (even though people deny it). Whippersnapper is such a good one, it deserves to be international!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I know! I had a discussion with a workmate the other day about how we used to walk down to the library of an afternoon to check facts for stories, but we lost in our 'in my day' bragging rights to an oldtimer who used to work on a newspaper with its own library.

Yes, I think you've summed up the plusses of LJ very nicely. Maybe it's more obviously a cooperative environment over here?