More and more these days, "natural" language is being employed in searches. As wiki-style "answer" sites continue to grow in popularity and improve their information, these "natural"-style queries are also becoming more widespread. For many users - even veteran Netizens, such as myself - their intuitive nature is easier to understand and employ than the Boolean expressions and advanced procedures of more traditional, online information sources (such as general search engines). Autos.QandAs.com is just such a site.
The design is reminiscent of other, popular, wiki-style, "natural" search sites. Vibrant, colorful, and easy-to-follow, the site's apparent simplicity belies the amount, and quality, of information it provides on all things auto - and I do mean all things. Autos.QsandAs.com includes such subjects as "What is Freestyle Motocross?," "What is Formula One?." and "DMV Locations and Hours."
Don't waste time with confusing Boolean expressions and generalized, traditional search engines and information sites; check out Autos.QsandAs.com to find out about all things automobile-related.
Sadly, the United States judicial system is a complete and utter failure. America's entire legal system is an utter failure, actually - but that's outside the scope of this post. The reason? Well, it's because of judges like Richard Posner. Posner has suggested banning, not only hyperlinks to copyrighted material, but "paraphrasing" copyrighted material, as well!
As regular readers know, The Weirding joined the small crusade against the Associated Press (AP) when they decided to back this idea of disallowing "paraphrased" articles. The AP charges sites for carrying their syndicated content and frequently changes URLs so their content cannot be used properly. While a case for plagiarism can be made from posts which include too much of the original information, "paraphrasing" articles is literally what one does when one reads source material, then puts it into one's own words!
Of course, any post based solely on one article or source is not a quality post; even we bloggers have to remain at least as consistent as to require two sources - the original source and a second source to back it up. For the most part, bloggers who actually know their subject(s) are unlikely to plagiarize a news article or other post, and proper form dictates including a link to the original source if it is important enough to warrant further reading. If it is not, then "paraphrasing is not only acceptable, it's expected - it is actually correct form!
To be sure, we bloggers depend on actual reporters and their stories to feed our posting frenzies. After all, I certainly cannot be in Iraq to cover the war, as well as in Washington, to cover how politicians there are responding to it; if I write a political blog, this would be a serious problem, were it not for the regular articles and reports on these matters I find, both online and off-. Yes, I am "paraphrasing" a lot of the stuff I read, but I am also tempering it with my personal outlook(s) on the matter and its related subjects.
Of course, this assumes the blogger is doing it right: bloggers are not reporters. Bloggers may write articles, but mostly, they post entries. While actual articles provide substantive information concerning a topic, entries are not subject to such strict decrees. In better blogs, these are actually divided into such departments.
While Weird Ink maintains a very specific definition of "Blogging," not everyone adheres to it (yet) - though they should; since people continue to confuse journalism with journaling, such confusion as to plagiarism and content theft persist. Given our definition, the process simply does not allow for paraphrasing to become plagiarism, as the information itself is but a portion of the entire document, serving only to explain the subject at-hand. In the above example, Weird Ink assumes the blogger is not only passionate about the subject(s) he is covering, but knowledgeable; basically every post will be tempered by that knowledge, making it nearly impossible to simply "reword" someone else's article.
All of that aside, there is the matter of legalities and the Web, and Posner's delusional "ideas" perfectly illustrate why no one wants the government policing the Net. This Posner obviously has no fucking clue how the Web works and is just regurgitating someone else's nonsense - probably in exchange for a substantial donation to his political funds. Hyperlinks are the very foundation of The Web - it's why it's called the Web! As in, "a web of information, logically or casually connected for further exploration." When employed correctly, these links lead visitors to more information on subjects mentioned in the text.
Sometimes this information is crucial to the topic(s) at-hand, while other times, it's just a little more detail. In some cases, the links are purely gratuitous. Hyperlinks, more than any other method or medium, can set the mood, and provide the tone, for whole websites - such as Suck.com, which really pioneered the Blogosphere. Beginning as a hidden partition on an employer's servers, Suck.com used hyperlinks as absolutely crucial sidelines to the main event; you had to follow the hyperlinks to know what was being said. Many times, the links Suck authors provided were snarky, pointed jabs only other dot.Geeks were likely to get. Toward the end, more of these links became sponsored.
Suck.com went through the tragic, modern-day blog's life-cycle some 10 years before The Blogosphere even existed. Their clever use of hyperlinks to enhance and enrich their original content made Suck a prominent dot.Com during the Dot-Com Boom. Unfortunately, Suck.com was also a high-profile dot.Com Bust, and that's even more interesting:
Suck.com actually sued someone for deep-linking to their content! That was basically the end for the snarky up-and-comer. Suck.com helped shape the Web as we know it, bringing deep-linking issues and the art of hyperlinking to the fore, yet few people online today even know this - even die-hard dot.Geeks and Cyberculturalists are apt to overlook this point. Their eventual fall stood in stark contract to their rebellious beginnings, as in the end, Suck.com exploited their pioneering design for minimal profit, then turned to "creative" litigious means to stave-off the inevitable.
The site's rise and fall is quite possibly the least-reported and most important footnote to all of Web history. In its too-short time, Suck perfected the snarky observational quality of today's blogs, showed the world how to use hyperlinks, and then sold themselves out harder than those parents did that Japanese girl they pimped to pay her phone bill! It was an entire (if somewhat accidental) social statement which perfectly manifested the Net, itself. Posner and people like him have absolutely no idea as to any of this and this is the most important story in Web history; this constitutes the non-legal "precedent," where the Web is concerned. This is why we don't want them making laws regarding it: they don't know from Shinola about it.
The Weirding encourages deep-linking, providing technical information for all pages published, which includes hyperlinked Name Tags, allowing webmasters and posters to link directly to the relevant information within a page. For example, by clicking the link "http://weirdink.theweirding.net/2009/07/us-judge-wants-to-ban-hyperlinks.html#1", you will come directly to this paragraph! This makes it much easier for Netizens to use the information we provide, not just see it. That's how the Web was always supposed to be used! More and more sites these days are embracing this ideology, providing APIs to webmasters who want to incorporate the API providers' content into their websites. This is the direction in which we, the Netizens, are moving and we do not need brick-and-mortar lawyers fucking it up, thank you.
While Posner's arguments have met with a resounding thud across most of the Web, there's nothing new here. This "deep-linking copyright violation" nonsense has been posited before and only flies in places like Texas.
© C Harris Lynn, 2009
Sorry for teh delay between posts, there is actually some disturbance going on behind the scenes which has delayed some regular matters. I have changed registrars, which doesn't really mean much to you, but could result in some downtime for the site and blogs. Specifically, this could affect this blog and The OddBlog, though it may also affect The Cyberculturalist.
If everything goes through as it should,you shouldn't have any problems. However, certain glitches which can arise could delay the matter by as much as two weeks. During the switchover (which, again, will happen sometime between this weekend and the next two weeks), the blogs and site may be unreachable for some time. I have done everything in my power to avoid this, but regular readers know we went through this with our current registrar when we switched-over to them to start with.
The technical difficulties are only part of the reason we're switching; financial matters are also a factor. There is also a physical move involved, which I am trying my best to time with this. If everything goes as planned, you won't even notice the change; if things do not go well, the blogs will be down for about a week (hopefully less) while we move everything around, but we will be too busy to notice. Otherwise, the delay may be quite noticeable, as we will be gone for the time it takes to physically move the computers, as well as the five-day turn-around we can expect if the registrar-changing process becomes protracted.
Unfortunately, our current registrar has not been easy to deal with (in addition to being cost-prohibitive), and I fear the worst. If I get word on the matter in enough time, I will be sure to keep you abreast of the situation; if we are suddenly "gone" for a few days, you know we'll be right back in about a week.
None of this has anything to do with the major redesign efforts going on. While those will take some time to "tweak" and finalize, those will be done before your very eyes! Okay, it's not that grandiose; one day, everything will look like it does now - and on another day, it will look different. The change in design is to reflect the change in design across the site and will result in more options and better navigation, making Weird Ink a more productive tool in your writing arsenal.
© C Harris Lynn, 2009
Are you an authority on something? We talk a lot about "transitory knowledge" in writing - that knowledge one gains when researching for a work - and how writers become minor experts in subjects, though only so long as they remain involved with them, and that knowledge can certainly be used for more than just that piece you are working on. Technically speaking, if you have invested enough time researching the craft and submitting manuscripts, you may already be an authority on writing. However, a lot of people come to writing from another career or field of study, meaning a lot of writers actually are experts in another field, or several.
One of the first pieces of advice you will hear (and hear often) when it comes to writing is "Don't quit your day job." With Mavenlink, you don't have to! Use your experience and knowledge in another field to bring in some much-needed income on the side while you build your professional writing career. Setup a profile and market your services as a Maven.
Or maybe you need the expertise of another professional, but you don't know where to begin - or, more than likely, you can't afford dealing with one directly. Mavenlink allows you to get expert advice quickly and efficiently, as well as affordably. You probably can't afford to keep a lawyer on retainer, but you can access reliable legal advice and information affordably, and on the fly, which can usually answer your questions - even if that question is, "Do I need a lawyer?"
Mavenlink connects experts and consultants with those who need their expertise. Make a profile and search for a project a client has posted, then bid on it. Or make a profile and search for Mavens whose field of expertise applies to your needs. The Maven makes an offer to complete the project and you either take it, decline, or make a counter-offer. A very simple procedure which can pay-off big-time for both client and Maven. Save money and make money, all in one convenient location!
By leaving detailed feedback which becomes a permanent part of the profile, other clents and Mavens can better assess their relationships, work provided, and skill available. If a Maven is perfect for the project but has failed to come through in the past, you probably do not want to work with him. On the other hand, you may find Mavens who rushed through their projects to finish them on time, and provided sub-standard work. It would be an unfortunate occasion were you forced to choose between these two, but having this information on the front-end is important.
Whether you need expertise or have some to offer, Mavenlink provides an opportunity.
We have been talking a lot about writing strategies lately; an ongoing project is to put together a working approach to writing, using various tricks and tools compiled from outside sources or developed on our own. Some of you may be of the mind that writing - good writing, anyway - doesn't need a strategy: it's either good or not, it either works or it doesn't. And that may be true, to some degree, but writing - like all art - is deceptively graceful; the best works and artists make it seem effortless, and those of us who have tried writing a novel, painting a fresco, or sculpting the human form knows it is not easy. Regardless of the medium or form, a practical approach is the best.
One of the benefits to such an approach is that you will already have written much of your work before you even begin. While compiling your bible, you will write entire paragraphs - even pages - of detail on various subjects present in your world and setting. When it comes time to impart this information in your work, you may be able to lift entire passages from your previous work to include in your story.
More often though, this information will be imparted in pieces, through dialogue, narrative, and character observation. Still, with all of the detail you prepared earlier and now have at your fingertips, imparting this information is simply a matter of finding it. And if you developed a working color-code system as we suggested, this should prove no problem. More importantly, your details will be congruent. If the most popular fruit in your world is the banana (as it is IRL), you need not specifically mention this detail - in fact, doing so would probably be considered an "information dump" - but whenever a fruit is mentioned or comes into play, you will know that it will generally be a banana.
This level of detail lends to continuity and that adds to the verisimilitude of the work. A single slip in this regard can destroy the reader's suspension of disbelief. If that happens, the odds are good that the reader will put your book down, never to return to it. It follows that, if bananas are the most popular fruit in your world, most characters will prefer them; and if your readers know this, a character who prefers another fruit, and/or dislikes bananas, automatically stands apart.
Granted, fruits and foodstuffs may play no direct part in your story - nor need they. It is precisely such detail, at such a level, that develops and exploits the reader's suspension of disbelief. When the reader realizes the writer knows the world's details well, and that these details remain consistent, he can relax and suspend his disbelief, trusting that he is in good hands. And the only way to ensure continuity at this level is to keep records of it. While you can do this as you go, it is much easier to determine these details before you start writing.
It is said that author needs to know three things before he starts writing: his characters, his plot, and how the story ends. To some degree, knowing only these three things can be enough to form the basis of a work and guide the writer along to the end, but this is rarely the case.
Like traveling somewhere you've never been, you need a strategy to get from point A to point B. Developing a strategy does not make the work any less inspired or organic; plotting-out a book does not force the writer to forego any last-minute changes. In fact, it actually lends to the process, allowing the writer plenty of room in which to "play" without losing sight of the ultimate goal(s).
© C Harris Lynn, 2009
I'm sure I'm not alone in having started a project by jumping-in, feet-first. Unfortunately, it never worked for me. Whether writing a short story or a novel, a little preparation can go a long ways.
There are numerous approaches to planning a piece. Some people use detailed outlines. By starting with a sparse outline of only the main points and adding details along the way, the outline continues to grow until all that is left is writing the connecting material. It is an organic process which some authors find keeps them on-point.
These days, publishers are looking for series more than single works; you have a better chance of getting your book published if the subject matter is open to sequels. For this, you need a bible. A bible is a folder, or other filing system, listing all of the pertinent details of an author's fictional world.
The more details you know about your setting, the more comfortable you are with it - and the more comfortable your characters will be in it. No matter where your characters go, you know enough about where they are that you aren't having to make things up on the fly. Without this information, it's easy for a writer to get lost and make continuity errors. that make editing a chore. Instead of compiling these niggling details after you've written about them, create a bible detailing them before you begin your project.
But a bible is not just about physical setting; this is where you keep all the details concerning your project - the main and supporting characters, notes on atmosphere and mood, political machinations and alliances, groups and organizations, larger world notes - literally anything and everything in your fictional setting.
Even if there is no way your characters will ever directly interact with certain elements, if you can detail those elements, go ahead and put them in your bible. Not only do you never know when those details may come into play directly, they will have an indirect effect on other elements in your story. While there may be no way for your characters to interact with people or events which occurred in the past, these things constitute the history in your fictional world, and so helped shape the world of your setting.
Organization is crucial. Develop a color-code and use colored dividers to separate major sections, as needed (examples include Religion, City Details, Grandma's House, et.al.). Use color-coded tabs to further divide your information. You need to be able to find any little detail at a moment's notice, so almost no amount of organization is too much. Also, do not "file" loose notes - such as ideas jotted on a lunch napkin - and do not include pages with notes pertaining to several concepts. Take the time to record every note in the appropriate place so you can find it easily later.
A bible combines the thriftiness of the outline approach with the fun of writing-through. It allows writers to maintain continuity and track developments, creating the cohesive world in which your characters live.
© C Harris Lynn, 2009
