Working Title

Originally posted at On The Nightstand.

Online bookseller Amazon.com is in deep doo-doo. You see, in a move tagged with #amazonfail on Twitter, the company has started deranking “adult” titles, which removes them from search queries.

Sounds okay, right? Wrong.

The problem lies in what they are classifying as “adult”: literature with GLBT content or leanings. Even books that don’t have any graphic content, such as non-fiction books, have been labled “adult” and thus deranked.

You can imagine my fury when I saw that Stephen Fry’s memoir and (the hardcover edition of) John Barrowman’s autobiography had both been deranked and removed from search engine result. The same goes for Heather Has Two Mommies, a children’s book. There is a list of affected books over on Meta_Writer.

So what can you do? Let Amazon know that they have done wrong, of course. Tweet about it using the #amazonfail tag. Blog about it. Sign the petition. Get the word out.

Other Links On #Amazonfail

• DearAuthor.com - Amazon Rank
• Jezebel.com - Why Is Amazon Removing The Sales Rankings From Gay and Lesbian Books?
• Mashable.com - Amazon Accused Of Removing Gay Books From Rankings
• BookSquare.com - Open Letter to Amazon Regarding Recent Policy Changes
• Petition - In Protest at Amazon’s New “Adult” Policy
• Smart Bitches, Trashy Books - New definition of Amazon Rank

Looking for an Amazon alternative? Try The Book Depository - same prices, with FREE worldwide shipping.

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

What I am about to say may sound harsh - that’s because it is. It is not directed to all of you¹, but at least a good-sized chunk of the fanbase.

You are by far one of the worst fandoms I have ever had the misfortune to come across² The batshit crazy portion of you can be rude, obnoxious, horrifyingly stupid at times and, if reports are to be believed³, you can also be prone to fits of violence.

Most people understand the concept of opinions, and that people are allowed to have them. Just because someone doesn’t like [insert fandom of mine here] does not mean that they are a horrible person, or that they are stupid. I am not simply better just because I like [insert book/movie/musical artist here] and they don’t. It is their right to not like something, just as it is your right to like it.

Everyone has the right to an opinion, whether it’s a positive one or a negative one. Opinions are a two way street, people.

It is TweenTeacher’s right to be of the opinion that “the books are poorly written” and that “the message of the books is icky” without being bombarded with horrible comments.

You really have no idea of what the books are really about. let meguess you never fallen inlove with some one or even had the experience. You read this books with your eyes closed and with a closed mind as well.

My first impression of your review is that you’re probably a failed writer who is taking it out on Steph Meyer. Five bucks says this is true. If you have never written, I *will* send you the five bucks. Just email me. Then I will ask you what the hell you’re doing teaching if you’ve never written.

LEELAwhereareyou is allowed to have her (incredibly eloquent, especially for a twelve year old) opinion that the books suck without being told she’s ugly, that she “needs to get the fuck over it” or worse things I do not want to repeat on my blog.

Entertainment Weekly is allowed to publish a negative review of Breaking Dawn without the author and the magazine being sent chess pieces in an attempt to change the review. Actually, that goes for any review of Twilight and its sequels, be it from a large site like Smart Bitches, Trashy Books or a random person’s personal blog.

It doesn’t matter - they all have the right to an opinion. Which leads me to…

Stephen King, writer of many, many novels is allowed to say that Stephenie Meyer “can’t write worth a darn”. He knows a thing or two about writing, and guess what: he is allowed to have an opinion. He is not “insecure”, “jealous of Stephenie Meyer’s success” (or of Edward’s good looks!) or “upset that a woman is so successful”. The appropriate response is not to flame him, make nasty comments, suggestions to send him hate mail or promise to throw something at him.

And I am allowed to write a short story poking fun at one of my favourite genres - the very genre I have written a novel for⁴ without receiving a comment about how it is offensive (thanks for saying it’s good though).

wow. as a twilight fan i find this funny yet slightly offensive. i mean its a good story but come on do you really think that writing this story is going to get people to stop talking about Twilight?

Just remember die-hard fans: people have the right to not like Twilight, just as you have the right to like it. They have the right to say they don’t like it, just as you have the right to say you do. Them not liking Twilight is not an attack on you - it is not an appropriate response to attack them back. And if they do start a fight… finish it in a calm, mature and responsible way. Don’t swing right back.

In short: Grow up. Act like the adults some of you are. You’re giving vampire fans - and fandom in general - a bad name.

1. Those of you who are sane Twilight fans, I applaud you. This blog entry is for the really obsessive, over-reactionary fans. [↩]
2. The dubious honour of being the worst goes to the K-Pop band Super Junior’s fanclub E.L.F. And they only win because there are no confirmed Twilight deaths. [↩]
3. The “Twihard Attack Directory”. Some of these reports do sound fake/exaggerated, but some do not. I speak from personal experience when I say teenage girls can be batshit insane at times, and can do unspeakable things. [↩]
4. Blood Bound is currently in the first round of editing. You can read more about it, and my other works, at the projects page of my writing blog, Working Title. [↩]

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

I was reading Fanficrants on Livejournal (which I haven’t done in ages) when I came across this rant. In it the author said:

Extra Note: When you go to search on FF.net and set the category to Harry Potter, you can type in almost any girl’s name and you will find a Mary Sue with that name! Try it! It’s sad, I know.

It’s been a while since I have done it, so let’s give it a go. Out of 39 English fics here are some examples of what I found:

• 2 daughters of Snape
• 2 transfer students (one of whom is a daughter of Snape)
• 2 characters who are tools to get canons together (Remus/Hermione and Remus/Sirius)
• 2 Snape romances
• 1 Black
• 1 Malfoy
• 1 Harry twin
• 2 interviewing the characters
• 1 CSI crossover
• And 1 Hagrid romance (yeah, I know)

There’s more if you use the Katherine variant of the spelling.

And just for the lulz, I decided to go with a name that might be less than common. After dealing with all the mentions of aisle I finally found some stories about a character named Aisling. Here’s my favourite.

Better known than Harry Better in school than Hermione, Funnier than the Twins Better blood than Draco Better looking then Fleur Prophecy says Aisling will take over the magical world and become a greater evil Voldemort look out Aisling will do it better!

So tell me: have you been Sue’d yet?

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

Last year Crystal ran a challenge that was to read 28 books in 2008. While as of this writing I see no signs of a challenge of 29 books in 2009, I am going to undertake it on my own.

I’ve spent a little bit of time yesterday and today beating the crap out of BellaBiblio, Jem’s wonderful book cataloguing script. As well as wanting to change some fields around and make it work for movies as well as books, I also wanted it to work within a page created by Wordpress.

It turns out it wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be so that really gives me hope of writing a script some time this year - I still have no idea what I might actually make, though. Help?

Anyway, to see what I have done thanks to BellaBiblio, check out 29 Books in 2009 and 29 Movies in 2009.

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

When you log onto the internet you can pretty much become whoever you want. You don’t have to post your real name or location, or give your age. Heck, you can grab a photo of someone else and pretend it’s you.

I’m sure we’ve all been warned about internet predators who use this anonymity to find their prey, those innocent young girls and boys, but there’s another kind of problem that results from the anonymity of the internet: the internet asshole.

It’s very easy to type “fuck you!” or “go die in a fire” or “your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries” when on a forum or whatever. You don’t have to see the person on the other end. You don’t have to think about what they think of your comments.

What’s sparked this off? Nothing against me personally. Just yet another case of out of control Twilight fangirls, in this case attacking the maker of some “anti” Twilight videos: LEELAwhereareyou.

Some choice gems:

“i bet her parents threw her on her head. LOL pause it at 0:02 and look at her mug”

“brush your hair? or your dad is going to rape you again”

“oh my god, get the fuck over it little girl.? shouldn’t you be outside playing jumprope and making friends? you’re a dyke”

It was bad enough to attack Tweenteacher and say she doesn’t know what real love is, but this? This is insane.

LEELAwhereareyou is twelve, people. Your profiles say you are 28 and 37 and all sorts of ages. You should know better, you should know how to behave yourselves.

Shame on you.

Many thanks to Penny Arcade for the image.

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

Even when it comes to Twitter, it still comes down to having the highest mark.

My latest addiction is Twitter Grader, a site that basically… grades your Twitter account. The grade of my Twitter account is currently at 84. To quote the website:

The Twitter Grade measures the relative power of a Twitter user. It is calculated as a percentile score. A grade of 84 means that the user scores higher than 84 percent of the other user profiles that have been graded.

As for how a score is graded, the site says it is based on:

• The number of followers you have
• The power of this network of followers
• The pace of your updates
• The completeness of your profile
• …and a few others

Because I am at grade 84 I am very close indeed to having one of the highest grade Twitters for New Zealand. It’s frustrating indeed, as I only need five more points. Ah well. I’ve jumped a whole lot of grades since I first started checking. I think I was in the 40s back then.

Just gotta keep twittering, and get more random adds by writers and their Twitter accounts.

EDIT: There I am, number 29.

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

It’s been a long time coming, but this is the very belated second part of the Handy Tools For Making A Website series. In this edition, I am going to write about colour resources and image generators.

Colour Palettes

One of the first things you will need for designing is an idea for a colour scheme. Google “color palettes” and you can find all sorts of sites with palette generators and pre-made palettes. Sites like ColourLovers and Kuler allow you to see palettes of five colours, and how they work with - or against - each other. ColourLovers also has a neat feature where you can make many, many background images from your palettes.

Stripe Generators

Stripes are a very popular background these days, and they can range from thin to thick, bright to bland. Whatever your choice is, making repeating stripe backgrounds (or at least the ones that are of a diagonal) can be a difficult task indeed. So instead of taking the time to make a stripe - only to see that it looks horrible - simply input your colours and your widths and see instantly how it looks!

Of all the sites I could recommend StripeGenerator.com is probably the most popular, and in my opinion the best.

Tabs Generators

Tabs are a common way of making site navigation, but they can be fiendishly difficult to create. But once again there are ways of creating them without spending ages in Photoshop or the GIMP. You can stay online and use TabsGenerator.com (by the same people of StripeGenerator.com) or you can download CSS Tab Designer.

80×15 Button Generators

We’ve all seen those tiny pixel buttons, like over at Steal These Buttons, and there are plenty of generators out there that make them. Adjust the colours, the position of the divider, and the text. Adam Kalsey’s button maker is simple and clean, while micro.button-banner.com has the added function of adding tiny icons to the button.

Favicon Generators

Favicons are useful little things, but the problem can be making them, or making the .ico filetype. There are two main types of generators for favicons. One: those that allow you to draw the image on the screen using pixel art, such as Favicon.cc or Degraeve.com’s generator. Two: Sites that allow you to upload a pre-designed (square) image and converts it to the standard 16×16 .ico file, like Favicongenerator.com or Web Script Lab.

As I said in the previous entry, designing websites is kind of like cooking. The previous entry was the measuring bowl and other equipment; this entry is only some of the ingredients. Next up: more ingredients.

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

Whoa, look at all those words beginning with N in the title!

Despite having a diploma in web development - which included PHP/mySQL and Flash, as well as the traditional HTML and CSS courses - I still sit somewhere in between the statuses of “n00b” and “ninja”. HTML/CSS is fine, Flash was always difficult because I am not an arty person in the least and PHP… well, PHP and I have an interesting relationship.

We get on fine when it is just a case of “I can use you easy enough [PHP script I did not make]“. I use plenty of them anyway, so it really is no problem. Wordpress, SMF and others are all fine and dandy with me.

Despite having coded my own (decent, I suppose) CMS as part of a project, the concept of actually writing something is more worrisome. I will not, for example, have a tutor in the same room ready to call on if something goes pear-shaped.

Being neither n00b nor ninja though I can make adjustments to scripts if need be, which is the case with what I have been doing for The Disney Directory. When I came across the add category problem that plagues the first release of NinjaLinks, When I wanted to display the latest links added without the description on the front page I was able to figure out what I needed to do that. The same goes for when I wanted to reorder links to display alphabetically, or use the adjustment that Hannah suggested - I could do that too.

Now when I open up a big PHP file (and not one with just includes!) I am no longer scared by what I see inside. While I need a bit more practice and reading before I actually make a releasable script (one less complicated than the massive CMS I made, too!) I can at least do something.

Of course, what I really need for that elusive script is an idea. Isn’t that always the case?

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

Okay, he follows a whole lot of people, including those who follow him first, but let me have my fun, okay?

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

A few days ago I got an email, telling me that the Joker was now following my twitter. Over the next few days I was added by more and more members of Gotham, ranging from James Gordon to, most recently, Gotham Cable News.

Is this an official ARG? I don’t know - it’s started up a little too recently, given when the film was released. But even if it is some fans keeping in character for their Twitter accounts it is still very awesome.

Now, as to who I currently have:

The “Good Guys”

• Bruce Wayne: “I’m Bruce Wayne? What else can I say?”
• Rachel Dawes: “I work for the D.A.’s office and enjoy fine dining on weekends with my boyfriend.”
• James Gordon: Unfortunately Gordon doesn’t say anything in his profile.
• Harvey Dent: “Hello, I’m Harvey Dent. I’m Gotham’s new district attorney. Are you ready to join a crusade to clean up the streets of our city?”
• Lucius Fox: No profile either.

The “Bad Guys”

• The Joker: “The Ace of Knaves. The Harlequin of Hate. An Agent of Chaos. It’s the Joker. It’s really me… Live from Arkham…”
• Dr Crane/Scarecrow: “Doctor Jonathan Crane. Formerly of Arkham Asylum, currently in Arkham Asylum.”
• The Riddler: “Of questionable intentions?! Now there’s a Riddle! :)”

Others

• Gotham Cable News: “Gotham City News twitter. To the minute news feed.”
• Gotham Police Department: “Future Site of Gotham PD Twitter”
• Gotham City News: “Gotham City News twitter. To the minute news feed.”

Oh, and as a bonus, we have (the young) Hannibal Lector. Apparently he’s in Arkham, in the cell next to the Joker.

Now, can you find any more? It’ll be fun watching to see how thing continues to grow.

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.