Help!!! (for my website) (P. S. Never mind!)

[Christopher]

I was just updating my website with annotations for "Friends With the Sparrows" when I discovered that I'd somehow overwritten my page of spoiler discussions for short fiction with an earlier copy of the page. I went to the file on my own computer which has the more recent story annotations included, but I discover that somehow, perhaps in the course of moving files between computers and overwriting the wrong one, I've completely lost all my annotations to Mere Anarchy: The Darkness Drops Again.

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine was of no help; apparently it only takes periodic snapshots a few times a year, and the annotations must only have been up in between the times it took samples, or something.

So, by chance, did anyone download the Mere Anarchy annotations from my website for their own reference at any point? And if so, could you please let me know? I'd rather not have to try to recreate them from scratch.


EDIT: Never mind! I realized that when I set up my new desktop computer a while back, I probably copied some of my files onto it from my flash drive or laptop without checking whether they were the most up-to-date versions. Luckily I still have my old PC, so I hooked it up and checked, and there was the version of the file that had my Mere Anarchy notes. So no worries. I should have the page back in order soon.

What bugs me is that apparently I've been missing a number of my story annotations for months (oddly, the version of the file that's actually on the site was even older than the one on my PC), and yet nobody's notified me. Is my site visited so little?

 

[TerriO]

This is why I don't do annotations.

 

[OmahaStar]

Christopher said:
Is my site visited so little?

Yup, guess so.

 

[Scott Pearson]

TerriO said:
This is why I don't do annotations.

Because Christopher got a new computer?

 

[TerriO]

Actually, because I think the readers actually can keep track of these things, and don't need footnotes to remember things, but that's a subject for a whole other thread.


But also because I've lost web pages before, and yes, it's an absolute bitch to re-build them from scratch. I see no reason to put a page up that I don't think's necessary.

Besides, isn't that what Memory Beta's for? Why duplicate work?

*stares at website*

Hell, I can't even keep my own website updated as it is. Thanksgiving weekend. Thanksgiving weekend.

 

[Therin of Andor]

TerriO said:
Besides, isn't that what Memory Beta's for? Why duplicate work?

Well, part of the charm about online author annotations is that they're from the person who wrote the book, and they are readily edited as typos are discovered, or as new references are made (ie. plot threads followed up by subsequent books).

If the author simply uploads the whole thing to Memory Beta, then the fans are able to get in there and keep tinkering with the author's own musings. (To tell us what he or she was really thinking when they wrote the book?)

I think there's room for both. I love reading author annotations. And online versions are much better than cluttering up the original work with extensive footnotes. I remember that Marshak and Culbreath used to do brief footnotes in their ST novels and, although a few can be helpful, there are other ST novels where a vocal minority demanded that there should have been footnotes, eg. TNG-only fans reckoned that "Immortal Coil" was useless without footnotes to the all TOS references. But TOS fans enjoyed spotting the TOS references all by themselves.

As for site visits, I guess one really doesn't need to keep revisiting author annotations once they've been read once, but the work is constantly being discovered by new fans, mainly via Google searches, I would think.

 

[Christopher]

My annotations are about more than just Trek continuity references. They include links and discussions about the real scientific and historical concepts referenced in my work, as well as "behind-the-scenes" discussions about the creative process. I want to offer people the sort of things I'd like to know as a reader of other people's work. It's also just an artifact of being a history major; I've been ingrained with the need to cite my sources.

I don't think there's anything wrong with not doing annotations, of course; it's a matter of individual choice, and there's no right or wrong about it.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Therin of Andor said:
As for site visits, I guess one really doesn't need to keep revisiting author annotations once they've been read once, but the work is constantly being discovered by new fans, mainly via Google searches, I would think.

I could tell you how many times the annotations page I set up for the Constellations anthology has been visited over the past year.

But thinking about it only makes me sad.

In other words, it's a really small number.

Which has been a lesson to me. If I were to publish a Star Trek novel at some future date, I'd have to question the utility of producting an annotations page. Because it's a lot of work for nearly-zero gain. Others' mileage may vary, of course.

 

[Scott Pearson]

TerriO said:Hell, I can't even keep my own website updated as it is.

I'm with you. There's a bunch of stuff I need to fix on mine. However, since no one goes there but me, I don't have much motivation to do it!

 

[Christopher]

Well, I've found there is gain in doing annotations. I just finished the MS for Greater Than the Sum, and I decided to write the annotations right away rather than waiting until I have the galleys (heck, I can just fill in the page numbers later), and looking things up for the annotations helped me catch a few spelling and factual errors, while reviewing the text with an analytical eye helped me catch a minor plot oversight that I was able to fix before submitting the MS.

 

[JD]

I'm always meaning to check annotations while I'm reading a story, but by the time I actually get back on computer I usually forget. OK, now that I'm thinking about it I'm gonna go check out the page for ATfWATfP.

 

[Scott Pearson]

Christopher said:
Well, I've found there is gain in doing annotations. I just finished the MS for Greater Than the Sum, and I decided to write the annotations right away rather than waiting until I have the galleys (heck, I can just fill in the page numbers later), and looking things up for the annotations helped me catch a few spelling and factual errors, while reviewing the text with an analytical eye helped me catch a minor plot oversight that I was able to fix before submitting the MS.

Don't get me wrong . . . I was only agreeing with Terri about the difficulties of maintaining a website. I find annotations interesting. I've done some limited annotations of my stories on Memory Beta, but I'm behind on that too.

 

[Ronald Held]

I find it useful in understanding the author's motivations as well as details in the story.

 

[foravalon]

Allyn Gibson said:

Therin of Andor said:
As for site visits, I guess one really doesn't need to keep revisiting author annotations once they've been read once, but the work is constantly being discovered by new fans, mainly via Google searches, I would think.

I could tell you how many times the annotations page I set up for the Constellations anthology has been visited over the past year.

But thinking about it only makes me sad.

In other words, it's a really small number.

Which has been a lesson to me. If I were to publish a Star Trek novel at some future date, I'd have to question the utility of producting an annotations page. Because it's a lot of work for nearly-zero gain. Others' mileage may vary, of course.

This might be silly question but have you tried putting a link to your annotation pages on the articles of Memory Alpha or Memory Beta associated with those stories? It might help to gain a bit more notice, I definitely check these sites often but I rarely try to find an Author's personal site in the hopes that it might have something so geekily detailed. But hey, I'm pretty sure that's the modus operandi of MA and MB! Geeky Detail Palooza!

 

[TerriO]

foravalon said:

Allyn Gibson said:

Therin of Andor said:
As for site visits, I guess one really doesn't need to keep revisiting author annotations once they've been read once, but the work is constantly being discovered by new fans, mainly via Google searches, I would think.

I could tell you how many times the annotations page I set up for the Constellations anthology has been visited over the past year.

But thinking about it only makes me sad.

In other words, it's a really small number.

Which has been a lesson to me. If I were to publish a Star Trek novel at some future date, I'd have to question the utility of producting an annotations page. Because it's a lot of work for nearly-zero gain. Others' mileage may vary, of course.

This might be silly question but have you tried putting a link to your annotation pages on the articles of Memory Alpha or Memory Beta associated with those stories? It might help to gain a bit more notice, I definitely check these sites often but I rarely try to find an Author's personal site in the hopes that it might have something so geekily detailed. But hey, I'm pretty sure that's the modus operandi of MA and MB! Geeky Detail Palooza!

Thank you for making my earlier point about this being what Memory Beta was for, anyway.

 

[TerriO]

Re: Annotations

Ronald Held said:
I find it useful in understanding the author's motivations as well as details in the story.

Now, see, for me, there shouldn't be any other motivation for the author than what's best for the story, and if that isn't evident on the page, the author fell down on the job. For me, spelling everything out for the reader in a separate document is something I actually find insulting to the reader. If I have to do that, then I didn't do the story correctly, did I? The readers are smart enough to keep track of things. I don't need to do that for them.

Seriously, I don't see any need for annotations. If it's not in the story, IMO, it's not there for a reason. If there's something that needs an annotation to explain it, then it wasn't done right in the story to begin with. The story comes first. If that isn't done right in one of my stories, then it's nobody's fault but my own.

I mean, hell, if I did annotations for the novel I'm in the middle of writing, they'd be longer than the book, which is already clearing 200 pgs.

 

[Dayton Ward]

Re: Annotations

And then there's those of us who just do it as a fun exercise after the fact, to explain the in-jokes or why a particular reference is included, or whatever.

I've never considered annotations to be some all-inclusive document that's required reading in order to understand or enjoy the story. I view them more as a DVD commentary track or behind-the-scenes featurette; a (hopefully) interesting bonus to check out after you've read the story.

 

[foravalon]

Re: Annotations

TerriO said:

Ronald Held said:
I find it useful in understanding the author's motivations as well as details in the story.

Now, see, for me, there shouldn't be any other motivation for the author than what's best for the story, and if that isn't evident on the page, the author fell down on the job. For me, spelling everything out for the reader in a separate document is something I actually find insulting to the reader. If I have to do that, then I didn't do the story correctly, did I? The readers are smart enough to keep track of things. I don't need to do that for them.

Seriously, I don't see any need for annotations. If it's not in the story, IMO, it's not there for a reason. If there's something that needs an annotation to explain it, then it wasn't done right in the story to begin with. The story comes first. If that isn't done right in one of my stories, then it's nobody's fault but my own.

I mean, hell, if I did annotations for the novel I'm in the middle of writing, they'd be longer than the book, which is already clearing 200 pgs.

c'mon terri, tell the truth, you never watched an episode of pop-up-video?

 

[Christopher]

Re: Annotations

Dayton Ward said:
I've never considered annotations to be some all-inclusive document that's required reading in order to understand or enjoy the story. I view them more as a DVD commentary track or behind-the-scenes featurette; a (hopefully) interesting bonus to check out after you've read the story.

Exactly. That's the whole idea. I like having a website -- I like having bonus material there that connects to my writing, something that gives the readers something extra. Like in the section relating to my original fiction (which I'd really hoped would've expanded beyond just two stories by now), I have articles about the chronology of the universe, the underlying technology, the planet that one of the stories takes place on, etc. Kind of like what Star Charts and the Chronology and the tech manuals are to Trek fiction. It's got nothing to do with "explaining" the stories or helping people keep track of them -- obviously that's something the story itself has to do. Rather, it's a bonus that allows interested readers to get a richer glimpse of the universe. Which is something that many SF and fantasy authors have done -- there's McCaffrey's Atlas of Pern, People of Pern, and other such books, David Brin's illustrated "guidebook" to the aliens in the Uplift universe, etc. Heck, Tolkien did so much annotation and backstory-building that it filled whole volumes. No, it's not "necessary" for the stories themselves, but that's never been the point.

Also, I've always felt that science fiction can be a great vehicle for teaching about science. That's why I always strive to keep the science in my fiction as credible as possible. And it's the main reason I do annotations -- to give curious readers a little more info about the science (and historical themes) I explore in my fiction, and to point them toward places where they can learn more. If it were simply about explaining what episode had Data shut down by a computer virus or whatever, I wouldn't bother, because Terri's right that there are plenty of places to find such information. I do it mainly to give people more info on things like the Gum Nebula or Bose-Einstein condensates or brown dwarf stars, things that are part of the real universe rather than the Trek universe. And sometimes to point them to the works of original science fiction that have inspired ideas in my Trek fiction, in the hopes of maybe motivating them to try out those books for themselves.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: Annotations

TerriO said:
Now, see, for me, there shouldn't be any other motivation for the author than what's best for the story, and if that isn't evident on the page, the author fell down on the job.

Then we should never ask you any questions about your writing at conventions either?

The only fans who should get some insights into your ST stories are the ones lucky enough to meet you in person?