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riverevanss · 3 years

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Quite ironic, isn't it? (M/M)

I think this is the first story I've written for 2022, so I'm excited to see what happens with it. Anyway, I plan to write a longer piece, probably several parts. I don't know exactly how many, but I want the chapters to be a comfortable length to read. We'll see, I guess. (This is crossposted to the forum btw)

CHAPTER TWO IS OUT, LINKED UNDER THIS CHAPTER

Chapter one

Adam didn't want to go to the library at all. It wasn't the place he had a problem with, but rather the reason he had to drag himself into the facility. When he had applied to university, he knew it would be exam season at some point (they didn't even mind that), but he was only now realizing that he would have to study as well.

When he woke up in the morning, he wasn't feeling well. Not physically, which he was glad about because the last time he had written a test he had sneezed all the way through, but more mentally. He didn't feel like going out with people. He just wanted to be alone and read or watch some kind of series. Anything to avoid studying and meeting with other people. But he preferred the latter.

Adam sighed, then bent down to pick up his backpack, which he had recklessly thrown on the floor the night before. His dark brown, wavy curls tickled his nose for a moment, but he ignored it, simply grabbed the keys he'd left on the table and a packet of tissues and stepped out the entrance.

His arm was already in front of his face before he looked up properly. The sun's warm rays stroked his face, and the sudden contrast in the light made him feel the usual tickle in his nose.

"Eh... eh'kkgn!" he quickly suppressed the first sneeze, but he could already feel his nose flaring up again. He consistently sneezed twice. Always. He didn't move, just buried his head in the crook of his elbow and paused. He felt a bit silly, as he usually did in this scenario, but eventually... "Heh... he'eh'tsshoo!"

Good thing he'd brought some tissues because that was enough to plug his nose. He'd told his mum many times that he must be allergic to something, but she didn't believe him. So, the boy just had to put up with the fact that whenever he stepped out into the fresh air he would begin sneezing unexpectedly, and in worse cases, his nose would start to run.

"The day is already off to a promising start" he murmured to himself as he shut the door behind him. He decided not to clear his nose just yet, as the library was not far away, and he knew that if he couldn't breathe correctly, at least he wouldn't sneeze again. He hated doing that in a place where someone might see him. He'd always thought of it as a private thing. "Heh... not now please'eh'kkgn-choo! Eh'kkxngt"

He could barely stifle the first sneeze, and after the second, even though he plugged his nose with his thumb and forefinger, he could feel the slight moisture. His face heated up in an instant. He had to blow his nose somewhere. One more sneeze and he could find himself in an even more awkward situation due to the now increasingly wet sneezes.

When he got to the library and showed his library card to the lady. Moments later Adam was off in a hurry towards the restrooms. He almost fell through the door and into the stall, which he hurriedly closed behind him. Then, almost without thinking, he ripped off a stack of toilet paper, forgetting his tissues. He tried to blow his nose quietly but quickly. When he finished, he took a hesitant, tiny breath through his nose. He no longer felt the intense tickle, just the usual 'I'm going to sneeze at some point, but not now' feeling. He should have done some allergy tests by now...

Adam was done in the restroom, so he headed to the reading room. He really couldn't afford to be lazy; he had a lot of material to comprehend for his exam in three days. But as he looked around the room, no one else seemed to care, because the place was almost ringing with emptiness, but for one person.

The boy squinted towards one of the shadier corners, then smiled faintly. He didn't know the name of the boy sitting there, but he'd seen him almost every day for the past week, usually hunched over thick books. Adam had been sitting nearer and nearer to the stranger, but today he found himself with only one row of chairs separating them, as they were sitting opposite each other.

The stranger chose this moment to look up. He looked quite good with his wavy golden locks and bright green eyes. The freckles on his cheeks somehow made his features look boyish, yet grown-up. He wore black-rimmed glasses, and before him, there was a big textbook.

Adam nodded shyly, then began to unpack his backpack. A book, notebooks, a pen, and a packet of tissues. He's got everything, so he's just...

“Heh'gnxt...” For a brief moment he found himself in the center of the morning's events, but this time it wasn't him who sneezed. "he'gnxxt... heh... fuck... he'gnxt-chiew... gnxttt... heh'ghnxt... heh'tsCHIEW!" Adam winced at the sound, then looked up.

The unknown guy was sitting in the chair, blushing, his face buried in his elbows. Their eyes met, and Adam didn't want to seem rude, so he decided to speak up to break the audible silence. Although, the last sneeze still echoed in his ears.

"Bless you," he nodded, then picked up the packet of tissues he'd dropped on the table. "Do you need one?" it only occurred to him how stupid the situation was when he asked the question. Luckily, the stranger nodded.

"Thanks," the stranger mumbled gratefully. His voice was deep, but you could hear how stuffy his nose was. Adam grinned, then politely turned away, trying not to hear the stranger blowing his nose. By the way, his sneezes were quite... cute.

"By the way," the dark-haired guy turned back when he heard the stranger get up and walk to the trash can. Now he could see how tall he was, how his black jeans and dark purple sweater looked quite good on him. "Since we've been avoiding each other for a week... I'm Adam. Adam Smith.

"Clay Johnson," the blond introduced himself. "And sorry about the... earlier... it happens sometimes. Especially when there's a bunch of dust. Or pollen, you decide" he added, and though he sounded a bit embarrassed, something was entertaining him.

"Come on, happens to the best of us" Adam chuckled as he thought back to that morning. He'd want to know why he was sneezing that much. "Do you always sneeze so often, as if your life relied on it?" he asked abruptly.

He clapped his hands over his mouth as he realized how rude his question had been, but fortunately, Clay didn't seem offended. He froze for a beat, of course, but it was more the suddenness of the question that made him freeze, then he nodded.

"Usually. Speaking of which..." the blond held up his index finger, then turned his back to Adam. The dark-haired one, as much as he knew it was inappropriate what he was doing, couldn't take his eyes off the other's back. The muscles tensed as Clay winced and tried to stifle the sneeze that burst from him much more quickly this time. "Heh'gnxt'gxxt'nggxt'gnxt... heh'CHIEW! Okay, that was painful," Clay whined, bending down to pick up the papers that the sudden draft had blown to the floor. And the window wasn't even open.

Adam wasn't surprised. The first four sneezes (yes, he counted) left the blond's body with such speed that Clay couldn't catch his breath between them. Adam was amazed that he hadn't stopped breathing, and also that he could hold back the sneezes to such a capacity. Although the last one sounded loud now, maybe that was just the silence in the library.

"Bless you," Adam nodded, suggesting another tissue.

"Thank you." Clay smiled, taking the small bag held out to him.

- tbc -

you can find chapter two here

#river writes sometimes #sneezeblr #sneeze kink #sneeze blog #snz things #snzfucker #snzblr #snz #snz blog #snezblr #snez #oc sneezes #snz writing #sneezefic #snz fic

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eidetictelekinetic · 3 years

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Fic Interview Meme

Thanks for the tag, @rubickk7 !

How many works do you have on AO3?

I have 115 fics.

What’s your total AO3 wordcount?

1,553,954

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

On AO3:

The Magicians (TV) (28)

A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin (21)

Inception (2010) (20)

Suits (US TV) (17)

Game of Thrones (TV) (12)

Black Sails (7)

Supernatural (6)

The Avengers (Marvel Movies) (5)

A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms (5)

The Tudors (TV) (3)

The Hobbit - All Media Types (2)

X-Men (Movieverse) (2)

Marvel Cinematic Universe (2)

The Hobbit (Jackson Movies) (2)

Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies) (2)

X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies) (2)

American Gods - Neil Gaiman (1)

Conviction (TV 2006) (1)

16th Century CE RPF (1)

Star Wars Legends - All Media Types (1)

Star Wars - All Media Types (1)

Star Wars Sequel Trilogy (1)

Whitechapel (TV) (1)

Chronicles of Narnia (Movies) (1)

Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett (1)

Here’s the list from my fanfiction.net days (some overlap here):

Song of the Lioness

Star Wars

Stargate: SG-1

Harry Potter

In The Forests of the Night

X-Men: The Movie

Circle of Magic

Doctor Who

House, M.D.

Wicked

Law and Order: SVU

Torchwood

Charmed

Primeval

NCIS

Tudors

Inception

Supernatural

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Lady of Rivers and Storms [ASOIAF]: When Lysa miscarries Petyr's child before anyone learns of her pregnancy, her father negotiates a different marriage for her instead. Married to the second Baratheon son, will the future be any easier for either of them?

In the Middle (Before I Knew I Had Begun) [Suits]: It's an accident, when Mike touches Lyla. But everything follows from there. (Or maybe everything follows from the moment Rhi saw the golden tiger and all she could think was how beautiful she was.)

Skyfall Is Where We Start [ASOIAF]: 'At least Stannis won't laugh at Renly if the boy tries to follow him around when he's a bit older and takes a tumble on the flagstones. It's not much, not much at all, but perhaps it's enough to be going on with.'

Robert never loved his brothers, but this is not a story about Robert. This is about Stannis, and Renly, and glimpses of how they might have been different, had they let themselves love each other as brothers usually do.

Breakin’ Out the Institution [Suits]: “OK, so, before we start, a few things you should know about me. My name’s Mike Ross, not Rick Sorkin. I am a lawyer, I just didn’t go to Harvard. But you should hear me out anyway.”

Where Mike is actually a lawyer, a Brooklyn ADA looking for a change of pace, and gatecrashes Harvey's interviews entirely on purpose.

Lay Me Down (Pockets Full of Stones) [The Magicians]: The world spins, and Quentin doesn’t even feel his knees buckle, or how his head hits the wall on the way down. All he knows is the fall into the quiet dark.

In which Quentin survives the events of 4.13 by taking such bad care of himself he never actually makes it to the Mirror Realm. Also in which everyone loses him for a day, and Eliot is Not Happy about this.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yeah; I like getting responses to my comments so I do my best to reply to comments I get.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I had to go back to fanfiction.net for this because I never crossposted these to AO3, but Kiss My Eyes for The Tudors. It was Anne of Cleves/Cromwell, which was tragic mostly because it was historically compliant so a deathfic. Honorable mention, same fandom, was And In That Hour, Charles Brandon/Margaret Tudor and Charles Brandon/Henry VIII, unrequited love for the latter.

Fun fact about the latter, it was the first m/m fic I ever wrote; the deal was I’d write a slash fic if one of my forum friends did a femslash one.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve ever written?

Ha. Hahahahahaha. So, back when I was 17-18 I was working on a verse titled A Moment To Be Real, and it was a crossover verse that, taking all the relevant fics into account, included Charmed, Primeval, the Whoniverse, and NCIS in major capacities. In more minor capacities, the plans for the verse also included Fringe, Supernatural, Stargate SG1/Atlantis, and Warehouse 13. Oh, and there were two main timelines and two minor ones the stories spent time in. Heh. Yeah, that was a thing, yes it was way too big a project and I didn’t finish it, but I truly think that working to juggle all that was very helpful to my later work.

I don’t write a lot of major crossovers anymore, but I tend to just... live in the idea that certain canons can feasibly coexist so when I can do little crossover cameos I like to do them. One recent exception is return to the sunlit lands, which is a Magicians/Narnia crossover.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not recently; a long time ago back on ff.net, I left a comment that was misunderstood as hate (I said something was bad, meaning the characters’ situation, but the author thought I meant her writing) and the author of that fic responded in kind. Once I clarified, they were nicer in a subsequent review. I’ve been very lucky in that regard; I’ve had friends who have had to deal with a lot of drama in that sense.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I didn’t for a long time, but recently I’ve begun to! So far, it’s been m/m and f/f, though there was an intentionally-vague m/m/f scene and I’m... currently avoiding writing a more detailed one because I’m nervous as hell about it, lol.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, actually! Two of my older ASOIAF fics, All the Traveled Roads and I Will Not Fall, I Will Not Break have translations, which is just really neat to me.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

About ten years ago I was working on a joint project about modern day Tudors; never did get posted, alas. I’m not sure I’d be very well suited to co-writing a single story; co-writing a verse where different authors do different stories might work, though.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

God, I have no idea, but I still and always have strong feelings about Sam/Jack from Stargate SG1, so let’s go with that for longevity?

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

A Moment To Be Real, actually; it’s not so much that I want to finish it as that I know I won’t and I regret it. I have another verse that I probably won’t finish but one of these days I’ll at least post an outline of where I saw it going so that there will be some degree of closure. Pretty much every other fic has at least a faint chance I might go back to it, or I genuinely don’t want to.

What are your writing strengths?

Worldbuilding and handling the moving pieces of a canon divergent AU. I’ve also been told I’m pretty good with ensembles.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Action scenes, which is unfortunate when I find myself definitely needing to write a battle, and I suspect is part of my smut hang-ups too.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I have done it occasionally, but honestly I feel it’s usually easier to italicize English dialogue and put the other language in the narration - I think it’s probably easier to read, too.

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

Stargate SG1

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I couldn’t possibly pick one, really.

Tagging @theemightypen @cosmonauthill @jayneladybright @ofthedirewolves @portraitofemmy @nellie-elizabeth @mihrsuri

#kate writes fic #this took a while!

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groundcontrol21 · 5 years

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Taking Flight (M, Yuri on Ice)

Part 1 of a little sick!Victor fic, only his name is spelled Viktor bc, I don’t know really. This’ll be crossposted on the forum, but I hope my yoi whump fans/snez fans will enjoy it here. Pretend I know how Russian airports and first class work.

The only thing that rivaled the pounding of Viktor Nikiforov’s head was the pounding of his heart. His flight back home to Japan (and Yuuri and Makkachin) had started flashing “boarding” on the displays as soon as he had gotten in the security line what felt like hours ago, and he still hadn’t made it to the checkpoint! Dear God, they were going to start calling for him soon, weren’t they? He sniffled, rubbing his nose on the cuff of his jacket, far too preoccupied to think of pulling out a tissue, and rocked a little back and forth on his heels.

At this point, Viktor was contemplating sacrificing his pride, explaining his situation to the people in front of him, and begging to cut in line. He even stepped forward and opened his mouth to ask, for what it was worth, but what escaped his mouth wasn’t words.

“Heh’eh’KSSHH! Heh’KMPPHH! Ughh…” Surprised by the outburst, Viktor only managed to get a hand over his mouth in time for the second sneeze, effectively spraying the poor woman in front of him.

Viktor felt his eyes go wide, but he was too tired to feel the embarrassment he should have. He sniffled wetly. “Excuse mbe, sorry.” He sounded awful, he knew, anyone with ears surely knew, all creaky and congested, which surely did not help his case.

The woman glowered daggers at him and pulled the collar on her fur coat up higher, stepping as far forward as she could. So much for Viktor’s hopes of skipping forward in line; his damn cold had ruined that for him. His damn cold had ruined just about everything that day, actually. What had started as a sore throat and a bit of sniffling the day before had morphed overnight into the cold from hell, making him sleep through his alarms and get to the airport over an hour later than he had planned. His throat hurt, his ears hurt, his head pounded from his completely blocked sinuses, and he felt like he was wrapped in ice. He couldn’t wait to curl up in the plane seat and rest for a little while, but first he would have to actually get to the plane.

Viktor was about ready to jump out of his skin by the time his turn finally came at the checkpoint. He was so congested that he had to repeat his name twice before the security worker could understand that he was saying exactly what was on his passport, and even that short ordeal left him coughing breathlessly as he took his passport back, only able to spare the briefest of nods to the disgusted worker in thanks.

He had to shed his thick coat and scarf before going through the scanners, and even though he wore a thick turtleneck underneath, he had to resort to hugging himself and hopping from one foot to another to preserve some semblance of warmth as he waited his turn to walk through. God, he hadn’t felt this sick in years.

Viktor walked through the full-body scan without incident, and was about to shout with joy when a shrill beep made his heart sink. His bag. The security worker beckoned him over as he rifled through Viktor’s carry-on before pulling out the culprit: the bottle of cold medicine Viktor had nabbed from the hotel convenience store on his mad dash to the airport that morning.

“This is too big,” the worker said, shaking the bottle in his gloved hand, causing the liquid to swish. “You can’t bring it on the flight.”

It took Viktor’s shocked, fevered brain a moment to process what was going on. “B-but-but I need that!” He sniffled and thumbed at his nose, which had begun to run.

“It’s too big,” the worker said, slightly impatient now. “Dump it out now, and you can buy a smaller one before the gate.”

“But I do--ohh--ahh’KSCHH!” Viktor caught the, slightly messy, sneeze in his hand just as a voice sounded from the PA on high.

“Last boarding call for Viktor Nikiforov, flight 296 with service to Tokyo.”

“Fide, fide, just dump it out!” Viktor cried out, wiping his hand on his pants. He rocked on the balls of his feet as the worker dumped his precious medicine into the garbage. Once that was done, Viktor collected his bags and set out in a dead sprint toward his gate.

When at last he reached the gate, brandishing his phone to show the woman at the check-in his ticket, Viktor felt on the verge of collapse. “Viktor Nikiforov,” he panted, all but throwing his phone down on the check-in desk as he grasped the corner frantically for support, launching into a fit of wheezing coughs. He fought to get his breathing under control, but that run was the last thing he needed in this state and the fit lasted considerably longer than he would’ve liked. Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes, and his nose ran profusely. He dragged his sleeve across his face in an attempt to wipe himself clean of both. By the time he could look up again, the check-in woman was holding out his phone to him.

“You’re all checked in, sir,” she said, her brow creased in worry. “Are you alright?”

Viktor tried to plaster on his paparazzi smile and wave her worries away, but he wasn’t sure how well that worked, his voice as thin and tremulous as it was. “Just a little under the weather. Thank you.”

He took his phone and boarded the plane, shoving his bag underneath the seat in front of him and collapsing into his as soon as he found it. He bundled himself back up in his coat and scarf, curled up in his seat, and leaned his aching head against the window, shutting his eyes. He felt worse than awful, and if he were honest with himself, all he wanted was to curl up in bed and feel Yuuri’s arms around him, but he had at least ten hours before he could do that.

“Heh’TSCHoo! Heh’TSCHuhh!” Viktor fished in his pockets and pulled out a tissue, crumpled and sodden almost past the point of usefulness. He dabbed at his nose with it, just enough to pick up any mess that had spilled, and then sniffled wetly once, twice, three times. He didn’t have another fresh tissue to blow his nose in, so this would have to do.

As the plane gathered speed to take off, Viktor rubbed the bridge of his nose and groaned, flopping back against his seat. He was flying first class, as he usually did, but even so there was still an unhappy passenger next to him who shot him the dirtiest of looks before pulling up the wall that divided their seats. Viktor couldn’t blame him; he truly was a walking cold and flu advert.

Soon enough, he was shivering, and Viktor reached for the bag with the blanket that was under his seat, cocooning himself with it. No sooner had he done that, however, than did his clogged ears make their displeasure known at the change in altitude. He moaned so loudly that it was halfway to a scream, and clutched his hands over his ears in an attempt to make it stop.

He didn’t know how long he stayed like that, but he didn’t look up until he felt a hand tapping his shoulder gently.

“Sir,” a concerned-looking flight attendant said. She chewed a bit at her colored lips. “Is everything alright?”

“Painkillers?” Viktor croaked out, rubbing at his ears. A violent shiver snaked down his spine. “And an extra blanket? Ih’hihh’hiISSHH! Isshoo!” He sneezed into the blanket that he already held around him. “Ughh...Snf! Snf!”

“Of course, sir,” she said, and Victor would be forever grateful for how soft and caring she kept her voice. “Perhaps some tissues too?”

“That would be lovely, thank you. Heh’sshoo! Nngghh.. Oh, excuse be.”

Viktor closed his eyes when she left, working his fingers into his temples, trying to massage away the ache. He felt unwelcomely close to tears, but he hoped the painkillers might take the edge off that. Oh, how he just wanted Yuuri.

“Here you are, sir.” Viktor cracked open his eyes and took the pills, tissues, and blankets from the attendant. She watched him with a careful, almost hesitant expression. “Are you… Viktor Nikiforov?”

“The very same.” He smiled and tried to laugh, but the sound quickly fell to congested coughs instead. “Sorry, I’d normally offer to take a picture but—snf!—I dod’t thidk you wadt a picture with be looking—“ Victor paused, gesturing to his face and pink, sniffly nose, “—like this.”

“No, no it’s more than alright,” she said. Her expression softened from its previous hesitance. “You don’t sound like you feel very well, Mr. Nikiforov.”

Viktor gave a slight nod, too exhausted to be embarrassed by the comment. “I’ll be happy to get home and sleep.”

“I’m sure. You should try to sleep now, too. Call for me if there’s anything else you need.”

Viktor nodded and sniffled as he burrowed into his layers of blankets. As the painkillers gradually knocked the pain in his ears to a bearable ache, he couldn’t help but be lulled to sleep by the whirring of the airplane as it carried him home to Yuuri.

#sick #sickvictor #sickfic #yoi #yurionice #cold #whump #snezfic #Snezkink

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fishmech · 5 years

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THE ALT.GAMES.XTREK FAQ (unnoficial)

1 FAQ History

Originally posted by Optimus in November 1999, with some additions from Rap, Mycophile, and Tenhawk. Other information integrated from the AIF Archive maintained by Mycophile, from the IFFG maintained by ArKane, and from the FAQ for the newsgroup rec.arts.int-fiction which is currently maintained by Stephen Griffiths.

2 Introduction

Hello, and welcome to the FAQ for the newsgroup alt.games.xtrek. What we have here is a list of frequently asked questions that come up in the newsgroup. We also have some frequently given answers (FGA) too. Please take the time to read through this document before posting a question on the newsgroup. You could save yourself some time and frustration.

If you've got a question that isn't answered here, feel free to post it. If you'd like to suggest an addition to this FAQ, please e-mail the maintainer.

3 Commonly Used Abbreviations

AIF - Adult Interactive Fiction ADRIFT - A Windows based form style game generator. Agility - An updated runtime engine that supports AGT and MAGX games. AGT - Adventure Game Toolkit AGX - alt.games.xtrek newsgroup FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions FGA - Frequently Given Answers GMD - Interactive Fiction Archive, formerly hosted on ftp.gmd.de GUE - Great Underground Empire, Zorkian reference. GUI - Graphic User Interface IDE - Intergrated Development Environment IF - Interactive Fiction IFA - The new home of the Interactive Fiction Archive. MAGX - Extension of the AGT language with more power. NG - newsgroup NPC - A non-player character in a work of IF PC - In game context, the player character. PC - In computer context, a personal or home computer. SO - Significant Other TADS - Text Adventure Development System RAIF - rec.arts.int-fiction newsgroup, used by IF programmers mostly RGIF - rec.games.int-fiction newsgroup, used by IF players mostly RTFM - A machine at MIT home to many FAQS RTFM! - Read The Fine Manual! RTFF! - Read The Fine FAQ! YANNI - Yet Another New Naughty Idea (abundantly used by Rap)

4 What is Interactive Fiction?

That is a good question. In days past, both interactive fiction and text adventure had the same meaning. Interactive fiction has a broader interpretation these days. For the sake of this FAQ and the topic it covers, text adventure is more accurate, but still not perfect.

Basically, Interactive Fiction is a text-based game where the player has some direct impact on the story. This impact is usually from some action that they perform such as finding an item, solving a puzzle, opening a locked door, finding the treasure, or other similar action. Some games even change when the player doesn't do something.

Another attempt to define IF can be found at the Interactive Fiction Basement.

4.1 What is Adult Interactive Fiction?

Adult Interactive Fiction, commonly called AIF, is a catch phrase used to describe Interactive Fiction with strong sexual themes, hence the 'Adult' in AIF.

4.2 What is XTrek?

X-Trek is a subgenre of AIF, based largely on characters and locations from the Star Trek universe.

5 What is AGX?

AGX is the abbreviation of the newsgroup alt.games.xtrek. AGX was originally set up for discussion of X-Trek games, but has since moved on to become the forum for all forms of AIF.

AGX is a bit different from the other IF newsgroups. RGIF is for questions related to game play and RAIF is for questions about the programming side of IF. Both programming and game playing questions about AIF are on topic in this group. While there is nothing in the R*IF charters that say anything about sex not being on topic, there's not much of it in mainstream works of IF. Well sex is definitely on topic here! So is food! (see the RAIF FAQ)

But enough of the silly banter for the moment. Here is a concise, if not complete list of what is considered on-topic for AGX:

Questions about playing AIF games. Questions about programming AIF games. Questions about where to find an AIF game. Hint requests for AIF games. AIF game reviews. Hentai games. Sex. Food!

Stupidly Posted Annoyance Messages. You know what it is, we don't want it here.

Silly Requests for Posted Games. AGX is not a binary newsgroup. Some servers automatically kill binary attachments in non-binary newsgroups. Also, some people pay for Internet access by the minute. Posting binaries to the group costs them money. Be considerate to all in our community.

To my knowledge there is no site that is actively archiving everything posted to AGX. Old posts might be found by searching at a newsgroup archive site such as Google.

AGX was originally setup for the Xtrek game, which later evolved into Xtrek2 and then Netrek. This game was and is a multiplayer online starship combat system and has no relation to Xtrek in it's AIF incarnation.

This particular group was abandoned for more than a year by it's original creators, who moved on to alt.games.nettrek. Until it came into use by people requesting sequels to Xtrek and Troi, after they mistook it for an adult group.

As recent as the first posting of the DS9 beta by Tenhawk, noone was using this group at all. He posted to ABSA [alt.binaries.startrek.adult] and didn't actually crosspost here until the last revision was released. It wasn't until that post, and Newkids posting of TSG that the new community moved in.

6 How do I play these games?

6.1 Interpreters

Most IF games require a program called an interpreter to run the game file(s). A majority of AIF games are written in TADS, Inform, or AGT. For these (and many other) systems, you'll need the game file plus a program that runs games written in that language. These programs can be found at IF Archive, and have been ported to many platforms.

6.2 Troubleshooting 6.2.1 Error 200 when running AGT games?

AGT was programmed in Pascal. There is an error in the screen handling routines that will cause a divide by zero error on faster machines. For you technical people, the error is in the CRT module and affects many versions of Pascal and Turbo Pascal. I don't have all the specifics, that isn't what this site is for.

Download this patch file for the AGT runtime and compiler. Use it. If you have problems with this link, it can also be found on the nearest IF Archive mirror in the agt directory.

Use Agility as your runtime engine, it was programmed in C and doesn't have this problem. Agility will run most AGT games, but some will not work properly. It can be found at the IF Archive, or the Agility homepage.

7 Where can I find AIF games?

Most of the AIF sites only archive the best examples of AIF. Perhaps one day there will be a server that houses everything, but at this time there is no such place.

If it is a newer game and you can't find it on any of the sites listed below, it probably doesn't exist, or it still remains in development hell. There are ocassionally posts where somebody mentions a game they are considering working on, this by no means guarantees a release.

7.1 I can't find game X, where can I get it?

At this time, none of the AIF archives has every AIF game made. One way around this is a polite request to have the file e-mailed to you. That way, you can get the game you want, the newsgroup isn't filled with wasted bandwith about getting a game, and nobody has to worry about downloading a binary from the group.

7.1.1 Have you heard about this Safe Sex game?

Safe Sex may very well have been the first AIF game. It was programmed with the Computer Novel Construction Set and released as a demo sometime around 1993. Much of the text in the game and the archive refers to a company called SOS Software. To the best of our knowledge, there isn't, nor was there ever a full version of this game. Any references to the company, and requests for monetary donations should be considered bogus.

7.2 Can somebody post this game to the newsgroup?

This was covered in the section about the newsgroup, but it bears repeating. While AGX isn't moderated, it is not a binary group. In short, don't post games to the newsgroup!

7.3 Sites that host AIF games

The following sites have AIF games available for download. They don't have everything ever made, but contain the best examples.

Adult Interactive Fiction Archive

The oldest AIF site, Back with a new maintainer!

Lesser AIF Archive

A smaller archive, but catching up in content and games.

CycoONE's Vortex

A site about TADS games, AIF and IF, and more.

Interactive Fiction for Grownups

A site with AIF programming, writing, and plot ideas for budding writers.

Interactive Fiction Archive

The biggest archive for everything about IF in general. This is an ftp site.

IF Archive Web Interface

Web interface to the Interactive Fiction Archive.

8 Is there a walk through for this game?

This is a very common question, especially right after a new game has been released. Some people just don't want to try and figure a game out before they ask for a walk through. It happens to us all at some point.

Try to work your way through it before asking for a walk through. If you get stuck on a particular part of the game, ask for a hint on that. From what I've seen, people are more willing to help with a certain tricky spot in a game.

8.1 Where can I find walkthroughs? 8.1.1 XTrek Walkthroughs

XTrek walk throughs can probably be found by searching the archives for AGX on Google.

8.1.2 Other Walkthroughs

Non-Xtrek walk throughs can be found at the AIF Archives and the Lesser Archives.

8.2 Can I post a hint or walk through?

Heavens sake, of course you can! We are a community, it is good to help your friends and neighbors. There are a few important things you should do when posting a hint or walk through.

First, use a subject line that denotes that the post has clues in it so that people who don't want them can skip that post. Common practice is to include the word SPOILER in your subject line, followed by the game being asked about. For example, in response to a question about Rogue Cop, a subject line with [SPOILER] Rogue Cop, would warn AGX readers that there are answers about the game in the post and they may want to skip it.

Second, leave several blank lines between the question and your hint, just in case somebody accidentally opens the message in their reader. They can see what the question is and determine if they want to read further.

8.3 Pophints and other hint systems

Pophints is a simple program for providing hints to games on DOS based systems. There are other hint systems that will run on most platforms. More information can be found in the hints section on your local IF archive mirror.

9 Can I ask when new games are coming out?

An ocassional post asking about this isn't a terrible thing. It lets authors know that people are still interested in their project. Frequent requests of this sort only serve to annoy the authors and readers of AGX. A rough guideline on this would be, at most, once a month.

The short answer is that they will come out when they get finished.

The long answer is that these games take time and patience to code, and writers usually only do this in their spare time. So a new game, depending on the scope, can easily take months. So don't bug them, the more time they spend reading posts in their spare time is less time that they will spend working on a game!

10 How can I write these games?

10.1 Reading

There are various documents that discuss what is involved with writing any work of IF. Before you seriously start working on something you should look over a couple of these, if not all of them. There are not rules set in stone, but these articles cover a host of things you might not have considered. The first couple deal with IF in general, while the others are aimed more at AIF in particular.

Craft of Adventure

, by Graham Nelson

Crimes Against Mimesis

Whizzard's Guide to Text Adventure Authorship, by G K Wilson

AIF: What Does it Take

, by ArKane

Writing Adult Interactive Fiction

, by Rap

10.2 IF Languages

The first thing you need to do is pick up one of the many languages available for writing Interactive Fiction games. There are various languages for creating these types of games.

Each language has it's own benefits and pitfalls. Check out the section of the RAIF FAQ for an overview. Ultimately you have to choose which language you are most comfortable using. Roger Firth maintains a page with several code examples that may help you make a decision. (see below) The most popular languages are:

TADS is more powerful that AGT, and a bit easier to learn than Inform. It's programming style is more object oriented, and the code resembles the C language in many ways. The newer versions of TADS also support integration with HTML and graphics.

This language can handle much more complexity than AGT. It is the closest thing to the language that Infocom used back in the text adventure age, the Zork years. Inform uses a mostly procedural based coding, and has a higher learning curve than AGT or TADS.

This was one of the first languages for programming IF. It's one of the oldest, and while it has been said it is easier to learn, you sacrifice some power in doing so. If you decide to go with AGT, I highly recommend getting the MAGX package which extends it's funtionality.

There are a couple of other languages that are a bit newer. This is not to say that you can't write AIF in these languages, there just hasn't been as much development so it may be more difficult.

Hugo

ALAN

10.3 Programming Resources

Most of the major IF languages have dedicated web sites that have all sorts of useful information on them. This is good if you're looking for specific help or an update.

There is also the Interactive Fiction Archive, which houses almost everything there is dealing with IF. Both new and old languages for programming IF can be found here, as well as manuals, games, help, and other related documents.

This can be a complex question. To make it more basic, you need to choose a language, get it, get the documentation, READ the documentation, and mess around with any example code and techniques mentioned in the documentation.

You may not understand it all at once, but that is to be expected. Creating a work of IF requires both writing and programming. It takes practice and time to understand how to get both your text and your code to work the way you want it to.

10.4 Other Resources

There are tutorials available for several of the IF languages. Once you've looked at your documentation it's good to see if you can also find a tutorial. Some sample code may also help you get an idea how certain things work in your chosen IF language.

Inform Tutorial Inform Source Code Engelberg's TADS Tutorial Online Tutorial TADS Source Code

Once you start coding you may find that your chosen language just doesn't do something you want it to. Chances are that somebody has already thought of what you were looking to do and may have written a library extension for that purpose already. You may want to check these locations before you start trying to code it yourself.

Aside from the newsgroups RAIF and AGX, you may get some useful feedback from the folks on RGIF. There are also two lists of people willing to help with some part of the IF process.

The IF Collaborator's List lists many people and specific languages they'd be willing to help with. There is also the IF Assistance List, which lists some of the same info as the Collaborator's list plus specific areas of interest such as fantasy, mystery, etc.

More information about these languages can also be found at the following sites. Interactive Fiction at MiningCo.com The IF Basement Roger Firth's Cloak of Darkness site.

10.5 What Editor should I use?

Well the quick answer is that any editor that allows you to save in a pure text format will do the job. You can use a word processor, but if you do you've got to remember to save your files in a text-only format!

A better choice may be to get your hands on an editor designed more for programming that allows you to hook your compiler, debugger, or spell-check into it. One thing that you will definitely want is an editor that displays line numbers! Macro recording and sytax highlighting are nice, but you can write IF without them.

If you are using a windows based system, I highly recommend getting PFE. It is a highly configurable editor that allows for everything mentioned above except for syntax highlighting.

11 Food for thought...

What was I thinking about putting in this section? Probably some screwy idea of involving food in games. It could be rather interesting. Maybe I was just going to ramble about what sort of foods I usually have handy when I get into coding. That would be Doritos, pizza, Dew, and chocolate. I might have just taken this oportunity to ramble on a bit more. You never know what might spark an idea though...

12 Resources

TADS Homepage

Inform Homepage

Jay Goemmer's AGT Pages

AGT Homepage

Interactive Fiction Archive

The AIF Portal

Adult Interactive Fiction Archive

Interactive Fiction for Grownups?

Lesser Adult Interactive Fiction Archive

Other resources...

Those writing in TADS may consider checking out the source code for Moist, just keep in mind that the author warns that it was never meant to be instructional, and can get pretty messy.

There are also a couple of libraries made for use with TADS to make AIF easier to put together. The first is MMX, created to reproduce the character interaction found in Moist. The second is Rogue Redux, which expands on MMX and adds some other functionality. Both can be found at the IF archive and on some of the AIF sites as well.

#old internet #old computer #geocities #interactive fiction #usenet

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dailytechnologynews · 6 years

Photo

No one will care about 3rd gen APUs and the H-Series if AMD doesn't take drivers seriously...

[Crossposted from /r/amd]

So I've posted quite a bit about the issues with Ryzen Mobile as it seems that AMD still hasn't started distributing drivers for Ryzen Mobile, even after more than a year since release and the appearance of over 30 unique devices running on those amazing Raven Ridge Mobile APUs.

Here's a quick overview of what I've done to grab AMD's attention:

Tweet at AMD, AMDRyzen, AMDGaming, LisuSu and HPSupport

Most popular post about the issues

Post AMD recognized about the issues

Post on AMD Support Forums

As you can see, enough people are having these issues and care about them because otherwise I wouldn't be getting guilded and my posts wouldn't be on the frontpage of /r/amd for as long as they were. It seems that many, many people are having these issues, but only about 1% from what I've seen actually do anything about it. Most people just complain that their system doesn't work and either replace their system or live with the issues. That isn't the way to deal with anti-consumer brands as by ignoring their acts we basically tell them that whatever they're doing is fine and they can just keep on doing it. Posts like the ones I'll be referencing later and this by /u/brokemyacct one are what we need to shine light on not only the outstanding performance of these APUs, but also the overly frustrating issues associated with only these APUs and not even relevant for older A-Series chips.

I've also spent lots of time chatting with others that own Ryzen Mobile systems to clarify that this isn't an HP issue, so any of you who planned on downvoting this post and commenting that HP sucks at driver support can simmer down and remember that this post is about all the driver issues on Ryzen Mobile devices and not just those limited to HP systems.

Issues

Drivers

The latest drivers to be found for Ryzen Mobile on any website are those from the Windows Update Catalog dated to the 30. August 2018, and by downloading drivers from HP, Acer or any of the other major brands you usually get older drivers from July of this year, repackaged as drivers from August/September. The Radeon Software is outdated as well as version 17.7 is from July of last year and is very basic without much control over the CPU/GPU in games or programs. Even amazing features that have finally made it over to Raven Ridge Desktop haven't found their way to Mobile yet such as Radeon ReLive or the Radeon Overlay. Radeon ReLive luckily can be installed with a workaround, but it isn't what we want, because seemingly everything is possible with a workaround, such as installing newer drivers that aren't designed for the GPU but do work somewhat.

What's also interesting is that it seems downloading drivers from say Acer on to your HP device and then installing those with the workaround doesn't seem to make a difference at all. The stability barely changes, the performance too and usually features don't disappear or get added based on the OEM that distributed the driver, basically proving that OEMs don't even touch the drivers much and if they do, they all do the same changes like seemingly lower clocks as installing unofficial drivers (18.9.3 for example) on my system will give me higher clock speeds even without changing anything in the BIOS or power plan settings.

Now, I know that some people will and some people already have mentioned that Linux has great open-source drivers. I'm aware and I just want to say that this of course is a thread about the driver situation on Windows and I'm not interested in hearing about Linux every time I write something like this. I paid for Windows 10 Pro for a reason and that's because I want to use Windows 10 Pro, otherwise I could've ordered the FreeDOS variant of my device. I need Windows 10 Pro, want Windows 10 Pro and dislike Windows 10 Pro and there are many other reasons for not wanting to or not being capable to switch to Linux which is why this is an issue and switching to Linux isn't an answer.

Stability

Now all of that wouldn't be so bad if the systems at least ran stable. Especially the PRO variants found in devices like the HP EliteBook 755 G5 shine a terrible light on Ryzen Mobile because these devices (and the ThinkPad series) are marketed at enterprise users that require a little more GPU power than can be found in an Intel SoC and would be perfect for the use-case if it wasn't for their lackluster stability; from VLC crashing, Adobe Programs not recognizing the GPU all the way to the system showing multiple BSoDs an hour means that getting an Intel system is the better option for those who really need to get work done and can't upgrade to a 2'000+ CHF device. If GPU performance really matters, the only stable option is something like the EliteBook 1050 G1, Dell XPS 15 or a workstation for ridiculous amounts of money, which is terrible because not everyone (including myself) can afford a device like that.

Just from talking about these issues to other people I have found that a) I'm not the only one dealing with these issues and b) issues exist that I don't even have to deal with or others don't have to deal with:

Ridiculous TDP limits (post by /u/MinecraftAddict131 explaining the problem a little better)

VLC crashing in DX11 mode, not in OpenGL or other modes (comment /u/WillingMagic confirming that this isn't an HP-only issue, GIF displaying the issue)

Adobe Programs not recognizing the GPU and thus I'm forced to use the software renderer (used to recognize it in the beginning, image to display the issue)

Blender3D not recognizing the GPU (used to recognize it in the beginning as was Adobe Premiere Pro)

DX11 (and other) games not allowing to change the resolution, sometimes even with stock drivers (comment/u/MynnyD confirming that this happens on his Lenovo ThinkPad E485 with any non-OEM drivers)

Weird screen flickering when Vari-Bright is enabled (GIF to display the issue)

Framedrops in games when Chill and Target Framerate Control are enabled

Random crashing with BSODs often resulting in data loss (image displaying the issue)

Crashing when installing workaround drivers (image displaying the issue)

Can't change screen brightness with the F3/F4 keys, no option in the battery quick menu, have to go to the energy settings

The sad part about these issues is that clearly most of them are driver/software related meaning that with some simple BIOS and driver patches these issues could be resolved, possibly bringing these APUs back into the regular consumers' eyes and keeping people optimistic about the future APUs to be released. Already with the A-Series APUs AMD kind of messed up, even though even those are getting driver support, and I should know, because the EliteBook I'm currently writing this post on was supposed to replace my notebook with an A10 APU and R5 dGPU which is still getting driver updates!

/u/BadReligion even went as far as to contacting an HP Rep only to be disappointed by the fact that these HP employees like to point fingers at AMD when AMD points fingers at the OEMs for not updating the drivers as they should.

Especially the BSODs are annoying because of how common they are and usually result in data loss which means that I'm constantly saving files instead of focusing on writing them. As a programmer, spamming CTRL + S isn't as bad, but it's really freaking annoying to do this in literally every program and even on Reddit I've started using drafts.

Another interesting, and sad, thing is that most tech reviewers and tech journalists don't write about these issues even though some of them should know about these. Now either it means that they don't test enough or they're being paid to STFU, which sucks. The only reviewer I could find mention the issues is Solid State Tech that didn't a long-term real world review of the Envy x360 and mentions the issues in the middle of his video, but nothing to be found in the title or description about the issues. If reviewers and journalists would make people aware of the issues, less people would buy a product they don't want and AMD would get their shit together way quicker.

Performance

In addition to the lack of stability on some systems, it's clear that OEMs are "nerfing" the devices as I've done a lot of testing as well as others have to figure out pretty quickly that by simply installing "incompatible"/unofficial drivers like 18.10.1 can yield in major performance gains as this comment by /u/WillingMagic displays really well where someone benched his system with different drivers and also confirmed that his system is having issues with VLC even though he owns an Asus.

/u/MinecraftAddict131 also put in a lot of work to finding out that his Huawei Matebook - which I might add has one of the best implementation of Ryzen Mobile - could perform way better if it wasn't for these crippling factors that even Huawei implemented into their otherwise great system as he watercooled his device and explained in this post that removing the limits would give him way better (and expected) performance. He already went about bricking his system because of how "desperate" he is and I really think it's impressive how much work and trust people put into these AMD systems when all AMD - and the OEMs - do is disappoint us at seemingly every turn.

There are many others posts that display the issue and how unofficial drivers result in way better performance across all Ryzen Mobile systems such as this one from /u/bobzdar. Also /u/BadReligion (TechEpiphany) made some videos comparing the performance of the different drivers showing extremely well that drivers that aren't even designed for Vega Mobile perform better than those distributed by OEMs:

Ryzen 7 2700 Review PUBG *new drivers!* awesome performance

AMD Ryzen 5 2500U driver comparison. 17.7 "Official" vs. 18.1.1 Wolfenstein II

Far Cry 5 Ryzen 5 2500U Vega 8 "18.3.4" Driver Gameplay Benchmark iGPU

Request

Now, I've seen /u/AMDOfficial's reponse to mainly my posts and it seems that they're just trying to pull some PR bullshit by saying that they will "enable OEMs" to update their drivers twice a year. This sounds like the complete opposite of what we wanted as the first thing we wanted was more updates and secondly for those two come directly from AMD but with their statement they basically said that we'll be stuck with twice-annual updates that are as buggy as they are now and that AMD doesn't give enough shits to distribute the reference drivers (that exist FFS!) on their website or they're being limited by some clause.

So, for you AMD PR people that seemingly can't read, here's what we want. Separated by line breaks to make it as easy as possible to read and bold in case you have a vision problem:

Drivers for Ryzen Mobile coming straight from your website.

Drivers for Ryzen Mobile as part of your regular driver packs.

Future driver support for Ryzen Mobile (2-3 years at least!).

Ryzen Master for Ryzen Mobile.

More control over our hardware with Ryzen Master for Mobile.

Drivers from the OEMs for those who want "optimized" drivers.

Future

The point I want to bring over with this post is that if AMD doesn't take drivers seriously, no one will care how good the hardware of the upcoming (leaked) H-Series processors and 3rd gen Ryzen Mobile APUs will be if they don't update the current-gen's drivers. Ryzen Mobile was the same story, the very first laptop I remember seeing with Ryzen Mobile was the Lenovo IdeaPad and just seeing the Vega badge gave me a little hard-on. Then the first benchmarks rolled out and even though everyone knew that the idiots at Lenovo made a bunch of mistakes, those Vega iGPUs kicked intel's ass into the future and showed that an iGPU could keep up with current-gen dGPUs.

But in the end of the day, people still buy intel/nVidia systems even if they cost more and intel and nVidia are less pro-consumers because those systems just work and in terms of drivers intel and nVidia are actually more pro-consumer than AMD is.

The only thing AMD is doing that's really pro-consumer is making "pro" hardware available for the masses and not hiding products like Vega and Threadripper behind "pro" paywalls. And it does seem that their taking notice of what's going on with their recently made post and as this post shows, it seems that they have done some kind of "silent update" and quite possibly are working on Raven Ridge Mobile drivers meaning that there's a chance for us believers.

Update

It seems that AMD does read these posts as they responded to one of mine and made a thread about it that got massively upvoted, which is really sad because all in all they simply said that they don't care about their consumers and will make our situation worse by only enabling OEMs to release drivers every 6 months instead of every 3 months which is currently technically the case. You people need to understand that we don't want them to simply listen, we want to see change and we want to see drivers. Not some wimpy PR guy behind his desk trying to sooth us down. With their statement they also made it fairly clear that they don't plan on updating the drivers themselves and will just let the OEMs do whatever they want. Obviously I responded to that thread and the comment under my thread with an aggressive and a less aggressive response.

Also, my mainboard was replaced today, and as expected, nothing changed. VLC still crashes, the Radeon Settings are still outdated (obviously) and Adobe Programs still don't recognize my GPU for hardware acceleration. I haven't had a chance to check Blender3D or games yet, but this is enough to prove that we're dealing with driver issues, which is what I'll be telling the HP Support to make sure we either get new drivers (which won't happen) or I get a new system that works for free. It can't be that after all this time investment I still can't get my work done, which is important unlike the issues some are having with games which might be aggravating, but not vital.

Question

What drivers are you Ryzen Mobile users using and how's your experience with them been? I'm currently using the newest available from Windows Update which is dated to the 30.08.2018 which is honestly just... meh. Obviously it's more stable than those from AMD (18.10.2 etc.) which is why I'm using them, but the performance is lackluster and features like Adobe Mercury Render Engine - Hardware Acceleration don't work which is something I'm really pissed off about because it was one of my main requirements for my new laptop: HW acceleration, but now after the repair still isn't working and going to waste more of my time trying to convince HP that I need better drivers or a different device.

EDIT: Added paragraph about Linux not being an option for many of us even if the drivers are better, because it simply isn't the right solution for the most of us!

#hardware #Computer #Technology #Tech #News

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chicago-images · 6 years

Text

Reply to Who would like to be a moderator for this group?

The Brutal Regime / Joseph Dunphy posted a reply:

Over two years later, that last post looks amusing. I had hoped that this group would become a community, but I guess I was the only one who did. I'm going to try to polish away the over 7000 high mountain of submissions some of you dropped on me during that period when Flickr allowed for unlimited crossposting, but I'm not sure why. As I said before, your photos weren't complimenting each other by chance. I consciously chose the order in which they were approved in order to make them do so. Given that Flickr is going to be discarding the vast bulk of the photos on its site, destroying that carefully crafted composition, in just a few months, I'm done doing that. I'm more than a little sorry that I ever bothered. Long hours of work, not just spend putting all of this in order, but vetting photos, both those submitted to this group and those I saw outside of the group, as I looked for photos and people to invite - by now, I've literally gone through millions of photos over the last ten years, and now all of that is going to get thrown into the dumpster so that the aptly named Smugmug can complete what would appear to have been what I was fearing it would be at the time I first heard of the purchase - an aquihire in all but name. All so that a third rate businessman can try something that I've absolutely never seen work - boost his own business by buying out and shutting down his main competitor. People aren't going to flee Flickr for Smugmug, or buy pro memberships if (as will often be the case) their content gets discarded before they get the news. They'll free to Tumblr, Typepad or Livejournal (without controversial content in the case of the last of the three, one hopes) if they get the news in time to save their photos, or very likely leave the Internet altogether if they lose so much of their creative work to yet another suit's inflated ego. Narcissism truly is the gift that keeps on giving. So, that's how it goes, ten years of work, wiped out, as a major cultural resource (the photography that has accumulated on Flickr over the years) is casually destroyed. But the problem always was that it was a resource that Flickr, itself, never valued, because neither its owners nor its employees did the work to create it, nor did they pay for it. Other people took those photos. Other people spent all of that time sifting through the bad work of others to find the good. So, when all of that work is thrown away, management gets its narcissistic fix, while those unpaid others bear the expense. Sure, the company bears an opportunity cost, but people who've just been handed things seldom appreciate what they have until it's gone, and often, not even then. There are lessons to be learned in this. One of them is "don't ever trust the social networking sites." If some of you were thinking of jumping over to DeviantArt in light of recent developments, don't. If you think that the troll problem has been bad here, you haven't seen anything, yet. But a more important lesson is - don't be so darned generous. Yes, as provoked as I am, I'm going to keep this group clean to the end. Don't give people so much of yourself that they end up getting spoiled, because, past a certain point, the more they are given, the less they'll think they've gotten. They won't appreciate it, at all, and in this, I'm not just talking about the suits. I've been moderating groups for a little over ten years. I've seen a lot of "excrement" over this time, including that magical moment when a pair of users starting planning my murder, brilliantly choosing to do so in the comments section of one of their photos. Endless backbiting, which I got to deal with, attempts to get me thrown off the site, racial abuse ... it's been special. As I went through that, for over a decade, how many times do you think I heard the words "thank you"? ONCE Just once. It was such a remarkable event, that I remember exactly where and when it was. I was at the last "Around the Coyote." I'd name the member, but if I did, I'm afraid he's get harassed. So it goes. Flickr refuses to appreciate the photographers who provide it with content, and the photographers refused to appreciate the admins who find them, pull them together into communities and promote their work for free. No, we end up as scapegoats. I've lost track of how many times I've explained Flickr's insane position that nude statues are the same thing as nude people to members, who then refused to understand that I didn't work for Flickr and had played no role in the creation of that company policy. Even providing a link to Heather's infamous comment in the Help Forum, in which she laid out that police and wrote those immortal words "What is common sense?" did no good. People would go on abusing me over the bizarre decisions Flickr chose to make, as if there was anything I could do about them. The group will stick around as long as Flickr allows it to, albeit probably in mangled form, given how much of its content will be deleted. But, after I process those last 7000 photos, which should take a few weeks, I'm going to lock the photo and discussion section and wait until the great content purge of 2018 happens, before deciding what to do next. Which, to be honest, probably will be nothing. I've given myself vacations and put this group on hiatus, before, but this is different. On previous occasions, I'd have a headache because, say, somebody who turned out to have a criminal record and have talked about gouging people's eyes out found support as he created drama over the fact that I wouldn't invite him along on a photowalk. Yes, that really happened. I'd go away, and give you guys some time to think about what you had done. But when I got back, for the most part, what I had assembled was still there and I could resume. This time, that isn't likely to be true, so continuing might not make a lot of sense. What's the point of laboriously putting together that which others will smash to pieces, just for giggles? There is a much better than 50% chance that when I come back and take a look, that the losses will be so great that I'll never open the group back up, because I'll never be willing to put in the time, again. Which raises the question - if this group is done, here, where will it be moving to, next? Just look at all of the dead links to companion groups and sites that used to be, think about it, and I think you'll get your answer - nowhere. If I'm going to get put back to square one, I'm not going through this, again. I have no plans to establish any new groups, anywhere. Moderation has been a largely unrewarding experience that has taken time away from other, more valuable pursuits and in the end, done nothing for me. Most of those more valuable pursuits have nothing to do with the Internet, but there is one that does - my own blogging. The time I've spent promoting the creative efforts of others, only one of whom ever thanked me for that, is time I haven't been able to spend on my own. No more of that. In the unlikely case that I open this group up, again, I'll expect some of you to finally step forward and take some of the weight from my shoulders. If, as I suspect will be the case, nobody will be willing to do so at that time, then we'll be closing up for good, and this group will be an archive. Period. Even the blogging will be limited. I'll put out some samples of my work as a sort of personal introduction for people who do searches under my name, but as for putting out vast amounts of creative work on the Internet and sharing it for free? We just saw where that leads. No, the bulk of the writing I do is probably going to be submitted to small literary journals and other magazines. The photography I do will be shown to friends, or maybe displayed on the walls of a certain coffeehouse, if my own work is ever good enough to be seen there. But as for spending a lot more time on the Internet? Why would I want to do that?

from Chicago Photography https://ift.tt/2zTuV9j via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Chicago Photography

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