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How do I post in the Archives (Fanfic Archive or Multimedia Archive)? by Jamaristy

Posting in our archives is no different than posting your stories on the main board but with one little difference.

You will see the "POST NOW" link at the top of the page, just like you see at the top of the main board. Post your first chapter of your fic by using this link, putting your chapter text in the "message text" box of your post like you would on the main board. This will start a thread in the archive for your story. Now, here's the difference...when you go to post your NEXT chapter, post it as a response to your original post (your chapter one). This would be like posting feedback to yourself. Open your Chapter One and select "respond", then enter your second chapter's text in the message box and type "Chapter Two" in your subject line. In the same way, with every new chapter you add, ALWAYS post it as a Response/Feedback to your original post (your Chapter one). This will give you a nice list of chapters one under the other, and keep your story in one spot so it is found easily.

The basic idea is simple, ALWAYS post any new chapter of your story as a response to the VERY FIRST post in your story's thread (i.e. always post as a response to your Prologue or your Chapter One, whichever you have first.) 

When you scroll down the last chapter you've posted and add the new chapter as a response there, you push your story's thread further and further to the right.  It's just like posting on this board...if I respond to Mary's post, then Mary responds to me, then I respond to her again, and so on and so on, the thread will be pushed so far to the right and off the forum you can even see it.  The same thing happens in the arc.  If you look at some of the stories currently in the arc, you'll see that the lines in each subsequent chapter are less and less flush with the left margin...they're being pushed to the right.  If you post new chapters as responses to the very first post in your thread all the time, the new chapters will always line up with the left margin. 

Because we have the arcs set up as a table, you can't really see this but JMK can when we go to the Message Editor to delete feedback...

This is what it looks like when you add new chapters at the very end of the thread instead of as a response to your Chapter One:

TTTP Chapter 1
      TTTP Chapter 2
           TTTP Chapter 3
                TTTP Chapter 4
                     Please continue!
                           TTTP Chapter 5
                                TTTP Chapter 6
                                     ....and so on.

In this case, if we tried to go in and delete that "Please continue", Chapters 5, 6 and all after that would be deleted too.  I think this is what happens to some stories by by mistake.  The clean up crew in the arc can't always see what's a response to what in the table format, so it was an honest mistake if they deleted some feedback after, say, Chapter 15 and as a result, axed 16 through 32.

Now, here's what happens when you always post as a response to Chapter One...

TTTP Chapter 1
        Chapter 2
        Chapter 3
        Chapter 4
             Please continue
        Chapter 5
        Chapter 6
        .... and so on.

When people who CAN'T READ post feedback in the arc, they always do it as a response to the last thing they read...your last chapter.  In the case above, the author continued to post as a response to her first post, so the feedback to chapter 4 is just sort of dangling out there without anything "dependent" on it, and therefore, safe for deleting whenever the clean up crew can get to it.  Chapters 5 and 6 and anything after it are safe. 

In this case, it's also not necessary for anyone to post a frantic alert that "There's feedback in the arc under my story!"  If you're consistently responding to your first post, your chapters are safe and the clean up crew can get to the offensive trash at any time.  It makes all our lives a little easier. 

Some folks have chosen to put all their stories under one thread. In this case, your original thread post would be "Your name's Fiction", with each story's first chapter being a response to the main thread labeled "Your name's Fiction". Then to add chapters to each story, always open the appropriate story's first chapter and respond to it.

The Multimedia archive works in this way as well. If you have fanart or slideshows you want to post in the arc, start a thread for yourself entitled "Your name's Stuff" (or something similar) and add each piece of fanart as a response to that original post. This will keep all your work together so it is easy to find.

Please check out how others have arranged their posts in the archives if you are still unsure to follow their examples. Thank you.

DO NOT POST FEEDBACK TO ANYONE ELSE'S STORIES/MULTIMEDIA IN THE ARCHIVES.