We will be releasing some beta/experimental features over the next few weeks.
Beta Features:
- Multi-Language translation of the website. Click on the Language link at the top menu bar to activate this feature. Once activated, it will auto-translate current and future pages to the language of choice. To return/cancel the translation, click on “Show Original”. Please note this feature requires a fast internet connection is currently enabled for the desktop version of the sites.
- Basic copy protection of story content within modern browsers. Currently it is enabled for all but authors will be able to disable/enable this feature in a coming update.
Other Changes:
- Forum profanity filer feature has returned. Forum admins can selectively enable/disable this filter which applies to all thread content. Default is disabled.
For those with using assisted reading software such NVDA, please let us know if you have any problem access the site as result of the above changes and note the NVDA version you are using. We support the NVDA screen-reader.
Andy
10/12/2013 at 6:45 pm
I am a huge fan of FF.net, well i should say WAS! I use to copy some fanfics and compile them all together to read them on my tabs, during travels to go to work or when i get bored and do NOT have internet to get connected.
I do understand that is for intelectual properties protection but, it’s a bad reason, as if writers put there creations here is to SHARE with the readers. So, who at the end is the winner?
Please, think about it and make us (nearly) all happy by putting back the copy. Thank you.
Veds
10/13/2013 at 1:22 pm
I completely agree with you… I do the same thing…
It would really make us happy if the copy is back…
I’m not allowed to use internet for a longer time and copying the fiction has always been a great option…
Virginie
10/18/2013 at 6:33 am
Is there a hope that we can copy/paste in future or no ?
AccioEye
10/18/2013 at 12:33 pm
Both Firefox and Chrome have addons/extensions that bypass this copy protection logic. It took me an hour or two to find the ones that would work, but I am happily using my text to speech app in Chrome (SpeakIt!) again while I multitask. I will certainly not post the names of the extensions here in fear that they will be blocked, but I will say that in the end it wasn’t all that hard to bypass. (That and the fact that the restrictions were useless anyway as they didn’t work in either IE or Opera.)
Asj
10/12/2013 at 7:31 pm
Ack! I can’t highlight anything! Fix it, fix it, fix it! D:
Please fix it. T_T
Only being able to highlight the whole chapter is really annoying. It’s hard to leave reviews when I can’t save my place. Or copy and paste character names that are hard to spell. Or copy and paste lines that have typos to let the author know. Plus, the mouse just plain not working gets me worried. I’ll probably keep thinking something’s wrong with my computer until it’s fixed.
bookfan87
10/18/2013 at 2:13 pm
That was my first inclination, too — until I checked other sites’ pages and found the copy/paste function to be working normally.
“Be the first to like this,” the post still reads after five-plus days. Is that an indication of how unpopular this code modification will be with the site’s members? 🙂
Of course now that I mention it, that will probably change.
Zweibach
10/12/2013 at 7:51 pm
So they can add copy protection and what I consider useless translation feature but still no defualt filter settings.
Asj
10/12/2013 at 7:53 pm
Okay, I think I found out how to fix the copy/paste thing, but it would be nice if you guys could fix it so I won’t have to do it for every page.
tensin
10/12/2013 at 8:38 pm
Hi,how did you do it?
Lynn Hollander
10/12/2013 at 8:39 pm
We should take note that every time we crow about how we’ve fixed the copy/paste problem, somehow or other, after a day or two, that process doesn’t work any more. What can we learn from this?
Birdymain
10/12/2013 at 8:49 pm
I doubt that, there are so many easy ways around this it’s ridiculous.
**Not claiming these as my own solution, others posted them. – Separates each fix.
– fanfictiondownloader.net Or flagfic.com Download the entire fics, so you can run it though a reading program then delete afterwards.
– Firefox users:
Type “about:support” in URL bar and click in enter. In first table, click on the “Show Folder” button to get to your Firefox profile folder. Within profile folder, go into “chrome” folder. Create new text document and name it “userContent.css”. Make sure it doesn’t add any other file extension. Open file with notepad and copy & paste the following text:
@-moz-document domain(fanfiction.net) {
.nocopy {
-moz-user-select: text ! important;
}}
– Firefox, the add-on “RightToClick” will allow you to highlight again. Just go to a page you can’t highlight and click the icon for the add-on in your status bar.
http://tinyurl.com/mhpnrjj
-Chrome on Win 8
ctrl+A – Copy Paste in a document
Right click -> Inspect element _> Search (ctrl+f) for nocopy
1. Right click -> edit text -> delete no -> press enter
2. Right click -> Delete node
-Okay, disabling CSS so copy-paste will work:
In IE – Open the Web developer tools using F12. Choose “Disable” then “CSS” – the nice pretty page is gone, but you can highlight.
In Chrome – download web developer app from the extensions store – it’s free. Click the nifty gear now showing on your toolbar, click “CSS” click “Disable all styles”
In Firefox – push “Alt” to get your menu to show up. “View” -> “Page Style” -> “No Styles”.
Asj
10/12/2013 at 8:55 pm
I didn’t say how I did it. I don’t see how they’d mess me up without me even saying what I did.
But they really shouldn’t be making it so difficult to copy stuff. It’s a glitch that’s being passed off as an update. Why even have this site online at all if they don’t want anyone to be able to use it?
Asj
10/12/2013 at 8:57 pm
Never mind. Someone went and mentioned every way they could think of. Including one of them being my way.
Birdymain
10/12/2013 at 8:57 pm
Hahaha. Don’t be naive. This was never a glitch. They deliberately put in a nocopy script.
.nocopy {
-webkit-touch-callout: none;
-webkit-user-select: none;
-khtml-user-select: none;
-moz-user-select: none;
-ms-user-select: none;
user-select: none;
}
farbjodr
10/13/2013 at 4:16 am
Notice that NOTHING in this code stops copying. This doesnt allow you to select, correct but you can still drag something in chapter, use ctrl+c and you have whole chapter ready to paste.
Asj
10/12/2013 at 8:58 pm
Oh, by the way Birdymain, you don’t have to disable the whole css in IE. Just delete a small part of the html.
Asj
10/12/2013 at 9:00 pm
I’m just annoyed by them. I just picked a word that I thought helped describe how I feel about it.
Birdymain
10/12/2013 at 9:02 pm
I did that too, got easier just to delete the whole thing. Those are just all the fixes people have posted so far thought it might do nicely right at the top.
Gustavo Alberto
10/12/2013 at 9:15 pm
por favor, arreglarlo, la verdad yo no tengo internet por lo cual tengo que copiar y pegarlo en un documento y asi guardarlo en mi celular para poder leer todos los fics, por favor
xraiderv1
10/12/2013 at 9:09 pm
the fix only affects the story in question sadly.
@FFn, please be advised, services like flagfic and the like, which many users utilize for offline reading when mobile, is currently unable to fetch the stories.
Spyridon
10/12/2013 at 9:15 pm
As for the translator section, why don’t they take it a step further and hybridize it with the beta system? That way, when you click on the language you want, the translated chapter that pops up is from someone who actually translated it and edited it so it flows correctly. That would make more sense than having a computer program do it.
I’m too sick at the moment to go back and find the post where I explained this in more detail.
Asj
10/12/2013 at 9:29 pm
Mixing translations and beta stuff does sound like an interesting idea.
Sometimes I’ll see English stories by non-English writers, and the sentences often don’t flow exactly right, but I feel like I’ll just upset writers if I leave line after line of “I think it would sound a little better this way”s. If writers specifically mentioned wanting help with that kind of thing, I would probably help with at least some fics (of course, this is different from flat out translating, which I can’t do). Though it would probably need to be mentioned somewhere on the fic’s pages for me to notice it. …I guess I’d be more interested in something more mild than beta-ing. More like casual long-review-ing or something. …a long-review-ing thing would also be nice for me often wanting people to read over a chapter before I post it to let me know how things are. Though, I guess most people hate doing that kind of thing, so I doubt there’d be many takers.
Tiffany Cuvelier
10/17/2013 at 6:54 am
No, you’re right. I’m looking for someone to help me with translating one of my own stories from French to English but no nobody would answer me… To have such a feature could be really helpful.
fems
10/13/2013 at 6:06 am
Uh, that sounds like a really bad idea. I don’t know if you are simply a reader or also a writer, but if you get someone else to translate your story in a foreign language you don’t speak then how could you ever tell whether the quality is up to your standards? Have you ever looked at some of the beta profiles? Too many of them make so many spelling/grammar mistakes on them all the while claiming spelling/grammar is their strong point. Would you really want someone like that to translate your story?
Personally, I don’t want anyone to write a translation of my stories, even if I do speak the language to a degree and would be able to check the quality of it myself. If I wanted my stories in different languages then I would write and offer them in different languages myself. And sure, I guess it’s nice if someone asks you whether they can translate your story into their native language because they enjoyed it so much, but they would still be the one to take/get all the credit even though all they did was translate it: as the original author you have no way to communicate with the reviewers except to maybe PM everyone, but if they speak a different language to begin with then communication would probably be difficult to say the least. So really, aside from giving non-English-speaking (or whichever language you write in) people the opportunity to read your story of questionable quality in their native language, what’s the benefit? Most of the people requesting/offering to translate an author’s story are doing so for a minor group of people and you don’t even know if that group is interested in the premise of the story to begin with.
Also, as a non-native speaker I’ve read several translated books by reputable publishers that are either littered with mistakes or fail to capture elements of the story down to not-so-good to downright bad translations. In many cases I have to reread some odd sentences and then upon translating them in my head to the original language I finally understand what they meant to begin with. Not to mention that sometimes entire scenes or even characters just lose something in translation because the language used doesn’t convey the same excitement/ominous tone.
Asj
10/13/2013 at 9:55 am
I think the issue is with ff.net doing automatic translations, which would be even worse than bad betas.
Plus, if people could do the translations that ff.net will show, then I would think that readers could have their say about when something sounds odd. Having several people agree with a translation would mean it’s a good translation.
fems
10/13/2013 at 11:15 am
Sorry, but I’m going to have to disagree here. Have you ever taken a look at some of the reviews stories on FFnet get? They range from great to awesome and epic when it’s really just a load of crap (technically speaking, the plot could be nice) and I’ve seen people tell authors they’re “great writers” or that a story is “well written” when there are more spelling/grammar mistakes than there are paragraphs in the story.
Just because someone who’s illiterate thinks something is well written doesn’t mean it’s actually well written and I’m sure there will be far too many people who would praise a translation even when it’s crap.
yemi hikari
10/13/2013 at 2:53 pm
I’ve seen people say that a writer was a good writer despite the fact the writing has grammatical and syntax issues, people being both the writer and the fans of the writer. So no.
Asj
10/13/2013 at 4:54 pm
Well, usually when I say good things about a story, it’s not about how many typos they have, but about the writing itself, and how well it draws me in and/or paints a picture. But when I see a few typos or oddly worded sentences, I’ll usually mention them, and if it’s someone who I know isn’t natively English, I might try to explain why it sounds off. (but if it sounds like a 12-year-old kid who has typo after typo and a lot of iffy sentences, and maybe has the story move too quickly, I probably won’t mention (much of) that type of thing in a review because it feels like they’re doing the best they can, and they would probably read my ‘helping’ comments as ‘I think you’re a horrible writer’)
It would be bad to tell a person learning English that they sound horrible, and people saying they write English well will usually mean ‘for you not being a native speaker’ or ‘for you to be new at it’. But I would think that someone saying they want to know would get some more advanced information. Of course, there’s so many levels a person might be on, that if they’re really bad at writing or at a new language, it would probably be best just to mention the really important things, and then to mention small issues after they get better.
But for actual story translations, people who don’t know the language shouldn’t be trying to translate. At least not unless the original author is okay with someone practicing using their story. I guess a big issue with that is with whether or not people would be truthful. But I would think that a true native speaker could tell the original author whether or not the translator has done an okay job.
fems
10/13/2013 at 5:58 pm
Asj, you’re missing the point: even a “simple typo” can give a word an entirely different meaning, in all kinds of languages. For example, in English though, through, thought, through all mean something very different and in my native language there are two verbs very alike in spelling (difference is ‘r’ vs ‘rr’) but the definitions are very different (cremate vs surprise). So, spelling is very important, especially when you’re translating but if everyone just glosses over that because they don’t think a few typos (or simple ignorance) are a problem then they’ll say the story/translation is very good! But in reality it really isn’t!
Also, if you don’t correct someone’s consistent incorrect spelling then they’ll never learn, so it would be much better to tell someone new at writing (in their native or a different language) what they’re doing wrong and to pay more attention to spelling/grammar than just think “oh, but they’re just a kid/foreigner, so it’s all good”.
No wonder there are so many awful spellers on FFnet if attitudes like yours are common.
Asj
10/14/2013 at 12:00 am
The ‘though’ vs ‘through’ kind of typo is usually really easy to determine based on context – like words that are spelled the same but mean different things (but sometimes I do hit a typo or badly placed/missing comma and I won’t realize there’s something wrong for half a sentence or longer, then have to backtrack to figure out why everything turned to gibberish). But, for people who aren’t proficient in the language they’re reading, I agree that a typo could be a big issue. Sometimes when I try using an online translator to figure out what someone’s telling me, I’ll get nothing for a word, and I often wonder if it’s because they made a simple typo (then I feel I sound stupid asking them what it means. ^_^” ). For a chapter, one missing word (or wrong word) probably won’t make much of a difference for me, but for something short, it can definitely change the whole meaning (and yes, a lot of typos would make it more difficult).
well, it’s not so much that I’d ignore it altogether as much as… Okay, there’s this one fic that I think is written quite well actually, and I find it pretty interesting, but they always have a lot of typos in every chapter they upload. Really simple, obvious ones. They’re a good author, but I don’t know what’s up with their typing. I’ve mentioned about typos several times, but I can’t mention all of them (I would by PM if they would say they want to know). I might mention three or four before ignoring the rest, and/or tell them there’s a lot of typos but they should be able to find them if they read over the chapter (but I would still mention the ones that mess with my reading). As far as I know, that author hasn’t fixed any past typos, and it doesn’t look like they’re looking over their chapters any more than before. But it’s pointless to keep saying the same thing to them. (strangely enough, I got a response from them not too long ago on one of my reviews saying they really enjoy my reviews… don’t really understand that. And, they said nothing about me mentioning them having a ton of typos.) There’s also some authors who never respond to my reviews, and when that happens, I have no idea if they appreciated me pointing out typos or not.
When it’s only typos, I think I would usually mention at least a few, and especially ones that hurt the reading for me, but I would stop pointing out little ones if they keep coming or if the author never responds. But when it’s the writing itself that I think could be better, I really can’t tell every author how I think their story should be written. I’ve even had an author get upset with me, when they told me that they were planning on revising a fic, because I pointed out some things that I thought would help with the revision (things that I would want someone to tell me about my fics). It made them feel like they weren’t a good enough writer and like I was only saying negative things about their story.
I usually feel like the more someone can say about a fic of mine, the better, but there were some things that people had said in reviews on my first fic that I didn’t like much. People would say I didn’t have enough description, or mention some other things, and I just couldn’t grasp those things at that time (I’m not sure I can grasp some of that now, either, but I think I’ve figured out a little more about description). It’s kind of important to know where a writer is and what kind of advice to give them.
…ah, but, I’m not sure I’m getting across what I mean, and I’m not sure if either of us can get across that we’re right. I think the answer’s probably somewhere in-between, or else there’s no real ‘right way’ and it just depends. Like different teachers using different teaching methods. I probably try to be overly nice in some instances because I’ve had too many times where people have interpreted me wrongly and I’ve had more than one person blow up at me about things. I mostly notice things that feel off in a chapter, and when I read something completely right, I might not find anything to say in a review. But if I were to try sharing everything I know of to make any and every fic the best it could be, I would probably need to have a lot of positive encouragement to go along with consistent insistence that they use punctuation correctly, and everything else (and I’m just not good enough to remember to do that). And the author does need to want to improve, or else pointing out things would just have them ignoring my reviews altogether or yelling at me.
(I tried getting a beta reader for a fic of mine once, and that went quite badly. They would send me a ‘corrected’ copy of my story with some things changed. I didn’t really like them systematically changing things when I had wanted to say to something else, and they didn’t like me asking them why they thought I should change this or that, what English rule I had broken. I think they also disliked that I didn’t agree with all their changes, and I felt pretty bad about feeling as though I had to do everything they said because I was the one who had asked them to beta for me. They ended up getting upset with me asking questions and had quit. They were just too harsh for me, and they couldn’t take me trying to figure out what they meant. I just don’t care as much about ‘proper English’ as I do about the meaning behind things. Passive voice, sentence fragments, and run-on sentences can all give certain feelings to writing, and punctuation can be important for how something is read. It’s how a reader feels while reading a chapter of mine, that I especially want to know, and I need to understand changes when a correction changes the meaning. So if someone points out typos to me, …well, I would like that. But I would especially like it if someone would give me a walk-through on what they think while reading each line. If what they say doesn’t agree with what I want, then I know something’s wrong with it. Oh, also, I don’t think I can learn something unless I find out why it should be the way it should. Like, I had known that there was a word its and a word it’s, but I didn’t know which was which, and would use it’s for both of them for years (I would think about the word before writing it, but every time I thought ‘is it a contraction? Is it showing possession?’ I would end up with an ‘ in it. Eventually, I realized there was no such thing as ‘its’). But when I was in eighth grade, I saw something that said that pronouns (like his, her, and its) don’t have the apostrophe for possession. It made sense after that. Though, I still accidentally say it’s almost every single time out of habit, even though it’s been so many years later. …I would probably appreciate it if someone mentioned that typo to me in a fic, but I would probably get a bit annoyed if they brought it up over and over, because I know the rule, I just might forget to check for the typo.)
fems
10/14/2013 at 3:50 am
Asj, I know a story plot/idea can be good but if it’s not well written (which means the whole package) then the writing itself can’t be classed as being good or excellent. I’m not saying you have to point out every typo in your reviews or stop telling someone how much you enjoyed their story (even if it has a bunch of typos) but I don’t think someone can realistically say a story and especially a translation is well done if there are spelling/grammar/punctuation or other technical issues with it. It’s much the same as a story being written perfectly qua spelling/grammar/punctuation/etc but not conveying or eliciting any emotions or having a clever/intriguing plot: as a whole it’s not a good story.
So, for someone to translate another person’s work, in particular if the original author doesn’t speak the translated language, would require them to do so perfectly (like a paid professional), otherwise it would reflect badly on the original author. That’s why I’m against other people on FFnet translating my work and even more so if it could be done by just anyone without asking permission from the original author just for there to be a translated version of the work.
As for your issues, I would suggest finding a proper beta. A good one doesn’t change anything in the story without permission from the author and you two should agree on what they’re supposed to beta and how before you actually get started. In my experience, it works best if you approach someone whose work you like/admire and with whom you already get along (building a rapport via reviewing/PMing for example), rather than picking someone from the beta profiles. Being on the same wavelength is as important as their writing qualities, because if you can’t agree on something or understand what the other wants/means then it is a waste of time for both of you.
Kyu
10/17/2013 at 4:32 pm
(I am aware that the above discussion is primarily about the proposed translations, but a number of things were said that managed to peak my interest, and I could not refrain from throwing in my two cent’s worth. That said, the following is as much me taking a chance to vent my spleen as it is a continuation of any debate that may or may not have been settled.)
There is much truth in your words, fems. The simple fact is that standards in writing are plummeting rather dramatically, which is easily evidenced by the sheer number of outrageously positive reviews that can be found on even the most pathetic of story attempts. The readers are just as much to blame as the authors, and it seems a vast section of the ‘fictionbase’ has forgotten how to give and take constructive criticism. I do not know when exactly it became ‘mean’ and ‘cruel’ to properly critique someone’s work, but it was likely around the same time that authors began to take that same criticism as a personal insult. Reviewers are too afraid of hurting someone’s feelings to be at all useful, and authors are too touchy concerning their own imperfections to allow what little criticism they do receive to be of use.
Another factor is the overwhelming prevalence of sub-par beta work, which is only worsened by the average untried author’s inability to accept assistance from a second party. An author who refuses to confront their own failings will naturally prefer a less competent beta over one who will dutifully dissect their every sentence for errors and inconsistencies. Even more authors seem to be foregoing the second opinion entirely, brazenly embarking upon the treacherous road of self-editing. Critiquing your own work can be extremely difficult, even (perhaps especially) for published authors, requiring a great deal of self-discipline and a certain level of professional detachment that most people simply do not possess. This, coupled with the fact that most authors simply have no idea what to look for in (or reasonably expect from) a beta, paints a rather grim picture of the current state of the fanfiction world.
My theory is that this degeneration stems mainly from a widespread inability to comfortably walk in the shoes of someone on the other side of the equation. It is no coincidence that better authors tend to make better reviewers; a good author knows what they would want to hear from a reader, were it their story being put on display, which makes them much more likely to take the time and effort to leave a helpful comment or three. Of course, when the author is (almost inevitably) outright determined to take every hint and nudge as an assault on their person, such helpful criticisms are often little more effective than the very errors they sought to address.
I suppose what I am attempting to get at, in my roundabout way, is the idea that the arts of writing, reading, and reviewing are intrinsically linked. That is to say, ‘mastering’ one piece of the fanfiction triforce should, by my understanding, increase one’s aptitude in dealing with the other two. Put yet another way, it is my belief that someone who has taken the time to learn how to properly read and then review good fanfiction will be much more successful than they would have been otherwise, should they then make an attempt at authorship. Not to say that reading and critiquing alone could make one a master overnight; if only it were that simple! The untried but well-read author-to-be does not set virgin fingers to keyboard and end up with Paradise Lost, but perhaps neither does he give birth to a tale to rival the infamous My Immortal.
I myself have been reading fanfiction steadily for the last eight years, and as such I have witnessed this gradual decline first-hand. In that time I have thrice tried my hand at authorship and found it to be, though a rewarding experience, ultimately not for me. The careful consideration that goes into every paragraph is a thing in which I rejoice and excel, but my muse is fleeting and inconsistent. As I saw little point in peppering a fandom’s annals with the husks of abandoned fictions, I instead turned my attention to the beta scene, where I sheltered for a time. The influx of green authors with big dreams and bigger egos has turned that place into a shadow of what it once was, and I have long since abandoned it, deciding to offer my services only where my interests were peaked and my standards met.
In rereading this, I am rather astonished at how old and (dare I say) crotchety I sound. But then, is it not the prerogative of previous generations to bemoan the actions of those who follow? Still, I had not intended for this to become so out of hand. Normally I would blame the length and tedium of my average work day, but perhaps this was more the result of my lingering disquiet about some of the changes being made…
fems
10/18/2013 at 11:29 am
@Kyu
I agree with a lot of the things you said, even though I’ve only been around FFnet for about four years. It’s a shame you stopped being a beta: there are so many unqualified people listed as betas and/or many authors mentioning/thanking 1-4 betas for helping them improve their story although you wouldn’t be able to tell by actually looking at the story. Good betas are hard to come by from what I’ve heard and you abandoning it because immature authors didn’t appreciate your efforts is just sad.
mab
10/12/2013 at 9:23 pm
If I can’t copy and paste a fic into a word document to save on my computer, I’m not sure I want to keep reading stories on fanfiction.net. Stories can disappear in the ether for whatever reason and it’s nice to have a copy of the story.
If people want to copy a story and claim it as their own, they will find a way. In the meantime, it is a very big nuisance for everyone else.
Asj
10/12/2013 at 9:31 pm
you can’t just save the pages? I’ve done that for some fics a few years ago when I had limited internet access and needed to read them offline.
mab
10/13/2013 at 12:12 am
I can do that, but so far I can’t get it to save correctly. However, the big thing is, I also have a habit of copying text as I’m reading with my mouse and then releasing the mouse and doing it again. Just random text. It’s a nervous habit and it’s driving me crazy not to be able to do it. That alone may drive me away.
Tlyna
10/13/2013 at 11:45 am
When you click to save the page, save it to your desktop in html only then if you have Microsoft Office right then go to the saved copy and right click and open it in Word doc. You can then highlight and delete everything but what you want to save. Annoying but the way they have things now doesn’t give much in the way of options. I then use Word to change the size and type of font to something I find comfortable to read. If it is a series of stories I put it in book format with an index to make them easy to find.
mab
10/12/2013 at 9:27 pm
Actually, I just found a way to copy the text. It would have to be reformatted, but that isn’t hard. The no copy feature is just annoying.
CodyGotKilld
10/12/2013 at 11:12 pm
Would really like to see ff.net unblock the filter for flagfic.
Jordanna
10/13/2013 at 8:35 pm
It just worked for me when I checked it on two different browsers. (Actually, I haven’t encountered a problem with it yet.) It may have to do with how much traffic Flagfic is getting at the time you try to use it.
CodyGotKilld
10/13/2013 at 8:57 pm
It’s not fetching the latest chapter though.
William Díaz
10/12/2013 at 11:16 pm
¿cuando arreglan el copy/ paste?
Mechconstrictor
10/12/2013 at 11:25 pm
I’m not happy with this new copy protection. I don’t care if people copy mine. They are more than welcome to. I copy stories to read offline and if this is the direction this site is going, I’m not sure how much of a future it will have. You state that in a future update, us authors can cut it off for our stories. How many authors actually use the account options other than uploading or editing a story and chapter.
Mr Happy
10/13/2013 at 12:19 am
I like that they give authors a choice. We get so little options around here. Everything seems to cater to the readers. If an author doesn’t want it enable, then they disable it. Simple as pie. I, and most writers I know, know how to us their account options. It’s even the first page we see when we log in.
I think fanfiction.net can pretty much do whatever they want and still have a comfortable future. To be honest, the competition out there is lacking.
Mr Happy
10/13/2013 at 12:14 am
For those people who copy stories & paste them into a Word document to read later… do you return to the story to leave a review once you’re done? Or do you just forget all about it?
Birdymain
10/13/2013 at 12:38 am
When I was doing the offline thing. Usually saved the webpage and reviewed after I got internet again.
Mr Happy
10/13/2013 at 2:06 am
That’s a cool way to do it. Thanks! I used to save stories off of Livejournal in a document, but the user-links always crashed the program for me. Never had to save a story from ffnet though. I thought maybe pasting the whole story (including that summary box with the author’s name) might crash the program as well. I would hate retyping in the story’s information because it would be just my luck not to find it again! 🙂
yemi hikari
10/13/2013 at 1:29 am
Does it honestly matter? I’m someone who will review almost every story I read and I don’t save copies of the story, but I also understand that not everyone likes reviewing the stories they read whether they read them on site or not. In the long run it is the persons own prerogative whether they review a story or not and whether they review or not will depend on their reviewing preferences. Either way the writer still gets the hits.
Mr Happy
10/13/2013 at 1:57 am
I didn’t mean to start an argument. I was just curious. I’ve never had to save a story before. I imagine I wouldn’t come back unless it really made an impression on me. If I were to save a story because my internet was slow, then it would probably be difficult to sign back in to review. But extra kudos to those who do! They must be really awesome people! 🙂 I always think my input means nothing, but I’m sure it could make someone’s day. That’s why I always leave a review when I finish a story. But of course, it’s easy for me because I never read it from a saved document. When I’m done with a story, the review box is right there so everything is still fresh in my mind.
I’m sorry you felt as though I was starting a fight. Maybe you shouldn’t respond to a question if you don’t plan on answering. Not everything is a hostile argument. My question was actually targeted towards those who save stories. The last time I saved a story was when I needed a pdf to read on my ipod. I think I used that flagfic site. It was a favorite story of mine, so I had already reviewed it.I just want other people’s opinions because it seems like a lot of back and forth. See, I normally read oneshots, so I guess people who follow long chapter stories are used to it anyways.
I know a lot of writers don’t care as much about hits as they do for favs/followers/reviews. I guess it functions into the search filters??? I don’t know. I know I myself don’t look at hits. That could just mean someone clicked on it an ran away screaming! Lol! A review is the only way I can interact with an author and basically tell them how much i enjoyed their story. Feedback is precious.
Have a nice day. And stay calm! 🙂
yemi hikari
10/13/2013 at 2:46 pm
I didn’t think you were trying to start a fight. Please understand though that the way people choose is going to be different for each person and pretty much anything goes except for flaming and copy/pasta spam.
Tlyna
10/13/2013 at 11:38 am
I keep stories I like in Word doc and try to review those I found extra good. I tend only to review completed stories though as too many times stories I’ve really loved have been abandoned by the writer so now I save them as they are worked on and only read them when complete.
Asj
10/13/2013 at 5:00 pm
when I had limited internet access, I would save the webpages, and review while reading them by using an MS Works document, then submit them for the chapters when I get online again.
That might’ve been part of why I will sometimes review in a Works document now, despite being able to review on-site (but after they changed the review box to only be at the very bottom, it’s a little harder to review on-site – especially if I can’t copy and find text to go back to my place now).
BiP
10/24/2013 at 4:03 pm
I return to the story to leave a review the next day (or as soon as possible) because the writer has done a great job and he deserves thankfulness.
Zuul
10/13/2013 at 1:59 am
“Basic copy protection of story content within modern browsers. Currently it is enabled for all but authors will be able to disable/enable this feature in a coming update.”
Just wanted to add my own complaints about this change. The “nocopy” addition does little to actually prevent plagiarism, while at the same time causing issues and annoyances for readers.
I highlight text in the story to mark my spot when I change tabs, so that I can come back and know where I am in a chapter. In addition, I will also highlight text and copy and paste it when leaving a review if I notice a continuity or other kind of error.
Other issues I’ve seen brought up in a forum thread are that people copy and paste text into a translator in order to be able to read it in other languages, or into a program that is able to “read” the story aloud to them through speakers for the visually impaired.
Just allow us to copy the text. Not allowing it is an ineffective measure to disallow plagiarism, while at the same time, it makes reading and commenting on fanfiction more difficult.
Treey
10/13/2013 at 3:41 am
Everyone automatically assumes that the disabling the copy & paste function is to deter plagiarism.
But maybe it’s not. Maybe they want you to be self-reliant on the site and not use any other source to save, or translate, or to mark where you left off.
I, too, find it an inconvenience, but I could live without it. It’s really not that big of a deal. There are plenty of ways around it. Just look at all the posts above.
Rogue Mudblood (@RogueMudblood)
10/13/2013 at 11:19 am
Treey – please read the last blog post and all the complaints about how this affects the disabled users of the site (those who are blind, for one) using reading software before you make the broad statement of it “not being a big deal.” I assure you that their ability to read stories is a very “big deal” to them.
hpstar202
10/13/2013 at 2:42 pm
it is a big deal I am dyslexic and this nocopy blocks my reading software from working as well as quite a few other ones. yes the program he mentioned works but the quality of that program is not that grate. so that leaves people like me with reading problems and the blind with no way to enjoy the stories.
yemi hikari
10/13/2013 at 2:44 pm
How can you say that they don’t want people to use any other source to translate the work when they’re using Googles ap to translate things? They’re also not providing a way to mark your place. It’s there to deter plagiarism hands down but hands down it doesn’t work.
bookfan87
10/18/2013 at 5:18 am
I couldn’t agree more with Zuul’s observations re the “copy protection” feature. I have never read, much less posted on this blog before; but when my mouse selectively stopped working on the site, I began searching for answers (they were a bit hard to find, by the way). While I have rarely copied a story for offline reading, I will often quote a particular passage of text within my story reviews, whether it was emotionally moving, well or uniquely-phrased, or in order to convey general grammatical suggestions for improvement to the writer; so this new “feature” is a very disappointing addition.
Although a few respondents mentioned some workarounds, they seem awkward to implement; plus I am not versed in css or other such technical computer jargon enough to be able to use them. At any rate, I’d imagine that would defeat the purpose of the code changes in the first place. If someone is really determined to plagiarize a story, they could just take screenshots or manually type up a copy, use search/replace to make any changes and then re-upload it to the site. I hope this decision will be reconsidered.
Hitto
10/13/2013 at 4:30 am
At first I thought the translation was for the website, not the stories, and I was pretty happy with it because it was about time the terms and everything else get a translation into other languages, you know, for kids who don’t speak English. And then I realise it was a Google translation of the stories.
It can help, sure, but it’s not a good translation.
About the nocopy, everything has already been told. It is not a good idea. If you want to copy a story and use it as yours, you’ll always find a way to do it. This is just yet an other feature that won’t help reading.
yemi hikari
10/13/2013 at 2:38 pm
What the site admins need to do is have an easy link to this page that is assessable both inside and outside the accounts.
http://www.fanfiction.net/guidelines/
Hitto
10/13/2013 at 3:13 pm
I’d point there is fan initiatives like http://ffnetmodedemploi.free.fr that translates terms and explain how FFnet works to people who don’t read/understand English.
Luna
10/13/2013 at 4:39 am
I wish they’d allow the copy thing again. Sometimes I’m doing things and I highlight parts of the sentence to keep track of where I was reading. It’s annoying now that I can’t do that. If you’re going to take that away, perhaps put something that can let me put a bookmark down while I’m reading..
Kal
10/13/2013 at 7:07 am
I agree with everyone else. I wish they’d allow the copy feature again. As others have said, if people want to plagorise others, they’ll find a way regardless. My internet access at the moment is very infrequent so I save any interesting stories I come across in Wordpad for reading later and I leave reviews for any that I particularly like when I next go online.
Random
10/13/2013 at 11:36 am
Seriously, why putting a useless thing like the translation feature and making us unable to do something as basic as highlighting the text of a story? It makes no sense, all it managed to do is annoy a lot of users.
Please, PLEASE, if you value our opinion even just a little bit, put it back like it was before.
annoyed reader
10/13/2013 at 12:39 pm
Since I can’t copy lines from fics into my reviews I guess I’m not going to write reviews anymore. It destroys the site for me as a reader.
Winterbornbree
10/13/2013 at 1:12 pm
Admins, please put the highlighting option back on the site.
It’s just very useless and gives other writers false security. It also makes it a burden for the honest users who use the feature usually when quoting in a review, etc. Smart plagiarists will easily find another way around the block, so all it’s really doing is punishing the others.
Laela Ravana
10/13/2013 at 1:19 pm
While im not plagiarist i chose to override that style as this doesnt improve site in any way.
I suppose adding this block for educational purposes for 48h would have been interesting but this has no use if it stays longer. This “nocopy” just makes plagiarists job easier as they dont need to select before copying. It ONLY blocks selecting parts of text WHILE ALLOWING copying ALL
Darketta
10/13/2013 at 2:19 pm
I get where they are coming from about why they put the “no copy” in but it does make it difficult for those of us who just used it honestly w/out any intention of stealing someone’s work.
When one author’s leave a recommended story by another author in their story disclaimer because of not only the story line that they are using (due to the idea coming from somewhere) but also if they r continuing a story from another author’s story I would copy/paste that title/author to get an idea of where it came from (specially if I haven’t read it yet myself). Not every author posts the link in their profile on FFN to click on.
Also when I’m reading a story sometimes I will forget what a character looks like and copy/paste the name in Google then go to the images to see. It also helped w/ pairing to have an image of what it would look like. I also did that for words I don’t recognize or even when I find x-over’s for story’s where I have never heard of the second part existing. I have been able to watch/read a lot of good anime/movies/books that I would never have known about if I hadn’t done that.
Unless the author’s put in the time/effort to have it available in PDF file types or others for people to read on other devices (which some do n post in their FFN profile) everyone else used the copy/paste and did the work to make that happen for themselves.
Mechconstrictor
10/13/2013 at 4:10 pm
While I’m still not happy with the copy/paste function being stopped, I have found at least two ways around it. One method requires me using another web browser than my preferred one but I’ll use if for reading FF.net only if that is what it takes. I’m still hoping that the site is restored to how it used to be. It makes no sense whatsoever in doing this.
AccioEye
10/13/2013 at 6:02 pm
This is nice and everything, but if it was meant to avoid plagiarism, then it was a nice try while being a complete miss. Whatever you put on the internet should be considered at risk. Sure it stinks, but measures like this will always be circumvented. The real pain is for people that use readers or addons like Chrome’s SpeakIt to listen to stories either because of necessity or because it’s convenient for multi-tasking. Looks like my fanfiction addiction just might have been force-fed a cure.
Anne
10/14/2013 at 12:26 am
Mine too. I hate not being able to follow along with highlighting as I read, and I physically have a really difficult time reading things online unless I’m following along. Maybe this change will make me more productive.
Saguenay
10/13/2013 at 7:14 pm
About the language feature. Fun to have for what FanFiction offers but PLEASE don’t translate the titles of the story I’m following in English.
It’s ridiculous.
bienfait
10/13/2013 at 9:00 pm
*snickers* Check out what it does to some user names – it’s hilarious!
I don’t think the admins have any control over what it does and doesn’t translate – they’re using the Google translator, which just translates the whole page (except for odd words which it skips over, apparently because it’s just too hard…)
Anne
10/14/2013 at 12:25 am
I have learning disabilities, and I have always liked reading fanfic on this site. But I can’t follow along if I can’t highlight my place! It’s so incredibly frustrating and I keep getting lost in the fic. I kind of want to jump ship and take my fics with me, to be honest.
Saguenay
10/14/2013 at 7:01 am
You need to download Readability. This program will insert an icon on your toolbar, pressing it will convert the fanfiction chapter into a page you can highlight. I use it because a have a text-to-speech reader and I have to highlight the text I want to be read.
Trudes193
10/14/2013 at 7:40 am
Thank you for the recommendation, I use the same type of program too and this really helps. The only thing is the mucking about getting to the page you bookmark, but it’s not that bad. I just wish the nocopy was turned off so that things are much easier. Once again Thank you.
Miranda
10/14/2013 at 1:48 am
The copy protection is super annoying. I’m the type that hi lights small bits at a time while reading to help with eye strain and keep myself focused. Your site literally gives me a headache now. I understand the purpose, but it is really hard to read now. Couldn’t you just let individual authors turn it on at their own preference and default to not have it on instead? I think a lot more stories would be readable that way. Authors probably won’t be back to change the setting on finished stories if you default as you do currently otherwise. Really. It HURTS!
nick hwang
10/14/2013 at 6:21 am
why can’t copy the story
Twinnie
10/14/2013 at 4:13 pm
Can’t help it, I need to ask: do Google pay you to put that translating horror on your site? Because, I’m willing to accept more adds, if it means not having to allow Google cookies to read fanfics comfortably.
Honestly, it’s driving me crazy. It’s a perfectly useless feature, which unfortunately doubles as a nuisance. Please, *please*, take it off.
Annie
10/18/2013 at 5:43 pm
I could tell you, like many other users have done before me, about my low vision problems that require me to highlight text for reading. I won’t because I’m in agreement with everything that’s been said on the matter.
Instead. Let me tell you, I love this website. I’m always singing its praises. That one update that gave us the ability to select the story font and story background was excellent, because it gave us control over the way we could display the page. Such control was unnecessary, but it was very much appreciated all the same for the ease of reading it brought.
This new anti-c/p feature, however, what does it do?
It strips us of our right to use the Internet in a normal way. This is a problem. This is a problem because certainly you have no right to deprive us of a normal Internet experience; or rather, yes, you have the objective ~right~ to do as you want on your site, but the users also have a right not to be betrayed in their legitimate expectations, and this right of yours should respect ours because in the end *we* are the ones using your site.
What’s more, this is kind of a sudden thing, don’t you think? I sure haven’t seen a warning on the site’s main page saying “hey, from tomorrow on there’s no c/p”. I’m part of a yahoo group about fanfics and suddenly we got lots of members flailing about because of this weird update that nobody had any reason to see coming.
Man is a creature of habit. We have ingrained anchor points in our minds that tell us “this is how the page will behave if I do this”, or “this is what I should to to obtain X effect”. When you take away the basis for those anchor points, the mind panics.
I’m kind of panicking right now. My mouse doesn’t work the way I *need* it to work: the normal mouse way. This is severely distressing. It may not look like so because I’m not yelling in all caps, but please understand that I am very, very upset with this new feature, and not only as a user with reduced vision.
—
On another note, I don’t know what you were smoking when you added that google translate button, but boyyyy were you flying high or something. Isn’t “do NOT use automated translators for writing” the first thing kids learn in school those days?!
Also, I’m morally opposed to 1) my stories being translated in a different language than the one intended at the time of writing and; 2) my stories being submitted to the whimsical lyricism of a google robot translator.
Ffnet, you are a strong and independent website. You don’t need google. I have disabled AdBlocks on your website out of respect for you despite being fundamentally against the Google supremacy on advertising. Please keep the great actors out of this site. There are dozens or other free translation services available (but this is a bad idea, please take off the translating thing altogether).
Murgatroyd
10/18/2013 at 10:20 pm
Copy protection: HORRIBLE change.
Murgatroyd
10/18/2013 at 10:30 pm
By the way, you seem to have somehow broken “find” in Safari. I suspect it’s related to the copy protection.
Lars
10/21/2013 at 6:31 pm
One question: How do I permanently remove that horrible translation nuisance? It’s not only pointless – it’s utterly idiotic!
AccioEye
10/22/2013 at 10:30 pm
So now ebook services like FLAGFic are blocked. What the heck? In two moves you are ruining my user experience with the site. Is it ad revenue? Well, the fact that I had multiple avenues of access while away from a reliable internet connection (using ebook readers like iBooks and copying the story down to a text file) is what made this site more appealing than others. Services like FLAGFic gave links back to the story, and recognized full rights belonging to the source. If I did a copy to a text file, then you still got the page hits and ad revenue. Stating that the highlight / copy protection is for anti-plagiarism reasons is absolutely ridiculous as there are already many ways around that. If ebook services are hurting your ad revenue, then ask for donations like Wikipedia or partner with FLAGFic for a paid service. Ask FLAGFic to run the user through one of your sponsor pages before the ebook download page was presented. (They generate the ebook file and send it to a FF dot net shell for user consumption with a larger ad presented on the page.) Provide your own free ebook reader with ad space or an ad-free paid app in the iTunes and Google Play stores. Do something other than repeatedly remove features under the guise of a user enhancement.
Eric Erickson
10/23/2013 at 5:58 pm
How about having authors opt in to copy protection rather than having it be the default? Some authors may not care or may not even be around any more. I use FLAG for my Kindle because it is easier on my eyes. I just can’t keep reading online. There must be many more who prefer reading offline.
texan-muggle
10/24/2013 at 6:47 am
I’m going to chime in here as well. The new copy/paste rule is an utter failure. It does absolutely nothing to prevent copying, as there are numerous ways for me to copy text without downloading an add-on.
The ONLY thing the copy/paste “protection” does is prevent me from easily pasting text into the review window when I am making a review while in Firefox. And that is *all* it does.
Add to that the annoying “story content” block that shows up any time my mouse is not in the slider bar and your failure is complete.
This is NOT a “user enhancement” in any way, shape or form. Period.
BiP
10/24/2013 at 3:51 pm
Please, the ‘anti-copying’ system is horrible.
I don’t know english, I use an online translator (and this is terrible, I swear), I haven’t smart phones, tablet and/or e-reader with 3G included.
I have the computer with internet in the office and I can’t read the stories at work, the lunch break isn’t long.
With the ‘anti-copying’ I can not read the stories.