March Meta Matters Challenge, Check-in 2

[yourlibrarian]

Hello everyone! It's check-in time to see how we're all getting along with our meta importing.

Comment below with any of the following:

1) How do you motivate yourself when you're facing something daunting or overwhelming?

2) How many works have you identified for future transfers, or have you now moved to AO3?

3) Are you having any problems moving your meta?

Remember, this account accepts anonymous comments, so if you don't have a Dreamwidth account we still want to hear from you and have you take part.

Also, if you've got tips you've developed during this process, do share them with the group! And if you can help someone out with a problem they're having, share a solution.

Comments

[thenewbuzwuzz]

2)
I've made my dedicated nonfic pseud and moved two posts! I have received kudoses!

I have also done some soul-searching and peering at the AO3 FAQ and decided that a rec/review of one single fic probably isn't the kind of nonfiction that should be an AO3 work, even though it's long and I originally wrote it as a standalone post. But at least it's in my Dreamwidth meta tag, which is a thing I have since last month. *pats meta tag*

AND I'm wondering about maybe crossposting one or more of the "LiveJournal for Scoobies" tutorials. Idk. Maybe if I have nothing better to do. Thing is they're image-heavy, and I hate embedding images on AO3. They keep breaking. Also, I'm not sure if it's fannish enough, and some of the content might be considered ephemeral, and ugh.

Ooh! And! One of the podcast hosts answered, so I shall go ahead (at some point) with transcribing that interview about Buffy poetry.

3)
So, not having problems with anything I'm currently doing, but also idk how to embed an image on AO3 and have it not randomly disappear and reappear whenever it likes.

Also, I'm sure I'll have a lot of problems as soon as I attempt to transcribe a longer text from audio :D, but that ought to work out somehow, given enough time.

[yourlibrarian]

Yay for a successful beginning. And the start of kudos!

But at least it's in my Dreamwidth meta tag, which is a thing I have since last month. *pats meta tag*

Findability of any kind is a step forward!

Well AO3 does explicitly include tutorials as a form of accepted meta/nonfiction. And great news about the podcast.

I can only recall once embedding images at AO3, and all the images still seem to be there: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6749461

(Granted, I've barely looked at the post in the last 4 years but I can only assume the images have been stable)

[thenewbuzwuzz]

"Well AO3 does explicitly include tutorials as a form of accepted meta/nonfiction."
Yeah, "tutorials for creating fanworks". "And many other things." :D

(Mine aren't for creating fanworks, but then, the AO3 TOS FAQ doesn't specifically exclude them either.)

[alexseanchai]

<img src="https://IMAGE URL.png" style="max-width:100;height:auto;" alt="IMAGE DESCRIPTION HERE" />

It can be .jpg or .gif or whatever the actual extension is, but you do need the extension, and you do need the alt text—let me illustrate:









The style part, which I'm only bothering with here on the screenshot of this comment in progress, is a trick to make sure large images don't try to be bigger than the mobile device some folks may be viewing on. La_Temperanza also has a CSS way to do that better and an HTML and a CSS way to wrap text around images for use on AO3; both CSS tricks involve making AO3 work skins.

Oh, and Discord really really hates being image hosting for anyone who isn't viewing the image through Discord or direct at the URL; an increasingly common fail mode I'm noticing is the image source is cdn.discordapp.com and the image itself works fine if you go direct to its URL. Tumblr works great, though; so does Imgur.

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Thank you very much! <3 I've been having the Discord problem you describe, except with Dreamwidth and Nickpic. I'll try Imgur! :)

[alexseanchai]

You can embed images you've hosted on Dreamwidth in your own journal, in other journals, in communities, in comments, and on other Livejournal and Livejournal-based sites like InsaneJournal, but Dreamwidth does not allow images to be embedded on other non LJ-related sites. Discord probably has a similar policy (though since they don't seem to have the hosting space issue Dreamwidth has, I don't know why), and I have no idea what Nickpic's deal is.

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Yes, that must be it! I hope.

[alexseanchai]

It just occurred to me I forgot something.

What I put in as the image source URL in the failed images above is a legit URL. You can view the image just fine by clicking the link. It's just not the URL to the image itself.

Now, if I want the image to be the clickable thing for a hyperlink, like the words 'a legit URL' are above, I could do <a href="LINK"><img src="IMAGE URL" /></a> and it would work fine—for people who can view the image. Not so helpful for screenreader users or when the image doesn't load.

Here's such an image-as-hyperlink where the image fails as above and there isn't alt text:



And one where there is:



Also, if for whatever reason one wants an image to be present (as a decorative element or whatever) for people who can view images, but not to trouble people who don't, doing like <img src="IMAGE URL" alt="" /> means the screenreader will simply skip it. This is preferable to <img src="IMAGE URL" /> because the screenreader will read the file name, which is most likely unhelpful, and (as you see with my example image) sometimes total gibberish.