Loose Ends

[Cindy C.]

Oh, good *grief!*  

I was supposed to go to the dentist on Tuesday, and I got a flat tire 
pulling out of my driveway.  Appointment cancelled.

Today, I got there, signed in, waited, and then realized I hadn't 
taken a pill.  Yeah, I can *die* from having my teeth cleaned if I 
don't take an antibiotic first.  Cleaning cancelled.

Next chance for sparkling teeth -- late July.  Argh!

OK, now . . . 

Debbie:

> But this is just my opinion.  Do others have any additional 
>thoughts?

Not many, because Debbie summarized my thinking very nicely.

One thing I keep in mind, though, is the Yahoo threading function.  
If someone posts in webview and they reply to a post, Yahoo will 
reflect the post as part of the thread.  Some folks post from digest 
though, and their posts often show up as new threads, even if the 
substance of the post is a reply.

So when reading the main list, if you see a fantastic post and it 
isn't linked to prior posts in a great thread, you might want to add 
it to the database.  Otherwise, it will be lost and gone forever.

Regarding post quality, I try to look for posts that are logical and 
well-constructed.  Even form matters (hideous snipping or 
attribution) will make me sour on the post -- although things like 
that can be overlooked for really unusual and great posts.  

And *funny!*  Funny is good!  ;-)

My main guidelines, though, are (1) whether someone writing an FP 
would likely want to use the post, and (2) whether a reader of an FP 
who clicked on that link would roll their eyes and think they had 
been cheated.

Oh, and let me make a quick pitch for using keywords.  If you go to 
the keyword database, you can hit "printable record."  This will 
convert the database table into one long document instead of multiple 
webview screens that take forever to load.  It also becomes 
searchable (CTRL F).  So if you have a fantastic post that talks 
about how Hagrid betrays Hermione in OoP, you could search 
for "betray" to see if that word is used or something else is used.  

And remember, you'll have to get a handle on the keywords if you're 
going to write an FP later, so learning them slowly now will pay off 
later.  

Right?  Right?  ;-)

Mmmm, what else?

Cindy -- who was