The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Renate

I don't think many publishers (or web designers) have discovered that you can do multiple classes.

<p class="klingon poetry nauseating">

I told that it's better than Vogon, but I've not read either.
I've seen that in bought ebooks I was cleaning up. Usually all the classes are stupid.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I told that it's better than Vogon, but I've not read either.
I've seen that in bought ebooks I was cleaning up. Usually all the classes are stupid.

Oh, yeah. I forgot the Vogons. I'm actually not a super fan.

But that is a problem across multiple domains, sub-optimal partitioning.

In programming, if you have too many really short functions/methods/subroutines or too many big ones or something that you can't readily think of a good name for, then you may have a problem.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

Early in the days of actual CSS (i.e., not MOBI), the one class applied all the formatting to a element (margins, font, etc.).

Recently, the publishers have finally discovered that the "C" in CSS means "Cascading", and now have gone to the complete opposite, where a class does one thing (like margins), another does the font, and another does the text-align.

And, the last line is likely because they used a p + p selector to create indented paragraphs, but then realized they had to special case after every div, because div + p created too many issues.

The recent one that got me was during the crossover between the early way and the current method (style inline for easier reading):

<div style="margin: 1em">
  <p style="margin-top: 1em;">Stuff</p>
  <p>More stuff</p>
  <p style="margin-bottom: 1em;">Last of stuff</p>
</div>

The paragraphs use the old "all formatting in one place" version, but the outer div creates the block quote, so there is no need to put margins on the paragraphs themselves.

<div class="ext_ch">
<div class="decoration-rw10">
<div>
<div class="pc-rw">
<img alt="image" class="orn" src="images/Art_sborn.jpg"/>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p class="noindent">

But that code makes no sense at all. 3 divs with classes and one empty div. All of that can be done with one div and one class. It's just crazy how publishers can make code that's not actually readable.

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by Renate

I don't think many publishers (or web designers) have discovered that you can do multiple classes.

<p class="klingon poetry nauseating">

I've seen this used more often recently, but often one of the classes is a "do-nothing" that is just there for semantics. Basically, they name the class that does the formatting something obscure, then give a more meaningful name to a class that does no formatting:

<p class="ext-rw interview-rw">

And, just a few minutes ago, I saw possibly the worst way to format smallcaps:

span.sc-rw {
  font-variant: small-caps;
  font-size: 80%;
}

If the font supports true small capitals, it results in lowercase letters being converted to uppercase at about 0.4em. Otherwise, the letters are 0.8em (uppercase, or lowercase with no font support for small caps).

[ownedbycats]

Recently, on Archive of Our Own I've seen an influx of "placeholder" stories where the author simply posts that they're planning to post a story soon. It's pointless — just post the story when it's ready, you numbnuts. It's also against the ToS.

I think a lot of them are Wattpad users who moved over. Eternal september.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Recently, on Archive of Our Own I've seen an influx of "placeholder" stories where the author simply posts that they're planning to post a story soon. It's pointless — just post the story when it's ready, you numbnuts. It's also against the ToS.

I think a lot of them are Wattpad users who moved over. Eternal september.

Agreed. I remember when Kindle Vella started and (primarily) the Wattpad users moved over--it was like flipping kindergarten. I got so annoyed that I had to stop visiting that forum. w

I mean...you should have HEARD the whingeing. ("Why can't we discuss plot points and stuff with our readers?" You mean, the people who are PAYING to READ YOUR SH**???") Unflippingbelievable, how they think that it's perfectly rational to publish DRAFT CRUFT and still expect to be paid for the privilege. [SMH]

Hitch

[Quoth]

I never looked at Vella, but it sounded like a clueless marketing idea that was going go badly.
I looked at Wattpad and thought it was like a school hobby writing group. Obviously fun for some people, but not my thing.

[JSWolf]

Kindle Vella was dead before it even started.

[DNSB]

I though Kindle Vella was still going? There was report of someone who started posting someone else's fanfic on Vella just a few days back.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I though Kindle Vella was still going? There was report of someone who started posting someone else's fanfic on Vella just a few days back.

Think of Kindle Vella as a Zombie. It's not quite alive, but not quite dead.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I though Kindle Vella was still going? There was report of someone who started posting someone else's fanfic on Vella just a few days back.

That's got two levels of stupidity when a Commercial publisher/website is involved.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Quoth

That's got two levels of stupidity when a Commercial publisher/website is involved.

There's an author on Kindle Unlimited who sells BioShock and Fallout fanfiction. I'm not sure why it hasn't been pulled down.

[ownedbycats]

I hate trying to find covers for older out-of-print books. That one 607x1000 is just the small cover scaled up until it's a blurry mess.

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I hate trying to find covers for older out-of-print books. That one 607x1000 is just the small cover scaled up until it's a blurry mess.

The 100 x 166 one is indeed sharper than that 607 x 1000

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I hate trying to find covers for older out-of-print books. That one 607x1000 is just the small cover scaled up until it's a blurry mess.

Or trying to find the original cover in a good quality hi-res version that doesn't have any badges or large blurbs.