- Joined
- Mar 17, 2007
- Messages
- 9,311
Not sure if anyone would be interested in this, but I've compiled the first ten parts of my story into an HTML format that can be downloaded. It consists of just the story sections - no reader comments or author replies to reader comments - and has significantly smaller image file sizes (about 45 KB) than the online versions (about 190 KB), without much loss of quality.
*March 4, 2008: All files reuploaded; links now working. Happy downloading!
Here is the current list of downloadable stories:
Conquest of the World, Parts 1-10, 4.41 MB
Conquest of the World, Parts 11-20, 8.18 MB
Conquest of the World, Parts 21-30, 5.32 MB
One More Turn Theatre, Episodes 1 - 40, 5.38 MB
My First Diety Game, Section 1 of ?, 5.15 MB
Instructions: Download the .zip file, and then upzip it to the folder of your choice. Then just double-click on the HTML document in the main folder, and it'll open up in your default Internet browser.
I see three advantages to this format:
1. The stories are more accessable to dial-up forumers. Let's face it, many of the stories in this subforum should have "56K Alert" in the title. This first section is still 4.41 MB, which I realize would still take 15 minutes on a dial-up connection, but that is a lot better than 60 minutes for the online version. And once it is downloaded, dial-up users can view the story as quick as they can read it, without having to wait for the pictures to load to read the next section.
2. You can view it offline. Most CFC'ers probably have Net access nearly all the time at home, but there are times the home Net goes down - I recall my phone line getting fried by lightening last summer, there went my then-dial-up connection (and it would've taken down DSL, too). And there are some places where you don't have Net access even these days - in an airplane, for example. You might not be able to browse CFC from the air, so what better thing could you spend your time doing than reading a downloaded CFC story? And, not that I advocate it, but I'm sure some users would find a downloadable format a convenient way to read CFC stories where security policies normally block them from doing so.
3. You can read just the story, without pages upon pages on comments. Any CFC writer will tell you the comments are great, and there wouldn't be any story without them, but at times the number of comments becomes ridiculous, and finding the story sections becomes like hunting for a needle in a haystack (I'm thinking One More Turn Theatre here). Reading just the story also has the advantage of not having different advertisements come up every page, though to CFC's credit most of them aren't excessively distracting.
So if anyone's interested in this, post here and I'll post the link to the first section of my story I uploaded (Parts 1-10). I've got more of my story in Works format on disk, and will upload it if there is interest. Once I catch up with my own story, I plan to expand the effort to include others' stories as well. The first one after mine is already claimed, though - my personal favorite, BasketCase's My First Diety Game, is the next one I would like to make into a downloadable format.
Also: if there is sufficient interest in this, it might be worthwhile later on to make a subforum for this in the Downloads Database. If it's limited to just one story in the end, it obviously wouldn't be worth it, but if a good number get archived, I think it would be a worthwhile addition.
*March 4, 2008: All files reuploaded; links now working. Happy downloading!
Here is the current list of downloadable stories:
Conquest of the World, Parts 1-10, 4.41 MB
Conquest of the World, Parts 11-20, 8.18 MB
Conquest of the World, Parts 21-30, 5.32 MB
One More Turn Theatre, Episodes 1 - 40, 5.38 MB
My First Diety Game, Section 1 of ?, 5.15 MB
Instructions: Download the .zip file, and then upzip it to the folder of your choice. Then just double-click on the HTML document in the main folder, and it'll open up in your default Internet browser.
I see three advantages to this format:
1. The stories are more accessable to dial-up forumers. Let's face it, many of the stories in this subforum should have "56K Alert" in the title. This first section is still 4.41 MB, which I realize would still take 15 minutes on a dial-up connection, but that is a lot better than 60 minutes for the online version. And once it is downloaded, dial-up users can view the story as quick as they can read it, without having to wait for the pictures to load to read the next section.
2. You can view it offline. Most CFC'ers probably have Net access nearly all the time at home, but there are times the home Net goes down - I recall my phone line getting fried by lightening last summer, there went my then-dial-up connection (and it would've taken down DSL, too). And there are some places where you don't have Net access even these days - in an airplane, for example. You might not be able to browse CFC from the air, so what better thing could you spend your time doing than reading a downloaded CFC story? And, not that I advocate it, but I'm sure some users would find a downloadable format a convenient way to read CFC stories where security policies normally block them from doing so.
3. You can read just the story, without pages upon pages on comments. Any CFC writer will tell you the comments are great, and there wouldn't be any story without them, but at times the number of comments becomes ridiculous, and finding the story sections becomes like hunting for a needle in a haystack (I'm thinking One More Turn Theatre here). Reading just the story also has the advantage of not having different advertisements come up every page, though to CFC's credit most of them aren't excessively distracting.
So if anyone's interested in this, post here and I'll post the link to the first section of my story I uploaded (Parts 1-10). I've got more of my story in Works format on disk, and will upload it if there is interest. Once I catch up with my own story, I plan to expand the effort to include others' stories as well. The first one after mine is already claimed, though - my personal favorite, BasketCase's My First Diety Game, is the next one I would like to make into a downloadable format.
Also: if there is sufficient interest in this, it might be worthwhile later on to make a subforum for this in the Downloads Database. If it's limited to just one story in the end, it obviously wouldn't be worth it, but if a good number get archived, I think it would be a worthwhile addition.
