Many thanks to Dreamwidth user jesse-the-k for putting together this primer on "Making AO3 Easier to Read", and then allowing me to post a link to it here on SquidgeWorld. If you're interested, jessie-the-k put it together in their Dreamwidth entry. You can find it here: https://jesse-the-k.dreamwidth.org/377083.html
Per the details of the SquidgeWorld Monthly Contest, here are the winners for April 2021:
Random story detail:
On May 5th, SqWA user diaryofageekgirl posted a fic called That Now And Always You'll Stay In My Heart
Random commenter detail:
On May 21st, user Netchka3posted a comment to wereleopard's story Fallen Under His Protection
Congratulations to diaryofageekgirl, Netchka3, and wereleopard! I will be in touch soon with your gift!
NOTE: Apparently my query was wrong and the random story was backdated. I let it stand for this month, but I will fix the query before next. I'll also draw a second winner asap.
Second Note: Congrats to SquidgeWorld user Beverly as the official winner of the random story since there was a technical error with the first winner's entry. The story that Beverly won for is No Ordinary Love in the Harry Potter fandom.
Per the details of the SquidgeWorld Monthly Contest, here are the winners for April 2021:
Random story detail:
On April 5th, SqWA user hyarrowen posted a fic called Corrie of the Horse
Random commenter detail:
On April 30th, an anonymous user with the nickname Kurare posted a comment to Moonloon's story Critical Mass
Congratulations to hyarrowen, Kurare, and Moonloon! I will be in touch soon with your gift!
Just so there's a level playing field for the monthly SquidgeWorld contest, here's the post that holds all of the details.
* Once a month on the first day of the month, the system will run an automatic job that queries the system for the previous month. (Queries are at the bottom of this post)
* The queries will pull three winners - One registered user that posted a story in the previous month, one commenter (registered or anonymous) that posted a comment on any story, and the person who wrote the story that was commented on.
* If the person drawn won the previous month's contest, they are not eligible. So if user 'GENSLASHFEM' won on February 1st for a comment they left on January 20th, when the contest is drawn on March 1st for February, user 'GENSLASHFEM' isn't eligible. Basically, you're only eligible every other month. Questions?
* Users must have a valid email address in order to get their prize.
* Prizes are a (US) $10 gift certificate to Amazon, Apple, or Google Play. Please note: If you are in the United States, the gift certificates are not an issue. However, if you are outside of the United States, sometimes I cannot purchase a gift card; for example, a gift card purchased on Amazon.com will notwork on Amazon.com.au for some reason. In this case, you can ask for the $10 be donated to the charity of your choice.
* When it comes to winners of the comments contest, users can be registered or unregistered (leave an anonymous comment); the system queries for both at the same time and randomizes the results.
* Winners have until the last day of the month they won to respond and claim their win!
* Fics must be added during the previous month and not be backdated beyond the first of that month in order to qualify. For example, a fic added on March 27th, 2021 and backdated to March 2nd, 2021 would qualify, as would a fic added on March 27th, 2021 and not backdated. But a fic added on March 27th, 2021 and backdated to January 20th, 2021 would not be eligible if drawn.
Geeky details
Query to get the random story:
Query to get the comment winner:select w.id, w.created_at, w.title, p.name, u.email
from works w, pseuds p, users u, creatorships cr
where w.created_at between date_format(now() - INTERVAL 1 MONTH, '%Y-%m-01 00:00:00')
and date_format(LAST_DAY(now() - INTERVAL 1 MONTH), '%Y-%m-%d 23:59:59')
and w.id = cr.creation_id
and cr.creation_type = 'Work'
and cr.pseud_id = p.id
and p.user_id = u.id
order by rand()
limit 6;
select cm.created_at, cm.pseud_id, psc.name, usc.email, cm.comment_content, cha.work_id, w.title, pwa.name, usa.email
from comments cm, pseuds psc, users usc, chapters cha, works w, creatorships cr,
pseuds pwa, users usa
where cm.created_at between date_format(now() - INTERVAL 1 MONTH, '%Y-%m-01 00:00:00')
and date_format(LAST_DAY(now() - INTERVAL 1 MONTH), '%Y-%m-%d 23:59:59')
and cm.pseud_id is not NULL
and cm.pseud_id = psc.id
and psc.user_id = usc.id
and cm.parent_type = 'Chapter'
and cm.parent_id = cha.id
and cha.work_id = w.id
and w.id = cr.creation_id
and cr.creation_type = 'Work'
and cr.pseud_id = pwa.id
and pwa.user_id = usa.id
union
select cm.created_at, 0, cm.name, cm.email, cm.comment_content, cha.work_id, w.title, pwa.name, usa.email
from comments cm, chapters cha, works w, creatorships cr,
pseuds pwa, users usa
where cm.created_at between date_format(now() - INTERVAL 1 MONTH, '%Y-%m-01 00:00:00')
and date_format(LAST_DAY(now() - INTERVAL 1 MONTH), '%Y-%m-%d 23:59:59')
and cm.pseud_id is NULL
and cm.parent_type = 'Chapter'
and cm.parent_id = cha.id
and cha.work_id = w.id
and w.id = cr.creation_id
and cr.creation_type = 'Work'
and cr.pseud_id = pwa.id
and pwa.user_id = usa.id
order by rand()
limit 6;
So while we've been up for almost five months, things aren't quite as busy as they were over on Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve - at least back in the day. Way back in 2011, Peja and I put together a contest that ran monthly, and I'm thinking about starting it up again. What do you think?
The original contest information is here: https://www.squidge.org/peja/cgi-bin/contest.php
And if you're interested, here's how it would work:
1) On the first of the month, a script would run. It would pull:
a. One random story that was posted the previous month
b. One random comment (not a kudos, but an actual comment)
2) Entrants are vetted for validity. Validity just means it's an actual story and not some spam story/comment.
3) Vetted winners would be notified via the email address on their profile, as well as posted to a news story here.
4) Winners have up until the first of the following month to claim their prize.
5) Prizes are a $10 gift certificate to Amazon, Apple, or (possibly) Google Play if interest is there.
Winners would be:
One person whose story was posted the previous month
One person who made a comment the previous month
The author of the story where the comment was made
When you're adding items to the SquidgeWorld Archive, you'll now notice the optional language of Spanish. This is there to indicate your story is in Spanish - OR - that you've translated a Spanish story into English. That option is available under the "This work is a remix, a translation, a podfic, or was inspired by another work" section under the "Language" drop down.
Questions? Ping me!
We were down due to horrific storms here in the Pacific Northwest. No power, Internet, etc for 7 days. Questions? Ping me here or read my article at this link: https://squidgestatus.dreamwidth.org/81454.html
Every website needs downtime from time to time for maintenance. Well, normally for SquidgeWorld, this means downtime on Sundays from 7am to 7:30am Pacific Time (15:00 to 15:30 UTC). So if you are on the site on Sundays during this time period and it suddenly goes down, you'll know it's because of downtime.
