Poll time!

[katikat]

You know, there are some authors who never finish their WIPs. And I don't mean that they leave some of them unfinished - I never finished a couple of mines either but I did learn from my mistakes - but all of them. They start a multi-parter and after a couple of chapters, they drop it. And that's why, no matter how great their new idea might sound, I steer away from their fics altogether.

---

When reading fics, I don't usually use the ?style=mine command to make the other user's LJ look like mine. I mean, the various layouts are a part of the fun too. I use it only when the user's LJ is unreadable to me - I hate dark background with dark text or light background with light text. I have to squint to read it and that makes my eyes hurt.

But what about you?

[Poll #1042077]

Comments

[lostandalone22.livejournal.com]

I have a couple of WIP's going right now that I am going to finish, but haven't right now. Is that what you're talking about?

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Nope. I was talking about the LJ user denva or dehva or something like that - I didn't want to say any names. Don't get me wrong, her ideas are simply great! But I'm rather put off by the fact that none of her stories - at least none that I could find - are finished :(

[sharona1x2.livejournal.com]

I have a hard time reading anything that isn't black type on a white background. It's probably because my RL job includes a lot of proofreading, and because my eyesight isn't that great.

I still use LJ's Dystopia style, too. I have it set up so that I see that style when I'm reading/replying to comments.

[mremre.livejournal.com]

After a (short) while reading black text on white, my eyeballs start to dry out. I actually use black text on light grey and set my PC's defaults accordingly. When reading long fic anywhere, I just use the View -> no page style command of Firefox, which is my FAVORITE Firefox feature. =)

[sharona1x2.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty cool feature! I just tried it on a friend's journal, and it gave me almost the same effect as reading it the way I normally would. I need a certain amount of white space around the text.

The other thing I like about using my own style (which is the default for Dystopia, with the blue left margin) is that I can better gauge how long a story will take me to read. Some journals that people have designed have very tiny areas for reading fic. Even short stories look long when they're posted in a tiny box.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

And can I ask what the Dystopia style is? *curious*

I don't mind colored text or background, what I do mind is for example black bg and dark violet text or white background and light blue text. That's just too hard on the eyes *squints*

[sharona1x2.livejournal.com]

Dystopia was one of the old LJ layout schemes, from 2001. When I go to livejournal.com, the style I see has a dark blue border on the left, with orange headers and white text.

If you go here (http://www.livejournal.com/manage/settings/), you'll see Horizon, Vertigo and Lynx. They used to have Dystopia as an option, but they removed it.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Aha. The one I use isn't there either O.o It was the old one before they switched over to Horizon? I think it was Horizon. I use the one with the pen and the blue swirl on the left. In the new ones, I can never find anything. It's ordered in such an illogical way X(

[iamnotkris.livejournal.com]

I tend to steer away from WIPs as well... I stuck with one from the HP fandom, and it's been a year since I left it, and the author is still only up to like, Chapter 7.

I hate reading stories that don't get finished, so I hardly EVER read WIPs.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

A long time ago, when I used to write fanfiction for various anime series, I wrote multiparters and some of them still remain unfinished. But I learned my lesson and now I write only short fiction with possible sequels and I never actually promise to write one X)

[taintedangel80.livejournal.com]

Sometimes you need to do te style mine thing because the writing is just too impossible to read in their colors or fonts or whatever.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I mean, how can someone read light grey text on white background? O.O I really hate it when people use really small text too. My eyes bleed! X(

[jellicle.livejournal.com]

I use the command when I want to copy to print fic. That way I get the default LJ page that allows me to copy. Some layout don't. Also, this way I don't have to worry about changing the font color when printing.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Heh, I remember the time when I used to print out fics. I have two boxes of them. But it was in the time when I was into Gundam Wing or The Sentinel. Now I read fics only on the puter screen and real books when I'm away from the comp :)

[bishsticks.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that's a handy command to know. A couple of my communities have changed their layout, so I can't read them at all now from this old Mac. The background is the only thing that will load. I just tested that command on one of them and now I can read it. Yay! *is happy*

[katikat.livejournal.com]

It is, it is, isn't it? Some LJs are simply unreadable and one must wonder how the owners themselves read them X(

[disutansu.livejournal.com]

I never did know how to use the ?style=mine command, even when I wanted to. Black bg and red text kills my eyes like whoa. x_x I should learn how to use it. ^^;

[katikat.livejournal.com]

It's really easy. Try this:

http://katikat.livejournal.com/?style=mine

You just simply add ?style=mine to the URL :)

[disutansu.livejournal.com]

Wow! But it looks weird on your LJ. I like your layout more.

It's okay to put it anywhere on the URL? I might do it sometimes for those hard-to-read posts. ^____^

[katikat.livejournal.com]

You have to put it on the very end of the URL. That usually works :)

[kwycksylver.livejournal.com]

I answered that wrong, my friends page looks like mine but when I actually click into someone's LJ, it's in their style.

And I am very guilty about the unfinished WiPs but I do plan to finish them if my muses and my free time ever get together.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Hehe, me and my unfinished WIPs? We aren't the best of friends either, trust me :P