Not a story (yet), but a question...

"Lenny_Ogg;c-18353362" wrote:

As far as I know, the Sims Forum in the AHQ is not the new Sims Forum.

This:)

Quote from here

"EA_Cade;c-18351231" wrote:


Vanilla = these forums, they are hosted by a company called Vanilla Forums.

EA forums = the new forums coming in July.

AHQ = current forums located here.

I would say that, now more than ever, starting a personal blog is a strong option too.

Many people in here are doing so, we use the blog for the new updates and a thread on this forum for the comments part. It's a bit more of work, but in particular in moments like this one it's nice to be more in control of your own posts and not to risk to loose months of updates because of a sudden forum update/migration decided by the forum management.

I second @HermioneSims I'm quite relieved that I started my story on an external platform. I will keep adding episodes and linking them here and it's annoying that a lot of comments will be lost, but if the new forums go live I will just add links to the missing episodes.

If you don't want to get a "real" personal blog (your own domain plus hosting) something like wordpress.com could be an option.

I'll second the idea of a Wordpress blog. That's where I have my second story, Scheme & Dreams hosted. There is a bit of a learning curve to get it set up but I enjoy it. There is a bit more freedom to post things you can't post here, but that's only one reason to make the move. You can start a free site with them too but naturally there are some limits on how much bandwidth you have. If you want to stay on the forums though I would suggest waiting until the new one launches in July to start a new story.

Whichever path you choose I'm looking forward to seeing what you and Z come up with.

@Lenny_Ogg @Ellupelluellu I'm sorry for creating even more confusion. The fact that there's a Creative Corner at the AHQ forum now--with a subforum for stories--is what led me to the conclusion that AHQ would be the permanent home forum for Simlit. Now it seems that there will be a completely new forum (EA) beginning in July.

@HermioneSims @flauschtrud Thank you for the advice about using an external platform. I'm still thinking about that option. In fact, I've got an account at wordpress.com, which I created in order to post on other people's story blogs there. I actually started setting up a blog there, but I didn't get very far. I've always liked the simplicity of writing directly to the forum, but now I see what price I might possibly pay for that simplicity.

@MoonlightGraham , oh, no worries, this is bit confusing to everyone now :)

@DaniRose2143 Thanks for the suggestions! I was hoping to find an easy, free option, but the prices for the pay sites aren't bad. I have no idea how quickly a Simlit blog with photos would use up the storage limit for a free Wordpress blog.

Waiting until the new forum opens in July is also an option, and it's the safest one if I want to keep it super-simple. But that's five months away...and when you have the urge to create a story, who wants to wait that long? :blush:

Could always store the story as text file on your computer and backup any screenshot you have used :)
that way you can repost the story on new forums when they arrive should it not transfer automatically

I've backed up and paused my stories for now and everything that comes after March 12 (storywise)
will just live on my computer until new forums arrive

here is a quick example of how I have mine backed up/saved on my computer

each post has its own folder

https://i.imgur.com/gNlIZY1.png

pictures are numbered so if one picture has broken link
I know which one it is and am able to reupload the picture and replace the link

https://i.imgur.com/Hlf312X.png

the text file is as it is at forums formatting and all
but bbcode doesn't work on new forum
so I will have to redo it once the new forum rolls out

https://i.imgur.com/PMBA9MT.png

@Lenny_Ogg @Simmingal Thank you for your suggestions, too. I'm going to start writing it on my computer, because the urge to write is most definitely here right now. That's why I'm eager to get started. That will give me time to decide what I'm going to do about my story's online home.

This thread is an example of what's been wonderful about this forum. In less than 24 hours, six of you have offered helpful suggestions...in some cases, more than one. I hope we can maintain this community in our new forum home.

"MoonlightGraham;c-18353432" wrote:
@DaniRose2143 Thanks for the suggestions! I was hoping to find an easy, free option, but the prices for the pay sites aren't bad. I have no idea how quickly a Simlit blog with photos would use up the storage limit for a free Wordpress blog.

Waiting until the new forum opens in July is also an option, and it's the safest one if I want to keep it super-simple. But that's five months away...and when you have the urge to create a story, who wants to wait that long? :blush:

I can't remember for sure how much you get with a free Wordpress account but I was worried enough to send for an upgrade. My raw screenshots are about 2-4mb each. I have a big Retina monitor so I run my game at a high resolution, 2560x1440. I used to run it at 5120x2880 but it got the point I was worried about how much the fan was running and it was still getting toasty. Those screenshots were 10mb plus. I run my screenshots through Gimp and scale them down to 1024x576 and they come out around 500-900Kb. The other nice thing about Wordpress is you won't need a site like Imgur to host your images. You can just drag and drop them into the post after you edit them.?

I think this sense of community will carry over to the new forums. That helpfulness and heart is in us not the software.?