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We're having some problems with the Drupal software, it seems that stories above about 30,000 words or so are not being properly processed. In order to be reasonably sure you don't run into the problem, try to keep your story segments to no more than about 20,000 words for safety. If it's only a bit over that, go ahead and try but some older stories that are larger than 30,000 words are also having problems.
This is a bit of a nightmare caused by a security fix to the recent software update. Really big files had memory overflow problems on some servers so the software was changed to just balk at doing it at all. I'm not sure we're going to find a solution, this may be a new permanent limitation.
Sephrena and I and perhaps Bob too are going to be working on this for awhile, so while we are busy--blunt weapons only in the blogs and comments. Thank you. :)
Hugs,
Erin
Comments
Drat!
That means I'll have to break out ye old mace from storage!
SuZie
SuZie
EEKS!!!!
I'll have to learn how to split stories. I hardly turn out anything shorter than 40k words.
Love,
Paula
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.
The Coda
Chapterhouse: Dune
Paula
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.
The Coda
Chapterhouse: Dune
Not a problem
Not a problem for me personally. In fact, I tend not to read (or write) stories that are one huge lump of text. When was the last time anyone out there read a dead-tree book of 200 pages or more that wasn't divided into chapters? It just makes it so difficult to find a place to have a break when it's necessary. Trust me, if your story is 20,000 words or more it will be necessary.
Another issue is that those 20,000 words or more are being sent to the reader as a single browser page. Not all readers are going to have the same specification computer you wrote it on, so think of them as well.
It's not that difficult to find places where your story can be split. It's possible that you may end up with chapters of uneven length, but all authors have that problem. It doesn't make the story any less readable.
Penny
Memory Limit and White Screens
Bob made a very simple change in the configuration of the site by increasing the memory limit for each user. So we'll see how it goes. If anyone sees a message about memory or gets a "white screen of death" while trying to enter, view or print a large story--or any other time--please let me know with a PM. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.