If I changed the whole appearance of a story in what I considered a substantive way, I would likely tell you afterwards. That doesn't mean that you and I agree on what is substantive.

I'm not being an editor when I do the kind of thing I'm talking about here, I'm being a publisher. Because of the instantaneous nature of this publishing medium, I simply must assume I have the authority to do what I feel necessary granted by the author when the story is submitted.

Honestly and truly, if I had to send everything back to an author for approval every time I needed to make a major change in presentation, I would simply close the site down and do more of my own writing because it would more than double the amount of effort involved.

I'm not dealing with one author a week here, I'm dealing with ten or twenty a day. Two or three iterations of sending things back and forth for even a fraction of those relationships would be an impossible task.

It works the way it works because that is the only practical way to keep it working.

I'm not going to deliberately trample all over someone's presentation if I can help it. And I'm willing to make after the fact corrections and adjustments for the sake of the author's satisfaction. And, Lord knows, I'm capable of making mistakes and so are my assistants. We all do.

But it's not arrogance to do what I do, it's practicality.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

...and make the left hand top serif on that nasty "n" a little taller?

with a red face,

Hope

If I have to contact everyone for permission to alter teasers, there's no point in having the website organized the way it is. Honestly, there is hardly a teaser on the front page that I have not altered in some way, and if I haven't, Sephy or one of the other editors have.

When a story is posted here, I must have authority over presentation. I'm not talking about editing content, but I am talking about look and feel.

Teasers are not supposed to be more than 505 pixels wide. No point in telling people this up front only a handful would know how to check but I do alter presentations to make it happen. Why? because it makes it possible to view the site on some older displays.

Titles of chapters in the title bar should not have the number spelled out and should be consistent from chapter to chapter. Why? so the chapterization doohickey can put them in the right order.

Teasers should not start with several blank lines. Why? it looks crappy and takes up room better used for someone else's teaser. Shouldn't end with several either. Just today, I've altered five posts to implement this formatting rule.

Teasers should not be so tall that they take up more than half of my screen (which is a pretty tall screen). Why? Some people would not be able to view such a teaser all at once and it takes up too much room.

Most of these rules of presentation are sensible, even if some of them are arbitrary in that a limit has been chosen that could easily have been something else. But I do try to be consistent.

But waiting for a reply from an author before making a change in these cases is usually not going to happen. And I won't even give notice afterwards in most cases. When I have done so, I end up in long conversations where the author thinks I'm nagging them to do things my way.

Authors get lots of respect here and have lots of freedom over the presentation of their stories, more than at most other sites. I do have rules though and I try to apply them consistently and fairly.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

I suspect The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, although the cipher theory appears to have much to recommend it. Cryptography was a very lively and lucrative art back then, as they hadn't sufficient computing power available to make modern methods possible. From the article (and I have no desire to make this an afternoon's work, much less a lifetime), I'd guess that it's a cipher which relies at least partially upon the "I don't know much about cryptography, but I know plaintext when I see it" theory of throwing in random "nonsense" which can be filtered by the brain rather than by an algorithm.

The hoax theory seems weak, because they didn't know enough about statistical analysis to construct something that would stand up to it in any way. That's just a guess, of course.

Cheers,

Puddin'
-----------
He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince
himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are
silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal
oozes out of him at every pore.
--- Sigmund Freud

Austin Powder makes industrial explosives for mining and construction. :)

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.