Well, I'm nowhere near as 'on top' as I would like to be. As we get more organized I would love it if writers would send me a DM with their stuff, instead of merely taggin me, and if we could agree on some categories, so I could organize the posts. LIke hard/soft or light/heavy, in order to get people (including myself) more willing to read.
So, for, for example, if someone says that their book is soft-scifi, with dark themes... well, I"m not their audience.
If they say it is hard sci-fi with cultural themes, I am definitely their audience.
But I don't have time to read everything I get tagged in and categorise it.
I hear that. For me, I love that we can amplify sci-fi writing here. I think it makes substack better overall to have more writers creating sci-fi and encouraging one another, but beyond that, I don't have any kind of concrete vision. Having folks DM you might be a nice way to streamline the process somewhat; let me know if you want me to try modifying my weekly text to address/suggest this. I would expect a brief period of transition where things get worse before getting better (tags AND DMs), but perhaps after a couple weeks this could improve/simplify the work flow a bit.
Tags and DM is fine, I’m a speed reader so don’t get that upset with my inbox being cluttered.
The thing I think would help is if we did the equivelant of hashtags:
#HardScifi
#Science
#SpaceOpera
#CultureSciFi
etc.
But we would first have to think of the categories, and then communicate them to the writers. Then I could put them in my post.
Would also love more feedback on the format of my post etc, how to make it helpful to people.
Oh, and I wish people would notice what gets posted in the blurbs and write accordingly. All too often people put something unhelpful in the beginning, like, “So this is my latest Sci-Friday submission…” etc, and that is what gets shown in the blurb. What is best in the blurb, IMO, is a teaser.
1) Everyone puts tags in their notes and posts, and I hope they work :)
2) I assume you mean #hashtags and, no, SS doesn’t do anything with them. We can discuss the stupidity of their search and classifications at some other time.
3) HOWEVER if we could come up with a system of #hashtags that you and I agreed on, and that we promoted in our Sci-Friday work, and thus people got used to putting them in their sci-friday posts…. then…
4) It would help me, and maybe you, organize and promote. We could see them easily, search for them easily, and orgnaise our stuff using them. I coudl have a
Okay, gotcha! I was thinking: literal hashtags (in programming language sense) don't actively work, but you mean like classifications. I freaking LOVE classifications.
How about a line like this at the top:
Want to be included? Be sure to include one of these hashtags in your description and then send that to Von (or just be sure to tag you, either way).
If we have a little note like that and then dial in those descriptions, we are in business. Maybe we don't actually have to decide what the categories are just yet, but the folks who submit the stuff will make that clear?
I'm thinking a few good ones off the top could be:
#hardscifi
#softscifi
#fantasyscifi
#scifiadjacent
There's room for stuff like book reviews or TV show analysis too, so maybe something like #scifireview or similar could work.
Ah, I see, here’s one list of Sci-Friday participants — not as large as mine, but I do see folks here who aren’t on my list.
I appreciate your review (and being included on it), Von. I’m thinking of trying to collect up names and curate a tag list all in one place. Not a review like yours, just a list of participants, so folks have an easier time finding other folks as well as opting in or out of Sci-Friday. Do you know if anyone keeps a comprehensive list somewhere already?
Thanks for the mention! Always appreciated.
Aaaw! I was too late! Just. Thanks Von. I'll catch the next one.
I added you.
Thanks for staying on top of this!
Well, I'm nowhere near as 'on top' as I would like to be. As we get more organized I would love it if writers would send me a DM with their stuff, instead of merely taggin me, and if we could agree on some categories, so I could organize the posts. LIke hard/soft or light/heavy, in order to get people (including myself) more willing to read.
So, for, for example, if someone says that their book is soft-scifi, with dark themes... well, I"m not their audience.
If they say it is hard sci-fi with cultural themes, I am definitely their audience.
But I don't have time to read everything I get tagged in and categorise it.
I hear that. For me, I love that we can amplify sci-fi writing here. I think it makes substack better overall to have more writers creating sci-fi and encouraging one another, but beyond that, I don't have any kind of concrete vision. Having folks DM you might be a nice way to streamline the process somewhat; let me know if you want me to try modifying my weekly text to address/suggest this. I would expect a brief period of transition where things get worse before getting better (tags AND DMs), but perhaps after a couple weeks this could improve/simplify the work flow a bit.
Tags and DM is fine, I’m a speed reader so don’t get that upset with my inbox being cluttered.
The thing I think would help is if we did the equivelant of hashtags:
#HardScifi
#Science
#SpaceOpera
#CultureSciFi
etc.
But we would first have to think of the categories, and then communicate them to the writers. Then I could put them in my post.
Would also love more feedback on the format of my post etc, how to make it helpful to people.
Oh, and I wish people would notice what gets posted in the blurbs and write accordingly. All too often people put something unhelpful in the beginning, like, “So this is my latest Sci-Friday submission…” etc, and that is what gets shown in the blurb. What is best in the blurb, IMO, is a teaser.
Yeah, but tags don't work, right? That would surely make life better in an instant.
Ummm… let me clarify:
1) Everyone puts tags in their notes and posts, and I hope they work :)
2) I assume you mean #hashtags and, no, SS doesn’t do anything with them. We can discuss the stupidity of their search and classifications at some other time.
3) HOWEVER if we could come up with a system of #hashtags that you and I agreed on, and that we promoted in our Sci-Friday work, and thus people got used to putting them in their sci-friday posts…. then…
4) It would help me, and maybe you, organize and promote. We could see them easily, search for them easily, and orgnaise our stuff using them. I coudl have a
#HardSciFi
section in my posts, for example.
and
who knows
5) Maybe we could encourage SS!!
Okay, gotcha! I was thinking: literal hashtags (in programming language sense) don't actively work, but you mean like classifications. I freaking LOVE classifications.
How about a line like this at the top:
Want to be included? Be sure to include one of these hashtags in your description and then send that to Von (or just be sure to tag you, either way).
If we have a little note like that and then dial in those descriptions, we are in business. Maybe we don't actually have to decide what the categories are just yet, but the folks who submit the stuff will make that clear?
I'm thinking a few good ones off the top could be:
#hardscifi
#softscifi
#fantasyscifi
#scifiadjacent
There's room for stuff like book reviews or TV show analysis too, so maybe something like #scifireview or similar could work.
Ah, I see, here’s one list of Sci-Friday participants — not as large as mine, but I do see folks here who aren’t on my list.
I appreciate your review (and being included on it), Von. I’m thinking of trying to collect up names and curate a tag list all in one place. Not a review like yours, just a list of participants, so folks have an easier time finding other folks as well as opting in or out of Sci-Friday. Do you know if anyone keeps a comprehensive list somewhere already?
No. Send me what you have and I will add it to mine as well.