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Changes to the Size algorithm

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)
Updated:

I made some modifications/modernizations to the algorithm that determines how large a file is.

Previously, the site's engine simply looked at the length of the file containing the text and used that. Including html formatting and counted UTF8 characters by as many bytes that they occupied (up to 4).

Some text got wildly inflated, especially text with lots and lots of dialogue.

So I rebuilt the algorithm that checks the size to make it more accurate. So now the html formatting is stripped before counting and the characters are counted as characters, not as bytes. So for example an é used to count as 3 characters, now it counts as 1. Same for curly/smart quotes, they used to count as 3 but now as 1.

Most of you won't notice much difference. But for in-progress serials, things will be wonky for a bit. Now whenever a serial gets updated after the change, the first time it happens, its size might shrink and the larger the text, the bigger the absolute difference.

So yes, it might happen that you update a serial and watch your text size shrink the first time you do instead of increasing.

Replies:   REP  AmigaClone
REP 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

No problem for me. My chapters are usually far less than the maximum file size you accept, so I never paid that much attention to file size anyway.

AmigaClone 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

When will the change be applied to completed stories?

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@AmigaClone

The new algorithm is very processor intensive, so it wouldn't be automatically applied to everything.

Generally, when a story gets a repost it will be reassessed.

Other than that, I don't know if some stories will ever be updated.

The biggest difference in size is caused by curly quotes count. Stories that were posted before we changed from straight quotes to curly ones won't see much difference so it would be a waste to redo everything blindly.

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