Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

odd question from many stories

ralord82276 🚫

I have run across the same thing in many stories and am wondering if there is something I am missing.

The issue has to do with text messages in the stories. In many stories, one of the characters is texting another one and ends their text exchange with 'J' ... Have tried to figure out why but no clue. It is not their initial nor does it seem to be short for 'joking' from contextual clues. If it just happened in one story or with one author, I would classify it as accidental inclusion or unique to them, but I have seen it in at least 20+ stories with more than half a dozen different authors.

So... is there a reason for ending text messages in stories with 'J'?

Replies: Dominions Son irvmull

Dominions Son 🚫

@ralord82276

This isn't something I've seen or done. Can you point to a specific example?

Replies: ralord82276

ralord82276 🚫

@Dominions Son

Oyster50 does it in a lot of his stories. Only appears in the stories in places where the exact text of the text message is shown. For example, in Bill 'N' Haley ch. 7:

As soon as I got parked at my destination, I texted the message to Haley. Got a reply a bit later – "OK!!!! J"

In a lot of cases surrounding texting in the stories, the author just describes the texting happening and then generalizes the messages. The 'J' appearing to end the text exchange is never mentioned or described when the characters talk about texting and is ONLY shown when the actual text message is shown in the story.

Replies: Dicrostonyx

Dicrostonyx 🚫

@ralord82276

Assuming it isn't the initial of a character name, my best guess would be some sort of typographical error. The author might be using a special character or emote in the original text which is being changed to a J because SOL can't handle the character.

Replies: ralord82276 awnlee jawking Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

ralord82276 🚫

@Dicrostonyx

ahh..that makes sense. Thanks!

Replies: Big Ed Magusson

Big Ed Magusson 🚫

@ralord82276

The emoji ;-) often gets converted into something like that.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Dicrostonyx

The author might be using a special character or emote in the original text which is being changed to a J because SOL can't handle the character.

Apparently you're right.

Why Your Smiley Face Emoticons Turn Into J's In Emails

AJ

Replies: ralord82276

ralord82276 🚫

@awnlee jawking

So now we have outside confirmation of radical bias in SOL's submission programming database :) ...lol

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Dicrostonyx

because SOL can't handle the character.

It's not SOL's issue. If you submit the text properly encoded, UTF-8 or html etc... it will show up as intended if your system has the proper emoji glyph.

Our workflow is UTF-8 end to end and doesn't mess with characters. The problem is either before the text was received or on the display device.

Replies: Michael Loucks Dicrostonyx

Michael Loucks 🚫
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

It's not SOL's issue. If you submit the text properly encoded, UTF-8 or html etc... it will show up as intended if your system has the proper emoji glyph.

I can confirm this (even though it's not really necessary), as every UTF-8 character and emoji I've used has rendered properly in submitted stories.

Replies: Dinsdale

Dinsdale 🚫

@Michael Loucks

I believe Oyster50 uses Macs and would guess that this is part of the cause.

Replies: Michael Loucks

Michael Loucks 🚫

@Dinsdale

I believe Oyster50 uses Macs and would guess that this is part of the cause.

I only use a Mac, and have from LONG before I started posting on SOL. I generate UTF-8 text files using BBEdit. Works perfectly every single time, including for Cyrillic, Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic, along with emoji and and any other glyph in the UTF-8 character set.

Replies: The Outsider

The Outsider 🚫
Updated:

@Michael Loucks

I use BBEdit, as well, for my Markdown files. I then convert them to HTML using a PERL script and copy them to an HTML template before I upload them. (A bit of extra work, I know, but I like to upload HTML files instead.)

And, I like that I'm helping to support a local company in Bare Bones Software. (I used to live in the same town where their headquarters is, and still have my taxes done in that same section of that town.)

Replies: Michael Loucks Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Michael Loucks 🚫

@The Outsider

I use BBEdit, as well, for my Markdown files. I then convert them to HTML using a PERL script and copy them to an HTML template before I upload them. (A bit of extra work, I know, but I like to upload HTML files instead.)

I upload the SOL formatted files as plain text (using the SOL conventions for tagging text). I also have a zsh script that uses sed/perl/awk to create the import files for Scrivener to create my digital editions (eBook, Kindle, and PDF). 😈

Replies: The Outsider

The Outsider 🚫

@Michael Loucks

I use the converted html files in Sigil, myself. I never really caught on with Calibre ....

Replies: Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@The Outsider

I use the converted html files in Sigil, myself.

You need to validate those html files. I just finished checking the latest EPUB file you uploaded and it had hundreds of errors.

It fails to open in many ebook readers that are stringent with enforcing xml rules.

I fixed the file for you, but you should seriously validate your EPUB files.

If you're on a Mac, then install homebrew and use it to install epubcheck and use epubcheck to validate the files before you upload them to Bookapy.

Or, you can learn to use Bookapy's own EPUB builder. It generates valid EPUB files.

Replies: The Outsider

The Outsider 🚫
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I've definitely found error since I posted it, but I'll download that software/app you told me about and use that.

I've re-edited "A Charmed Life" again, and am in the middle of editing "A Glass, and Darkly." I think I've got the process figured out now, but I'll definitely use epubcheck...

(I think part of it is the whole process of using Sigil and staying busy during the day, too...)

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@The Outsider

I use BBEdit, as well, for my Markdown files.

SOL's submission system takes Markdown files directly, the encoding has to be UTF-8. There is no advantage for the extra steps.

Replies: The Outsider

The Outsider 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I save them (too many times) in the various formats to my HD. I send .odt files to my editor, then convert to html because I can...

It's definitely more on me than your system...

Dicrostonyx 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that it was specifically an SOL problem, just that stories posted here have to abide by certain text rules that may not be clear to people used to using Google Docs as their word processor.

irvmull 🚫
Updated:

@ralord82276

As soon as I got parked at my destination, I texted the message to Haley. Got a reply a bit later – "OK!!!! J"

It shows as a capital letter J in firefox.

If you inspect the bare html code, it's the letter J, not 😀
which would be utf &#128512

Downloading the story in zip form or as an epub results in the same thing. Just plain J.

This might just be this author's problem, but if it appears in stories by many different authors - someone might want to find out why.

What are some of those other stories where emoji's are turned into text?

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odd question from many stories

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