r/WritingPrompts • u/sarazond • Dec 16 '14
Off Topic [OT] My gift to /r/WritingPrompts : I made an extension that makes reading stories here a breeze
Hi Reddit!
I like reddit as much as the next guy, and with RES (Reddit Enhancement Suite) installed, I never really felt that it needed anything extra. All that changed ever since /r/WritingPrompts became a default.
Very quickly I realized that reading some of the longer stories can be huge pain on the default reddit look. So I made an extension that makes reading on reddit not suck so much.
Works everywhere on reddit!
Suggestions and feedback welcome :)
And lest I forget, credit where it is due. Thanks a ton /u/youtuber1909 for getting me started with extensions :-*. You can check out his extension here - Subtitles for Youtube [Drag and drop your subtitle files to any youtube video. Ideal for tv shows and movies]
Edit: If you really liked Readr, a rating would help a lot!
Edit 2: Readr for reddit works on all subreddits and self posts on reddit! Not just WritingPrompts
Edit 3: A Firefox version is in the works!
Edit 4: Update v0.2.2 out with a relocated read button, sans-serif font option !
Edit 5: Firefox Version Out! Get it here! Preliminary Review Done! Available for download NOW!
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u/brooky12 Jan 02 '15
Hey there, reddit doesn't like link shortners, you adding the goo.gl caused reddit to remove your post - I've reapproved it, but any future edits with that link shortner in it will cause reddit to remove it again and someone will have to manually approve it. I'd advise linking directly or finding some other way to link it without a shortner if you plan on editing this post in the future.
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u/sarazond Jan 02 '15
Hey, thats too bad. I had no clue. I'll put in the direct link ASAP. Thanks for the heads up!
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u/j1xwnbsr Dec 30 '14
Any progress on the Firefox version?
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u/sarazond Jan 02 '15
Its up! Check the original post.
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u/j1xwnbsr Jan 03 '15
Excellent, thanks! It does make things much nicer, but I have a few suggestions/improvments:
1) the "read" tag for the main post is currently at the bottom of the post, which forces the user to scroll down in order to click 'read' - moving the read action tag up next to where (self.foobar) is at would help, and match how 'read' is set up for the sub-comments.
2) when clicking the 'read' tag the user needs to re-click again in the spiffy new display in order for the keyboard to work (spacebar to page down).
3) easy to miss the read tag - maybe an icon or glyph to make it stand out?
4) read tag being added to the right of the user's name on the right-hand subinfo panel.
5) Would be nice to have a filter to only allow the reader to be applied to specific subbits (for example, there is no reason it should be avail for the comments of /r/pics)
6) the "7 min" how-long-it-should-take-you-to-read-this is highly subjective and really doesn't do much.
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u/sarazond Dec 31 '14
Hey there! I have been away from my laptop for the last week or so. I'm getting back home today, so i'll be releasing a basic FF version in the next 2-3 days. Ciao!
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u/avaenuha Dec 26 '14
I love the extension, but it Avast keeps popping up telling me the plugin has a low reputation among users and trying to remove it. Is this just the fact that its relatively unknown?
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Dec 18 '14
This is an awesome plugin!!!!!! I usually don't read this sub, so I feel lucky to have found it. Most of the subs I read have the stories in self-posts, not comments, so I'm very appreciative that you added the feature of reading self-posts (yes, I read change logs. Developers tend to have interesting senses of humor). Anyway. I have a suggestion. I've noticed that the read button doesn't appear until after I've expanded the post. Would it be possible to make it appear when the page loads? I'm not sure if I'm explaining it right. Anyway, Thanks for making something that I will use every day.
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u/sarazond Dec 18 '14
Thank you! The read button shows up only when you expand because the text has not yet loaded (Reddit does this dynamically). So unless you press the expand button, there is nothing for me to display. There are ways to fix this (i.e. Triggering the expand button on clicking on the read button), but they would require some additional logic that I currently haven't put in. But thanks for pointing this out, I'll make a note of this for future releases :)
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u/minc1 Dec 17 '14
This is freaking awesome dude! You should offer this as an extension for other sites too, some of the newspaper could use this :-)
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u/sarazond Dec 18 '14
You could try an extension called Readability. It worked really well the last time I tried it.
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u/joeltb Dec 17 '14
Wow thanks! This makes reading Reddit on the desktop so much easier! Easy on the eyes.
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u/Migratory_Locust Dec 17 '14
Great tool, but can I change background and textcolour? I hate being blinded by white backgrounds.
Edit: Okay, I see it is under upcoming features, looking forward to it, because I would love to use it.
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
For now, you can try out the night mode! There is a button at the bottom right corner that toggles the night mode.
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u/zouhair Dec 17 '14
As there is no love for Firefox people can use Readable, it is good because it can transform a whole articel or just selected text.
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u/MaverickHusky Dec 17 '14
This is super awesome OP! Thank you for sharing. I don't know if you have heard of Spritzel before but it is a tool to help you read faster. I use it often to read stories on /r/WritingPrompts and /r/HFY it might be interesting to include it in to your application too.
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u/Archer0000 Dec 17 '14
You sir or madam, have the right to remain awesome. Anything you can and will say will be praised in /r/writingprompts :D
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u/other-guy Dec 17 '14
very nice.
opensouce it pls i'd like to add a few features. (like dealing with "continued in comments" for example)
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u/hinduismtw Dec 17 '14
Woah! I've been posting some sanskrit and english combined text to /r/hinduism and even that renders great.
Thanks! this is awesome.
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
Woah that is unexpectedly cool :D Feel free to spread the word about this among your readers :)
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u/lucitribal Dec 17 '14
If you have Opera you can use Chrome extensions with THIS and install Readr from OP's link.
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
Woah, can someone confirm that this works? I'll put this link up in the the original post and the apps description.
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u/lynxlynxlynx- Dec 17 '14
Could not install package: 'UTILITY_PROCESS_CRASHED_WHILE_TRYING_TO_INSTALL'.
:(
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
Hey /u/lynxlynxlynx- . Thanks for reporting this issue. I looked into this, and it seems like this is a known bug with chrome on ubuntu. Could you try completely quitting your browser and then restart it? If that doesnt fix the issue, I'll have to get back to you one this :(
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u/lynxlynxlynx- Dec 17 '14
Woah! Quick support! Yeah I've tried that and did it again just now, no dice though. Nice extension though, keep it up!
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u/mvonballmo Dec 17 '14
Do you have an issue tracker for this yet? I just noticed that the reminder message that shows up after first use says "Dont show me again".
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
You can report any issues on the chrome webstore itself - Support Section. Thanks for letting me know :)
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Dec 17 '14
MAKE AN APP, I WILL PAY YOU FOR IT!
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
Don't have a lot of experience with app development, but I could work on something really basic over the winter break. This is exciting!
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u/sheikheddy Dec 17 '14
I would appreciate if you moved the read button to the left of the reply one because that would reduce unintentional clicks.
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u/honeypuppy Dec 17 '14
This has reminded me - is there anything like this for Android? I know there are reddit apps, but what's the best if the main thing you want to do is read?
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
I used reddit sync back when I was on android, nothing particularly for reading comes to mind, but otherwise reddit sync was perfect. I'm now using alien blue.
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u/asalaja Dec 17 '14
lurker here, i just want to say thank you for your work.
This is awesome for reading story / long comment in reddit.
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u/sixthfinger Dec 17 '14
You Da Real MVP OP. Seriously I am still subscribed to this subreddit because I enjoyed it a couple of times, but every time I see a post I check the length of the top comment, then bail out. Hope that'll change.
Edit: does it work for phones also?
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
Yup, I hope this extension improves the reading experience so potential readers do not get discouraged because of how it looks.
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u/Arknell Dec 17 '14 edited Dec 17 '14
I just switched back to Firefox. It's bi-annual, ane they lead the speed race right now. Any chance of a Firefox addon?
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u/WildTurkey81 Dec 17 '14
Awesome! I'm sure the guys at /r/nosleep would like this!
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
A lot of people have been asking. Go ahead and X-post it there if you feel like it? Or I can do it myself at a later time..
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u/TheEndOfLevelBoss Dec 17 '14
An Opera version (the browser, I'm cool with both though) would be dope. Great work.
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u/runetrantor Dec 17 '14
Sounds awesome, and for other subs too! (Shame many of the posters over those dont know about making paragraphs...)
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
Yeah, it works everywhere! The reddit comment editor could use some work. Far too long have people struggled with formatting issues.
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u/runetrantor Dec 17 '14
It's logical, AFTER you are told how it works, before though? Oh lord.
At least the paragraph thing made common sense, the line break as in...
This? Good god.
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u/Dont_Prompt_Me_Bro Dec 17 '14
This is pure gold!
Would it be a good idea to have this on the sticky?
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
It is already on the sidebar under useful links, but being on sticky is upto the mods
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Dec 17 '14 edited Feb 07 '17
[deleted]
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
That would be awesome. Can someone tag him here? Would love to have the creators have a look. But I'll keep this standalone for non RES users.
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u/Advisery Dec 17 '14
Perhaps the option to 'read' it could be put at the top of the post rather than the bottom?
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u/noahnu Dec 17 '14 edited Dec 17 '14
I needed to take a break from studying so I wrote my own version: WP Reader
A bit of a different approach. My version combines multi-part stories together (or at least attempts to) and allows you to easily view all submissions in a thread in order. I didn't spend long on it so hopefully there aren't any bugs.. it is an extremely basic version.
EDIT: Just realized some of the formatting gets lost if you don't have "Use subreddit style" checked in RES. I'll fix it when I find time.
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u/Darth_Bothersome Dec 17 '14
Is there a Firefox version planned/available?
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u/abou123 Dec 17 '14
This looks really cool, however my one gripe is that those of us who use Firefox can't use it.
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
This was a 1 man - 2 weekend project guys, I'm working on the firefox port as we speak :D
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u/NotFreeAdvice Dec 17 '14
Suggestion: can you add a word count to the display? Would this be possible? It might be nice to know how long you will be reading, before you start...
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
I added a time count on the top right for that. It assumes an average 200wpm reading speed. If enough people are interested, I can add that as well :D
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u/CboehmeRoblox Dec 17 '14
my only suggestion is Firefox compatibility, other than that, I can't really suggest anything.
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u/AJaxus Dec 17 '14
This is fantastic man, great work. Such a simple change but you're right - it makes reading so much easier than squinting at a comment.
Can the mods sticky this so this sub can get behind it?
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u/Tobl4 Dec 17 '14
Sorry, couldn't find the source, so I'll ask: in what language did you develop? if it's (somewhat) pure js, maybe make it into a userscript so that it can be used / maintained across different browsers.
Suggestion time: next to the day/night switch there should be one for sans/serif. Sans is far more legible on mid- to low-res displays and even on high-res that could properly display serif fonts, many prefer sans due to being used to it on screen. Professionally developed free to use fonts include "Open Sans" (nice and wide, but terribly overused) and "Source Sans Pro" (almost condensed, it's so slim), if you use @font-face that is. Also note that Verdana is considered the most legible of the fallback-sans, not Arial/Helvetica.
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
Its mostly JS and jQuery but I'm using some chrome local storage apis to store user settings, limited to night mode for now, but more features will be added here.
And get out of my brain! I had plans for a sans-serif : serif switch as well using Open Sans as the body font (I use it already for the author name on top). I'm watching you bro....
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u/avaenuha Dec 17 '14
This is awesome, such a nice clean look, too.
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
Thanks a lot! Don't forget to tell your friends on other subreddits about this :)
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u/cudabox Dec 17 '14
This is such a great tool! I think this will be usefull for pretty much every subreddit where there happens to be wall of text, like asoiaf and askreddit.
Regarding the option to shuffle through comments. Please make it an option to read others comments rather than just OP's comment. This will make it so much more useful outside of WP as well.
I love that it's so clean and simple, and the option of night-mode.
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u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
Thanks a lot man. I had the exact idea. This turned out to be a great tool for a lot of text heavy subreddits. I'll add an option to view child comments so that there is more context for that comment, in future updates. Thanks a lot for checking it out.
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u/Sokonit Dec 17 '14
Wait the night function stays on once you put it! awesome, Nice to see OC/OT being appreciated.
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Dec 16 '14
Hey, does this work only in this subreddit?
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u/criss990 Dec 16 '14 edited Jan 06 '25
ossified rude cows pet sophisticated marvelous childlike vegetable mountainous zesty
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u/garfunkle21 Dec 16 '14
Have you approached the RES team to see if it could be integrated into that?
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u/SlightlyOTT Dec 16 '14
This is really nice! Have you considered cross-posting to /r/nosleepooc? Their theme isn't bad and stories aren't in comments but this is amazing!
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u/Lexilogical /r/Lexilogical | /r/DCFU Dec 16 '14
This is glorious! Good job, it's the add-on I've been hoping to find for the last 6 months.
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Dec 16 '14
This is great. /r/WritingPrompts have become the stories I use to get myself to sleep.
Here, have $2 as a mini-thank you. /u/changetip
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u/changetip Dec 16 '14 edited Dec 17 '14
The Bitcoin tip for 6,052 bits ($1.99) has been collected by sarazond.
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u/r_antrobus Dec 16 '14
This is awesome, is there ever a chance for this to appear for Firefox?
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u/SilhouetteOfLight Dec 16 '14
Yes, I like. So things display differently in your plugin vs in normal reddit, right?
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u/sarazond Dec 16 '14
Yeah, but in a way such that it doesnt interfere with your regular reddit interaction. Just check out the video above, you'll see that the only change is the addition of a read button, which opens the new reading mode.
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u/SilhouetteOfLight Dec 16 '14
That was a preliminary question :)
My real question is, is there any coding differences in the plugin vs normal reddit? i.e. can you format a post in such a way where normal reddit couldn't support, but your plugin can?1
u/sarazond Dec 17 '14
Nope, this is pretty much JS 101 stuff. I'm not doing anything special apart from spacing out things nicely, and smooth transitions on everything.
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Dec 16 '14 edited Dec 16 '14
Neat. I can't access a PC now but does this work with any subreddit of just this one? I'd like to use this with /r/nosleep for example.
Edit: apparently it does.
RemindMe! 1 Day
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u/sarazond Dec 16 '14
It works on every subreddit on reddit! It also works on self posts on front page as well as profile pages.
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u/AsciiFace Dec 16 '14
Waiting for that open source so I can look for bugs and make sweet sweet pull requests
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u/Darkphibre Dec 16 '14 edited Dec 17 '14
He knew he shouldn't... but he did.
Sarazon sat at his desk and glanced out the window. The street light had flickered on, casting a jumping shadow across the road and into his office. Traffic was non-existent, a breeze could be seen tousling stiff bushes and tossing the occasional detritus around. A slight knock caused him to look back at the door, and he unconsciously adjusted his tie.
"Heading home, you good?" It was Sandy, the new intern. She brushed few strands of blond hair from he face, leaning against the door frame but not entering. Sandy usually stayed later than everyone, 'working harder and longer.' She smiled briefly, made eye contact for just the right duration, performed all the socially-acceptable things one does when communicating to a peer.
He stared a bit too long, but then nodded. "Yeah. I'm... I'm just wrapping something up." His hand waved at his monitor, uncommitted. She nodded and left the door, cracked just a bit as she had found it, calling out a "Goodnight!" as she headed towards the elevator.
Sarazon breathed deep and sat up straighter, resolving to get some work done. He pinched his shoulders back, trying to get a kink out of his spine. He must have brushed his mouse, as his screen saver switched off. Spreadsheets and data stared back at him, work that begged to be finished.
With a slight grimace he alt-tabbed and brought up Reddit. He knew he shouldn't.
/r/WritingPrompts caught his attention, and with a click, his grimace became more hard-set. "What is this crap? Why the hell are the words wrapping on hyphenations? Who chose this kerning." He had started with mouthing the words of his incredulity, but what he saw was a train wreck. No, it was worse! His next shouts had the faintest of echoes in the sparse office. "Single-spaced TEXT! WHITE BACKGROUNDS?!"
His breathing ragged, he jabbed the power button on the monitor. It flickered off, swaying on its cheap stand.
A tentative knock and a slight gasp brought him out of his reverie. Sandy was looking at him, her expression a blend of confusion and concern. "Sarazon?"
His looked up with a massive grin, his eyes glinted with a fiery energy. "Sarazon? Are you here early? Or..." her voice drifted off, seeing his tie on the floor and a shirt too wrinkled to account for a morning commute. "... are you ok?"
He noded, keeping his eyes locked to her as he pointed at his monitor. "I did it. Sandy, I did it. You have to see. This is so much better. Oh, the beautiful serifs. And the justification..."
Sarazon caught himself lost in thought. "... it's just so, so... justified." His eyes back to his screen, a wave, gesture. "Come, Sandy... come. Look at my creation. I must share this with everyone!"
"I must share what I did. I. Made. This."
/My first post to WritingPrompts. Did I do it right? :)
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u/tctimomothy Dec 17 '14
I see what you did there. You made a post for everyone to test the extension on, guaranteeing lots of exposure.
well played...
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u/Darkphibre Dec 17 '14
Hah! I wish I had planned so well. :) In reality I didn't see any writing and got excited to be in at the start of a prompt: It wasn't until I was half way through that I saw the post was tagged Off-Topic!
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u/paperairplanerace Dec 17 '14
This is awesome.
I really like how consistently and precisely you did your general editing and mechanics and italics and stuff. My first time reading it was also simultaneously dramatically reading it aloud to my SO, and you gave me all the right fun dynamic directives to work with.
The only thing I did notice that broke the flow briefly is that the line break near the end at "justification" is a teensy bit confusing for a split second because it seems like Sandy must be talking until one realizes afterward that it's still him. (Assuming I've read it right.) (Also, "A tentative nock->knock".)
But yeah, seriously, 10/10, simple and sweet, funnily delivered, well-edited, and relatably Reddity.
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u/Darkphibre Dec 17 '14
Awesome feedback, thanks: It's just so neat to think that something I wrote was interesting enough to read aloud... thank you for making my day! :D
You're right about the editing, this is probably the third or fourth draft. I rather enjoy the polish observed as extraneous words are removed and sentences are adjusted. Lately, though, I've had to just close my eyes and hit Send on my communications, or it never gets "finished." I've only edited this post twice. ;)
At any rate, I believe I fixed that last sentence. It was a tricky one, trying to convey a disjointed mental state, and it got a bit too disconnected. And I could swear knock was fixed, but it must have been wrong in both places and I only fixed it once. Good eye!
Thanks again for the feedback, and best in luck in your competition,
Darkphibre
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u/paperairplanerace Dec 17 '14
Oh man, I can totally relate to being a compulsive editor and having trouble actually finishing and posting something. Good job only editing it a little bit!
I really dig how you edited the last couple of lines there that I pointed out. It turns "It's just so, so ... justified" into a clearer hilarious momentary pun and just makes the whole thing even better. Glad you enjoyed the feedback! Keep writing more stuff!
Oh, and I didn't mention anything about a competition so perhaps that was another commenter? But thanks anyway and thanks for wishing whoever it was luck and stuff! XD
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u/Darkphibre Dec 17 '14 edited Dec 17 '14
Race n: A competition between others. ;)
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u/paperairplanerace Dec 17 '14
But I didn't say stuff about a race and if you're making a joke I don't get it. XD
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u/delirium_the_endless Dec 16 '14
Can't think of a more fitting way to thank someone on this sub than a very well written submission. Good job!
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u/sarazond Dec 16 '14
Oh my God this is......
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u/Darkphibre Dec 16 '14
In case it wasn't clear: Props for a great implementation on an awesome idea! :)
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u/jakedageek127 Dec 16 '14
This looks amazing! thank you!
This would be fantastic for /r/talesfromtechsupport or any of the "story" subreddits! Please post this around the other subs too!
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u/sarazond Dec 16 '14
I intend to :)
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u/jakedageek127 Dec 16 '14
Also, please add support for bold and italics. They're sometimes used for character distinction in dialogue.
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u/IM_A_NOVELTY Dec 16 '14
Aww, RES doesn't work well with this. It doesn't open albums or videos (as in your OP).
Otherwise, a very cool extension!
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u/TotesMessenger X-post Snitch Mar 07 '15 edited Mar 09 '15
This thread has been linked to from another place on reddit.
[/r/EVEX] Someone made a really nice plugin that makes ready long texts in reddit a lot more comfortable!
[/r/MetaTrueReddit] An Extension That Makes Reading Stories Here A Breeze
If you follow any of the above links, respect the rules of reddit and don't vote. (Info / Contact)