Just signed up

[FrodoGoofball]

Greetings. Like a number of other new forum members, I've been surfing the OA Encyclopedia Galactica Pages for some time, and have forgotten exactly how I found it. I find most new sites accidentally through search engines so I'm 90%+ confident that's how I got here (I suspect I was looking up something about future space habitat ideas).

I signed up because I noticed what I thought might or might not be an mathematical error on a page, and wanted to discuss it, but I also might have some ideas of my own later on.

[Matterplay1]

Greetings. Like a number of other new forum members, I've been surfing the OA Encyclopedia Galactica Pages for some time, and have forgotten exactly how I found it. I find most new sites accidentally through search engines so I'm 90%+ confident that's how I got here (I suspect I was looking up something about future space habitat ideas).

I signed up because I noticed what I thought might or might not be an mathematical error on a page, and wanted to discuss it, but I also might have some ideas of my own later on.

Welcome to OA! (or should I say welcome to the discussion part of OA... clearly you've already had a look around the project itself). By all means start a discussion about the page in question. Pick whichever sub-forum makes sense to you. Probably it will come under General Setting Discussion, but if it turns out the material is useful in another sub-forum we can always move it later.

Cheers,

Stephen

[EricRaymond]

My first post was a story "The Grass Is Always Greener", over in Creative Writing.

One nice comment. Buncha reads with no comment - does silence generally mean "it was good, so nothing to say" or "it was mediocre/bad but I'm polite" around here? I don't know the local culture.

I was hoping to get some feedback on the story's canonicity, but nobody has said a word about that. I did my homework reading the EG and then made a few cautious extrapolations.

Also, I see that authors retain copyright. Given that, is anyone going to be annoyed if I successfully flog an OA story to an SF magazine?

[Drashner1]

Hi Eric,

I can't speak for everyone here, but in my particular case, it meant that I glanced at the story this morning, made a mental note to sit down and read through it when I get more time, and then started my day including working out and then going to work. I suspect that others may be in the same boat.

Generally the culture here is pretty friendly and silence is more likely to mean 'good, so nothing to say' or (at worst) 'I don't have time to comment right now'. We have a large percentage of lurkers on the forum and the folks who are inclined to post on stories may not have had a chance to do so yet or even a chance to look at the story yet. Usually our advice for any submission (fiction or EG entry) is to allow for 5-7 days for people to post any responses they are inclined to give and then move forward from there.

Again speaking for myself, one of my hats is an associate editor of the OA ezine and I'm always on the hunt for new stories for an upcoming issue. So I will definitely be giving your story a read through I'm also one of the senior members and 'canon police' of the project, so I'll also be checking the story in that regard as well and offering advice and critiques to make it fit fully into OA if there are any issues in that regard. That all said, I'm also working to get the next OA story collection finished up and published with Amazon and that's going to be eating up a bunch of my time this week.

Basically, I'm definitely going to be reading your story and sharing my thoughts on it - but it will probably be later this week or early next before I can do so

Regarding getting an OA story published in an SF magazine - Nothing would make us happier

About the only 'rule' we have around such a thing would be that an attribution be given to the OA project. Something like 'this story is set in the Orion's Arm universe (www.orionsarm.com)'. Or something like that. We can definitely discuss details if/when things get to that point.

Ok, I think that about covers it. If you have any questions or concerns regarding any of the above (or anything else really), please don't hesitate to post em to the forum or contact me directly.

Thanks!

Todd

[EricRaymond]

Usually our advice for any submission (fiction or EG entry) is to allow for 5-7 days for people to post any responses they are inclined to give and then move forward from there.

Thanks, that's useful information.

Regarding getting an OA story published in an SF magazine - Nothing would make us happier

Has anyone succeeded at this yet?

I'll try shipping it to Analog when it's passed its canonicity check, then. I sold them a fact article once; for that, and other reasons, they know who I am. I think my odds of success are reasonably good unless the sexual content is over their threshold.

About the only 'rule' we have around such a thing would be that an attribution be given to the OA project. Something like 'this story is set in the Orion's Arm universe (www.orionsarm.com)'. Or something like that. We can definitely discuss details if/when things get to that point.

Heh. Already added to the end of the ms: "Note: This story is set in the universe of Orion's Arm, an open-source collaborative worldbuilding project on the web at: http://www.orionsarm.com/" I did not consider this optional; where I come from, which is the open-source software culture, we have very strong norms about correctness and generosity of attribution.

In fact, my next question was going to be whether the OAUP ethos is OK with having the project material described as "open source". I'm fairly sure I've already grokked the right answer to that, but I always consider that politeness requires me to check in these situations.

Thanks for the help.

[Matterplay1]

In fact, my next question was going to be whether the OAUP ethos is OK with having the project material described as "open source". I'm fairly sure I've already grokked the right answer to that, but I always consider that politeness requires me to check in these situations.

You've grokked correctly. :-)

[Matterplay1]

My first post was a story "The Grass Is Always Greener", over in Creative Writing.

One nice comment. Buncha reads with no comment - does silence generally mean "it was good, so nothing to say" or "it was mediocre/bad but I'm polite" around here? I don't know the local culture.

I was hoping to get some feedback on the story's canonicity, but nobody has said a word about that. I did my homework reading the EG and then made a few cautious extrapolations.

Also, I see that authors retain copyright. Given that, is anyone going to be annoyed if I successfully flog an OA story to an SF magazine?

Like others, meant to comment earlier on the story, but needed to spend some time reading it through and thinking about it for a bit and so haven't yet done so. Will do, though. If it's any consolation to you, I had a similar experience the last time I posted fiction. Probably, again, because people need more time to take in something like that and make a useful comment on it. It's actually much easier to provide useful feedback on an Encyclopaedia Galactica article than it is on a narrative.

I think it was already mentioned, but no, nobody would be at all disappointed if you flogged an OA story to an SF magazine. In fact, people will cheer you on... :-)

[four]

Hi, thought I'd say hello here since the netiquette page recommends an introduction.
16 year old Sci-fi fan, and huge fan of SpaceX. First came to OA through a link from Wikipedia's Terraforming of Venus page, and soon found out that it way by far the most "realistic" scifi I'd seen, and subsequently read most of the Encyclopedia Galactica.
I'm not very creative so don't expect to contribute much, but I'll do what I can.

[Drashner1]

Hi There, Welcome to OA

We value any effort to make the project better, whether that be new EG entries, catching typos or logic flaws on existing entries, offering thoughts and suggestions for improving EG entries submitted by others or the project as a whole, posting links to 'real life but OA relevant' information or pretty much anything else that is done with the intent of participating in and improving the project in good faith. We also have a lot of folks who just prefer to lurk on the site and what things progress - and that's perfectly OK too. Whatever floats your boat basically

If you have any ideas, questions or concerns regarding anything about OA, please feel free to post em here or to the relevant sub-forum or contact one of the admins directly.

Hope this helps, and once again Welcome to OA

Todd

[Worldtree]

Hi, thought I'd say hello here since the netiquette page recommends an introduction.
16 year old Sci-fi fan, and huge fan of SpaceX. First came to OA through a link from Wikipedia's Terraforming of Venus page, and soon found out that it way by far the most "realistic" scifi I'd seen, and subsequently read most of the Encyclopedia Galactica.
I'm not very creative so don't expect to contribute much, but I'll do what I can.

I can point you toward a number of methods to improve creativity if you wish (which is a good skill in general in life)
Welcome to OA!