HTML tag problem with story submission

[RagnarHairyBreeches]

I submitted a story recently. It was published.

However, the story included several section breaks - I usually centre an asterisk using a couple of html tags. My submission spanned 4 pages (ie. web type pages). The section breaks were displayed properly on page 1, but ignored on pages 2 to 4.) Has anyone else noticed that?

It was a pain to fix, because I had made some edits on the server rather than my original, and in copying the story from the server, I lost para formatting and italics. The thing I'm wondering about is that if I simply submit a second EDITED version, it might do exactly the same thing again.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Personally, I use Word, save in RTF, and upload, and formatting is usually perfect. Not that there aren't a ton of typos sometimes.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I submitted a story recently. It was published.

However, the story included several section breaks - I usually centre an asterisk using a couple of html tags. My submission spanned 4 pages (ie. web type pages). The section breaks were displayed properly on page 1, but ignored on pages 2 to 4.) Has anyone else noticed that?

It was a pain to fix, because I had made some edits on the server rather than my original, and in copying the story from the server, I lost para formatting and italics. The thing I'm wondering about is that if I simply submit a second EDITED version, it might do exactly the same thing again.

It’s a known bug, and super annoying.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Does the bug bug you, EM?

It’s a known bug, and super annoying.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Does the bug bug you, EM?

Imagine if the issue was with a covert listening device, then the bug bug might bug me

 

[WaxPhilosophic]

Yeah. I thought it was just me.

I use three asterisks, centered. They don't appear on most of my "page 2s", but if I hit refresh, they appear.

But, it's not consistent.

For example: https://www.literotica.com/s/honeys-rizz-quest Skim through page one and you'll see how I'm using the * * * to separate sections. Then, use the arrow to go to the next page of the story. Asterisk dividers are gone. But refresh, and they appear.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Yeah. I thought it was just me.

I use three asterisks, centered. They don't appear on most of my "page 2s", but if I hit refresh, they appear.

But, it's not consistent.

For example: https://www.literotica.com/s/honeys-rizz-quest Skim through page one and you'll see how I'm using the * * * to separate sections. Then, use the arrow to go to the next page of the story. Asterisk dividers are gone. But refresh, and they appear.

That’s precisely the nature of the bug.

 

[Britva415]

The precise nature of the bug is the centering.

If they aren't centered, they won't trigger the bug.

Left-aligned is perfectly cromulent for a section break, if you're willing to use that as a work-around.

 

[IWroteThis]

I submitted a story recently. It was published.

However, the story included several section breaks - I usually centre an asterisk using a couple of html tags. My submission spanned 4 pages (ie. web type pages). The section breaks were displayed properly on page 1, but ignored on pages 2 to 4.) Has anyone else noticed that?

It was a pain to fix, because I had made some edits on the server rather than my original, and in copying the story from the server, I lost para formatting and italics. The thing I'm wondering about is that if I simply submit a second EDITED version, it might do exactly the same thing again.

It's a known bug. Refreshing the page fixes it for that session (last time I checked).

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Extensively discussed here: https://forum.literotica.com/threads/section-breaks-and-display-glitches.1646128/

 

[RagnarHairyBreeches]

Yes, hitting F5 reveals them. It's not such a sophisticated tag for it be a problem. I found it interesting that page 1 is always presented correctly. Only the following pages show the problem. It's also weird that they show correctly in draft, but not when published.

I guess I'll use one of the suggestions mentioned: a few dashes on a new line, maybe.

Thanks for pointing out the original post.

 

[MrPixel]

I'll pile on like I have in the other threads about it. I stopped publishing on Literotica because this known and well-documented bug since last November has not been fixed and there is no indication it will ever get fixed. I rely heavily on centered break characters as scene separators; without the text breaks my writing style becomes mush in the reading.

I guess I'll use one of the suggestions mentioned: a few dashes on a new line, maybe.

I tried left justification with the section breaks, and it does not carry the same visual weight.

 

[RagnarHairyBreeches]

You're right. It's visually lacking, but you have to work with what you've got.
I suppose you could use chapter numbers if you felt inclined.,

 

[Britva415]

I guess I'll use one of the suggestions mentioned: a few dashes on a new line, maybe.

Just don't center them. It isn't the particular characters that are the problem, it's the centering.

 

[Britva415]

it does not carry the same visual weight.

Is it a story or a picture? You want a semantic break. That's what's going to help readers. If it doesn't look all lah-di-dah and fancy, is it not worth the workaround?

 

[TheWritingGroup]

You can put a few <br> tags in, say one above and one below your hyphens, if you want more visual oomph.

 

[TheLobster]

You can put a few <br> tags in, say one above and one below your hyphens, if you want more visual oomph.

Or just use <br>'s everywhere to fool the algorithm into putting your whole story on one page!

(Don't actually do this).

 

[HelenL]

I submitted a story recently. It was published.

However, the story included several section breaks - I usually centre an asterisk using a couple of html tags. My submission spanned 4 pages (ie. web type pages). The section breaks were displayed properly on page 1, but ignored on pages 2 to 4.) Has anyone else noticed that?

It was a pain to fix, because I had made some edits on the server rather than my original, and in copying the story from the server, I lost para formatting and italics. The thing I'm wondering about is that if I simply submit a second EDITED version, it might do exactly the same thing again.

I don't remember where I read this now, but I believe that centering using <p align="center"> confuses the generator, but <div align="center"> (deprecated) works.

This bug hit my last story, which is identical in format to all of my earlier stories, and even so it didn't kill all of my scene breaks, only about half of them, so it's intermittent. I just submitted an edited version of my last story with scene breaks coded as
<p><div align="center">~ ~ ~ ~ ~</div></p>

Of course, since it's an edit, I'll find out if it works in about two months.

 

[TheLobster]

I don't remember where I read this now, but I believe that centering using <p align="center"> confuses the generator, but <div align="center"> (deprecated) works.

This bug hit my last story, which is identical in format to all of my earlier stories, and even so it didn't kill all of my scene breaks, only about half of them, so it's intermittent. I just submitted an edited version of my last story with scene breaks coded as
<p><div align="center">~ ~ ~ ~ ~</div></p>

Of course, since it's an edit, I'll find out if it works in about two months.

I recall people (might be @old_prof) reported the "second page bug" occurring also with <center>, which is the equivalent of <div align="center"> and equally deprecated. I'd be surprised if your version worked differently, especially since the Lit's processing algorithm in the preview turns it into:

<p></p>
<div align="center">~ ~ ~ ~ ~</div>
<p></p>

 

[RagnarHairyBreeches]

This is annoying, particularly as it can't be tested by users. I had a chat to AI and it came up with the following. It may be worth a try. I would like to hope that one of the moderators, or whoever manages the site, would be able to test it. Okay, it's a bug, but if there's a workaround, then it would be good to know what works.

If even align="center" fails, you can wrap your asterisks in a table. Simple tables are rarely stripped because they are structural. Setting the table's width to 100% and the cell's alignment to center forces the content to the middle.

<table width="100%">
<tr>
<td align="center">***</td>
</tr>
</table>

The following is quoted here: https://www.literotica.com/s/how-to-format-a-story-with-html
<p align="right">Right-aligned text</p>

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I believe tables are automatically removed.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Just don't center them. It isn't the particular characters that are the problem, it's the centering.

Agree.

* * * *

Keep it really simple, works just as well. I reckon people get far too caught up in formatting - use what works. Readers are clever, they'll see what you're doing and figure it out.

 

[designatedvictim]

Yeah. I thought it was just me.

I use three asterisks, centered. They don't appear on most of my "page 2s", but if I hit refresh, they appear.

But, it's not consistent.

For example: https://www.literotica.com/s/honeys-rizz-quest Skim through page one and you'll see how I'm using the * * * to separate sections. Then, use the arrow to go to the next page of the story. Asterisk dividers are gone. But refresh, and they appear.

This has been brought up in the past. It seems to be some odd, cached, dynamic styling being applied through code on the browser-end. Someone worked it out previously, I don't recall the details.

I had the same 'invisible scene-break'-issue. For some reason, the centered blocks default to display: none (or, at least, behave that way) when the cached dynamic class isn't applied properly. A page refresh picks up the cached styling and applies it properly.

While I prefer the look of centered scene breaks, on my last story, I bit the bullet and just did left-justified, non-spaced blocks of asterisks.

They seem to have appeared fine.

 

[designatedvictim]

If even align="center" fails, you can wrap your asterisks in a table. Simple tables are rarely stripped because they are structural. Setting the table's width to 100% and the cell's alignment to center forces the content to the middle.

Oh, my!

While you may get the visual effect you want, you've just traumatized me with flashbacks to the The Browser Wars of the '90s and all the cross-browser brutalization needed to get pages to appear consistently across major browser rendering engines.

I pause to shudder dramatically - one might say, melodramatically - here.

 

[old_prof]

Agree.

* * * *

Keep it really simple, works just as well. I reckon people get far too caught up in formatting - use what works. Readers are clever, they'll see what you're doing and figure it out.

Not centering the scene breaks works. It's a major issue for older stories that may use the centering. It used to work -- it broke about a week into the winter holiday contest a few months ago.

I was the one who raised a big stink about the issue at the time. @onehitwanda was the first I was aware of noticing the issue, which impacted some of the stories at the catalog. I had (and still have) three major issues with this bug:

1) Faithfully rendering the story as presented to the is the ONE THING the site has to do correctly. Everything else is gravy.

2) The site gets to set the rules about what formatting is allowed. But they supported centering for a quarter century and blessed its mention in @FrancesScott wonderful HTML piece. (That's when I started using it, so I don't have much of a back catalog doing it, fortunately). So authors had every reason to expect it would work. And for those who have not been following this saga through the (at least) two previous threads dedicated to it, it depends how you navigate to the page, does not depend on how you upload your story (HTL tags vs rtf vs .docx all break in the same way), and it only drops most of the centered entries on a page.

3) Yes, readers will figure it out (if the separator shows up at least) whether the scene break is centered of left justified. But the visual impact of the typography and the typesetting does have an impact on the way readers react to a piece. It's important. I'm particularly surprised that @ElectricBlue discounts this effect out of hand; at times your writing so beautifully captures the ethereal ways we absorb the world around us. You understand that so well about the world, it surprises me you don't understand that's how people react to the visual aspects of reading. Yes, the readers will figure it out. But it will be a less satisfying experience to them, even if most of them have no idea why.