Lots

[Sir Toby]

Or, maybe there could be a log in system for editing episodes after the 30day period.

Mostly because JH or Sir toby are not at the PC 24/7, and will not be able to send an e-mail or post back ASAP.

I'm not saying that people should have to log in to make an episode, but perhaps if you have an account at the message board, you could log in using the same password and name, or vise virsa.
Althought it would be hard coding the limits to it.
for entence my name being "ods" i have many sigs that come up with "Mods insted of Ods.

I don't think that I'd like to tie the bulletin board into Extend-A-Story in quire that way. There is however a feature request for creating a login mechanism for authors so that they can edit their episodes. There are some questions in my mind about how it will work exactly, but I imagined that the 30 day limit would still apply. I felt that the login system would mostly be for those authors for which the cookie mechanism doesn't work too well. Say perhaps you are writing from more than one computer, or don't allow persistent cookies.

[JH]

Do you think this is something to consider adding, or do you think a different approach might serve us better? If you like this approach, would sort of interface would you like to see for it? Perhaps an additional link near the editing section to allow you to extend the time the author is allowed to edit the episode, or something more elaborate?

Yes, I think a link as described, only available to moderators, would do the job. However, I think authors shouldn't become too perfectionist about past episodes that they've written. So long as the episode's meaning is clear and there are no major continuity glitches, that's the main thing. The occasional typo isn't really a problem.

[ODS]

I didn't mean it that way, but for the people who already logged into the message board, they are able to log in, so that they don't have to go through the hell of registering.

Or you could do like gamefaqs.com does, each time a person reaches a certen post number(In this case episode number) they gain a new ability. say if you reach 100 maybe you get an extention on the episodes, and maybe at 1000 you can gain the ablity to edit all of your episodes.
Episode number as in, Lots created over 1700 episodes.

[JH]

Or you could do like gamefaqs.com does, each time a person reaches a certen post number(In this case episode number) they gain a new ability. say if you reach 100 maybe you get an extention on the episodes, and maybe at 1000 you can gain the ablity to edit all of your episodes.

I think that would be a very bad idea. I don't want newcomers to feel discouraged by having fewer rights than the old hands. It would also tend to encourage people to write a lot of short, poor episodes rather than a few long, good ones.

[ODS]

Thats true, it's just a suggestion though.
I'm not good at coming up with ideas.
Good thing i'm not an administator.

anyway, back on the subject, The only problem i can see is that You Guys(JH and Sir Toby) are not going to be on the pc every second, so if someone Found an episode that they had made or edited and it cause a continuity problem, and the 30 days expired, they would have to wait, and that might cause more of a problem in the time that they are waiting. i know his probably won't happen but, you never know. EDIT:Hmmm, i already said that, please excuse my poor memory

So maybe Sir Toby can appoint people who can stay on the site during certain times, and who have the power to allow the person to edit it.
Anyway, don't listen to me. i don't make any sence at all.

[Ryu]

My two cents:

I fully support the lockdown of editing after 30 days. Most of my episodes were written from many different public terminals so that a certain group of groups, (corporations), the Beligian government and many many individuals couldn't trace where I'm from. So to make a long story short, if someone else went on Extend-a-Story from one of those terminals, (probably from hitting the back button after I left, after trailing me for two days straight like that one guy i had to have a talk with) they could edit my episodes and write in all kind of ridiculous plot twists, spelling mistakes and continuity glitches. That would be bad for business and bad for everybody else too. Beside, if you havent gotten your episode write by now, what makes you think you will be able to improve on it at this point? Just accept your destiny and do not feel regret for the past, no matter what you have done. That is the motto I live by.

[Sir Toby]

The only problem i can see is that You Guys(JH and Sir Toby) are not going to be on the pc every second, so if someone Found an episode that they had made or edited and it cause a continuity problem, and the 30 days expired, they would have to wait, and that might cause more of a problem in the time that they are waiting. i know his probably won't happen but, you never know.

I know that JH and myself cannot possibly provide full 24/7/365 coverage for Extend-A-Story. I'm okay with that. This is a hobby web site. Nobody is paid to administer or moderate it. Nobody needs to pay to read the story or add to it. I haven't yet seen an issue that needed immediate attention. While there are issues that benefit from being dealt with swiftly, I can't imagine any issues that will ever require immediate attention.

I generally make myself available through multiple methods. I am reachable via multiple email addresses and multiple IM protocols. I also check the bulletin board regularly. The most you might have to wait to get my attention may be a week if I'm out of town with no internet access, however such trips are very rare for me. If I'm gone and an absolute emergency comes up where you need to contact me you will find a means to contact me by looking up the sir-toby.com domain record. The listed phone number is a cell phone which I almost always have on me. Please only use this as a last resort.

So maybe Sir Toby can appoint people who can stay on the site during certain times, and who have the power to allow the person to edit it.

I don't see a reason to appoint people to be on at certain times. Extend-A-Story just isn't that busy. As I mentioned above, I don't see a need for 24/7 coverage. I personally can't commit myself to being available at specific times, and I can't see myself asking JH or anyone else to commit to that either. I'm pretty happy with the way things are. If things change, I will consider making adjustments to accomodate.