FAQ Coding your Story Properly Ver 4.02

[Stephen aka Old Man ASC]

FAQ
Coding Your Story Properly

This is version 4.02 Updated 07/08/2009

Updated this time:
- For AOS, a code for Gaila
- For VOY, a code for Naomi Wildman
- For general, codes for Q Junior and Quinn

Updated version 4.01
- Addition of Pike and Number 1 code for TOS/AOS

Updated version 4.00
- Added Alternate Original Series
- Added Sp for Spock Prime

Table of Contents:
. Introduction
. Subject Line
... Postname
... Series
... Part
... Rating
. Codes
... Ordering and Use of Codes
... The Original Series
... The Next Generation
... Deep Space Nine
... Voyager
... Enterprise
... Others
... Story Types
... Content Codes
. The ASC*/Trekiverse Story Header
. How In the Pattern Buffer Works
... Author
... Title
... Series
... Rating
... Part
. Manipulating the Pattern Buffer
. Credits


Introduction

This FAQ is being introduced to bring the various posting codes
used in the Subject Line and other ASC* Headers all into one
place and make it easier to find. It also teaches you how to
manipulate the new automated "In the Pattern Buffer feature of
Trekiverse

We do not mandate the use of these codes. However, a great deal
of the Archiving and Awards process is accomplished by the use
of these codes, so chose not to use them at your own risk. If
your story comes up with a title of "/" ... we told you so.

It should be noted that some codes here in are provided but not
required to be considered fully coded. They are for consistency
only. Some codes have a * by them. These are not to be used at
all, and are listed to tell you what the author who used them
meant.

The Subject Line

The Subject Line will quite often be what causes a reader to read
your story. Therefore it is advisable to clearly indicate what
your story is in that line. It consists of several parts, of
which the recommended order is: Postname, Series, Title, Parts,
Rating, Codes.

Postname
The Postname is a 3 character description of the status of your
work. The following are the approved codes which In the Pattern
Buffer handles:

NEW New, not seen on the newsgroup
N2U New to this Newsgroup
REP Reposted
COR Corrected, a minor correction, usually spelling or
grammar has been made
REV Revised, major changes to the story have been made
DRA Draft, this part may be changed before the story is
complete
WIP Work in Progress, this story is unfinished, but this
part is finished.

You may also see the following codes. Authors are discouraged
from using them.

NEW2ASC - New to ASC but not New. Use NEW or N2U
NEW2ASCEM - New to ASCEM but not New. Use NEW or N2U
DRF - Draft Use DRA
DFT - Draft Use DRA

Series
This tells you which series a story is in. Any Series
followed by a '*' is discouraged in the interests of
unity.

TOS The Original Series
AOS Alternate Original Series, based on Star Trek (2009)
TNG The Next Generation
DS9 Deep Space Nine
DSN* Deep Space Nine
VOY Voyager
VGR* Voyager
ENT Enterprise (the new series)
OCC Original Characters & Crew
MIS None of the above.

The following Series have earned the right to their own
code on ASC.

INF Infinity
MAJ Majestic
AMA Amagosa Universe
VS7.5 Voyager Virtual Season 7.5

Part
The Part should be in the form of n/n when n is a number. We
discourage the use of letters.

Rating
We use the MPAA rating system, as it's the most
well known and deeply entrenched in the group.
Those ratings are [G], [PG], [PG-13], [R], [NC-17]
Note the use of the []. We place them around the
ratings to make them look different than several
character codes and ease filtering.

[G] suitable for all ages. No objectionable material
whatsoever

[PG] all ages, but parental guidance is suggested, meaning
there may be language or situations that parents may
want to consider whether or not the story is
age-appropriate for their children.

[PG-13] all ages, but parental guidance is suggested, for the
same reasons as above. In addition and in particular
parents should strongly consider whether their
children under the age of 13 are ready for some of the
material contained. This might be for language,
action/violence, or situations that might require
explanation by the parents (such as racism, sexual
situations, etc.).

[R] adult content. This could be due to language, violence
or sexual situations, or other adult situations.

[NC-17] means the story is either highly violent, largely
concerned with sex and/or sexual exploration., or
contains sexual material which may be offensive or
troublesome to readers.
This does not mean that graphic sex is included in a
story.

[NR] The author has chosen not to rate this story.

For more information on Ratings, please see:

http://www.mpaa.org/movieratings/about/index.htm

Codes will be handled in the next section.

Codes

These codes are a consensus, chosen shortly after the
announcement of the cast of a new Trek Series. Additional codes
for regular guest stars may be added periodically by e-mailing
the maintainer of this FAQ who will propose the new code to ASC
for discussion. Often, after the Awards Season new codes will be
announced.

Ordering and use of Character Codes.
Character codes are used to reference the main characters
and romance pairings in the subject line. Several
separators are used to denote how the codes (and characters)
relate:

/ Sexually Involved, or nearly so
& Relationship only (No Sex, generally Friendship)
, Featured

The character codes are generally ordered in seniority
or age order. A character with a code is always before
one who doesn't have one. The order of the codes are
now in typical seniority order. There are of course,
exceptions to the rules. Also, due to some common
pairings using the same letters but different series,
the order is mandated in some cases. An exceptions
will be listed at the end of each section.

You can always spell out a character's name in the
event it is not listed in the series labels below.

The Original Series...

K Kirk
S Spock
Mc McCoy
Sc Scotty
Su Sulu
U Uhura
C Chekov
Ch Chapel
R Rand, Janice
Sa Sarek
Am Amanda
Saa Saavik
Ba Barrows
Mss M'Ress
Tpr T'Pring
Tpu T'Pau
P Christopher Pike
1 Number One

Alternate Original Series...

AOS special note: All TOS codes migrated over to AOS. Usually
Actual characters who transfer between series would keep their
code. In the case of the Spock played by Nimoy, however, we
are making an exception, as one would expect the native to the
universe character to use the code. We've already had stories
using both Spocks, so we took guidance from the closing credits
and used Spock Prime to refer to the original Spock.

K Kirk
S Spock
Sp Spock Prime
Mc McCoy
Sc Scotty
Su Sulu
U Uhura
C Chekov
Ch Chapel
R Rand, Janice
Sa Sarek
Am Amanda
Saa Saavik
Ba Barrows
Mss M'Ress
Tpr T'Pring
Tpu T'Pau
P Christopher Pike
1 Number One
G Gaila

The Next Generation...

P Picard
R Riker, William T
C Doctor Beverly Crusher
D Data
La Geordi La Forge
W Worf
T Troi
Y Yar
Wes Wesley Crusher
L Lore
Lx Lwaxana
Pu Pulaski
V Vash
Ro Ro Laren

Deep Space Nine...

S Sisko
K Kira
O Odo
G Garak
O'B Miles O'Brien
B Bashir
W Worf
D Dax (Jadzia)
Qu Quark
Ez Ezri Dax
Ja Jake
Kko Keiko O'Brien
R Rom
Bl Bariel
Br Brunt
Du Dukat
Dmr Damar
I Intendant (alternate universe Kira)
Kev Keevan
L Leeta
Mly Molly O'Brien
Mo Morn
We Weyoun
Zek Zek
Z Tora, Ziyal
G/B Garak and Bashir
O/K Kira and Odo
J/J* Bashir and Jadzia Dax
O'Bs Miles and Keiko O'Brien

Voyager...

J Janeway
C Chakotay
Tu Tuvok
Doc the Doctor
P Paris
T Torres
K Harry Kim
N Neelix
Kes Kes, of course
Ka Kashyk
S Seska
Vo Vorik
7 Seven of Nine
Na Naomi Wildman
C/P Chakotay and Paris
P/T Paris and Torres
P/K Paris and Kim
P/K/T Paris, Kim, and Torres
K/7 Kim and Seven of Nine

Enterprise...

A Jonathan Archer
T T'Pol
P Phlox
R Malcolm Reed
Ma Travis Mayweather
S Hoshi Sato
Tu Charles Tucker
Po Porthos
Cu Cutler
So Ambassador Soval
Tpu T'Pau

Others...
Q Q played by John Delance
Suzy-Q female Q from "The Q and the Gray"
Q2 male Q from "Deja Q"
Qjr Q Junior
Qu Quinn
Q(m) a male Q
Q(f) a female Q
SS Shuttlecraft, starships, etc.
m A male not listed above
f A female not listed above
Gr Grapefruit (don't ask)

Story Types...
Several types of writing have been defined. Those are:

xover* Crossover between Trek and a Non-Trek Show.
Indicate Series
xo Crossover
poem Poetry
drabble A story of exactly 100 words
filk A song reworded to fit Star Trek
au alternate universe

It is suggested that these be indicated in the subject
line, and for archiving purposes be identified at least
in the story header on the Codes line.

Content Codes...
The content codes are nice things to have but are not
required. In fact, many people say they can do without
them. So, these are provided for those that want to use
them. They are strictly optional. Most of these come
from the Alt.Sex.Stories Story Codes for Readers FAQ.
Taking a code from that FAQ if its not listed here is a
good idea.

act action-based story
angst
bd bondage
ds dominance and submission
h-c hurt comfort
mc mind control
nc non-consensual
sm sadomasochism
viol violence

The ASC*/Trekiverse Story Header

This is the standard ASC*/Trekiverse Story Header. (cut, paste,
and fill in) It should at least be at the top of the first part
of your story, if not successive parts.

Title:
Author:
Contact:
Series:
Rating:
Codes:
Challenge:
Part:
Summary:

Title
The title is the title of your story as you wish it to appear in
the archive. The archive will sort in the traditional manner.

Author
The author line is how you want your name to appear in the
archive. It is not the place for a copyright statement. Please
do not put your e-mail on this line anymore.

Contact
This is how you reach the author. Given that ASCEM stories in
particular may lack this when forwarding to ASCEM-S, this is a
good thing to include. This is optional.

Series
This should be the three-letter code for the series you write
for. If you have a subseries, or this is part of a suite, list
that after a comma. Order of the series should be in #1 form.
If your series or suite has more than nine entries, pad it
with a zero.

Rating
Rating is for the entire story. The archive team will take the
highest rating if multiple are provided.

Codes
See above section ... the more complete your listing the better.
If you want to hide your codes, put this line at the end ... I'll
still pick it up.

Challenge
An optional line to indicate the challenges involved in a story.

Part
Of the form 1/1 Postname

Summary
A guide to writing summaries is provided on the archive site.
Remember to put a blank line after your summary.

How In the Pattern Buffer Works

The new Stories Only Raw Postings that are going up on Trekiverse
make certain assumptions in order to create the index you see.
These assumptions are based on the existing ASC FAQs and a some
hopefully common sense programming. In order to properly cover
this, We'll go over a part of the index at a time. Each index
line will be covered and the assumptions I made in creating it.

Author
The Author line pulls from the first line beginning with
"Author:" in your post. If there is not such a line, the default
"From:" line included in every newsgroup post is put in its
place. If you don't want it headed as being from your address,
make sure you include that "Author:" Line

Title
Title comes from your "Title:" line. However, if you don't have
one, it goes to your Subject Line. With the Subject Line it
strips out beginnings of: [ASCA], NEW, REP, REV, DRF, WIP, TOS,
TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, MIS, OCC plus any leading spaces. It
terminates the title when it comes to a "/", "[", or "("

Series
Series comes from your "Series" line. However, if that is not
present it searches your Subject line for: TOS, AOS, TNG, DS9,
VOY, ENT, MIS, and OCC. These it adds to it's constructed
Series field.

Addendum: If you're writing a sub-series of stories (ex:
Marrissa Stories), please include that sub-series as well as the
series in that "Series:" line.

Rating
Rating is now pulled from either the rating or subject line.
A rating of [R] or [NC-17] places the story in the adult
directory.

Part
Part is pulled from the "Part:" line. A future enhancement is in
progress to pull it from the characters before the first "/"

Manipulating the Pattern Buffer

Most authors really don't want to put the whole story header on
each part. If you use the subject line properly, you can reduce
your use of the header to data you wish to change.

First, make sure as much of your data is in the subject line as
possible. If you can list your pairings there, the Codes line
may become unnecessary. Make sure your series is listed there,
and that your part number immediately follows the title. If you
do all of this, you won't need to put the title, series, or
codes lines.

This also will result in your title line becoming, when the
Pattern Buffer Software is run, the title followed by the part
number. This will aid in sorting so that all parts show up in
order. However, if you're doing ten or more parts, pad the
single digit part numbers with a zero to insure proper sorting.

A proper Author line may still be needed, if your from line
doesn't begin with your or the author you're posting for's
pseudonym. If you can change your from line to match, however,
the author line can also become unnecessary.

If your story comes up with a strange title due to bad headers,
be aware that manual correction probably won't be done until it
gets in the regular archive section.

Credits

The version 2 of this FAQ, under the old title was produced with
the kind assistance of:

Alara Rogers, Archivist (1995-8)
Ruth Gifford, ASCEM FAQ (1995-9)
Ned Fox, ASCEM FAQ (1999-2000)
Dina Lerret, ASC Archivist (1998-2000)
Datalaur, Golden Os Website Maintainer (1999-)
Katie Redshoes, Archive Team (1998-)
Meghan Elizabeth, ASCA Summary Editor (2000-)
Greywolf, ASCEM FAQ (2000-2002)
Kattz, ASC Awards (2000-2001)
Mary Ellen Curtin, Golden Os (2000-2003)
and other members of the ASC Staff.


The proceeding FAQ is a service of the ASC-VSO.
"That will teach us to be insufficiently reluctant"

Current Maintainer: Stephen Ratliff