The Sword and Laser discussion

Thanks, Seanbot 3000. That'll help me keep track of things I'm specially interested in.

Alright, I'm back. Long time listener/watcher has decided to attempt to "attend" the live show. This may have been prompted by the video option on the podcast that has been including the cute pre-show chatter in which Veronica says "just waiting to see who joins us."

Q: When do they record the show? Is a schedule posted somewhere? And what's the URL to get there?

Thank you! :)

Anne wrote: "Alright, I'm back. Long time listener/watcher has decided to attempt to "attend" the live show. This may have been prompted by the video option on the podcast that has been including the cute pre..."

Usually they have the show every other Tuesday and most of the time it's at 19h00 EST. (Or 16h00 PST). But we'll have one next Tuesday because of the holidays.

On youtube, if you're subscribed to Sword and Laser, when Veronica and Tom formally schedule it, the link to the live show along with when it'll be with respect to your time zone will appear. Usually it appears a couple of hours earlier on the Tuesday. They usually make an announcement if they're following a different schedule.

I usually see announcements about a live show with a link from twitter. Either the sword and laser account or maybe Veronica. I forget which. Possibly both.

Here's for next week!

https://www.goodreads.com/event/show/...

Thank you, Anja, Rob, and Veronica! Now that I'm back into the work routine, I will try to get into some sort of notification stream. (Probably YouTube, since I find Twitter to be a bit of a trivia overload. :)
Hoping to catch you soon!
ETA: Yep, I wasn't subscribed to the YouTube channel. Oversight corrected!

Just a reminder, when posting images in a thread, consider the size of your image.

The html for embedding an image allows for height and width so you can scale things down. My personal preference is to post an image so the width is only 150-200 pixels, and the height accordingly based on the original image size, with a link below to a full sized image so people can view it at full size if they want, or ignore it more easily if they aren't interested.

Example (I added spaces so you can see the html):

< img src="http://my.url/image.jpg" alt="description" height="100" width="200" />
< a href="http://my.url/image.jpg">full size < /a >

That gives you something like this:



full size

Thanks!

I could've sworn that GR auto-resizes image width.

I believe it does in the threads/browser. From the complaint I got, it must not do that in the digest emails though.

Rob wrote: "I believe it does in the threads/browser. From the complaint I got, it must not do that in the digest emails though."

That is correct. I get the digest and if there are huge pics the digest scales everything done to fit in your email client making the text unreadable. If you then scale up to read you have to scroll the email back and forth - I usually just give up on those days.

Dave wrote: "Rob wrote: "That is correct. I get the digest and if there are huge pics the digest scales everything done to fit in your email client making the text unreadable. If you then scale up to read you have to scroll the email back and forth - I usually just give up on those days."

Spot on. Dave nailed the problem. Large images make the email unreadable.

I don't mean to sound like a dick, but I size my images appropriate to how they'll appear on a web page, which usually requires at least double the size you recommend to make them visually appealing. Plus I'm old (ish) and can't see detail at those resolutions.

The small percentage who get the posts via email really have to take what they get. Sorry, but it is a web forum, not a newsletter.

A better solution would be for Goodreads to re-size the digest images or reduce images (in the emails) to links.

A better solution would be for Goodreads to re-size the digest images or reduce images (in the emails) to links.

I'm holding my breath starting now...

As a web developer, that is not as simple as it would seem. Auto-resizing on a website is much simpler than through email. Though I suppose they could have an image max width across the board with regards to the email digests.

You could adjust your email client's settings to not show images from Goodreads.

I know Gmail has this setting and can be set up to show images from only sites you allow or to not show images from selected sites. Other clients should (you would hope) have similar settings

Open Gmail.
At the top right, click the gear Settings.
Select Settings.
Scroll down to the Images section (stay in the "General" tab).
Choose Ask before displaying external images.
Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
To see images in a message, click Display images below in the box near the top of your message.

Allow or block images from specific senders

If you'd like to always be able to see images from a particular sender, click Always display images from [email protected] in the box above your message.

If you don’t want to see images from a particular sender
, open a message from that sender, click the Show details arrow show details icon below the sender's name, and click Don't display from now on.

On an Android phone or tablet
In the Gmail app, touch the Gmail icon Gmail icon, then Settings.
Choose your account.
Touch Images.
Choose Ask before showing.
To see images in a message, touch Show pictures above your message.

On an iPhone or iPad
To change your settings, open Gmail and follow the computer directions above.

Tassie Dave wrote: "I don't mean to sound like a dick, but I size my images appropriate to how they'll appear on a web page, which usually requires at least double the size you recommend to make them visually appealin..."

My size suggestion was just an example. You're of course free to do what you want. I was simply trying to make people aware of the issue based on a complaint I got.

Fair enough. I do understand their frustration. I do try to keep my images to manageable sizes. I usually go around 200 x 300

This forum is one of the better ones concerning image sizes limitations. Some I frequent have no limits, which sees people post uncompressed pictures many times the size of the average monitor.

That is annoying. Especially when they insist on posting several pics at a time.

The fact that you size your image at all is enough. I don't think most people do and just let goodreads do it for them.

I'm just amazed that people allow images to display in email by default.

Is there a way to read through discussion threads for books previously read in this group?

Jessica wrote: "Is there a way to read through discussion threads for books previously read in this group?"
Sure - go to your home page on Goodreads, click on Sword and Laser - toward the right is a link to discussions that will give you a listing of everything and if you scroll down you will see that there is a sub-heading for each book. Good luck!

Jessica wrote: "Is there a way to read through discussion threads for books previously read in this group?"

All the discussions are archived on Goodreads going back to March 2010 when the group started using these forums. Threads are organized into one folder per book. You can click on the "Discussions" link in the sidebar to browse or you can find direct links on the Wikia pages for each book. You can also find the relevant podcast episodes on the Episode Guide.

Is there a way to get to the end of a particularly long thread? Or do you just keep loading more comments? Some of the threads are five years strong, so it would be nice to be able to start with the more recent stuff. I feel like I must be missing something.

Corey wrote: "Is there a way to get to the end of a particularly long thread? Or do you just keep loading more comments? Some of the threads are five years strong, so it would be nice to be able to start with th..."

On the website there is. (And if you're on mobile, I suggest using a browser instead of the app for discussions anyways).

Top right corner above the first post on a page is a link that says "newest". It will take you to the last page of the thread at least.

Thanks, Rob! I was just using the app on my phone. My computer is a hilariously dated Mac that I usually never touch, so I'll have to get more savvy using my phone for this message board.

I think the phone app is awful personally, so I hardly use it. Mostly for book status updates. I just use chrome on my phone to do forums.

Also if you have been to a thread before, just click on the red "new" link instead of the thread title.
This will take you to the start of the stuff that is new since you last visited.

I agree with Rob. Always use the browser. The Apps for Goodreads are terrible.

Glad to see that The Sword & Laser is now available on Tunein radio. My Amazon Echo will be very happy.

http://tunein.com/radio/Sword--Laser-...

I have added "A Brief History of Sword and Laser" section to the Wiki. In response to a discussion with the Roberator on the latest podcast thread.

It can be accessed via a link on the main page (Just under the "Welcome to the S&L Wiki" section
http://swordandlaser.wikia.com/wiki/S...

or direct from this link.
http://swordandlaser.wikia.com/wiki/A...

If I have missed something from the history, either let me know and I will add it, or feel free to add it yourself.

If you are unsure of the date. Post it and I'm sure me or one of the other members can find it.

Awesome Dave. Thanks for doing that. Good stuff.

So, I feel I have done my due diligence searching for this answer, but I am confused on how the next book is actually picked, and when it's announced. Can someone please explain that? I just joined this group a few weeks ago. Thanks!

There are several ways a book can be picked, it will vary from month to month. We usually alternate between Fantasy (Sword) and Sci-Fi (Laser). We are reading sci-fi now, so next month will be a fantasy book.

These are the most common ways a book is picked:

1- It can be a dictatorial pick. i.e If it is a Fantasy month, Veronica will pick the book. If it is a Sci-Fi month, Tom will pick the book
Sometimes Tom and Veronica ask for suggestions before choosing a book from those suggestions. They do take notice of the Listopia lists and use them to make decisions often.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

2- Both hosts may decide together which book to read. Sometimes because of an event (Movie coming out, author just died, a guest recommended a book etc)

3- About a third of the choices are decided by a poll. Either of everyone here on Goodreads or occasionally just the Patreon members on the Patreon site.

The announcement of the next book is made a week or so before the end of the month. If it is a poll then it will be made on the forum in the thread for that poll.
Most books are announced on the podcast that comes out in that 3rd week of the month.

Someone will make a thread in the General section of the forum as soon as it is announced to let everyone know.

I am hoping we will have a March Madness poll again like last year.

Minsta wrote: "I am hoping we will have a March Madness poll again like last year."

Yeah. Me too. I'll remind them about that in a few weeks.

Nice, thank you!