Before I do something rude...

[amalthia]

I have a favorite author, love her fics, can't get enough. well she's posting stories in her LJ now and not putting them up at her website at the same time. (in the past I just read her fics off her website which worked for years) Basically reading her LJ is a real pain in the ass because the area allocated for the text is so small, I guess it's enough for small posts. I'm not sure how enlarge the text area so it's easier to read. I didn't want to have to save, strip the html coding just to read her fics.

Basically, I know asking an LJ author to please increase the size of their text area is kind of rude but I'm really really tempted. I'm not sure if there's a protocol or if people find it offensive if people request that they make their LJ's easier to read? I guess technically most people would say if it's that hard to read, skip it.

Not going to name names, because honeslty it's not just one author in one fandom. I've found hard to read LJ's all over the place. Normally, I don't care if the author isn't any good, but it sucks when you find someone that can write and you need to take that extra step in order to read their fics.

Comments

[mcalex22.livejournal.com]

I've had some authors whose text are a tad bit small but I never say antyhing because I don't know how to.

What I wonder though is, can you by any chance select and copy the text of the story and paste it in Word and read it there (in it's decently legible size) but return to her LJ to comment?

Of course this solution might not work - if you can't copy the text... (if so I'm sorry I can't be of much help).

Personalizing one's LJ is a matter of pride and takes time and patience. It's very difficult to tell someone that you can't read their stuff but it also depends on how well you know this person. I won't take offense if someone said told me that - as I have explicitly asked for advise and feedback about my LJ.

[amalthia]

notepad seems like the best solution. :) it's just you lose bolds, italics, and paragraphing...but....that's still better than the alternative which is hard to read fic.

[mamoru22.livejournal.com]

easy solution as long as its actually a livejournal blog...just add "&style=mine" to the end of the link when you open the window and the page will be shown with your LJ style.

That way, you can read it the way you prefer and the author can keep the page she wants to. :)

But if the text is really that hard to read maybe drop her a mail to tell her. Maybe on her computer it looks great.

[amalthia]

the &style=mine seems like the perfect solution. :) I'll try that out. I've been using LJ for a while but still don't know everything about what it can do. thanks. :)

and yeah, I'll think about sending her a private email and ask about it? It's entirely possible that on her computer it looks fine and is bigger. but I'll probably only do that if the style mine solution doesn't work.

[fiamaya.livejournal.com]

It's actually ?style-mine (not &), and it needs to go before #cutid, if there is one. Burried deep in the livejournal settings, under "edit personal information" (at the very bottom of the page) is the option "View comment pages in your journal style?"; if you click that, then when you follow cuts and comment links off your friends page, they will generally appear in your style and not in the style of the journal you are connecting to.

[amalthia]

It seems to be working. :) thank you so much for this info.

[ninasis.livejournal.com]

You can also use ?style-simple, which displays it in the simple LJ style. I use that a lot when I don't really want any graphics or distractions.

[mamoru22.livejournal.com]

Also, really its just a matter of taste very often. And of screen resolution. :) But yeah, I think many people who publish a story in their LJ don't pay much attention to how the story will look to their readers...

Which is why I love using style=mine *g*

[drinteot.livejournal.com]

I always like to know if there's a problem for a reader of my LJ in their ability to either read it easily or anything else that's giving them a technical problem. I have a problem with small text because my eyesight isn't so great; so, I completely understand the frustration. The text on my LJ is small, but I use the View option to increase the text size to an easily readable one for me. I would be interested myself in knowing if the text size is okay on my rec list here (http://drinteot.livejournal.com/16432.html#cutid1). It's something I am perfectly willing to modify to make it easier to read, as that's the whole point.

[amalthia]

you weren't the author I was talking about but in the future if one of your pages is completely unreadable, I'll let you know. :) Normally with firefox I just control + to increase the text size, which works great if there is enough space for the text. some people really only use maybe 15% of their LJ for their messages. I use at least 45% if not higher.

[drinteot.livejournal.com]

I actually didn't think I was the author you had in mind because you mentioned reading the fanfic. Honestly, I didn't even think about that. I know it's strange, but I don't actualy think about people reading my stories! LOL Your comment just got me to thinking about the text size on my rec list because it is growing to be such a long list and I wondered if there was a problem for anyone in reading it. I've been playing around with organizing it better.

[amalthia]

have you thought about using html anchors for your rec list? it's something I did for my novel reviews, not sure if it'll work in a LJ environment though. so far I think your recs look fine and are working, but you're right as you keep adding more you might need to find some way to manage them. shrinking the text is not a solution. tags are rather useful too, not sure if you're already using those.

[drinteot.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll definitely keep those in mind as I work on it. I'll probably just keep updating my LJ for my friends who are interested as I go along and we can discuss the books that way.

[boutondor.livejournal.com]

View > Text Size > Increase

[temaris.livejournal.com]

You can also do ?format=light which puts the whole thing into a very basic black and white format. Or (in Firefox -- I think it works elsewhere too, but I won't swear to it!) if you have a mouse with a wheel button in the middle then hold the control button on the keyboard and roll the wheel -- one way will make the text larger, the other makes the text smaller.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Is it one of those custom styles or a standard LJ format?

Icarus

[amalthia]

i think it's a custom style...because most of the standard LJ formats have bigger text areas.

font size

[cartador.livejournal.com]

I guess your computer is a PC and Windows based. I have an iBook and the browser Safari allows me to increase the font size, heck, the whole page, so I can compensate for the idiosyncratic choices made by some journal users.

My pet hate is journals with black backgrounds and tiny fonts in yellow or orange. Those are near impossible to read. Grey on grey is not reader friendly either. What I ask myself is if the owners of these journals actually view them after making an entry, for then they would realize how difficult it is to read them.

Maybe the Microsoft browser has a function that allows you to increase the size of the page you are viewing.

Another trick is to copy the story and paste it to Microsoft Word where you can change the font and its size to your heart's content.

[xanthelj.livejournal.com]

I know I'm not the author you're referring to but as a reflection on a general trend this is quite useful to know! I've become less motivated to stick things on my site of late for various reasons so it's actually quite nice to know that some people still like to visit websites :-)

[amalthia]

I still love websites and archives, basically I think LJ is great for generating a feeling of fandom and to keep up with new stories, but you can do a lot with websites in terms of organizing your fiction how you want it and adding pictures. Archives are also great for new fans that just want to read what's out there. :)