#i think google docs is slightly better at this but the downside is having to work in google docs for everything

[avantguardisme]

somehow for all our supposed advances in ai there is still no word processer that can reliably tell what language i'm typing in at any given time

[chowtrolls]

In the Eyes Of You

Word Count: 1294 Words  Brief: Part 2 of the Intro.  TW: these bitches gay. Hunter belongs to @/cherrytrolls) Google Docs || Part 1 

Sitting before you, in a throne placed where a preacher would share sermons, is a man you once knew. You blink, trying desperately to clear your fuzzy vision, but the blur was not tears. The mask was doing its job, of course, preventing you from seeing the one thing that would cloud your judgment like no other. Without thinking, you pull the mask off your face and let it clatter to the ground beside you. The only sound in the room is that of ceramic hitting the ground. 

This was not the man you loved, you so desperately attempted to tell yourself. You studied his face, as flawless as the day you killed him. His shirt was low cut, just enough for you to see the scarring from where you had brought your greataxe down upon him. Words refuse to be spoken. His once beautiful blue eyes, now cold. His skin was glowing in the distinctive way a rainbowdrinkers does. Hunter seemed to be waiting for you to say something, and was not impressed by your silence. 

“What, drinker got your tongue, Cole?” Hunter’s chin tilted up as he spoke, looking down at you with disdain. He rises from his throne, walking towards you. “How can you stand there and say nothing, after what you did to me? To Janyse, to Moriis, to everyone?” 

You still cannot find any words. That was the downside of the enchanted mask,  emotions become overwhelming without it. You want answers, but the questions come too quickly to ask. How did he survive? How could he betray you like this? You open your mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. As Hunter gets closer, you instinctively reach for your handaxes, preparing yourself for a fight. 

“Look at you, Cole!” Hunter’s words are sharp, throwing you off balance, “Always so quick to fucking fight! Not even giving me the chance to explain. You really haven’t changed a bit.” The drinker stops a few pews away from you. Too far for you to jump for him. Undead as he may be, he still knew your moves. Fucker. 

You lower your axes slightly. “So explain, then.” A voice so small it hardly feels like your own. Hunter seemed amused by that. An almost sinister chuckle precedes a small grin. 

“Cute. But a little late for that.” His smile falls quickly, “You should’ve asked before you tried to split me in two. I was the one warning you, for fucks sake! But no, your stupid paranoia gave you the bright idea to play executioner with me. You couldn’t even stick around afterwards! Talk about shitty aftercare, Cole.” 

His words hurt, because they were true. You panicked and swung at him. Horrified by your own actions, you fled the scene as quickly as possible. As you tried to leave, you were confronted by friends, trolls you knew well, who tried to grasp the urgency of your departure. But, your paranoia got the best of you. You left the dormitory you once called hive, leaving nothing but bloodshed in your wake. 

“It was a drinker who saved us.” Hunter continued, folding his hands behind his back. You were taller than him, but felt so small in his gaze. Your chest is pounding, watching him with wide eyes. The blueblood’s expression softens slightly. For a moment, he looks like the Hunter you used to know. “Cole, can’t you see? We were spoon fed lies. We were sent on a fool’s mission to die, fodder for a war that never needed to be fought. We were told to do the Messiah’s work! They never wanted us to win. They wanted us to die for them. But this…This is a better fate than death. I want to share this with everyone. A second chance at life, free of disease and sin. Free from unnecessary suffering. A chance to be a better version of yourself.” 

Your silence speaks for you. Disbelief, disgust, betrayal. How silly it was for you to feel betrayed. 

“You have two options, Cole. Either you can join us, or you can die grasping at the straws of glory, for the wish of a Messiah that couldn’t care less about you.”

“Actually, I think I’ll finish the job, and put you in the ground for sure this time.” You raise your axes once more, preparing for his next move. 

“So be it, then.” He hisses. In a flash, he reveals a dagger, and closes the space between you. He dodges your swing, driving the dagger into your side. You hiss in pain, cursing him silently for being so quick, for knowing the gaps in your armor. How could he not? Think of every day he would help you undress, to treat wounds, to share heat and fleeting time. 

Your next swing manages to scathe his shoulder. He barely reacts to the gash, but you’re momentarily distracted by the blue spilling from the wound. Hunter may be undead, but he was still before you, breathing, bleeding. These pesky emotions were slowing you down. You look away for a split second, attempting to locate your mask. Hunter takes the opportunity to kick the back of your leg, forcing you down to your knee. You try to regain control, swinging for him once again, but he drives the dagger into your shoulder as you do. The pain causes you to drop the axe, but you don’t move beyond that. 

Dejected, you just grunt as Hunter pulls the knife free from your shoulder. You’d be more concerned about scarring if you felt you would make it out of this fight alive. As Hunter tilted your chin up with his blood-soaked knife, it became very clear that you were not making it out of this battle. You meet his eyes, expecting to see the same disdain as before. 

But instead, his eyes are soft. The same soft gaze that laughed as you fumbled through your youth. The same tender gaze that traced itself over your bare scarred chest before you would both sleep. The same deep blue eyes, as cool and mysterious as the oceans, that you would so often find yourself drunk in. Everything lies in his eyes. It sends a shudder down your spine. Hunter grins. 

“Glad to see I can still get you on your knees.” 

You scoff. 

Silence falls once more, heavier than before. 

A stalemate, waiting for the other to move.

A fate better than death, he said.

Free from suffering. 

A second chance. 

You let your second handaxe fall to the ground. You tilt your chin up silently. 

Hunter’s smile grows, “Good boy.” 

The blueblood drops the knife, leaving himself open and unarmed as he kneels in front of you. But, even with your stolen garden shears on your side, you refuse to move. Your eyes close as Hunter’s hand rests on your cheek. He was colder than you remember. Slowly, he runs his fingers through your hair. You find solace in his touch. He grips your hair, pulling your head back to expose your neck. 

You resist the urge to reach for him, to hold him close to you. 

His breath is warm on your neck. You can see his glow from behind your eyelids. You would’ve given anything to have him this close to you again. And as his fangs sink into your neck, you will. 

Your head feels foggy. Surprised, you open your eyes to see the room around you starting to spin. You grab onto Hunter to hold yourself up. Everything around you felt light, then incredibly heavy. You slump against him with a sudden overwhelming exhaustion. A cold wave rushes down your spine, and the world goes dark. 

A few moments later, you open your eyes. 

You’ve never been hungrier. 

[diasporatheblog]

How do you guys write? I mean literally, I'm trying to write out a game in a word document and I regret every moment that brought me to this point. Scrivener? Google docs? Trapper keeper?

Literally? We use an instance of an etherpad clone. Etherpad itself is shut down, but anything in the neighborhood is about equivalent. The key features of this are: 1. a chatbox that sits alongside the main writing area in the same window/tab, so we can talk to each other as we go, and 2. our text has different-colored highlights so we can tell who wrote what (I’m purple and August’s green; it is Established Tradition(tm)). The downsides are first of all that formatting does not transfer to a text editor, so I have to redo all of that when we get ready to put the chapter out, and secondly it lacks a spellcheck. But overall our need to effectively collaborate is priority one, and this method makes that the easiest. 

When we’re writing our own stuff it’s a different story. I use Scrivener, because I collect idea fragments and worldbuilding-related documents like a favorite chair collects pet dander. I prefer not to have twelve word docs open at the same time, so being able to tab between them and my chapter in progress is, honestly, worth the (slightly stupid) amount I paid for the program alone. 

August I think uses google docs to write his stuff, though in the past I believe he has also sent me Word documents. Maybe he’ll edit this at some point with more information, but I don’t think he uses anything fancy. :)

Generally I think Word’s tendency to auto-format would be an enormous pain, and I’d have to shut that feature off if I were going to use it for a game. But tabs are also quite large on a word doc, and it’s just... I would probably be regretting it, too. If you need something free and simple and don’t have to collaborate, a slightly-fancier text editor like Sublime might be the ticket. It’s what I use to format the chapters, and it’s at least got the basics, plus it won’t act like it knows what you want something to look like better than you do!

[martechadvisor-blog]

5 Hidden Costs of “Unconsolidated” Software Tools

Some words just don’t have good opposites. You can be “disgruntled” but not “gruntled.” A meeting can be “disrupted,” but if no one barges in, does the meeting remain “rupted”?

“Consolidation” is one such word. If you haven’t yet consolidated several different things, what are they? Multiple sources tell me that “unconsolidated” isn’t exactly a word, suggesting “decentralized” and “deconcentrated” instead. While these are close, they’re not exactly right.

I’m talking here about software solutions used by marketing teams. I suppose the words “separate,” “disconnected,” and “scattered” all help to paint the right picture, but to me, “unconsolidated” says it best.

Tool Overload

According to a 2014 survey, 42% of marketers use 6­–10 different software programs during the course of the day, another 9% use 10–15 programs, and another 9% use more than they can easily count. That’s a lot of toggling back and forth.

When we specifically asked what tools today’s enterprise workers are using to manage their work, 94% said email, 78% said spreadsheets, 77% pointed to shared documents, and 77% used shared networks and folders. Meanwhile, 27% said they use project management software.

It’s interesting that the number of people who don’t use spreadsheets, shared documents, and shared networks for work management pretty closely aligns with the number who rely on project management software. I’m not sure this is a coincidence.

It shows pretty clearly how one comprehensive solution can eliminate three unnecessary tools. This isn’t to say that spreadsheets and shared documents don’t have their place, because they do. Just not as tools for managing the complexity of modern work.

There are several downsides that result from trying to manage your work with unconsolidated software tools. There are the obvious costs: such as expensive licenses for tools that functionally overlap with other tools you’re using, tools that aren’t being used to their full potential, and tools that sometimes aren’t being used at all. But there are hidden costs, too.

Top Five Pitfalls of Unconsolidated Software Tools

1. Poor Visibility

When you have to consult four different systems (a budget spreadsheet, an online calendar, a task tracker, and the notes from a status meeting) to figure out whether your latest project is on track, you lack clear and immediate visibility. Instead, you have to proactively consult several disparate sources and draw your own conclusions. Today’s work management software, on the other hand, will alert you when something starts to slide off the rails.

You may not think you’re suffering from poor visibility. But neither does the nearsighted person—until they slip on that first pair of prescription eyeglasses. Then a whole new world of crisp, clear detail is revealed.

2. Impaired Decision-Making

When you only have a vague idea of how busy your team is, who has available bandwidth, and whether you’re on track to hit your current deadlines, how do you know whether you can commit to the proposed timeline on that upcoming project? Just a gut feeling?

On the other hand, when you have access to a single source of truth that reveals all of these details and more, you can make better decisions for yourself and your team—and you can make them in minutes, without slogging through tons of disparate data first.

3. Project Delays

There’s a scene in Seinfeld where Jerry says to the attendant at the rental car company, “See, you know how to take the reservation. You just don’t know how to hold the reservation. And the holding… well that’s really the most important part of the reservation.”

The same is true for mapping out or scheduling a work project. Anyone can divvy out tasks and assign deadlines. That’s easy. But making a plan that’s realistic and achievable and then sticking to that schedule? Well that’s really the most important part.

There are several things you need to know in order to schedule a project effectively and keep it on track, including:

How busy your resources are right now

How busy they’ll be next week

Whether the work in the current queue is on track or falling behind

How long the project took last time you did it

What roadblocks you hit last time that could be avoided this time

You can either consult three or more unconsolidated tools (and hold a meeting) to answer these questions—or you can find it all at a glance in a consolidated work management solution.

4. Cost Overages

When you commit to an unrealistic timeline on a project because you lack the visibility you need to make good decisions, the costs can hit you in a variety of ways, both directly and indirectly:

Expensive contract work that wasn’t in the budget

Rush fees

Overtime

Potential employee burnout

Other important projects put at risk

Lost opportunities for business growth

Broken trust with your team, boss and stakeholders

5. Ineffective Collaboration

When multiple disconnected tools are used to manage work, then collaboration and communication tend to happen all over the place.

You know someone sent you a corrected headline for your latest asset, but where is it? It could be in an email, in an instant message, in a text, in a shared document, in a comment left in a Google doc, in “track changes” on a Word doc that’s saved in a shared folder, in the notes you took from your last meeting. It’s like a game of Where’s Waldo.

After hunting for it for 15 minutes, you IM the person to ask where it is. The only problem is…you’ve just created one more conversation that’s disconnected from the rest of the work. A couple of weeks down the road, someone asks, “Why did this headline get changed?” You start searching for the documentation, only you can’t remember…was it in an email? A text message? A shared document? And the cycle continues.

A work management solution provides one shared space for all communication, collaboration, and project details. Just navigate to the project itself, and you’ll find all schedules, budgets, resources, assets, and documents you need, plus a record of all communication that took place along the way.

When to Consolidate

As the number of software solutions available for marketers continues to explode, there’s no way around the fact that we’ll always be switching among several different systems to get our work done. Just make sure you audit your approach on a regular basis—and consolidate as much as possible now in order to make room for the life-changing tools of the future. 

You know you need to consolidate when…

You’ve ever created a spreadsheet to track all the different software tools your team uses, listing what each one is and is not used for.

You have multiple tools performing similar functions.

You or someone on your team is entering the exact same information into more than one system.

Two or more teams that work closely together manage their work in different systems that don’t play well with each other.

You’ve ever onboarded a shiny new software system and failed to put the old one out to pasture—and now you’re using both for slightly different purposes.

You can’t remember which tool to check (Email? IM? Text messages? Google docs?) to retrieve a conversation you know you had.

Different pieces of vital information reside in different digital spaces, requiring you to visit multiple applications to get a single question answered.

You’re not an IT professional, and yet you spend more time logging in and out of software tools than you spend producing actual work.

You or someone on your team has gone rogue and just does the work outside of the software solutions, because it’s easier that way.

Training a new hire on all your different software tools takes longer than the recruiting process itself.

Your monthly software licensing fees rival the GDP of a small country.

As unconsolidated as your tools currently are, you’re still managing to get your work done, right? Well, sort of. On average, marketers spend just 44% of their time performing their primary job duties. Imagine what your team could accomplish if consolidation and automation helped you cross that 50%, 60%, or 70% threshold? Not only would you enjoy better visibility, collaboration, and project outcomes, you’d also have a team that feels far more gruntled, far more frequently.

This article was first appeared on MarTech Advisor