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Compelling Science Fiction Issue 4
- nxrabl 10y agoCompelling Science Fiction has been consistently excellent since it started. I think I made a Patreon account just to support it. Highly recommended.
- mojoe 10y agoThank you so much, that's gratifying to hear! At this point we're evaluating 300-400 submitted stories every month when our submission window is open, so creating a single issue takes a decent number of person-hours. I'm happy that you're enjoying the result.
- pmontra 10y agoWow, so many stories? All your issues have been excellent so far. Thanks!
- jasone 10y agoI just did the same, after reading two very compelling stories. It was tempting to first read one more (and one more after that...), but it's already clear to me that this is scifi worth supporting.
- WeaselNo7 10y agoSame! Top notch content, a real treat. A higher frequency of issues would be great, but then again I'm just greedy!
- magic_beans 10y ago"The Little Gods" (http://compellingsciencefiction.com/stories/thelittlegods.html http://compellingsciencefiction.com/stories/thelittlegods.ht...) is really wonderful.
- darklajid 10y agoI just read them in order, last one so far was The Little Gods. And .. I don't know, it didn't click for me. But I'm really confused about the last line. If it's a quote, I don't know it. I don't speak that language. Google Translate makes this even _more_ confusing. Given the prominent position (final line of the story) I assume this is important and I feel like everyone is laughing but I don't get the punchline.
- unwind 10y agoYeah, that was confusing. Spoiler in ROT13: "inr!, chgb qrhf svb: jbr vf zr!, V guvax V nz orpbzvat n tbq (Irfcnfvna, fnvq jura sngnyyl vyy)". Zl onfvp vagrecergngvba vf gung gur zbgure sryg pybfre gb ure qnhtugre fvapr nsgre univat gur fhetrel fur sryg gung fur gbb jnf n "gval tbq".
- mojoe 10y agoIt's not just you -- there was an issue there. Spanish got conflated with Latin, it should be "puto deus fio", "I fear I am becoming a god"
- magic_beans 10y agoThat's Latin. The emperor Vespasian's reported last words: "damn! I fear I am turning into a god!"
- prefect42 10y agoThat is a rather lovely story, enjoyed it very much. Will most definitely be reading the entirety of CompellingSF.
- lucio 10y agoremember to vote the post before start reading the stories. If you vote it 2 hours later it will not be as useful
- abecedarius 10y agoI disagree: better an informative signal than a quick proxy of one. If HN's ranking algorithm does make informed upvotes less useful, then it's the algorithm that needs changing.
- hyperpallium 10y agoHow can an algorithm determine an upvote's informedness?
- abecedarius 10y agoI didn't mean that -- I meant we're better off if people choose to upvote or not after they've read the content, instead of before.
- hyperpallium 10y agoBut that leads to the problem GP addressed: upvotes received too late won't help the submission rise (because "gravity" pulls a story down over time). Of course you're right that voting post-read is better than pre-read, but my response was addressing your suggestion to change the algorithm. Without gravity (a bias for newness), it's not a news site, and gravity has been tweaked a lot to make it work well. So instead, I ask how can the algorithm take into account whether a user has read the content? It's only partially rhetorical. For example, there could be a delay before voting is allowed; a check that the link was clicked; cooperation with a website to check that users scrolled all the way (like EULAs); or a checkbox "I read it" that makes the vote count more. These all have problems; but a site that managed it would be great.
- abecedarius 10y ago
- pastullo 10y agoextremely looking forward to read a few stories. The principles of this project are just great: solid and plausible, hard science fiction. Well done guys! Any good stories to recommend?
- mojoe 10y agoThanks! I'd start at the beginning of the issue with "They Breed Like Flies". It's the longest of the stories but it feels quick and sets a good mood for the rest of the stories.
- lacker 10y agoGreat stories - it sucked me in and I read it cover to cover.