This is for established ASSTR authors who can't figure out how to post their stories to ASSTR these days. If you don't already have an ASSTR account and want to establish one, I can't help you... I don't think it can be done, but I may be wrong, as I really haven't a clue how you might do that these days. Same goes if you've forgotten your password or want to change it... good luck with that!
However, if you have an account and you know your password, but can't figure out how to post a story these days, this is for you. Also if the punctuation marks in your HML files appear as black diamonds instead of quotation marks, etc., this might be of help in resolving that issue for you.
After the 2017 server meltdown, Admin decided it was time for an upgrade, or perhaps at a minimum, they just wanted to get the site back up and limping along. Anyway, a lot of features were lost along with a great deal of other things. Are we going to see the SPOTLIGHT section again? The mail server? Download counts? So far, not so good and it looks as if they won't be restored anytime soon, if ever.
You can, however, download new stories or repost old ones by using FTP. Here's what I did. Go to Mozilla and download Filezilla Client. It's a free download.
Open Filezila -
Four small boxes will appear along the top. In the first box enter "sftp.asstr.org". In the second box enter your ASSTR user name, in my case "Art Martin". In the third box enter your ASSTR password. Leave the fourth box blank. Hit "Quick Connect"
Below will be four large boxes. The boxes on the left will be the files on your computer. Use the upper left box to navigate to the file to be uploaded in the lower left box.
The boxes on the right will be your ASSTR files. Drag and drop files from the lower left into your root file displayed in the upper right. You can delete files from the lower right hand box if you so chose.
That's all there is to it.
I heard from Tempest who uses a Mac and CuteFTP to upload his stories. I haven't had this issues with my 64 bit Windows machines, but he says that he sometimes gets a "403 Forbidden" error message. He says that he found that when he gets that 403 message, "it appears as if the server couldn't open the file. If you right click on a file and select CHMOD/Permissions a window will open like in the attached screenshot. I have found that any CHMOD number other than 777 or 755 will not allow the server to open the file. When the CHMOD is set to 777, it allows anyone to open, read, and edit the file. 755 only allows the owner of the file to edit it but anyone else can open and read it. I set mine to 755." He also states, "for some reason, it's the file on the server that needs to be changed as well as on your computer so they are both in sync." Hope this helps if you have that "403" issue.
Now, about those black diamonds... Don't recode your HTML files! Just stop using your ASSTR Web folder. Post to your main root folder instead. For whatever reason, HTML files posted in the Web folder sometimes do not show the correct punctuation and you get those maddening black diamonds. However, the exact same HTML coding posted to your root file will show the correct punctuation. Go figure. It works, so just do it.
HOWEVER.... you might have go back and change all your links to direct them to the file posted in the root file, rather than sending the reader into your corrupted Web folder file. This could be a major pain in the ass, but it must be done. That includes that Index file that appears if someone clicks on your Web folder from the list of Authors.
Here'sanother tip recently recieved from George F:
The actual issue with the diamonds is the ASSTR >>>web server<<< (www1.asstr.org for example) doesn't have the full ASCII set of fonts loaded. I can't fix that, but I can show you a work around that should not be too hard to do (not sure if you will like it though -- I think you were the author I read a note about liking forwards and backwards quotes (=
(FIX):
Below you will find the most used (that I search/replace for) non normal print ASCII chars and their fix values. Not sure if the below will show up correctly to you, so I put in the ALT+ values. To use the ALT+ values, press and hold ALT then type the number shown (and release ALT) to get the char to replace.
Simply put the first char (ALT+xxx if the email doesn't keep the values correctly) in the replace value of your editor, and put the second char in the replace with:
… ... alt+133 (replace is period period period)
“ " alt+147
” " alt+148
’ ' alt+146
‘ ' alt+145
Notepad++ (free) will do the search and replace across multiple files in a directory. One shot for each replace and you are done except for uploading.
A few weeks ago there was a scare when anyone clicked onto asstr.org they got this scary message about the "Certificate" being out of date and blocking access for "security" reasons. Like I said, after the meltdown, ASSTR reconfigured to the "more up to date" HTTPS from just plain old HTTP. The difference is HTTPS is a "secure" protocol, used when money, such as credit cards or personal info is involved. Your bank and Amazon use HTTPS and that requires "certification" to prevent your info from being stolen. (HA!) No credit card or personal info is used on ASSTR, so they really don't need the "security". The problem is the "Certificate" is free, but Admin needs to renew it every ninety days. For all I know, Admin is just one guy, El Sexo Del Rey, and I'm sure he has other things to spend his time on, like putting food on his table, so sometimes it might not get done. We freeloaders just have to be patient with him and send in some bucks to help maintain the servers every so often. If this should happen again, the workaround is: On the notification, click the "Advanced" button. Then lower down, press the "Add Exception" button. On the following popup, click "Confirm Security Exception" and the site will appear. Other than that, we just have to hope Admin gets it fixed soon.
*****
Some other folks have suggested using Google Analytics to keep track of web page hits. Just google "free webpage hit counters" and maybe you'll find something easy and useful, though I personally shy away from anything to do with Google. You might find a free form mail site to, and if you do and figure it out, please drop me a line at artmartin49 at yahoo.com and tell me how you do it.
Best regards to all,
Art Martin