Story summaries in posts

[q-dicted.livejournal.com]

First of all - I really appreciate this community. It has helped me many times and I have found some really great stories through other people's queries as well. Kudos.

I was wondering though, is there some way of asking for help with a specific story (rather than, say a genre) without giving away the entire plot in the process? It's great to jog the memories of those who can help, but kind of takes something away from the story-telling for those who may not have read it yet. Perhaps starting with a general description and then spoiler'ing the details that are obviously major plot points? A clunky solution but maybe somebody has a better idea.

Moderators: if this is not allowed, please delete, but I'm hoping maybe it can help the comm in general.

Comments

[meta1960.livejournal.com]

Well, sometimes is enough to read one sentence and you know the story and the author, but other times even a big summary can't trigger someones memory. When I search for a fic, I try to post a small description as possible, but sometimes I'm not good at it. So I write and write as much as I remember from the story. And if the story that I found intriguing,(from someones else's search) it doesn't matter that I know almost all of it, I will still read it. But to each his own.

I've seen requests from people who gave a long or short description and the story was never found. It happened to me to. So, I think that people will give as much information as they remember or they want to put it in the search, because at the end, we all want the story we are searching for, to be found. But that is just me. Metka

[q-dicted.livejournal.com]

I understand - and the point of the comm is to find stories, so that's cool. People have to do what works for them.