Word count in Micro Fiction

1 Apr 2021

I am having issues with this. The Submit page says 100 words. My plain text editor (UltraEdit) says 100 words. Publish refuses, saying 101 words.

I counted. 100 words. No carriage returns, no odd line breaks. I took out a word just to check and comp still says 100 and Pub 101. I can't spare one, let alone two words.

Any suggestions?

1 Apr 2021

If there's anywhere an em dash might be appropriate to replace another bit of punctuation, when used properly with no spaces before or after, the word count treats is as a hyphenated word and saves you one.

Cheating, yes. But when the word count is cheating you in the first place, you're just evening the score ;)

Good Will ---|--- Three Alarm <= Both almost famous, give them a read and get them one step closer!

1 Apr 2021

Quote by RejectReality
If there's anywhere an em dash might be appropriate to replace another bit of punctuation, when used properly with no spaces before or after, the word count treats is as a hyphenated word and saves you one.

Cheating, yes. But when the word count is cheating you in the first place, you're just evening the score ;)

That's what's weird. I actually took out a dash (bench-strapped to benchstrapped) as a test and it did not alter the word count on either screen. Maybe Lush is having some internal issues -- wait, has anyone seen Sprite and her tinkering toys?

1 Apr 2021

So I took out a word I didn't want to and Submit said 99 words. Publish said 100 and the posted story says 100. Count the words -- 99. One word in a flash is nothing. In a Micro? Different story (haha) if you really care about what you write.

1 Apr 2021

Yep, it will treat both bench-strapped and benchstrapped as a single word.

It will also treat both bolded sections as 1 word each. "She sat on the bench—strapped down and gagged—awaiting Sir"

Good Will ---|--- Three Alarm <= Both almost famous, give them a read and get them one step closer!

1 Apr 2021

I guess I'll never know what the 101st word was, but it doesn't matter. The story is published now. I only asked as I have had this issue in the past, along with several other Micro writers.

1 Apr 2021

I believe that it has been a problem with the word count in general forever. It is just more pronounced with micros because a +/- 1 error bar makes more difference when you are dealing with a limit of 100 than a limit of 5000 (or whatever). In a comp with a 5000 word limit, very few will be at exactly 5000 but with micros, almost everyone uses every available word. Or so I suspect. Haven't done a detailed study, nor do I plan to.

1 Apr 2021

Quote by kistinspencil
I guess I'll never know what the 101st word was, but it doesn't matter. The story is published now. I only asked as I have had this issue in the past, along with several other Micro writers.

I have this issue all the f'n time in micros. Or that's where I notice it. I haven't been able to uncover the issue either. And that one word can make a difference in a micro. I just do this to help cputhrow

Kindness is contagious. Spread it! ❤️

3 Apr 2021

Micro-Fiction, who invented the term? Unable to produce more than two paragraphs ?

In the world's harsh wear and tear many a very sincere attachment is slowly obliterated.

Είμαι ταξιδιώτης τόσο στο χρόνο όσο και στο διάστημα

4 Apr 2021

Quote by kistinspencil
I guess I'll never know what the 101st word was, but it doesn't matter. The story is published now. I only asked as I have had this issue in the past, along with several other Micro writers.

I saw you used "--" in two posts of yours in this thread. If you used the same in your story then that might be counted as a word, assuming the code just counts the parts separated by spaces. If it counts the parts separated by single spaces then it might even count an empty word in between 2 consecutive spaces. The latter might also explain the differences, if one part of the code just looks for every single space and another sees any string of whitespace as a single space.

=== Not ALL LIVES MATTER until BLACK LIVES MATTER ===

4 Apr 2021

Quote by noll

I saw you used "--" in two posts of yours in this thread. If you used the same in your story then that might be counted as a word, assuming the code just counts the parts separated by spaces. If it counts the parts separated by single spaces then it might even count an empty word in between 2 consecutive spaces. The latter might also explain the differences, if one part of the code just looks for every single space and another sees any string of whitespace as a single space.

Nope. Don't use "--" in stories for just that reason. I do use "xxx..." but that has never proved an issue. I checked the plain text carefully and there are no 'hidden' characters or spaces, except in the eyes of 'Publish."

But so it goes and must be accepted. It's just unfortunate that it's so amplified by the constraint of 100 words.

4 Apr 2021

Quote by kistinspencil

Nope. Don't use "--" in stories for just that reason. I do use "xxx..." but that has never proved an issue. I checked the plain text carefully and there are no 'hidden' characters or spaces, except in the eyes of 'Publish."

But so it goes and must be accepted. It's just unfortunate that it's so amplified by the constraint of 100 words.

Just for fun, I tried to see if there are perhaps any zero-width spaces or other somewhat exotic whitespace characters in your Doing Our Small Part story that might trip the word counting script. But I only found new lines (code point 10) and regular spaces (code point 32). And indeed only 99 words, while the word count on that page says 100.

I'd say you definitely found a bug. You may wanna contact Gav and claim the "Bug Slayer" badge.

=== Not ALL LIVES MATTER until BLACK LIVES MATTER ===

4 Apr 2021

Quote by noll
I'd say you definitely found a bug. You may wanna contact Gav and claim the "Bug Slayer" badge.

Oh, the kids over in Entomology would not be happy with that! Besides, Gav has more important things to do -- that Storm Trooper gear doesn't polish itself.

Thank you for taking a look. I appreciate it.