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Odds and Ends: One chart to rule them all

girlfriday: So, are you all packed for KCON?

javabeans: I have a recap left to write, so obviously, nothing is packed. Recaps always come first, don’t you know?

girlfriday: Oh, I KNOW. The recap schedule, it owns us.

javabeans: You think we’re joking, but there’s a huge chart we plan our every movement around, and the recaps go up in bold colors and can’t be moved. That’s what happens when you start doing something a certain way, and everyone gets used to that schedule, and then you feel like you can never go on vacation.

girlfriday: Yes, you created the beast, so really, we have you to blame.

javabeans: Hate the sin, not the sinner? If it makes you feel better, I’m probably the one who suffers the most from it.

girlfriday: Why yes, that does make me feel better.

javabeans: I remember in the early days, when I was still experimenting with recaps and formatting and structure, and it was a bit of an arbitrary decision to decide that I would post recaps at 8pm on the night a drama aired.

girlfriday: And now that 8pm deadline rules us all.

javabeans: Back then I didn’t know if a one-day turnaround was reasonable, or if I should shoot for three days, or five, or whatnot. Televisionwithoutpity.com had its recaps up several days after the episode aired, so I thought that might work, but eventually settled on that night.

girlfriday: There’s a really nice immediacy to the live recap (live meaning that same day, not live-live), because you get to react to that episode alone, which is useful because dramas air twice a week. It does get a bit crazy to keep up with that schedule though.

javabeans: I think it became important for me to put up the recap before the next episode would air, to mimic the live-watching response experience. And some days I would finish the recap earlier, but I distinctly remember telling myself not to go down the bad path where I would feel like I had to rush all the time. I wanted to give myself enough time to leave the desk and maybe eat lunch (…even though I don’t), and have time to pay attention to details, rather than shoving out something before it was ready.

girlfriday: Which speaks to our motto in general, of valuing quality and consistency over pure speed. I do remember when it used to take me much longer to recap, though now the same-day 8pm recap schedule is so ingrained that I get frustrated if a show ever takes me longer.

javabeans: You do internalize a lot of that the more you do it, and it gets way more natural by the time you’re in your eighth year. (God.) For instance, now I can sense by where I am at a certain hour whether things are going smoothly or if I’m taking a long time. And when I’m done I can look at the word count and know that I rambled too much, or really glossed over things, because those things actually remain pretty consistent across shows—when you tell a story on a screen for 59 minutes, there’s only so much you can deviate from a norm.

girlfriday: It’s amazing just how consistent it is when you’re not even trying to be uniform about it, though I like when an episode deviates once in a while. Mostly our problem (or mine, at least) is rambling too much about any given thing. We have fun with the comments and the analysis, and given endless hours and word count, we’d just go on forever.

javabeans: Sometimes the meta realizations of recapping are enlightening too, because if I had a really hard time recapping a certain episode, it might be that I was tired that day, but it might also be a telltale sign that the episode went in circles. Sometimes that stuff is deceptive—it looks like a lot of stuff happened onscreen, but when you strip away the smoke and mirrors, you see what it really was. Sometimes it makes me appreciate a show more for being subtle or complex, and sometimes it makes me see glaring holes that get glossed over by slick production.

girlfriday: It’s probably a good thing that we only give ourselves a set number of hours to say what we have to say about an episode and then move on. I’ve also gotten so used to our schedule that trying to go back and catch up on a show gets really difficult.

javabeans: It’s painful once you have a set recapping process and then you derail that by getting off it, like for instance when you had to catch up on Marriage Not Dating recaps. In my mind, there are two ways I watch dramas: dramas I am recapping, and dramas I am not. You can’t mix the processes! My brain can’t handle it!

girlfriday: It’s probably why we each watch weekend dramas but rarely write about them, because we need to turn off our brains once in a while too! Also, this is why I watch variety shows, because they’re pure fun and not work.

javabeans: The problem to having a go-to system arises when you have disruptions like KCON, where four recappers are taken out of their recapping cocoon at the same time, and we’re all crazy enough that we don’t want to let real life delay our regularly scheduled programming at all. So then we just work ourselves into the ground so that our chart is appeased.

girlfriday: It’s a little nuts. I think it doesn’t help that you and I are both this crazy, because we’re the people who go on vacation and bring our laptops and recap from a hotel room.

javabeans: There’s no neutralizing force, no. But that’s why it’s actually really helpful this year to have our new minions too, because when the recaps are spread out more, you’ll always have something coming in.

girlfriday: Not that having new minions means we get to wash our hands of the other shows.

javabeans: Right, because we still watch everything and read everything before it gets posted. Not that the minions aren’t doing awesome jobs! We just need to be intimately familiar with anything that goes up on Dramabeans, because, well, it’s our house.

girlfriday: Basically what she means is, we’re control freaks. We might not be recapping all the shows ourselves, but we still have to keep up with them as if we are.

javabeans: Ironically (?), after we brought on new writers, the number of dramas I watch increased dramatically, which sort of negated the whole intention where we were going to relax a little more.

girlfriday: I think this is a classic case of: Less is More.

javabeans: But also, more is more too.

 
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I just wanted to add to the love and say I love your site and everything you post.

Thank you so much for doing this!

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I love Dramabeans! It's the only site I read daily.

I started watching Kdrama 18 months ago while convalescing, and didn't find your site until about 45 days into it. What a world you opened up for me! I feel like I understand and appreciate so much more with your recaps, and if a show makes me laugh, it's guaranteed that your recaps will double that. Always so insightful and witty; And your new minions are doing so well! Thank you JB and GF for providing a safe place for the Kdrama addicted.

BTW, today I tried and bought kimchi for the first time at my Seattle neighborhood farmer's market! The German in me thinks it's the greatest thing invented since sauerkraut. And I wouldn't have tried it if I hadn't found Kdrama and DB! Cheers!

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I love your recaps! Well, I love this site period. I check this site first before checking anything else...yes, even before checking my mail. Love you, guys!

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I remember wandering aimlessly around this kdrama world with no idea what am watching or how to pick or even who is who.
(Google and wiki can get you only so far)
And other k-sites I came across first, were good but they had too much information. Its hard to get into a totally new fandom with no idea who is who or what is what.

Then I found dramabeans.
I remember my first story I ever read here.

It was about Rain, where there was a online war something about his height. And you were kidding, that maybe its its high of 'something' else *ahem* it would be really entertaining.
I laughed so hard and that's how I caught the DB bug ! :D you girls are awesome !

And after few years here( 4th right now) , I feel I have barely scraped this world and fandom. There is Still so so so much left !

Thanks DB for being my eyes and ears to this huge K world !

I really appreciate all the work you do !
And special thanks to the minions this year for supplying more dramas ! I am watching more because of more recaps for sure !

Ghamsamidha !

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It has been a very good eight years! I found your website since my son was born. Thank you very much

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You, everyone at DB are amazing. Just amazing, the quality of all your posts and the promptness of them all. All I can do as a DB regular and fan is to not only visit almost religiously myself but also introduce the site to others to do so. Hopefully that helps DB in a small way.

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Your entire team deserves a standing ovation from all of us around the world !

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Dear Javabeans, GirlFriday, HeadsNo2, Gummimochi, and the rest of the DB minions:

Merci Beaucoup for the Dramabeans website. I truly appreciate all that you do and the sacrifices required from each of you.

I value your insight into Korean culture. I am honored to share a passion for kdramas with all of you. High praise for your quick wit, writing styles, analysis, commentary, and quality recaps.

Again, thanks for offering us a platform to rant and rave about kdramas and Hallyu news. This is such a wonderful site for kdrama fans to visit and engage in conversation with one another.

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You guys are my favourite recap site. Ever. Nobody can beat you at your game, and most of us can't really comprehend the hard work put in by the team but here's a huge cup of coffee and a big basket of thanks!

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Sorry if anyone sees this -- I was just trying to find one of the oldest and least visible posts here to try to figure out how formatting works in these comments. 😅

*Does this bold it?* (asterisks)
Does this bold it (html coding)
Does this bold it? (copying previously bolded stuff)

Do links automatically hyperlink?

https://www.dramabeans.com/2014/08/odds-and-ends-one-chart-to-rule-them-all/

What if I hyperlink them at the end of a sentence: https://www.dramabeans.com/2014/08/odds-and-ends-one-chart-to-rule-them-all/

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Okay, so looks like html is how you accomplish things in these comments. Trying other codes to see if it works with more than bolding.
Does this italicize?
Does this underline?
Does this strikethrough

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Interesting. So it either works or deletes the text that was attempted html script. Does it delete any use of (inequality symbols)?

Trying a few others for kicks.
Does this superscript?
Does this subscript?
Does this mark?
Does this make it small?

And what happens if I do the notation incorrectly, like this? Will the rest of my sentence continue to be bold?

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Okay, so results:
- Generally, use html
- Anything in inequality symbols won't show up in text, whether or not it was correctly formatted html.
- Bolding , italicizing, and strikethroughs work. Nothing else seems to.
- For each of those, the notation is b and /b, i and /i, and s and /s (all in inequality symbols).

And links always hyperlink.

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