Ever correct "online" authors?

[Alpo]

You find an online story. Not one that was completed some time ago, but one is still in the process. And you read along with it as each new chapter comes out.

 

And you find an error. Could be an error of fact, or an error of story. But you find an error. Do you write the author and tell him?

 

I was reading this one story - post-apocalyptic world - and she has the girl open the gun safe and there were four gray plastic boxes sitting on the shelf. Smith & Wesson automatic pistols.

 

That's wrong. Smith & Wesson comes in blue boxes. Ruger comes in gray boxes. But I just noted it in passing and continue to read.

 

Different story, different author. And he referenced the FBI special agent in charge. The SAIC. I emailed him and told him that that's a SAC - that the I is not in the acronym. Another time, same author different story, he has the guy using a Springfield Armory M1A1. I emailed him and told him that it was an M1A. That an M1A1 was either a version of an M1 carbine or a version of a Thompson submachine gun.

 

Both times he corrected the story, although he never thanked me for the correction.

 

Those were all errors of fact. You occasionally find "errors of story". That's where they said something several chapters back and then they contradict themselves. The guy mentions babies. These four women all have kids born about the same time - within a couple of months of each other. And the first time that Elise is mentioned, she has red hair. About 6 months later in the actual writing of the story she shows up again, and she's a blonde. I emailed the author, including the chapter and location in the chapter where he said she was a redhead. He not only changed her from being a blonde to a redhead in the current chapter, but he actually thanked me for it.

 

 

This ponder came to mind because of the current story I'm reading. The guy had said something about the difficulties he had going to school, and the girl had laughed and said "yeah, he had had to walk 5 miles uphill in the snow both ways". And he had replied that there was not a lot of snow in orange orchards.

 

Two chapters later:

>"By the way, Mister ‘I’m all THAT’ Engineer,” I said.
“What?”
“Orange trees come in groves, not orchards.”
“What?”
“You said there’s not a lot of snow in orange orchards. They’re groves.”<

 

The author of this story lives in Louisiana. So I guess he's not familiar with where they grow oranges. And apparently somebody wrote and corrected him.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

I did once and a few online cook-blog authors.

 

 

 

[Rye Miles #13621]

Smith and Wesson AUTOMATIC weapons?????

[Pat Riot]

I have corrected bloggers via email and in “Comments” on their blog regarding mistakes, misrepresentations and misinformation on gun and hunting blogs. 
 

Most pretty much ignore it. I have had a couple email me back thanking me. I had one respond to my statement in his comments section where he tried to insult me for bringing it up on “his” webpage, but when I tried to submit a follow up response I was blocked. So, I created new credentials using a different email address on his site then commented again pointing out his errors and his audacity. I never received an email back and pretty much forgot about it. 
 

What blows me away are YouTubers that post videos with blatant errors and many know it but that person continues to produce videos with errors mistakes and outright BS even though people call them out. “Yankee Marshal” comes to mind. I won’t bother watching that Buffoon’s videos any more. 

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

2 hours ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

Smith and Wesson AUTOMATIC weapons?????

They used to make a nice little 9mm smg called the M-76

The distributor here was trying to sell to me (Ottawa Police )

I recall the rights to it being sold off to another firm and the model number was changed. Same gun though.

 

[Alpo]

2 hours ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

Smith and Wesson AUTOMATIC weapons?????

Where did you see me reference automatic weapons? I don't call guns weapons. I call them guns.

 

And I said Smith and Wesson automatic pistols in that sentence.

[Subdeacon Joe]

7 hours ago, Alpo said:

and she has the girl open the gun safe and there were four gray plastic boxes sitting on the shelf. Smith & Wesson automatic pistols

6 hours ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

Smith and Wesson AUTOMATIC weapons?????

Alpo, maybe they were in something other than the factory cases.

 

Rye:

Maybe chambered in .45 AUTOMATIC Colt Pistol. Or maybe .380 AUTOMATIC Colt Pistol.  Until people started getting pedantically weird about it automatic and semi-automatic were pretty much used interchangeably for pistols and nobody seemed to get confused by it.  https://www.nramuseum.org/guns/the-galleries/world-war-i-and-firearms-innovation/case-36-great-inventors/colt-model-1905-45-automatic-pistol.aspx

 

Sort of like how you used to see advertising for firearms saying things like "Comes with two clips" and everyone knew exactly what was meant and didn't have hissy fit about "Oh! Do you mean MAGAZINE?"

 

 

[Rye Miles #13621]

4 hours ago, Alpo said:

Where did you see me reference automatic weapons? I don't call guns weapons. I call them guns.

 

And I said Smith and Wesson automatic pistols in that sentence.

Okay excuse me, my mistake but my point was the word AUTOMATIC !!! That's what I questioned but the comment that Joe has above explains it.

[Rye Miles #13621]

10 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

Alpo, maybe they were in something other than the factory cases.

 

Rye:

Maybe chambered in .45 AUTOMATIC Colt Pistol. Or maybe .380 AUTOMATIC Colt Pistol.  Until people started getting pedantically weird about it automatic and semi-automatic were pretty much used interchangeably for pistols and nobody seemed to get confused by it.  https://www.nramuseum.org/guns/the-galleries/world-war-i-and-firearms-innovation/case-36-great-inventors/colt-model-1905-45-automatic-pistol.aspx

 

Sort of like how you used to see advertising for firearms saying things like "Comes with two clips" and everyone knew exactly what was meant and didn't have hissy fit about "Oh! Do you mean MAGAZINE?"

 

 

Interesting! So it's possible they did say AUTOMATIC. Okay maybe the author was right after all.

[Subdeacon Joe]

To answer the original question, yes, I have.  Sometimes on an ebook that has been out for a while.  Sometimes I get thanked, sometimes not.

[Subdeacon Joe]

10 minutes ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

Interesting! So it's possible they did say AUTOMATIC. Okay maybe the author was right after all.

 

Yep.  Automatic referred to "automatic loading" not fully automatic firing.   Did Smith and Wesson ever make a pistol that was called an "Automatic?". I have no idea.

[Dantankerous]

6 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

...What blows me away are YouTubers that post videos with blatant errors and many know it but that person continues to produce videos with errors mistakes and outright BS even though people call them out. “Yankee Marshal” comes to mind. I won’t bother watching that Buffoon’s videos any more. 

Yup.

 

I was watching a YT video on the Henry Big Boy 44 mag with a 16" barrel and that has a 7 shot tube mag. The tuber said this gun was perfect for cowboy action. WTH? 

 

Although he has a popular channel and is fairly knowledgeable about firearms the guy obviously knows exactly *#<#&#^#&<÷8÷<÷&!!!! about cowboy action shooting.

 

After he made that comment I immediately went elsewhere to watch videos on said carbine.

 

 

 

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Watching an episode of FBI on Paramount.

 

the caption read “a shipment of armor piercing rifles…”

 

yes it was bullets

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

I have, at times, shoved my hind hoof right between my pearly whites when writing in the Firelands world.
I never failed to thank those kind souls who corrected me, and I went back and fixed my goofs, gaffes and screw ups.

Mistakes happen.

Every author makes 'em.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

7 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

Alpo, maybe they were in something other than the factory cases.

 

Rye:

Maybe chambered in .45 AUTOMATIC Colt Pistol. Or maybe .380 AUTOMATIC Colt Pistol.  Until people started getting pedantically weird about it automatic and semi-automatic were pretty much used interchangeably for pistols and nobody seemed to get confused by it.  https://www.nramuseum.org/guns/the-galleries/world-war-i-and-firearms-innovation/case-36-great-inventors/colt-model-1905-45-automatic-pistol.aspx

 

Sort of like how you used to see advertising for firearms saying things like "Comes with two clips" and everyone knew exactly what was meant and didn't have hissy fit about "Oh! Do you mean MAGAZINE?"

 

 

Strange that my .32, .380, and .45 pistols all are chambered for ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) ammunition and that revolvers and single shot handguns (and other that are not semi-automatics) are not considered to be pistols, when from the earliest days of firearms those who were proficient with handguns were known as "pistoleros".

 

I get really nutsified when people get all bogged down in semantics when it really doesn't make much difference.  Let's stay on course and not get side tracked by minor crap.

 

Now"assault" weapons, and "Saturday Night Specials" etdamncetera is another matter altogether.  That's deliberate misleading for political purposes.

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

     I, mostly, only read one online author; and he doesn't need "correcting" ..........

       ......... do you, Mister Keller .....     

 

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

On 5/22/2023 at 8:24 PM, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

Strange that my .32, .380, and .45 pistols all are chambered for ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) ammunition and that revolvers and single shot handguns (and other that are not semi-automatics) are not considered to be pistols, when from the earliest days of firearms those who were proficient with handguns were known as "pistoleros".

 

I get really nutsified when people get all bogged down in semantics when it really doesn't make much difference.  Let's stay on course and not get side tracked by minor crap.

 

Now"assault" weapons, and "Saturday Night Specials" etdamncetera is another matter altogether.  That's deliberate misleading for political purposes.

Does not make a heck of a lot of difference. The handgun permit in NH is a permit for pistols and revolvers. Pistol uses the Merriam-Webster- Webster definition “The meaning of PISTOL is a handgun whose chamber is integral with the barrel.” So a single shot handgun such as a Thompson Contender would also be a pistol.