Library Guide

The Liminal Library functions a way to diagetically share both thoughts and memories within the world of Sanctuary. This guide has three sections:

1. Library Terminology lists out some of the basic terms. I’ve tried to repeat relevant details in section 2, but regardless I recommended that you skim it
2. Library Functionality documents all the features of the library and how to use them. It is further divided into three sections, one for each of the principal pages of the library: The Landing Page, The Folio Page and The Scene Builder.
3. Diagetically, What Does This All Mean? contains some tips and tricks for interacting with the library IC.

Library Terminology

First, the library uses several terms that it’s probably useful to define! They are as follows:

• Folio: The folio is the basic building-block of the library. Each “entry” in the library contains a folio. A folio can either function as a recorded memory from a character that everyone is able to view at will (constructed by using the Scene Builder, see #3 under Library Functionality below), or as a diagetic codex page (constructed by editing the prolegomenon, defined later here and discussed under #2, The Folio Page, below). Functionally, folios have the following elements:,
  • Title and optional Subtitle: These give us a sense of what the content of the folio is about.
  • Tags: These tags are unique and do not carry over from prior scenes. At the moment, by convention, the following tag denote certain specific things:
    • Codex: Denotes a folio that is principally a diagetic codex page, i.e. consists mostly of prolegomenon content.
    • Memory: Denotes a folio that is principally a memory shared with party, i.e. consists mostly of scene builder content.
    • Liminal Bullshit: For folios that touch upon site mechanics.
  • Accession Date: When the folio was created
  • Author: By whom the folio was created
  • Last Updated Date: When the folio was last updated, including: editing the prolegomenon, adding a memory from a scene, or adding marginalia.
  • Last Updated By: Whoever last edited the prolegomenon, added a memory, or made a comment in the marginalia.
• Prolegomenon: Yes, this is a word! This is essentially a note at the header of a folio. It functions much like a codex page, though the details will be explained more in-depth below. All users may edit the prolegomenon of any codex page, so please be mindful that you aren’t accidentally deleting someone else’s content.
• Post: When in the Scene Builder, the post is the smallest unit of a scene. Every time you hit the “[Post]” button during a scene, that functions as a post in the library sense as well.
• Marginalia: Each post within a folio can be given an unlimited amount of marginalia, which are functionally comments on a single given post. Additionally, the Scene Builder allows the creation of inline marginalia for groups of posts as well (see #3, Scene Builder, below).
• Handwriting: Each character has a unique font and color for their commentary. While this isn’t necessarily meant to literally represent actual handwriting, I’m using it as a shorthand when discussing this feature.

Library Functionality

The library consists of three principal pages:

1. The Landing Page
2. The Folio Page
3. The Scene Builder.

1. The Landing Page

The Landing Page can be accessed under the “Library” link in the site navigation. On this page you can do the following:

• Create a new folio by clicking the [+ New Folio] button up in the top left corner. This will take you to the Scene Builder page (see #3 of this guide)
• Enjoy Some Bird Barks from Jory the Librarian. These glowing bits of liminal text don’t do anything, but they sure are cute!
• Search the existing library stacks by using the search functions, which are as follows:
  • SEARCH: Does what it says on the tin. Searches title, subtitle, or prolegomenon content
  • TAG: Filters folios by a given tag. Currently only allows you to filter on a single tag.
  • AUTHOR: Filters by who created a folio.
  • SORT: Sorts your results by the selected criteria. Defaults to sorting by most recently to least recently updated folio.
• View an extant folio by clicking on its title. This will take you to the Folio Page (see #2 of this guide)
  • Additionally, a count of Marginalia updates will show up in a yellow box next to each library folio until they are viewed.

2. The Folio Page

When editing or viewing a folio, this is the page you’ll see. From this page, you can do a variety of actions:

• Add and Remove tags
• View the edit history of the folio by clicking the [view history →] link below the title and subtitle.
• Edit the prolegomenon by clicking the [✎ Edit Prolegomenon] button (see the Editing the Prolegomenon section below for further details)
• Navigate to different sections of the memories. Each inline annotation added from to the Scene Builder turns into a clickable anchor link in the annotations box below the prolegomenon.
  • Annotations can be expanded or collapsed by clicking [ANNOTATIONS] link at the top of the box.
• Edit the folio itself by clicking the [Edit Folio →] button, which will take you the Scene Builder (see #3 in this guide)
• View the original scene a folio post came from by hovering over the post. A tooltip with a clickable link to the relevant scene will appear to the left.
• Add marginalia to a given post within the folio.
  • Marginalia can be accessed by clicking the purple [{n} marginalia] link below each post.
  • This will generally open the input for marginalia composition. Marginalia are always written in your character’s handwriting, though glyphs from the grimoire can be accessed by clicking the [◆] button.
  • If the marginalia composition input does not appear, it can be summoned by clicking the gray [+ Annotate] link at the bottom of the marginalia input.
  • Marginalia are threaded. Any marginalia can be replied to by clicking the [↩ Reply] link in the marginalia header. If you open the reply composition but realize you do not want to reply to a given marginalia, you can click the gray [+ Annotate] link to exit the chain and comment on the post directly.
  • Marginalia can be edited by clicking the [✎ Edit] link but cannot be deleted.

Additionally, if you are the folio author, you can perform the following actions:

• Edit the title and subtitle by clicking the [✎ Edit Title & Subtitle] button
• Make the folio private by clicking the [🔒 Make Private] button. This makes the folio viewable only by you. Folios can be made public, and thus viewable to everyone, again by clicking the [🔓 Make Public] button, which appears in the same exact place on a private folio. Please note:
  • At this time, there is no way to make a folio private from the outset. You must create a new folio, and then mark it as private on this page.

Editing the Prolegomenon

The prolegomenon functions, essentially, as a diagetic codex page. As stated above, all users may edit the prolegomenon of any codex page, so please be mindful that you aren’t accidentally deleting someone else’s content. If one user is currently editing the prolegomenon, it will not be accessible for other users to edit until that current user is done. Please keep in mind that if you are inactive for long enough, the prolegomenon window WILL time out and you will lose your changes.

The prolegomenon consists of two parallel windows. The window on your left is where you will want to type your content. The window on the right shows how your content will appear with all of the markdown and special characters rendered. There are some buttons with special functions:

• Glyphs from the grimoire can be accessed by clicking the [◆] button at the top left of the prolegomenon edit window.
• The tags for your character’s font can be accessed by clicking the button bearing your character’s [{name}] next to the grimoire button on the top left of the prolegomenon edit window.
  • See the Handwriting Guide in order to see who’s handwriting is whose.
  • Yes, handwriting tags and glyphs are visible to all editors. We’re using the honor system here OR making sure if we do get up to shenanigans they’re really, really funny ones.
• Save your changes to the prolegomenon by clicking the [Save Prolegomenon] button on the bottom left.

3. The Scene Builder

First, be not afraid. It seems like a lot, but I promise we’ll get through it and it’ll be awesome. The Scene Builder page consists of two panels—the one on the left, the Scene Browser Panel allows you to select posts from scenes in which your character has participated. The panel on the right consists of the already-selected folio content, which can be reordered and annotated with inline comments. I’m calling this the Folio Content Panel. This guide breaks down the functions within each section.

PLEASE NOTE: As with the prolegomenon, only one user can edit the posts within a folio; the folio is otherwise inaccessible for other users to edit until that current user is done. Again, as with the prolegomenon, if you are inactive for long enough, the Scene Builder WILL time out and you will be returned to the Folio Page. However, as each action within the Scene Builder is automatically saved, your changes will not be lost.

Scene Browser Panel

The Scene Browser Panel allows you to browse scenes in which your character participated and select posts for a given folio. These posts make up the “memory” within the folio. This panel has several elements:

• The input box at the top allows you to filter scenes by Scene Title or Tags
  • More advanced searching can be accomplished by cross-referencing scenes from the Archives page.
• The scene list consists of the scenes you may add to the folio. These scenes listed below in descending chronological order and can be expanded or collapsed on click. Please note:
  • Even open Private Backchannels can be added to folios. These backchannels are also pinned to the top of the Scene Browser Panel and marked with a purple ⬡ symbol. They do not follow chronological order, so I guess I lied.
  • Full-Cast Sessions are surrounded by a green box and I suspect reliant on Ice tagging them correctly. Good luck us!
• Once a scene has been expanded, posts can be selected for the folio by clicking on them.
  • Please note that the same post(s) can be added to a folio {n} amount of times. To guard against doing this by mistake:
    • A vertical lavender line to the left of a post marks it as having already been added to a scene.
    • A similar vertical lavender line denotes scenes which contain posts that have already been added to the folio.
• While individual posts can be selected by clicking on them, a range of posts can also be mass-added to a folio. This can be accomplished through the use of the range anchor button.
  • The range anchor button [⇕] is found on the far right of each individual post. Clicking on a range anchor makes active. In its active state it will look like a purple button. Its default is inactive.
  • Clicking the range anchor button tells the Scene Builder that the post you have anchored is either going to be the first or last post in a series of consecutive posts.
  • Once active, the series of posts that will be added to the folio will be highlighted. You may scroll to any post within a scene and click on it, as you would normally add a post. The result is that the entire range of posts, from the range anchor to the post you clicked, will be added to the Folio Content Panel to the right.

Folio Content Panel

The Folio Content Panel sits to the right of the Scene Browser Panel and allows you edit all of the post-based folio content. Which is to say, everything but the title, subtitle, tags, and prolegomemnon. This panel consists of a HEADER and a BODY, with their functions enumerated below:

HEADER

The Header of the Folio Content Panel consists of several key pieces of information:

• Folio Title, which is perhaps not key certainly is there.
• The [← View folio] link which will return you to the Folio Page and unlock the Scene Builder for the use of others.
• The Caret Position Counter, which denotes where the Insertion Caret is currently positioned in the BODY. The Insertion Caret is denoted by a horizontal white line within the BODY of the panel and controls where within the folio posts selected from the Scene Browser Panel, alongside Inline Annotations, are placed.
• The Entry Count, which tracks how many Posts and Inline Annotations exist within the folio in total.
• Conditionally, when selected posts within the BODY have been grouped a gray [⛓ Ungroup all] button will appear. Clicking on this button ungroups the selected posts within the BODY. See below for a discussion of Grouping.

BODY

The BODY of the Folio Content Panel is where posts can be reordered and annotated. It contains the following elements and functionality:

• Posts that have been selected from the Scene Browser Panel on the left.
  • Delete a post from a folio by clicking the gray [✕] button on the upper right.
  • Posts that have extant marginalia attached can be deleted but will prompt a confirmation dialogue.
• Inline Annotations function very similarly to marginalia but can be inserted between any post. All inline annotations will become clickable anchor links in the “ANNOTATION” table of contents in the folio proper.
  • Add an inline annotation by entering your content in the annotation input and clicking the [+ Add Annotation] button on the bottom left. As with the marginalia, inline annotations will always be in your character’s handwriting, however:
    • Glyphs from the grimoire can be accessed by clicking the [◆] button on the the bottom left of the annotation text area.
  • Delete an inline annotation from a folio by clicking the gray [✕] button on the upper right.
  • Edit an inline annotation in a folio by clicking the gray [✎] button on the upper right.
• The Insertion Caret is denoted by a horizontal white line and controls where posts from the Scene Browser Panel and Inline Annotations are inserted.
  • Move the insertion caret by clicking the desired position between posts.
    • Each space between posts in the Folio Content Panel displays a gray “+ INSERT HERE” tip on hover; this lets you know where you can place the insertion caret.
  • The insertion caret‘s position is tracked by the Caret Position Counter in the header.
• Posts and Inline Annotations can be Grouped by clicking on adjacent posts in the Folio Content Panel. This allows you to move a group of posts and annotations at once, rather than individually.
  • Group a folio item (either a post or inline annotation) by clicking on it. The grouped item will have a rounded yellow border.
    • A post that can be grouped will appear yellow on hover.
  • Remove an item from a group by clicking on it again. Only the post at the beginning or end of a group can be removed this way. To remove all posts from a group, click the [⛓ Ungroup all] button in the HEADER.
    • A post that can be removed from a group will appear read on hover.
  • Move and Reorder grouped posts by dragging and dropping them within the BODY

Diagetically, What Does This All Mean?

For the aesthetics and construction of the library, please see the folio A History of the Liminal Library, but in short: Prolegomenon content is more clearly explanatory, and should be interacted with as a reading-recording, while memories from the posts archived within the library can be experienced as living memories, read, or listened to, depending on the preference of whoever is interacting with the folio.

Some notes:

• “Private” folios are stored on the shelf under the Duelist’s Mask constellation
• Jory the Librarian is more than happy to fetch whatever you need if you ask nicely.
• The link above contains a couple descriptions of the finished library and the shelves, but of particular note:

  The shelves are stacked with what appear to be traditional books, but on closer inspection consist of two rectangular crystal slabs bound together with a spine of rich embroidery floss. The crystal of the books is not the clear, boundless quartz of a Samudran memory crystal. Instead, the interior of the crystal seems to contain suspended sparks and starlight.

• The sewing on the spine shifts color to reflect the content of the memory.