Pilocon Help

How signing in works, how to move between Daycon and Pilocon Press, and how a book goes through Press: what you'll see, step by step, and what to expect.

1. The two apps, and who uses which

Both are private. Nobody can get in without an invite from Ron, and each person sees only the app (and in Press, only the books) that's theirs.

2. Your first time: the invite link

Ron sends you a link. It works once, for 72 hours.

3. Signing in after that

Go to the app's address and tap Sign in with your passkey. Your device shows the passkey (on a phone, a little sheet slides up; in Bitwarden, a prompt), you touch the sensor or enter the PIN, and you're in. A sign-in lasts 30 days on that device.

Sign out is in Press's header. Because the sign-in is shared, it signs you out of both apps on that device.

A second device (say, a tablet): sign in on it with the same passkey if your passkeys sync (Google, Bitwarden), or ask Ron for a link for that device.

4. One passkey for both apps

From 11/9, a passkey is made for pilocon.cloud, the name both apps sit under. So one passkey opens both, and signing in to one signs you in to the other (if it's yours to use).

A passkey made before 11/9 (Ron's)

Passkeys made earlier belong to one address (day.pilocon.cloud). They still work there. The first time you sign in with one, you'll see:

After that, use the new passkey everywhere. You can delete the old day.pilocon.cloud entry from Bitwarden when you're sure the new one works on every device.

5. Moving between the apps

• In Daycon: the Pilocon Press mark (the little press) at the top right opens Press.
• In Press: the Daycon mark (the compass needle), labelled Daycon, in the header opens Daycon.

Each button appears only for someone who can use the other app. An editor sees no Daycon button, because Daycon isn't theirs. Because the sign-in is shared, the other app opens already signed in.

The first time in Press, a welcome card at the top of the dashboard says what's there; Got it puts it away.

Help (this page) is the ? button in Daycon and Help in Press's header. You can read it without signing in.

6. The Press dashboard

Press opens on the dashboard, and it shows each person what they need.

Ron's dashboard

• Waiting on you: each book in progress with what it needs from you: chapters for your read, chapters read and ready for Haven's copyedit, and changes and comments to settle.
• Every book, in progress first, then published, with its stage and three pass counts (your read, Haven's copyedit, the editor's read), its open marks, who it's shared with, what's next and its target date. Click a row to open the book.
• Ideas and Dates, as before. The shelf (the covers) is still in the header.

An editor's dashboard

• Shared with you, in progress: each book Ron has shared, with how many chapters are ready for your read and how far each pass has got.
• Published: every live book, to read, comment on or suggest a change to. Ron decides what to do with each.

7. A book's rooms

The chapters are listed down the left, each with its three pass marks (section 10) and its word count. The counts at the top of that list are for the whole book.

8. The Edit room: comments and suggestions

Leaving a comment

Suggesting a change (editors and Ron)

Select the words, press ✎ Suggest a change at the selection, type the new words (or leave it empty to suggest cutting them), and say why in a few words. On the page it shows as old wordsnew words.

The margin

• Each note sits beside the words it's about. When notes would overlap, they stack, and the one you've picked lines up exactly with its words.
• Click a note and the page scrolls to its words, which flash. Click a mark in the page and its note comes alongside.
• Reply under any note. Accept, Reject and Resolve are Ron's.

Haven's copyedit (Ron)

Copyedit this chapter asks Haven to mark the chapter to the style sheet: every change is a suggestion in the margin; nothing is changed outright. A chapter takes a few minutes, one at a time. Accept all of Haven's level 1 takes the plain fixes (punctuation, grammar) in one go; clarity suggestions and anything with a comment stay for you.

9. Changing the text as you read (Ron)

In the Edit room, every paragraph can be opened and changed in place.

Your change goes straight into the chapter; it isn't a suggestion, because the words are yours. If the paragraph holds someone's mark, you'll see the mark's raw form ({~~old~>new~~}); leave it as it is, or settle it in the margin first.

10. The three passes: read, copyedit, editor's read

Every chapter goes through three passes, in this order, and each is marked with the date it was done:

A chapter is ready for the editor's read once Ron's read and Haven's copyedit are both done. That's what the editor's dashboard counts. Any mark can be undone the same way, if it was pressed by mistake.

11. What to expect

• Every save goes into the book's own file, the one master copy. Ron's Obsidian copy on the Framework has it within seconds.
• Press won't save over a change made somewhere else since you opened the chapter. If it says so, open the chapter again, and your change can be made on the fresh copy.
• Drafts in Write are kept on your device until they save, so a lost connection doesn't lose words.
• Haven's copyedit takes a few minutes a chapter; a bar says it's working, and the marks appear when it's done.
• Nothing is published from Press. Uploading to Amazon is always Ron's own step.

12. When something doesn't work

Questions this page doesn't answer: ask Ron, and the answer gets added here.