It is possible for any logged in user to contribute a crib for a dance. The Overview tab for a dance has a blue “Add” button. Clicking that shows a little menu from which you can select the “Add Crib…” option. That should open a small “Add Crib” window in which you can add the crib text in ACE Markdown (AMD) format which is described below. If there is already a crib or diagram for the dance, the Cribs/Diagrams tab will be enabled and you can also just click the “Add Crib” button on that page.
The Add Crib window has:
The live preview mode is very useful to check you have got the ACE Markdown format right.
You can of course write your crib in the style that pleases you. To be most helpful to others it probably makes sense to follow either the MiniCrib style (used by Charles Upton and his successors at www.minicrib.org.uk) or the E-cribs style developed by Eric Ferguson and used by the E-cribs team.
These compact crib styles were created to describe many dances in as little space as possible on a dance programme. So pasting in the verbose full description of a dance is not encouraged.
Anselm has provided a detailed description of what the ACE Markdown system can do. However for writing a standard crib you only need to know one particular feature which Anselm refers to as “definition lists”. For convenience this is described again here.
Note that the former ACE format was changed to ACE Markdown on 16 April 2023. Existing cribs were automatically converted but new ones need to be written in the new style.
Here is the ACE Markdown format of an example crib (in the E-crib style) of Linton Ploughman:
1–
: 1c+2c circle4 and back
9–
: 1c+2c RHA ; LHA
17–
: 1c lead down the middle and up
25–
: 1c+2c Poussette (2,1)
And again in MiniCrib style:
1–8
: 1s+2s circle 4H round & back
9–16
: 1s+2s dance RH across & LH across
17–24
: 1s lead down the middle & back to top
25–32
: 1s+2s dance Poussette. 2 1
There are three essential components:
It is no longer possible to put each 8 bar chunk on one line.
For bold text you need to enclose text with two asterisks, ie **bold**. This can be useful to highlight the while or while{4} of meanwhile figures. For italic text, eg for extra notes, surround the text with single asterisks, ie *italic*.
When writing a crib for a medley it is nice to identify the sections. There are some special features for this. A line containing only {{explanation}} will make the next line a title (and is best followed by a blank line):
{{explanation}}
Strathspey
1–8
: first line starting with colon and space
second line indented by one or more spaces
{{explanation}}
Reel
1–8
: etc
If you have tried the above and the preview mode shows garbage and you cannot understand why, then you can just close the window (without clicking Save) and ask for help from the e-cribs team at team@e-cribs.org. Include the text you hoped would make a good crib.
If you already clicked Save the crib will have been added to the database but the editors can still try to fix it.
You should now see your crib on the Cribs/Diagrams tab of the dance page. And it should also show you an “Edit” button. This allows you to update the crib if you realise there is a mistake or perhaps just a better way of describing it.
Also note that if another user sends a correction or suggestion via the “Submit Comment” button, you will receive that by email.
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