We're using cookies to make this site more secure, featureful and efficient.

Writing Contributed Cribs

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

The Add Crib window has:

  • a space on the left for entering text in ACE Markdown format;
  • a live display on the right of how it will be rendered on the website;
  • a little menu you can use to say how reliable you think your crib is, for example, whether someone else has checked it against the detailed instructions;
  • a menu with, most likely, just one option saying you are writing an “SCDDB Contributed Crib” (the database editing team may have other options);
  • a “Save” button to commit your crib to the database (or Close without saving).

The live preview mode is very useful to check you have got the ACE Markdown format right.

Crib style

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.

ACE Markdown format for cribs

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:

  • the bar range, eg just “1–” (E-crib style) or “1–8” (MiniCrib style) with no spaces, ie “1 - 8” will result in a slightly messed up display
  • one colon and space ": " starting the next line which is required to tell ACE this is a “definition list”
  • this is followed by the crib text on the same line
  • if you need to continue over more lines, the following lines must be indented by at least one space

It is no longer possible to put each 8 bar chunk on one line.

Other formatting options

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 problems

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.

After your crib is added

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.

Navigation
Recently seen

Sign in to see recent visitors!