Member Biographies

oggbashan said:

Tried it.

What happened is that the bio on both Old and New Control Panels now show the changes but those changes did NOT appear on my publicly-visible profile.

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Might need 24 - 48 hours for server refreshes. We'll see, I guess.

electricblue66 said:

Might need 24 - 48 hours for server refreshes. We'll see, I guess.

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I had a friend check a couple of hours later and my new bio was visible. If you want to confirm, check my bio and if the first paragraph mentions the series 'Chosen', the change stuck in a publicly visible way.

...on the other hand I just clicked on my own name and saw my old bio. For pity's sake, this place...

...Ok, I think I understand, but I'm going to beg Laurel to comment on this thread to confirm.

Lit's always been in effect two websites - the story section, and these discussion board. You can have an existence in either or both, and the two existences apparently shared some information, but what they share has changed.

So over in StoryLand, I have (I think) an updated profile, though in the new control panel it comes up blank. But in DiscussionLand, my old profile is still visible (maybe only to me?) and there's no way to change it.

First of all, this is a mess. Some sort of incomplete shotgun wedding between a message board and a custom story presentation site clearly once happened, the divorce proceedings have gone poorly, and now our data is trapped in some sort of weird messed up limbo with no clear definition of custody rights. While I'm not a web designer by trade, it seems to me that none of the code that runs this place is all that complex, a Lit owns the user community a complete rewrite, if just to sweep out these lingering privacy issues.

It's not much of an issue for me - I've pulled all my stories but one series, (tried to) change my bio to indicate I'm done here, and am just winding down though some goodbyes. But for the rest of you this should be a big deal. Google gets sued because they don't let go of data about people, and they are really pretty good about it. Lit looks negligent in comparison and wouldn't survive even one such lawsuit.

HandsInTheDark said:

I had a friend check a couple of hours later and my new bio was visible. If you want to confirm, check my bio and if the first paragraph mentions the series 'Chosen', the change stuck in a publicly visible way.

...on the other hand I just clicked on my own name and saw my old bio. For pity's sake, this place...

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Copy and paste from when I clicked on your name:

Some of my stories - currently, Chosen, Reinventing Porn, Becoming Marie, Drug Trial, Why I Love My Job and The Captured Princess - are set in a common universe...

oggbashan said:

Copy and paste from when I clicked on your name:

Some of my stories - currently, Chosen, Reinventing Porn, Becoming Marie, Drug Trial, Why I Love My Job and The Captured Princess - are set in a common universe...

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That's the old bio. We'll see if Laurel fixes it.

electricblue66 said:

Might need 24 - 48 hours for server refreshes. We'll see, I guess.

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The story-side bio updated (which is the only one I care about), the forum-side didn't, but that doesn't matter. It's the ability to promote to readers that's important - you lot know me well enough by now and a bio won't tell you anything more.

So it half works, which is twice as good as not working.

You're right.

My story-side bio has updated but the forum bio is unchanged.

I might try a more major update tomorrow.

Do I even have a forum bio?

The picture to the left is me. My member bio still reflects me. I'm grateful if anyone still reads me, since I don't write for an audience anymore.

From my experience it doesn't seem readers look at those things much. I say that based on making a couple of announcements on it and still getting a bunch of emails though feedback asking the question the update answered.

The AV isn't me, my hair isn't that long.

I have posted a few pictures of me here over the years. Enough to merit the "You'd be better off if the AV were you" joke.

lovecraft68 said:

From my experience it doesn't seem readers look at those things much. I say that based on making a couple of announcements on it and still getting a bunch of emails though feedback asking the question the update answered.

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Bio updates go out to Followers, so in that sense, it's marketing - if they use the dashboard, which readers might not do, but fellow writers do do.

Da do do do da da da

Hmm, there's a song line there...

electricblue66 said:

Bio updates go out to Followers, so in that sense, it's marketing - if they use the dashboard, which readers might not do, but fellow writers do do.

Da do do do da da da

Hmm, there's a song line there...

Click to expand...

Go out? Like they get notifications? I have a hard time imagining that happening considering the lack of functionality site wide.

But even if they do, readers generally set up their id's with e-mail accounts they never check that were created for that, especially those who don't want SO's to know where they're going on the net.

For feedback etc, authors tend to use active e-mails for feedback purposes, that doesn't matter for readers

lovecraft68 said:

Go out? Like they get notifications? I have a hard time imagining that happening considering the lack of functionality site wide.

But even if they do, readers generally set up their id's with e-mail accounts they never check that were created for that, especially those who don't want SO's to know where they're going on the net.

For feedback etc, authors tend to use active e-mails for feedback purposes, that doesn't matter for readers

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Yes - notifications go out to dashboards. If I'm following someone, the new functionality tells me every time they update their profile, every time they post a new story. There's also a sort file that shows every comment I've given to any story, and every comment/fave/follower who has reacted to something of mine.

So I see every comment made. A significant chunk of my feedback is through PMs - sure, some transfer across to email, but they are more the trusted few than the wider community.

lovecraft68 said:

Go out? Like they get notifications? I have a hard time imagining that happening considering the lack of functionality site wide.

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No notification, they are listed under Latest Activity -> All Activity in the (new) dashboard. But the view that makes much sense for a reader; and is my default, is My Authors Activity -> Latest Works that does not show biography updates, but more details on the works published.

As for the updates taking place slowly and inconsistently, at different times for different users, it should be blamed on caching. There several layers of it, including locally on your own devices. It can be purged, and there are methods to push try mandatory updates, but for a site that host mostly static content it makes perfect sense to be configured for speed and minimal traffic and not disturbed. That said, by the complaints I see it might be a little bit too aggressive as it is. It can be a headache, and sometimes battleground between developers (who hate it, on users behalf) and network admins (who love it, for profit).

LupusDei said:

No notification, they are listed under Latest Activity -> All Activity in the (new) dashboard.

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That's what I meant - something appearing without being asked for is notification in my simple world. As distinct from Lovecraft's world, where he reckons nothing on Lit works. It might not work properly, but it's an octagonal wheel going around, so that's good enough for me, compared to previous versions (which had four sides on the wheel) . Baby step improvements, all good.

electricblue66 said:

That's what I meant - something appearing without being asked for is notification in my simple world. As distinct from Lovecraft's world, where he reckons nothing on Lit works. It might not work properly, but it's an octagonal wheel going around, so that's good enough for me, compared to previous versions (which had four sides on the wheel) . Baby step improvements, all good.

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But square wheels are better than octagonal. Half as many bumps!

Bramblethorn said:

But square wheels are better than octagonal. Half as many bumps!

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Ahh, yes, but they don't go around so well.

Here's something to keep an eye on - see Manu's post #3

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?p=89772191#post89772191

Just changed my Bio in the new control panel without a problem. Story side.

Mine is general information and a couple half-assed jokes. I sometimes like reading profiles but it's usually a short lived interest for a number of reasons.