THE NEW CHYOO (with link)! Also, what features should be part of an updated CHYOO?

dkgooner said:

Gay male and lesbian sex aren't the same! Yeah, it's same-sex action, but it doesn't necessarily share the same readers!

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Well of course it doesn't have the same readers despite being essentially the same gimmick. At the time, I was referencing a nitpick-y variation in naming convention.

dkgooner said:

It seems to me that the list of categories mirrors that of literotica?

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Hence perhaps it could be time for a change while things are being changed. What typically happens with technology is people just want to "set it and forget it".

dkgooner said:

And if the search option is retained you can always use that (makes people explore the site more, find stories they wouldn't perhaps have?) - As stories can branch out to all kind of things they might not fit exclusively into the category they were posted in, but that's the case on many sites (including the current chyoo), and not really an issue for me. There'll still be a description to go along with every story, right?

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Hence a tag system, which can adapt for interactive stories which are written by multiple people, veer off into different directions, and grow rapidly. Not every feature is going to be needed by every user, but that doesn't necessarily mean any feature is without a vital use. When they were hypothesized above, tags were promoted for their ability to help people find stories with particular themes and how prevalent these themes were to be found in each story. They're not simply a counter.

When I think about this facet of it a bit more, what my real issue is consists of my feeling that I can't easily start a story constrained to any single category--or at least not based upon the current set of categories given. I guess I don't understand whether I'd have to choose between Erotic Horror and Adultery if either story might contain both. And I don't want to exclude homosexual content simply because I wish to include heterosexual pairings as well.

dkgooner said:

I am for keeping the site as simple as possible!

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It would be counter-intuitive NOT to simplify.

dkgooner said:

That's a strength of the current (when it works ) - but adding tags (as on literotica) could be another (easier) way to do a search I guess. Don't want to put too much of you guys working on it, so if too troublesome - don't!

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Well, it's my opinion that perhaps the current category system /isn't/ as simple as it could be. It feels like there are a lot of same-y categories.

Which, of course, is also a problem with a tagging system. On Rule34.xxx for instance, some people might tag an image as "testicles," but another person might tag it "balls" which mean the same thing, but complicate matters by adding too many synonyms--words which mean the same thing but don't turn up in a search for the other when they ought to. Then there's the matter of typographical errors. Having an exhaustive list would require constant adding to, which would be a hassle for moderators who wished to control the system in order to avoid abuse. Perhaps the best tags avoid slang and I would foresee that the only real tags we'd need to focus on are activities, fetishes, genre and character concepts. Any good list is both exhaustive and mutually exclusive. Yet another issue is agreeing upon or devising a subset of the best terms to rely upon for such tags. Maybe this is too OCD. Other sites really only falter because they don't enforce tagging and opt out with a "tagme" tag because uploaders won't provide as many tags as possible (or they rely on bots--for shame).

Another issue is lumping specific categories together--Sci Fi is grouped with Fantasy, for example. Sometimes people can be a bit picky about things which other people take for granted. I despise complicating the issue like this, but writing always benefits from preliminary rough drafts. Since this has been a long time coming, there's a lot of ground to make up for, or so I'd expect. A fresh perspective can be more efficient than just adding more things on.

Digressing away from tags for a bit, I'd like to ask about private or closed story threads. In this instance, only select authors can work on a closed story (or just one author). Can other users read the published portions of these stories in-progress?

I don't think anyone's mentioned advanced writing options yet, such as Italics or superscript. Strangely, even the forum doesn't appear to have these. Obviously you wouldn't want to allow links or images, since nothing good could come of that, and images defeat the purpose of writing.

The simple and eloquent look is awesome.

If this matters for categories with implimenting hashtags, I am unsure; However in case this does matter, I suggest adding 'impregnation' and 'superhero' fetishes/categories.

I look forward to playing around and writing in the new 'site.

Friedman said:

Again, thanks for the praises. I have to thank Murakami for his feedback so far. He is of great help.

We have now finished more or less the design of the site. Here follows the main story page, the central page of the site, where the reading and writing is going on. Our goal was to lay the focus on the presentation of the text. Therefore, we chose a serif font for a better reading experience and set a certain width for several screen sizes, so the eyes don't have to move from left to right on wider screens. But we will add a feature to customize this and the colors.
As requested, there is now only one click, instead of two to get to the next thread/page. The rating system and comments will follow.
Besides that, we've added some categories to the existing ones and we will integrate the use of tags, as indicated in the upper dropdown.

If you have further suggestions for improvement, please let me know.

Here are the screenshots:

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2p1k3 said:

However in case this does matter, I suggest adding 'impregnation' and 'superhero' fetishes/categories.

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We're heading into GURPS territory. :3 I admit this is a discussion for another thread, but for those also into tabletops (I almost designed a casual erotic tabletop campaign), you can kind of see how expansive a tag list could really become. There's just a lot of things for people to want to look for, as well as a lot of "tells" for trying to find a story again.

I was just thinking of that and the numbers next to the categories in the third scrnsht. Maybe that means the PTBs have awarded them permission to access the chyoo database… I hope.

Indirect said:

Those layouts look great. For the first time since long before I joined the site that "Chyoo 3.0 Coming Soon" banner actually means something. Thank you for your efforts and I hope porting over a test story (or whatever the next step is) goes smoothly.

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2p1k3 said:

I was just thinking of that and the numbers next to the categories in the third scrnsht. Maybe that means the PTBs have awarded them permission to access the chyoo database… I hope.

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Unfortunately, no. However, we are working on it. The numbers are just placeholders.

Looks like most people are holding off on new posts even with the site mostly back to functional. Waiting for the new site?

The site still takes you to a blank page when you try to add new threads in a lot of cases, particularly the important case of adding to a thread that doesn't yet have any options.

I know there's a solution because I've been reading this forum, but I bet a lot of people have checked the Chyoo site, seen they can't add and assumed the site is still in some kind of half-awake, look but don't touch mode. Then there are those who may have stopped checking after half a month.

Sending out an email to the linked email accounts when the new site is ready would be a good idea.

Murakami said:

Looks like most people are holding off on new posts even with the site mostly back to functional. Waiting for the new site?

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Just depressed. Also waiting for external input to understand what direction established materials should head in.

Plus, I'm still strongly convinced on (and used to, in practice) the function of a more open-ended tagging system, so if I made a bunch of threads now, I kind of expect I'd have to go back and tag them all.

Murakami said:

Looks like most people are holding off on new posts even with the site mostly back to functional. Waiting for the new site?

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I'm checking every few days. Good to know people are trying to set things in motion

workarround

This is off topic but; you 'could' try adding /index.php/member.thread.addedit/0/######. Where '#' is the previous post number you are 'adding' to.

Though that also allows you to post to threads that are awaiting approval by author/trusted member of the story. Thus I think it may be considered a hack.

rippitydoo said:

It's not by choice. I tried to add a thread to a story last night where I have done it a million dozen times... I tried "6 ways to" every day of the week, but it couldn't be done!

I ended up writing the thread while I had the inspiration, but saving it in my word-processor program, & then E-mailing it as an attachment to the story's editor.

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To get back on topic, I am waiting. Though I don't really need too as I save what I write in word files.

I've been saving what I write in separate files since back in the days I used to use chatrooms. You never know when you're gonna lose your work.

THIS is probably one of the most important features a new Chyoo could have: The ability to retain our progress if, for example, we accidentally navigate away from the page, or else our internet connection goes out before we hit Submit without our realizing it. Not everybody's going to pop open OpenOffice or MSWord Starter when they edit until this has happened a few times already.

Sorry, I can see I should've tried to think more about suggestions of backup systems rather than layout and logic flow.

Agree with GreenBanana's idea. If it were at all possible for the text editor/text fields on the new site to auto-save every minute or so or to be able to save drafts within them, that would be amazing. I haven't got a clue how possible it would be or how difficult it would be to pull off, but that would definitely be a dream feature.

In regards to the site, much like others, I've simply been monitoring the discussion and progress of the new site here and patiently waiting for it to go up. On the off-chance that there is no way to transfer stories, I've already got the entirety of The Choice backed up and ready for resubmission, in which I'll also credit original authors of threads which are not my own. Also really hoping some sort of account verification system can be pulled off.

Thanks for your continued works, dev team. You're all amazing.

We are still waiting for word from the current database holders. Hopefully they will get back to us and let us use the current information to bring the site up really fast. If not, we will have to work out a method for dealing with manually recreating everything, which will involve a bit of work.

ChaosMuramasa said:

Agree with GreenBanana's idea. If it were at all possible for the text editor/text fields on the new site to auto-save every minute or so or to be able to save drafts within them, that would be amazing. I haven't got a clue how possible it would be or how difficult it would be to pull off, but that would definitely be a dream feature.

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There is a Firefox/Chrome add-on called Lazarus that you may want to look into in the meantime.

Is CHYOO actually getting an upgrade or is this all just a pipe dream? I've been hearing about a potential upgrade since 2006......

- If it isn't a pipe dream: please keep the clean white interface.

Thanks

Speaking of color schemes, was the alternative of a black one discussed? White text on a black background is much, much easier on the eyes.

Murakami said:

There is a Firefox/Chrome add-on called Lazarus that you may want to look into in the meantime.

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You're a life saver. This works great. Thanks a ton!

Bastian said:

Is CHYOO actually getting an upgrade or is this all just a pipe dream?

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Thanks for your interest. We're actually working on the new version. The only question is still if we get access to the old/current database.

ChaosMuramasa said:

Speaking of color schemes, was the alternative of a black one discussed? White text on a black background is much, much easier on the eyes.

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We're integrating the possibility to change the color scheme. The standard is a white background. But you can change it, if you have an account.

Friedman said:

Thanks for your interest. We're actually working on the new version. The only question is still if we get access to the old/current database.

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If we don't, there will be no technical problem copying the stories over obviously. But we'd then be in the weird position of having two CHYOOs running in parallel. What would we do about that?

Indirect said:

Expanding the immersive text is a good idea. I think the author should be able to select how many immersive text fields are going to be used with the story and should be able to name the fields and provide default values for them. That way when someone starts a story they could see
Your First Name: _John_____
Your Family Name: _Doe_____
Your Sister's Name: _Jane_____
Sister's Cup Size: _B_____
etc.

The more fields authors add the more important default values are since it means readers don't have to guess at the desired format and don't need to fill in values they aren't as interested in. If the author wants a height in feet entered as five then the story will look strange if someone enters 4'7" or 140cm.

Probably a good idea to let the author add more fields after they've started the story, since I bet many authors will look back and say "I wish I had made that bit immersive" after a few weeks or months.

Instead of {FIRST_NAME} and {LAST_NAME} perhaps make the fields something like {VAR_1} . . . {VAR_12} . . . {VAR_X}. The site could map the old names to the first two variables.

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I think this is a little too detailed. How would writers know what kinds of acts are possible? A motor boating scene could be done with A cup breasts, hands could glide along the rock hard six pack of a lardo, or worse. It also means descriptions won't be very detailed or varied. The same word will be used over and over, and without a real image of the character in the writer's head it's impossible to make the image real. More names is good, but making the appearances should be kept to Create a Fembot.

The writer/author would be the one 'creating' and/or 'using' the immersive text field. Thus they 'should' be the first to know what is what.

If the same author feels it is imperative to spell out characteristics and traits every post, then they can simply choose to avoid using that feature for their story/posts.

I think just a standard field that pops up when you mouse over a hashtag/link {as in the name of a character} could be easiest. I have little idea how difficult it is to write the script for that though.

Xorph said:

If we don't, there will be no technical problem copying the stories over obviously. But we'd then be in the weird position of having two CHYOOs running in parallel. What would we do about that?

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That's my question. As long as CHYOO 2 is up and operational, CHYOO 3 (or whatever) is never going to get the buy-in it needs to succeed. If I'm not mistaken, something like this failed to take off a number of years ago.

2p1k3 said:

The writer/author would be the one 'creating' and/or 'using' the immersive text field. Thus they 'should' be the first to know what is what.

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Not true. The writer can't use only one character model, because that one model may not be the one someone else uses when reading the story. If immersive text is used for more than names, the stories either stop making sense or get very boring.

hell_kaiserV2 said:

I think this is a little too detailed. How would writers know what kinds of acts are possible? A motor boating scene could be done with A cup breasts, hands could glide along the rock hard six pack of a lardo, or worse. It also means descriptions won't be very detailed or varied. The same word will be used over and over, and without a real image of the character in the writer's head it's impossible to make the image real. More names is good, but making the appearances should be kept to Create a Fembot.

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When I included cup size and a long list as an example I just wanted to show that there were other possible uses for immersive text, and sometimes you don't want them paired. A story could include First name, Last name and Sister's name but there's no need to fill in sister's last name. Mind control stories could use the word as a keyword to activate the mind control. A field could be the name of the company you work for, the color of your crush's hair, etc. The important part to me is that a default is there so that the reader doesn't need to fill in fields they don't want to and so the correct format for this variable is apparent to the reader.

From my impression the people on this board are the reason for whatever success of CHYOO2. Since the supermajority if not unanimous opinion is a desire to use a CHYOO3, then if anything CHYOO2 is headed for dormancy. It would be very easy to have a sticky on the forums here for CHYOO2 linking CHYOO3 and maybe a mention in the CHYOO FAQ in CHYOO2. Also linking the social media sites G+ and FaceBook to CHYOO3. I believe it is far more important to focus on what to do to help ChYOO3 be a success.

Besides a third/fourth layer link/mention on literotica.com I have missed any support from literotica itself. Furthermore CHYOO2 is far from its previous 'up and operational' status. There is still a major glitch of encountering a blank white page when using the storymap and navigating the stories. .

Bastian said:

That's my question. As long as CHYOO 2 is up and operational, CHYOO 3 (or whatever) is never going to get the buy-in it needs to succeed. If I'm not mistaken, something like this failed to take off a number of years ago.

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I think we should keep the "free speech, no spam" feature from the upper right there. :3