New Lit Story Page Preview

[KeithD]

The publishing industry almost exclusively uses Word up until they go to print, so it would seem sensible just to go with the Word stat.

 

[Kojak01]

We are getting ready to rollout an update to the BETA story page that will change the read time from Minutes to Number of Words. I'll be expecting a wave of feedback soon after.

Is that the only update you're rolling out or is there more?

Regarding words or minutes, I'm indifferent. I can see pros and cons for both. My intuition says "minutes" is more convenient for readers while "word count" is more helpful for authors.

 

[Manu]

Is that the only update you're rolling out or is there more?

The other major update that will be coming out soon is the adjustment to the story page width on tablet devices. We've had feedback asking for a single column view on Kindle Fire and similar tablets, so that should be out soon for testing.

Are there other updates you're waiting on?

 

[Kojak01]

Are there other updates you're waiting on?

Nope. Just curious

 

[KeithD]

Regarding words or minutes, I'm indifferent. I can see pros and cons for both. My intuition says "minutes" is more convenient for readers while "word count" is more helpful for authors.

Minutes based on what? The relative density of the story, which can vary widely, or the relative reading speed of an individual reader, which can vary wildly, even from minute to minute, depending on what else is pulling at them while they're reading?

Where or where is that universal reader reading at a never-varying pace when you need her?

 

[SimonDoom]

Minutes based on what? The relative density of the story, which can vary widely, or the relative reading speed of an individual reader, which can vary wildly, even from minute to minute, depending on what else is pulling at them while they're reading?

Where or where is that universal reader reading at a never-varying pace when you need her?

There's no one-speed-fits-all, but individual readers can look at the estimate given and adjust for their own speeds. I find it incrementally useful.

Better would be if you could input your own reading speed and get an estimate based on that.

 

[KeithD]

Better would be if you could input your own reading speed and get an estimate based on that.

Even better if you didn't obsess over such things and put your time into something more creative/productive. I can look at a story here and decide instantly whether four Lit. pages on that is worth my time. It's a macro estimate, but it's certainly good enough and it gets me to working on my own stories that much faster.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

Yeah, that's one problem with word count, even Google and Microsoft can't agree on what makes a "word" in a document. Hopefully it will be close.

As long as you're consistent in how you approach it, anyone with heartburn will have the ability to adjust to their preferred approach. Thanks, I think this'll be a big improvement!

 

[gordo12]

Are there other updates you're waiting on?

I might have missed something to do with this but I have pointed out the flaw in the current comment loading.

There was a story the other day with 220 comments. No way to load unless you go 5 at a time, 44 times. I'm not going there. I doubt anyone else would either.

You can't participate in threads like that. I've stopped commenting with the new page structure.

You need to keep the "load all" feature and up the 5 comment limit or you're going to kill the comment responses.

 

[HeyAll]

This could be a longshot, but do you think there will ever be an "audio reader" feature, like they have on the new Word and phones?

Meaning, you click something and the story is read to you by an electronic voice.

 

[Kojak01]

I just wondered something. In the infobox, there is a 'series'-tab (when it's a series...) Right now the link in there takes you to the author's submissions. Are there any plans to create an actual series-starting page?
I could see several useful functions for that page. Voting and/or commenting on the series as whole and opportunities for the writer to inform about the status of coming chapters or planned length of the series are the first few that come to my mind.
You could also tag the series instead of just the chapters, making it easier to classify long stories.

 

[sbrooks103]

New Format

I see that we still don't have a way to make a comment header.

While I'm thankful that full comments now show, I'd like to once again add my voice to those asking for a "View all comments" feature.

I can't be sure, because I don't use the old format, but comment moderation on the new format seems faster. Is that my imagination, if not, is it only with the new format? Maybe because fewer people are using it?

 

[vanmyers86]

Late to the party, but I would love to be able to post a reply to a specific comment, similar to FB and other social media. It would save us all from having to start posts with "To the reader who asked about blah-di-blah, here's some context," or whatever.

 

[sbrooks103]

Late to the party, but I would love to be able to post a reply to a specific comment, similar to FB and other social media. It would save us all from having to start posts with "To the reader who asked about blah-di-blah, here's some context," or whatever.

Yes, that would be great!

Also, I started a thread, and reported a bug, but when you go back to Page One of a story, you only see a header and footer unless you refresh the page.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Late to the party, but I would love to be able to post a reply to a specific comment, similar to FB and other social media. It would save us all from having to start posts with "To the reader who asked about blah-di-blah, here's some context," or whatever.

Yes please. Threaded comments are kinda standard by now.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Late to the party, but I would love to be able to post a reply to a specific comment, similar to FB and other social media. It would save us all from having to start posts with "To the reader who asked about blah-di-blah, here's some context," or whatever.

Yes, that would be great!

Also, I started a thread, and reported a bug, but when you go back to Page One of a story, you only see a header and footer unless you refresh the page.

Yes please. Threaded comments are kinda standard by now.

Yes it would be nice but, as most readers never come back to read them once they've posted, especially Anon, what would be the point? Unless they now add a notification to the reader. Of course that means they have to have it turned on and want to be notified.

But that leaves Anon out of the loop as that is what he/she wants anyway.

 

[yukonnights]

Yes it would be nice but, as most readers never come back to read them once they've posted, especially Anon, what would be the point? Unless they now add a notification to the reader. Of course that means they have to have it turned on and want to be notified.

But that leaves Anon out of the loop as that is what he/she wants anyway.

My take is that the most useful thing I can do on the comments platform is drop in from time to time and comment on something that's been said about the story or thank others for their comment, etc.

It's not so much that I expect the readers I'm responding to will come back and see these, but that new readers will see my engagement and hopefully be encouraged to chime in. I have no way to know if that actually happens, but it seems it can't hurt.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Yes it would be nice but, as most readers never come back to read them once they've posted, especially Anon, what would be the point? Unless they now add a notification to the reader. Of course that means they have to have it turned on and want to be notified.

But that leaves Anon out of the loop as that is what he/she wants anyway.

That's not what's happening in my comments. I seem to have attracted a rather talkative Anon

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I think it would be nice if there was an option to stay updated on the comments of specified stories. This could be linked to 'favoring' a story, but the amount of messages that would generate might discourage people to use that option for the future, and make them retract their 'favorites'; perhaps yet another feature would be better.

There is, it's called Works Activity.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's only about your own work. In some rare occasions, I'd also like to be able to follow discussions on stories written by others.

You can find the links to the comments you left on other's stories in My Activity.

Now that would mean you want the comments to act like a bulletin board.