Some ideas

[Wyldmage]

Just wanted to throw an idea up for possible discussion.
I've got a single story at Chyoo, and have written a tad for some others, and I noticed a few trends:

Long stories tend to have few brances, although there are some exceptions. This kind of defeats the purpose of the Interactive Fiction idea.
Short stories don't attract very many new posts. In example almost nobody has posted to mine, despite an effort on my part to allow/encourage several options (without closing off creativity).
The stories that DO get posted to enough and don't follow a single strand don't get new posts near the top very often, just within the last 50% of the story usually.

Personally, I think overcoming these three would make the site's repetoire of stories a lot better. Right now there seem to be too many 2-4 page stories, and very few over 10.
Anyone have a suggestion on how to attract more writers or something?

Oh, and whatever happened to the IF that was on Literotica. When they moved their IF section to Chyoo, all of those were lost (and some were nice and long, pretty strong writing too).

Wyldmage

 

[Wyldmage]

One more thing

Spent some time thinking, and realized one other thing that seems to be missing from my experience - quality feedback. Sure we've got those little 1-5 rating systems with room for small comments, but wouldn't it be great if people actually took the time to write to an author with good ideas and bad style, or good style and bad ideas with suggestions on how to improve? Sure, not everyone would be happy getting said comments, but increasing our base of confident qualified writers would help immensely.

Anyone out there willing to keep this post moving?

Wyldmage

 

[Guest]

What' the title of your story Wildmage? I'd like to read it. I agree with your comments. I'll make an effort to add comments when I vote. One thing I find a pain is when I vote it takes a long time to change pages, if I 'm reading a good story it slows it down too much. I would bet this is not uncommon and puts people of bothering to vote.

 

[artican]

Yeah, it would be great to have a little more contribution to stories, it's not the same as the old IF page, those stories tended to go everywhere and were full of options. I think the main problem is that now you need to have the page reviewed before it goes up. This can lead to it being rejected if the moderator doesn't like or doesn't think your thread belongs and also the prolonged waiting will make you feel less enthusiastic about continuing to add to the thread.

I've got a suggestion for a solution though, say if there was a group effort to work on a story. One person, a reliable person would be the one to start the story and the others can add onto the story knowing that it will be up in a day or two. Also there could be more interaction between the group by using the board to discuss story ideas and critiques or praises about each other's pages. It's just an idea that might promote a good story that's worth reading and writing.

 

[Sixth]

I think it would be good if a story announced the total number of pages it had straight up.

It looks bad when you see something like:
"Last night" longest thread 3 pages.

It gives the impression that there are 3 pages in the story; whereas there could be 21.

So, what about:
"Last night" longest thread 3 pages, 21 pages in total.

 

[Wyldmage]

re: Gorgeous Girl - It's 'Mystery Shop' in SciFi/Fantasy.
I like the point about voting though. I will admit that I usually don't vote unless I'm interested in giving actual feedback...
If the vote option was a little less out of the way (very bottom of the page), like maybe right above the continue/add spot, and with two things to mark- one for the 1-5, and a check box if you want to enable comments. If you have the comment checkbox enabled, then anything you enter as a comment is sent along with your vote.

In response to Artican, the one thing that bugged my on Literotica main was that stupid posters could ruin a story ("HAHAHAHA!!! You DIE!!!!" - followed by the options DEAD and DEAD) and that they were limited to 2 branches. Now, threads are moderated so that only people who are at least serious about having a thread or caring about the story will post, and the unlimited (or I haven't seen a limit) number of threads from each thread makes for a lot thicker of story. Mind you, 10 threads at 2 branches each is STILL 512 possible threads at the 10 deep mark...

I also think that promoting group collaboration here would be awesome. I mean, I had gotten like 3 threads submitted over a month or two, and since I've posted the fact that I have a thread here, I've gotten 3 more authors, one with 2 submissions, all accepted. If we had some way other than browsing stories and deciding "I think I'll add on here" to find stories to post to we may get more posts. Definitely a consideration. As far as being rejected, I think that *if* an editor rejects a thread, including a good feedback message, with some helpful hints is a good way to turn a 'weaker' writer into a powerful addition to the site. Also, I doubt anything would be possible since Literotica and Chyoo are both free, but if there was a small incentive to post, with 'reward' given after acceptance, we'd definitely see more posts! Oh, I'd much rather have a free site than have bonuses for posting.

Finally, in response to Sixth, I think that the 'width' of the story is just as important as the depth. Perhaps instead of 'total threads' we could have the number of 'dead end' threads (ie waiting for someone to post a continuation to)...

Thanks for all your responses, I'm sure when someone in charge of things takes a look here they won't be disappointed

 

[daciasdesire]

Reduced Delays

In order to reduce the delays associated with a writter waiting to have his or her thread approved ive made a habit of logging onto msn each night while doing my usal surfing. Msn tells me if ive got mail which i check and if its a new thread ill most likely approve. On one ocassion i was able to approve the thread 5 mins after it was submitted and perhaps due to this the writter added another thread for me about 15 mins later. This was also approved about 15 mins later.

An idea ive just had is that if the web guy who runs this site could change it somehow so that when a new thread is added its able to be seen by everyone but with "subject to editors approval" in red at the top of the page. An added benefit would be that the editor and creator could start having feedback being submitted to them so that when they come to approve it, they know what the readers think so far.

Also if they could somehow get around to doing this they could also make it so that if the newly displayed thread isnt approved or rejected in 30 days it becomes a permant thread. Tough luck to the editor for not keeping an eye out for thier story.

If anyone would like to read my story and submit a thread for SPEEDY approval the link is

http://www.chyoo.com/dx/?dx=c&story_id=780

Cheers and Catchya

Dacia

 

[AaronWebster]

I think it would help if Chyoo offered a list of newest threads, rather than newest stories. At the moment, no matter how popular your story and no matter how often you and others update it, it will eventually drift down the list and out of people's consciousness, to be replaced by new stories that in many cases the writer and all others have no real intention of contributing to.

If the list was "Most recent thread", then
a) the reader could be navigated to the most recent bit of the story added (not have to plow through 20 pages or so.
b) authors would be rewarded for keeping their stories up to date (by regularly contributing threads) or creating popular stories (that others want to contribute to).

Hopefully this could also be an automated system, so that you don't have (as at present) the same "new" stories kicking round for 2-3 weeks.

Just my 2p worth (UK English for my 2c)

 

[mike_mike02128]

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