Suggestions for the "new" lit pages

[AccelarVester]

Just a few usage suggestions:

• Include the story's date and score at the top of each page
• Add a "Go to page" widget at the top of each page
• Include a "You have read this" indicator and if possible the date read.
  • This is different than the flag showing the story is on one your story lists

Thanks

 

[ElectricBlue]

Just curious, why the score and date on each page? Isn't the top of the first page enough? The date would be nice, agree there.

The "next page" button is (logically) at the bottom of the page. Why would you want it at the top?

I must admit, I sometimes think this story is familiar, and I get to the last page and see that I've already voted - and realise it must have been a while ago.

The problem I see, though, is that the site records the author and story metadata as part of the story file, but couldn't track the activity millions of readers. And can never track the who knows how many millions more anon readers.

 

[ReadyOne]

Understand there are different usage scenarios. We often think when a story is displayed that the user is seeing it for the first time, and will read every word.

But what if the viewer only read half, and is looking where to resume?

Maybe the story is being scanned in order to find a specific passage?

What if the ever helpful browser has lost the reader's place (looking at you, TOP button always in the lower right corner) and the viewer has lost orientation?

And speaking of dates, since dates have been devalued in comments, how does one find "@anonymous 12/15/99"?

 

[Phantom300]

I would love to see the story tags at the top of the page 1 of any story. I hate getting part way through a story and just into the characters and then come across a scene that involves things that I am not interested in reading about and now I've wasted time on a story I'm not going to finish or vote on.

 

[Mrfriendly8181]

Some indicator that a story is "incomplete and inactive"
An indicator that the story has been read and when.
A search function that allows hiding of stories that have already been read and/or rated
A way of filtering out ALL anonymous comments on a story as a reader
Allow the authors to choose 1) no comments, 2) comments from registered users only (non-anonymous), 3) all comments open.
Allow people to reply to comments directly

 

[AccelarVester]

One additional suggestion.

Allow for following and adding a series to a list, not just specific chapters.

Thanks

 

[Lucky]

I would love to see the story tags at the top of the page 1 of any story.

Hmm, what am I missing here? The tags ARE at the top of the 1st page, though you have to click on an icon to see them. Right under where it says "Story Info" there are four icons: an "i" for Story Info (the default), a "tag" to show the Story Tags, the weird sideways "V" for Sharing, and the "A" for changing the font. So, click the "tag" icon at the top of the first page and you can see the story Tags, if the author has set any. I do this routinely on every submission I view.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Some indicator that a story is "incomplete and inactive"

How would the site ever know? Nobody monitors whether or not an author intends to continue a story - many authors don't even know whether they'll ever get back to a story. Authors move on, they die, they lose interest. The site cannot possibly track those things.

An indicator that the story has been read and when.

My previous comment refers - that means the site would have to track the activity of millions of readers, whereas now it struggles to manage tens of thousands of authors.

A search function that allows hiding of stories that have already been read and/or rated

Same as above.

A way of filtering out ALL anonymous comments on a story as a reader

Why? Some of the best, most intelligent comments a writer receives are from anons. Why would you not want to read what everyone thinks? But It's easy enough to gloss over such comments, surely?

This seems to infer that anon comments are always negative or pointless, which is simply not true. Sure, some categories are inundated with scurrilous anons, but equally vile account holders leave their traces. That's reader behaviour which writers have to live with, so it's only fair that readers should learn to cope too.

Allow the authors to choose 1) no comments, 2) comments from registered users only (non-anonymous), 3) all comments open.

Authors can already do this, either globally or story by story.

Allow people to reply to comments directly

Yes, this would be nice, and we're told, is in the works.

 

[RejectReality]

How would the site ever know? Nobody monitors whether or not an author intends to continue a story - many authors don't even know whether they'll ever get back to a story. Authors move on, they die, they lose interest. The site cannot possibly track those things.

My previous comment refers - that means the site would have to track the activity of millions of readers, whereas now it struggles to manage tens of thousands of authors.

Same as above.

Why? Some of the best, most intelligent comments a writer receives are from anons. Why would you not want to read what everyone thinks? But It's easy enough to gloss over such comments, surely?

This seems to infer that anon comments are always negative or pointless, which is simply not true. Sure, some categories are inundated with scurrilous anons, but equally vile account holders leave their traces. That's reader behaviour which writers have to live with, so it's only fair that readers should learn to cope too.

Authors can already do this, either globally or story by story.

Yes, this would be nice, and we're told, is in the works.

To the first: It's going to more or less be a necessity once the new series coding goes live, and stories only become eligible for monthly/annual contests upon completion. Legacy stories where the author is no longer active are naturally a problem, but there are some user interaction methods that could work to slowly tag them with a reasonable degree of accuracy and minimal housekeeping.

Tracking previously read could be handled by cookies rather than the database. Hiding or marking them in search might be a bridge too far.

 

[ElectricBlue]

To the first: It's going to more or less be a necessity once the new series coding goes live, and stories only become eligible for monthly/annual contests upon completion. Legacy stories where the author is no longer active are naturally a problem, but there are some user interaction methods that could work to slowly tag them with a reasonable degree of accuracy and minimal housekeeping.

Tracking previously read could be handled by cookies rather than the database. Hiding or marking them in search might be a bridge too far.

Contests? So what? How many writers even think about contests? I'd bet the vast majority don't know or care about contests.

A writer will still be able to start something off, and still have it die In a ditch. Unless someone on the site reads the latest chapter after a given period (a month, a year, two years?) how will the site know the author's intention?

If you left it down to readers to flag, we all know that many readers think some stories should continue when the author says it's done - so there's the opposite problem.

But slowly tagging twenty years worth of stories? Yep, go for it .

Cookies get purged by users, but I guess if it's so important for them to know these things, they can choose to clutter up their cache. Wouldn't work for me - I get a nice surprise when I read a story only to discover that I've already voted on it. I assume that's in the story's metadata, knowing about my vote, because I regularly clear my browser history, so it can't be cookies.

 

[ag2507]

Cookies NO NO NO!
please, at the start of a story show the no of stars given 0-5 would do: will tell us if we have read it or not.
Date submitted will help too.
At the end of a story please repeat the title near the stars and favorites. Saves paging to the top and back again. The old system did this and it was darned useful to check the chapter number.
And , please make the the previous/next part data less flaky.
Most of these prevent having to keep invoking the author profile at the start or end of a story.
And pages not size at the start. You should know the number of pages before you render the story in order to set the next page stuff athe bottom.
Thanks, pretty please.