I had a reply written out that read like a Ryan George sketch, but then I realized Iam_DickMan didn't do anything to deserve that level of snark. He probably just wants to reply to a backlog of Chapter Comments without everybody getting confused as it who he's responding to. In a perfect world, maybe he could even do it from the All Comments pane. (Then again, in a perfect world, spammers would not abuse this feature.)
Nail on the head, it’s so frustrating to be a part of a conversation with lots of people in the comments section and wanting to reply to one specific thing.
You could wrap the comment you're replying to in quotation marks. After all, that's how forum replying works, just with BBcode instead of quotation marks, so the quoted section gets highlighted. The only functional difference is that the quoted user will be pinged if the 'reply' button is used (or if the quote block otherwise has the correct syntax). It would be nice to be able to ping users in chapter comments.
"You could wrap the comment you're replying to in quotation marks. After all, that's how forum replying works, just with BBcode instead of quotation marks, so the quoted section gets highlighted. The only functional difference is that the quoted user will be pinged if the 'reply' button is used (or if the quote block otherwise has the correct syntax). It would be nice to be able to ping users in chapter comments." Good point, insertnamehere. If only there were some way to do a controlled trial run of that improvised technology here in the forums before deploying it in the Chapter Comments.
If I want to address a certain user, I start with @[user]. Though that obviously doesn't work with specific passages. "Good point, insertnamehere. If only there were some way to do a controlled trial run of that improvised technology here in the forums before deploying it in the Chapter Comments." Putting these parts in quotation marks works but it might not be clear who wrote it in the first place. So I guess it might be worth a suggestion. (I'm not sure if a similar suggestion has already been made.)
I've got a new one! When you type a long forum reply and then decide not to click "Post Reply," there's no obvious way to get rid of the saved draft of your really long post. Don't get me wrong, this feature is fantastic for preventing accidental deletions, but what about when we change our minds on purpose? I didn't used to think this was a problem, but then it happened twice in as many days. I'm either getting worse at deciding what to post or else better at changing my mind about posting it. I can't tell which. But it would be nice if fools like me had options other than "live with a massive time-bomb of a screed of your most regrettable thoughts just waiting for you to click Post by accident while you're perusing the thread" or "pave over the un-posted content with a thrown-together nonsense reply and then immediately delete it." Perhaps the day will come when I can reliably think of something nice to say. Until that day comes, I wish it were easier to not say anything at all.
Might not be obvious but there's a small disk in the editor. (3rd icon from the right, called "Draft".) After clearing the input field, you can choose "Save Draft". Alternatively, "Delete Draft" might work as well.
We already have a Story Feedback subforum, where people can have properly formatted, full size, real conversations. I wonder how hard it would be to create a new field in the "About" panel for stories where the story owner could put a link to a thread in the Story Feedback subforum. Maybe the site could even auto-generate a new thread in that forum when you publish a new story? Edit: Put it riiiiiight there.
This would also have the benefit of increasing traffic to the forum. There are probably more stories published in a day than threads updated, so this would quickly fill the forum with spam.
OK, right, then just the manual option. I would think that is the much easier option to implement as well.
I got one. When you post to a newer or less popular story and then it gets almost no likes. Tell me about soul crushing.
I had that recently when I released a chapter that I was very proud of only for it to get zero frigging likes for the first 24 hours or so It has since recovered and got a nice amount of likes, so I'm happy again, but wow that killed my motivation almost to the point that I cancelled the story I don't think readers realize that their one like can quite literally make the difference between a story continuing or not
I tend to hand out likes as if they were candy. It doesn't cost me anything and Gambio is right, sometimes it can kill a story not to get any. Sometimes I go the extra mile and DM, because that's caused some writers to revive dormant threads and who doesn't want that? More smut!
The story with a thousand likes starts with zero. Hell, I've still got chapters with zero likes. And probably the only reason some of the chapters have as many likes as they do have is because of my flagrant tying of new chapters to a minimum number of likes.
I think it would be nice if there could be a check (by the mods or whoever is checking stories before they are posted) for Person Perspective and POV Gender. Some authors either don't seem to care or don't understand and will mislabel a story. For example: A story will be labeled as 1st Person, Male POV and it ends up as 2nd Person with a Female POV or Both POV. From the reader perspective it can be misleading if you're wanting to read a story and find it's in a different POV or Perspective than you wanted or in one you might loathe. I personally don't care, but I know some have strong feelings about these things. From the author perspective I use the filters to do research in categories or see what POVs are prevalent. I like to know if people are liking or are used to reading a certain Gender POV or Perspective. Is one category heavy in this Gender POV or that? Is 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Person more popular here or there? I know the general author advice is write in the category and POV you feel comfortable with or where you feel the story fits best, but it helps to know what readers enjoy or might prefer. It doesn't mean I'll chase the trend, but if I can do true research and focus on reading the stories it helps. Instead I find myself sifting through stories and having to make notes on the side to get a true picture of what's what.
I will absolutely revive dormant threads if it looks like they're getting attention. My story threads are spread all over the place, and I update more via mood than plan, so likes and comments (especially comments about what you liked) give me a place to focus.
