I’m sorry to hear that! Emojis are not supported on the main site at the moment. But I take it as a suggestion for improvement
Hey there, I'm having some issues with quotation marks and italicized text. Quotations: There appear to be two kinds of quotation marks: some are symmetrical, while others are paired (they flip depending on whether they mark the beginning or end of the quote). I think this might be an issue with mobile vs. desktop editing. It's not a huge deal, but it makes things look odd when I edit someone's chapter and my quotation marks end up looking different from the submitter's. Italics: In some cases, text that I've italicized is instead surrounded by underscores when I save the chapter. For example: This is what I see in the editor... _But once I save, I see this instead. _
Thank you for the report! The cause is the space before the underscore at the end ("...instead. _"). If you're in Markdown mode, you need to switch places of the underscore and the space. In richt text editor mode you should only select the words without the last space, when you use italics. I hope this helps!
Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately, I don’t think this solves my issue. I’ve been adding italics by using ctrl-I or by selecting the text and hitting the “I” in the pop-up menu. In both cases I only select the words I want italicized (no space at the end), and in both cases it looks italicized in the editor... But ends up with the underscores when I post.
Not a bug necessarily, but I've started getting popups/redirected when clicking links on the site sometimes. Might not want to allow shitty ads or hijack scripts like that if you want people to keep using the site.
Which browser do you use? I've tested it with the word "who" in one of your chapters (macOS + Chrome): https://chyoa.com/chapter/Change-their-memories.471534
Thank you for your feedback! gunde has also told me that yesterday. This is/was my reply: I understand that and I would like to remove all popunders because of the negative feedback and negative user experience. I'm still trying to make CHYOA financially viable. The first time I placed the traditional banner ads on the site, I was honestly shocked how little they pay. To give you an idea/hard data, the CPM is between 0.006 and 0.009 USD for the mobile header banner (and that's the best spot on the site). I'm always open to suggestions. Patreon is a good way to lower the financial risk but it isn't stable yet. Then I discovered that the money for adult traffic is in popunders. The CPM here is about 0.6 USD. And that explains why so many adult sites run them. Unfortunately, there are bad advertisers/networks from time to time. I regularly test new networks and banners. Yesterday I began testing an ad network mediation system that combines several ad networks and finds the best one for each region, etc. But now I get negative feedback so I tend to stay away from that system. It's good that you're writing me about this! Thank you! I'm telling you this to give you an idea what I do and what I've found out. I think it's interesting and informative. I'm always learning. But I mean it, I'm at a point where I consider removing all popunders for good. Let me think about it. Any feedback is welcome
What is the gap between what the site brings in and what it would require to financially viable or self-sufficient? Sorry if this is an unwelcome question. Please delete of so.
I completely understand the need to make money to keep the site running, but nothing kills trust or interest in visiting a site like popups/unders and getting forcefully redirected when you click on anything (link or otherwise, sometimes just clicking open space can do it). Ads and traffic-gaining methods like that are the reason ad-blocking software came into existence in the first place, especially because of all the viruses and other malware that can accompany that sort of thing. Edit: Also, I use Chrome to browse Chyoa.
It's okay! About 220 USD. I've updated the goal on Patreon to reflect the increased costs. I agree! I'd like to get rid of those popunders as well. Edit: I've changed some settings. From now on the popunders shouldn't be triggered in Chrome anymore.
I think we all appreciate your proactive stance on site issues. What other sources of income can we drum up for the site? A sponsorship? Affiliation links?
Woops... The italics issue was entirely on my end after all. In Chrome (on my desktop) double-clicking to select a word also selects the space following it, and my phone seems to "snap" to this automatically as well. Sorry to bother you about it, and thanks for the help! Speaking of thanks... You do amazing work on the site, and are more responsive than any admin I've known. Long live Friedman and CHYOA.
Yeah, the "adverts" that are popping up are outright blackmail attempts. Pretended it had stole all my details and would send them to hackers unless I called a certain number. I knew it for bullshit, but a lot of folk might not. All in all, pretty sure that ain't kosher. Not blaming you Freidman, I know you're cool, but maybe check with your... advertising broker? I dunno the proper term.
Thank you for the info! I've also noticed that Firefox users get more aggressive popunders. I'll see what I can do.
Yes. This. I like seeing places like this stick around, so I generally allow ads, but I've had multiple "OMG you haz virusez, download this now!!!!" "ads" - one of which actually did manage to upload a payload to my tablet (though it did not, fortunately, manage to execute that payload). At this point, I'm in self-defense mode where CHYOA is concerned - if you can assure me that the malware is gone, I'll change things, but until then, adglare.net, exosrv.com, and 03330.com are blocked and will stay that way.
I'm wondering where the responsibility was for keeping the Patreon milestone up to date. Only AFTER the previous milestone was reached did a new, higher pledge requirement come out. And with it came new and invasive ads, as an added incentive to keep people running on the donation treadmill. This is much like someone standing outside with a sign that reads "$600/mo for an ad independent CHYOA!" And once they receive that much, they quickly paint over the $600 to write $750 beside it. And then start start tripping people as they walk by, but promise to stop if the goal is reached.
