I like it, more-or-less, but there are some simple things that would improve it: 1) Previously, using the "Bookmarks" dropdown box thing at the top of the screen would show us all of how favorited/bookmarked threads with a notification next to them to indicate that they were updated since our last visit. This does not appear tho be the case anymore, so I would like that feature returned, if possible. I suppose the "Notifications" box is supposed to fill this need, which is okay, but it needs to be coupled with my #2. 2) Similarly, in that "bookmarks" dropdown box, we used to be able to scroll up and down the list rather that needing to visit an entirely different page. That is functionality that I would also like to see returned. 3) Along those lines, upon visiting the new page that houses all of our bookmarked/favorited stories, we are only given the options to sort/filter them alphabetically, or by the date we bookmarked them. A much more useful feature would be the ability to sort them based on the most "recently updated". That way we could see at a glance which of our favorite stories have been updated without needing to sift through the entire list of favorites/bookmarks.
I like the look, and the 'Mark all as read' is a godsend. A few nits I'd like to pick so far however are: -when hovering over the 'Add Story to Favorites' button it jumps away to the left of the pointer -when expanding the comments for a story you get a double side-scroll bar (one for the page, one for the comment sidebar) that simply doesn't look good on an otherwise clean site aesthetic -I'm missing a button to go directly into into the main archive arranged by ' date modified' or 'time of submission' what I could previously do with one click I must now do with 3; go into a category (1), change the category to general (2) choose type of arrangement (3). -The forum button. While more prominent than before, when it tended to hide behind the page fold as soon as the page loaded, I think it's still needs some visual cue to draw the eye to it, to help promote more user interaction
I must say that almost everything is either improved or just as good, and I really appreciate the design emphasis on utilizing horizontal space, as this works wells with traditional computers and tablets. The only jarring negative change, in my opinion, is the addition of images to stories. While it doesn't take away from the experience that much, I feel it distracts from the emphasis on the written word, and it automatically depreciates stories which do not have images.
Hey, I tried to post a new story but I got "Whoops, looks like something went wrong" What's up with that?
The site looks quite nice on the first view. Two points: 1. I liked the minimalistic "Recent Updates" "New Stories" lists. So I have to scroll over to get a simple overview. 2. On the old page the search also looked into content of a chapter (if I searched for that using ordering by relevancy). Now it looks only on the title. Also now I have to search prior to make adjustments to the search which I find overly complicated.
Thanks for the praise and the feedback! I'll go through every issue over the next days. This issue should be resolved now.
Thanks for having the dark theme on the stories! I'd like it to apply to the non-story pages as well, but it's not a big deal at all.
The new site looks good though noticed a few flaws. 1. Tried a few times but can't go back and edit threads once there submitted. It lets me go into edit it but dosen't save it when I am done. : ( 2. Tried linking a thread but it doesn't seem to work, or I just don't understand how it works which is possible.
Report from Reddit: The theme I am hearing from people over there is that the criticism of the new bookmarks mechanism is being repeated. They also say they prefer to favorite stories, so they would rather have that as the main option rather than bookmarks. "Most of the time I want to see what is happening in the story I like, not just if one thread got a followup." Also hearing comments about people really not liking the horizontal scrolling on front page. "I thought it was fine until I realized I was only seeing items 1-3, 7-9, and 13-16. Why are there horizontal scrollbars inside of the page? Just show me 9 items, it's fine."
OK, I am going to insert one of my own comments in here. I just received the notification "Billings published the chapter Salon Shenanigans ." There are 2 issues here: This thread was written by wicker in a story edited by Billings, so the attribution should be to wicker as the writer, not Billings as the editor. There is no indication in the notification of what story this thread is a part of, and indeed if you follow the link there is no indication anywhere on the page either as to what story you are looking at. The only way to figure it out is to view story map, start over, etc. This is a general issue with the new site. I would also like to note that I agree with the suggestions regarding the Favorite Story list. It was much better when it was a scrollable pulldown instead of the multi-page list we now have. The list can be useful too, but as an only option it is not nearly as convenient or useful, especially without the option to sort by most recently altered.
Hi, A couple of things. I'm sure the new fad of designing everything to look good on a mobile or tablet is nice idea but please can you not change what the symbology means. Quite simply when I now go into the story tree it's incorrectly showing a "+" next to a branch that has no more options to display and a "-" to show there is more under that branch.. This is backwards. Please use a "+" to denote that there is _more_ to show and a "-" to show that there are no more branches below. Many GUI designs have been using this for over 20 years now. I know windows 3.1 and windows 95 used lists like this so why change it now? It just creates confusion and it's easy to change anyway. If this was a mistake then it's ok. I understand. If this is some kind of "hey the old gui style was soooo terrible! let's like make it modern!" then please don't. As some have said above some times reinventing the wheel causes needless confusion and doesn't actually help anything. Also. How can I close the "About" side menu? I don't want two scroll bars right next to each other when viewing a story episode. Mr.B
It's now not as obvious. You need to do a "blank" search from the search menu at the top. Just do a search and then you'll get more options. Select the category on the annoying menu on the right. You'll need to scroll down about 1/2 a page or so to find them. When you click on it the page will reload again. Then choose the "Last activity" option in the "sort by" drop down box. The new styling is needlessly cluttered. It's awesome on a tablet etc! I'm sure we'll all "get used to it" and we'll find it "better" than the old layout but some times it can be non intuitive and frustrating with extra page loads for no real benefit. I'd much prefer a drop down box with the categories or at least a set of tick boxes so I can include multiple categories etc. Please add a category and Sort by drop down box next to every search menu (where context is relevant). Thanks, Mr.B
Report from reddit: A lot of people do not like the new notification system. They say they preferred getting one notice that "story X has new chapters" rather than getting a notice for every single added thread as "X has add published/added the chapter Y" (and also getting complaints from people about the attribution issue). The general consensus on reddit seems to be that when it comes to tracking, by story is what is preferred (as it was before) and bookmarking threads was much more of just a personal record keeping preference and not something people want notifications about or as the primary navigation method. "Why can't it just tell me 'Alternatum has new chapters' instead of giving me six notices, none of which tell me they are from alternatum?" "Sure, I like that I can now bookmark my favorite threads and where I left off reading things. But all I really want to do is get messages that a story has new stuff. Why can't I navigate by story using the menu anymore?"
^Seconding Murakami's comments (or, well, I guess the thoughts from reddit). I don't mind the 'new' features, but doing away with the old, more simplified method of tracking stories wasn't necessary, and are things that would be nice to have back. Also going to second the 'complaints' regarding the sideways-scrolling boxes on the main page. Those aren't necessary at all. Either simply showing only what will fit, or shrinking the items down so that they will all fit, would be much preferred.
I'm kind of the unofficial contact guy on reddit (or at least one of them) for people who for whatever reason don't want to comment on the forums. Maybe they just like reddit better? Not sure how that came about, but I have been getting messages since yesterday afternoon on the new site and I am distilling here. As you can tell from the choice of stories, a lot of them are subscribers to /r/freeuse. Report From Reddit (not a prevalent as the other items, but putting for completeness): If you go to username--> Stories or chapters, you get a list. If you go to Down arrow --> My Stories or My Chapters, you get the same list, but with management features. People say that is confusing/needlessly complicated. They think both places should be the same as far as functionality, or that the separate list under the down arrow isn't needed. People miss the dedicated "Report Issues" button. Some people don't like that the navbar on the top now scrolls off when you scroll down. They liked it fixed so they could see and use it no matter how long vertically things were. Some people liked having the forums on the navbar so they could go there from anywhere. General questions about what some of the terms and symbols mean (the pluses on the story map, 'editor' vs 'owner' vs 'author') that aren't explicitly explained anywhere. Confusion because the CHYOA Guide linked on the main page is out of date. Also a few people have commented that there are too many things "needlessly hidden behind ellipses". One example given is that edit chapter and report chapter "don't need to be in a menu, they can just be at the bottom because there is plenty of room". A few peopl are commenting on the margins for the chapters. "On my screen from right I have the sidebar, then blank the size of the sidebar, then the text, and then another blank like the sidebar. It would be nice if the text used more of my screen so I didn't have to scroll up and down so much." A few people are asking how they collapse and expand the storymap now, since the + buttons do something else (which they aren't sure of). One user asked for the tab title to be changed to something more innocuous than "Interactive Sex Stories" so it would be easier to hide when minimized. Make of that what you will.
I love the new site and all the new functionalities. That said, this is the little things I do not like: 1) Advanced search. It's always pretty important, and as far as I can tell it is missing. (EDIT: just noticed the "refine search results" on the right, good idea ) 2) The UI on the homepage is good for a mobile device but (in my opinion) pretty terrible for a desktop. I'll let you guys decide if and what to change. For both (mobile and desktop) I'd move or eliminate the big "bar" dedicated to tags. More to come
