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Big Changes for Authors Posting Stories

Myr

Entry posted by Myr in Site Tech News

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We have a pretty big Story Archive change arriving very soon.  We have separated Adding a story to the system and publishing.  This should finally address the issues related to setting a publishing time.

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First up.  You now add all the story meta data first.  If you are still in the moderation queue and the story is not yet publicly published, editing the story will remove Moderation approval if you have it.

These steps are the same, except you no longer enter Prologue or Chapter 1 during the "Add Story" step.

When you save the story/submit to moderation, the story will now flag the top of your story with the statuses.  These are visible to the author and the site staff.

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If you are out of the moderation queue or have your story approved by the moderator, then you'll see that status displayed:

image.png

 

Once you have added chapter 1, if you are not out of the mod queue, you'll see this until the chapter is approved:

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Editing the chapter or the story After it is Approved, but before it is published, removes the approval and sends it back to the moderator queue.  So be sure to make any tweaks to the visual as soon as you add it to the system.

When everything is posted and approved, you'll get the green bars and the Publish Story button:

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You can then toggle the publish now button and publish now, or let the date be your guide:

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Important change!  Publishing the story automatically publishes the Story, the prologue (if you have one) and chapter 1 all at once.  There is no option to separate these. 

You can also add more chapters.  The chapters will have similar bars on top that shows you the status.

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You can set the publishing time of the approved chapters.  People out of the mod queue will be able to set multiple chapters.

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When you set a publishing, it will show you on the bar when it will publish.  If you have not posted a new chapter in the previous 24 hours, it will let you publish now, otherwise, it'll set the time to the minimum time allowed between chapters. (24 hours)

Example of stetting launch time of story: image.png

 

Example of preset publish chapters for author out of moderation:

image.png

 

But that's not all.  There is now a handy little prompt for members at the bottom of chapters if you are not following the story, you'll see a reminded at the bottom of the chapter to follow it:

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If you are following, but not following the author that wrote it, you'll see this:

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We have also added the new buttons to the Author page so things are consistent:

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There are other tweaks and fixes too. Be sure to check it out!

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Bill W

I'll let you know what I think the first time I post a story and go through this process.  It will make more sense to me when I actually do it.  

  • Like 5
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Stellar

Seems like a solid addition, Myr. More flexibility and utility for the author is generally a good thing.

What a shame I'm so chronically incapable of producing new material these days that I don't know the next time I'd even take advantage of said upgrade.

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Myr
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It's pretty close to current, except you'll be able to post a chapter unpublished and edit it until it looks the way you want it.  Then you can publish it.

 

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Dabeagle

I've had a few confusing moments, but after using it for a while I wonder if anyone has a small workaround they could suggest. When I want to add a chapter I used to click on create and then add chapter/story to get started. Now I have to click Stories->my stories->whatever it is I want to do. This new method seems to increase the steps required, so what am I missing?

Also if I screw up clicking the two sliders at the bottom of a chapter to post immediately, I struggle to get back to set it to post right away versus whatever the system defaulted to. Is there a simple way to go back and say 'no, post this now instead of at whatever future date?'

Thank you in advance 🙂

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Myr
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2 minutes ago, Dabeagle said:

create and then add chapter/story to get started.

We removed that some time ago because way too many people were screwing up the process and it was too complicated for them. (it also wasn't the documented way to do it and that was confusing others...)

3 minutes ago, Dabeagle said:

Also if I screw up clicking the two sliders at the bottom of a chapter to post immediately, I struggle to get back to set it to post right away versus whatever the system defaulted to. Is there a simple way to go back and say 'no, post this now instead of at whatever future date?'

Go to your story.  (I'd recommend you bookmark your Author page, if you are concerned about too many clicks). It'll have great big bars on top if you have chapters added, but not published. If you have not published a chapter to the story inside of the min time between chapters (currently 24 hours), then you'll be able to publish immediately by pressing publish chapter. (it brings back up the publish dialog box)

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This change was made because too many people were screwing up adding chapters, then editing them. It has been the root cause of a bug for the last 10 years at least, where author would post something, set a date a week in advance and then edit 2 or 3 times because they didn't like how the chapter looked.  It would randomly break things. This change prevents that because you can now post into the system, make the chapter look the way you want, or do a final proofread before publishing or whatever.  Then when it is ready, you press publish.  Although you have the option to toggle publish when you add the chapter, that is only for authors not in the Mod Queue. If you are still in moderation, that's not an option since the chapter needs to be approved prior to publishing publicly.

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George Richard

Just a minor quibble—I follow authors but usually not stories. So the warning about not following the story is superfluous for me. I’m basically following the story by default. 

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Myr
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2 minutes ago, George Richard said:

Just a minor quibble—I follow authors but usually not stories. So the warning about not following the story is superfluous for me. I’m basically following the story by default. 

That all rather depends on how you mean it.  And it's not a warning. It's a prompt for readers to engage. 
In general-

  • Follow a story, get alerted to new chapters of that story.
  • Follow an Author, which this prompts, get alerted to new stories from that author.
  • Follow an Author's profile on the forums, get alerted to everything they post.
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Comicality

 

@Myr I'm sorry, dude...I was really trying to figure all of this out on my own, but I've got a lot of other stuff to finish up today. I'm stuck. So, I did the first part, and filled in the meta data, and then I get a screen with a box at the bottom that says 'There's Nothing Here'. I try to click on it, but it won't let me add anything. Then I thought that maybe I have to wait for to be approved first...but I can't find any updates on the status. Then I saw you said to go back and find my story...but I can't find it because it technically doesn't exist yet. Do I just...wait for a few more hours, or...?

I'm totally lost here. Anybody else figure it out yet? :P 

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Comicality

 

Ok! Myr saved me! My hero! Hehehe! Got it now! :P 

Alrighty...back to the 'Comsie Mines' with me! Much to do! 

 

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