It's that time again.  We've been working on a new update for stories as we get closer and closer to the major forum version change later this year. This update included a major rewrite of the recommendations page, expansion of the reading history system, addition of story awards (a blast from the long past), and some underlying work to prepare for the future.

Recommendations

It is now possible to view all recommended stories as we have added the ability to change pages.  We have also added a filter so that you can sort by recommendation type.  Want to see the most recommended stories for cliffhangers? Then filter to cliffhanger.  The look of this section is a bit different as well, as this entire page was rewritten with modern code.

Reading History

When you activate reading history, your personal reading history will now show up in all story listing areas.  You'll no longer need to go to the My Reading History page to see your history; it'll just be shown everywhere.  You'll still be able to go to your Reading History to remove a story from the listing, however.

Story Awards

Many years ago, we used to regularly issue awards or other badges indicating that a story had achieved something.  A great example was the Cliffhanger award that we used to issue yearly and that @C James won regularly for his efforts.  We have added the abilty to put an awards case of sorts on a story that shows badges of awards or other achievements.  (I plan to add Reader's Choice 2023 badges to the stories that got that, for example).  This feature will be used to help highlight and promote stories in the future.  It'll show up right below the Recommendations.

Wrap Up

2024 will be a huge year for the site as Invision Community will be going from ver 4.7.x to ver 5.0.  They have rewritten the forum software to use the latest and greatest of good programming techniques and have dumped the baggage of years past in the code.  This will have a lot of impacts.  Not the least of which is that the Stories Archive software we have will have to be overhauled to use the new system as well.  The good news is that the new system has been written from the ground up to be fast and usable on mobile.  Good thing, too, since more than half our traffic is from mobile devices.  Light and dark modes will be built-in for the theme.  There will be a brand-new, modern, and fast text editor.  A new tag system is coming as well to help surface content.  A new community expert feature that gives special attention to helpful members of our community who are quick to help others.  There is a ton. 

Oh... we can give you reading reports based on tags now too...

Top 10 Most Read Paranormal - mind control between 05/25/2024 and 06/24/2024

1. Mental Games by Bill W Complete
2. Abel III's Awakening by Daddydavek Complete
3. The Mantis Continuum - Book Four by Adam Andrews Johnson Complete
4. Silverwolf by Wayne Gray Complete
5. 40 Souls to Keep by Libby Drew Complete
6. Teaching Horrible Lessons by W_L Complete
7. The Neverending Book by Black Paper Complete
8. State of Mind by Libby Drew Complete
9. The First Lock by Katya Dee Complete
10. The Game by Nephylim Complete