There's a lot not to like about the website.

[daffy106]

Hi Guys.

Please take this as constructive criticism, I read your site a lot; I understand this is a work in progress.

First, I like a lot of what you have done with the website. Finding a hidden in the woodwork author is a little less byzantine than before. I like the unified interface. Sorting stories is more convenient.

However:

When I go to a chapter list, it does not remember I have already read this or that chapter. To get my browser to tell me I have already selected a particular chapter last week, I need to turn off the "see the page as the site wants" control. Then I can tell where I am in the story without having to take notes that get lost causing me to spend an extra 10 minutes per story to figure out where I am. This is slowly making me more and more unwilling to consider reading any story "in progress".

 

The reputation thing is amazing. I cannot figure out how it works. I do know I found an author with a 15 rating and by playing with +s, -s, and stars I could reduce his rating by 2 points to 13 (15%) in 2 minutes. Just one reader. Me. Cool; I didn't like his style. Is this how it should work?

 

All the "story entered" dates are now dec 2010-feb 2011. Now I don't have any idea if a story "in progress" was started in 1990 and never added to or if it is a new story that has a chance of continuing. (See my "unwilling to read" note above.) Also the story update list is so clogged, the actual updates are lost in a list that changes in minutes or hours as you add all the old stories in the site to the "update list".

Daffy106

[Ramon]

I'd recommend liking the WIP stories that you are reading so that you can get updates when the author posts a new chapter of that story. The links that come with that will go to the latest chapter.

 

As for the stars and the plus/minus, the way I look at it is you rate the chapter itself with the stars and use the plus/minus to help the authors you like out of peer review.

[Marzipan]

Hi Daffy106, you have some good points there, like the one about knowing if the story is way old and not actually in active process. But That can be found out many ways, if you have time, will and energy. That is what it comes down to.

 

What I wanted to comment though was the usage of rep points and stars etc.

 

The rep points are amazing as you said. But did you really give minus reps after reading the story? Really? Autsh. That was harsh, considering you just didn't like the authors style. I have only once given a minus rep, and it was in discussions forum, where the member was disrespectful and way out of line. Plus reps I give if I feel someone has done a good job or I agree with what they are saying. I'd never give minus reps for a story though, since it has required time, effort and thought from the author. That is what I respect, no matter how bad the story was.

 

This new system does give members a lot of power! I am interested to see how people use it.

[daffy106]

I know it was callous, and I won't do it again. I apologize to my anonymous victim. I picked a random author (one of the site's original founders), read the stories, and then, genuinely disliking an author who casually treated serious drinking, decided to experiment with the ratings system to see what could happen. The result surprised even me. The point I'm trying to make is that one person should not be able to make that much of a change good OR bad. Given the youth of the new system, I'm sure the rating will recover; I also think no one is paying much attention to reputation at this point (I sure am not), given the rather skewed and incoherent current results. (Mark Arbour 574; Nicholas James 74)(Both excellent hosted writers with many stories). As for having to clicking "like" to get current updates, what if I'm not sure I really like the story yet? I sometimes give stories I'm skeptical about a chance before deciding I'm not really into it. Clicking "like" would be dishonest. This whole web author thing that seems to say "I wrote it and here it is free" and therefore don't criticize syndrome scares me a little. I took polite issue with an author once who I thought was WAY out of line over when it's OK for an abused gay to commit murder, (Immature abused teens read this stuff) and got my head bit off, not "maybe you have a point." "It's only a story" was the comment. (Blood libel, anyone?)

More comments to come.

Daffy106

[Marzipan]

I know it was callous, and I won't do it again. I apologize to my anonymous victim. I picked a random author (one of the site's original founders), read the stories, and then, genuinely disliking an author who casually treated serious drinking, decided to experiment with the ratings system to see what could happen. The result surprised even me. The point I'm trying to make is that one person should not be able to make that much of a change good OR bad. Given the youth of the new system, I'm sure the rating will recover; I also think no one is paying much attention to reputation at this point (I sure am not), given the rather skewed and incoherent current results. (Mark Arbour 574; Nicholas James 74)(Both excellent hosted writers with many stories). As for having to clicking "like" to get current updates, what if I'm not sure I really like the story yet? I sometimes give stories I'm skeptical about a chance before deciding I'm not really into it. Clicking "like" would be dishonest. This whole web author thing that seems to say "I wrote it and here it is free" and therefore don't criticize syndrome scares me a little. I took polite issue with an author once who I thought was WAY out of line over when it's OK for an abused gay to commit murder, (Immature abused teens read this stuff) and got my head bit off, not "maybe you have a point." "It's only a story" was the comment. (Blood libel, anyone?)

More comments to come.

Daffy106

 

 

Well it is also very constructive to leave verbal reviews to the story. Tell what you like of the story and what might have hit a nerve with you. You can focus on what ever issue you have in heart with it. And if you feel like it's not for every eyes to see, you can always pm. I personally love leaving reviews and reading other people's reviews, and sometimes that is the best part of the reading - giving something back for the author.

 

It is also authors duty to take the reviews and critisism as they come, learn from them and maybe get some boost to write more. Sometimes the critisism is disrespectful or even hateful and that is something I'm still fearing to get. **Knocks the wood**.

 

I'm not saying you have given a bad review and you sertainly have right to your opinnion. And true, online does provide questionable stuff too, and if you feel there is something too disturbing in the story, you can always report it to admins and they can look into it if there is a need for warnings to be placed for the reader. But remember, not everyone shares the same morals, and there really is a place called the gray area.

[Myr]

When I go to a chapter list, it does not remember I have already read this or that chapter. To get my browser to tell me I have already selected a particular chapter last week, I need to turn off the "see the page as the site wants" control.

 

I have no idea what that means. However, I can say that there will be no change here as it would be too resource intensive to track what people read and store for if/when they may return. It's not realistic to expect it. (See FanFiction.net which is a MUCH larger site than us. They don't do it either for the same reason)

 

The reputation thing is amazing. I cannot figure out how it works. I do know I found an author with a 15 rating and by playing with +s, -s, and stars I could reduce his rating by 2 points to 13 (15%) in 2 minutes. Just one reader. Me. Cool; I didn't like his style. Is this how it should work?

Members are limited to the number of reputations points they can give a day. (more + than -) It depends on their user group what those numbers are. Also, reputation is more an indication of how active the author is in the community than quality of works, per se.

 

All the "story entered" dates are now dec 2010-feb 2011. Now I don't have any idea if a story "in progress" was started in 1990 and never added to or if it is a new story that has a chance of continuing. (See my "unwilling to read" note above.) Also the story update list is so clogged, the actual updates are lost in a list that changes in minutes or hours as you add all the old stories in the site to the "update list".

Daffy106

The story Publish dates are all in Dec 2010-Feb 2011 because... that's when all the stories were put in the system. Since the website before that show no indication of when a story was posted, that's a rather silly complaint. If a story was not updating at the time of entry, it's status was entered as "On Hold" not "In Progress". Now that we have a couple of months in the system, just look at the Last Updated date. If it is the same as the Publish date on an In Progress story, then that author isn't updating very fast...

 

I know it was callous, and I won't do it again. I apologize to my anonymous victim. I picked a random author (one of the site's original founders), read the stories, and then, genuinely disliking an author who casually treated serious drinking, decided to experiment with the ratings system to see what could happen. The result surprised even me. The point I'm trying to make is that one person should not be able to make that much of a change good OR bad. Given the youth of the new system, I'm sure the rating will recover; I also think no one is paying much attention to reputation at this point (I sure am not), given the rather skewed and incoherent current results. (Mark Arbour 574; Nicholas James 74)(Both excellent hosted writers with many stories).

 

Reputation in the new system is being used as an automated sorting process. If the reputation is below 50, then moderator review the stories prior to posting to check for copyright issues, etc.

 

As for having to clicking "like" to get current updates, what if I'm not sure I really like the story yet? I sometimes give stories I'm skeptical about a chance before deciding I'm not really into it. Clicking "like" would be dishonest. This whole web author thing that seems to say "I wrote it and here it is free" and therefore don't criticize syndrome scares me a little. I took polite issue with an author once who I thought was WAY out of line over when it's OK for an abused gay to commit murder, (Immature abused teens read this stuff) and got my head bit off, not "maybe you have a point." "It's only a story" was the comment. (Blood libel, anyone?)

More comments to come.

 

"Like" is simply the Facebook established term of the day. You can "like" something anonymously if you'd like to track it without adding your name to the thing as a favorite of yours. They don't use 'track' or 'follow' because the forum programmers are chasing the buzzword of the day, which in this case, is Like. Thanks Facebook.

[Cia]

A few things.

 

The massive influx from the other story areas of the site is almost complete which means the story updates are actually working quite well now. That being said, you are able to 'like' an author story anonymously. Then if you read on and decide to unlike their stories that is all they will see. It leaves a degree of flexibility for you without an author knowing it was you specificially. Someone liking or unliking a story is just part of the feedback a writer should be able to handle if they post. The same for the star rating and rep points.

 

Reputation is a hot button subject for some on site. Currently we use it to help determine the mod and peer review queues. If you are looking at those numbers to judge an authors writing solely by that it is not very accurate. It is for much more than that, forum use, writing... so yes, some authors of similiar quality might have wildly varying rep levels. If you are really wanting to find stories based on what members think try browsing under 'Most favorited, Most reviewed, Most read' in GA Stories. That will give you a much more accurate view on what is really being read and liked on site.

 

I don't think I would ever neg rep an author based on their story content or writing ability though if they reacted badly to criticism in their forum or topic for their story I might be persuaded to do it there. As authors yes, it sometimes hurts when we hear bad things but that's the risk we take. And it's one of the best ways to learn, as long as the person leaving the criticism isn't flaming the author, that is. And Marzipan is right, users have the right to go to the moderators or admin if they feel content is out of bounds or a person is out of bounds in their criticism, such as if they left a personal attack. We won't always step in or agree but we are here if people feel something out of line is happening on site.

 

With the switchover yes, a lot of 'In Progress' stories were moved. I personally put any story that hadn't been updated in more than a year with an 'On hold' status. But with staff and volunteers moving well over a thousand stories from the anthologies, archive, and efiction taking the time to add in the last day a story was updated would have just been a bigger pain than I wanted to deal with. It already took months to move all of those stories and every detail we had to add made it take longer. Now, a way that might help determine that would be to check and see when the author last logged into GA on their profile. It's not always going to help but it might. That or if you choose to read In Progress stories only read those that have been updated since the day they were uploaded. Then you know the author is active on-site and not as likely to have an abandoned story.

[Toast]

I see GA as a place to be optimistic and supportive. It is a community. The authors here do work hard on their writing. The staff works hard to provide us with a stable, safe site; that is easy to use.

 

The bottom line is I enjoy being here. What's not to like?

 

 

Oh, and most importantly, I enjoy reading here. Not giving that up!

[One Cheap Suit]

What's not to like?

 

(in the voice of Johnny from Airplane):

 

Where did you get that CSS? It's AWFUL. And that FOOTER. And those FONTS. JEEZ!

 

 

I would like to see more gradients and drop shadows, rounded corners, and fancy ajaxy things that happen when you click on things randomly. And more rollovers.

 

I would also like it when I uprep a story if a trumpet would sound on the recipient's computer. And a downrep would result in a 10 volt shock on my own keyboard (or a 5 point downvote to my own rep - this can be a user settable option). If you wanna neg something, it should mean something, right?

 

Thank you.

 

I would have embedded the video better but I suck

[TetRefine]

Hi Guys.

Please take this as constructive criticism, I read your site a lot; I understand this is a work in progress.

First, I like a lot of what you have done with the website. Finding a hidden in the woodwork author is a little less byzantine than before. I like the unified interface. Sorting stories is more convenient.

However:

When I go to a chapter list, it does not remember I have already read this or that chapter. To get my browser to tell me I have already selected a particular chapter last week, I need to turn off the "see the page as the site wants" control. Then I can tell where I am in the story without having to take notes that get lost causing me to spend an extra 10 minutes per story to figure out where I am. This is slowly making me more and more unwilling to consider reading any story "in progress".

 

The reputation thing is amazing. I cannot figure out how it works. I do know I found an author with a 15 rating and by playing with +s, -s, and stars I could reduce his rating by 2 points to 13 (15%) in 2 minutes. Just one reader. Me. Cool; I didn't like his style. Is this how it should work?

 

All the "story entered" dates are now dec 2010-feb 2011. Now I don't have any idea if a story "in progress" was started in 1990 and never added to or if it is a new story that has a chance of continuing. (See my "unwilling to read" note above.) Also the story update list is so clogged, the actual updates are lost in a list that changes in minutes or hours as you add all the old stories in the site to the "update list".

Daffy106

 

Your lucky to get anything at all if you ask me. The fact that we have as good a website as we do with the limited resources and manpower is nothing short of a miracle. Stop complaining and learn to live with what you got.

[NaperVic]

I think the elves here at GA are open to constructive critism or at least be willing to explain why a feature works a certain way.

 

However the 'tone' of the thread title and it's passive-aggressiveness leaves a sour taste in any readers mouth.

 

 

There's a lot not to like about the website. You need to work on it.

[Prince Duchess]

Now throughout my life long time endeavors of human ignorance, i've come across one phrase that holds true, "Don't start none, won't be none". Marvelous words to live by but they just werent installed here in ths topic which I actally found to be unwitting. You called it constructive criticism when it came off like you were complaining and nitpicking about things you didnt like about GA. When theres alot of us here that treat this place like its a getaway from the world to come here in read stories. Meet new people from all over the world, build friendships and when you come out with a topic titled Theres a lot not to like about this website. Theres alot more to this website than stories and not only that it means alot to the people that come here and honestly you shouldnt complain about something as small as not being able to see which chapters you read.

[Lugh]

I would like to thank you for volunteering to be my assistant. I've needed one for a while.

 

If you can give me a list of 40 hours that you will be free this week and every week for the rest of your life and an additional 10 on saturday and sunday for training the next six weeks that would be wonderful.

 

You will be given the schedule of 4 hours you will be needed to man the board on all holidays (we get none off), oh and I need to know where to send your pay check to. It's a whopping $8 a month minus bandwidth fees. I think I got a nickel last month, but checks aren't cut until they reach a whole dollar so who knows when that will be.

 

Now, are you a reader, writer, or an editor? we need to know which team to put you on, that will take up at least another 20 hours a week of your spare time. And another weekend of training.

 

By now you must be wondering what your tasks would be... quite simple. You would locate the fidiots on the forums, attempt to recruit them into your position, then post this note:

 

Dear Daffy,

 

We on the Tech Team are hearing your myriad of compaints but I'm afraid we are having a bit of a difference of opinionn here. Please understand that by installing GA Stories we were not trying in anyway to make your life more difficult, but easier. You see, now that the system in in place you can choose to receive notifications from the authors of your choosing, by clicking "like", Or you can forgo this opion. You may also keep notes in your profile in your notes. (profile/edit/my options/my settings/my notes) It's very simple to do.

 

Furthermore we are appalled at your flaggerant abuse of the reputation system and then boasting about it. What a nasty little person you must be to do something so low, so vile, so vulgar, and I do believe in direct violation of the rules.

General: (6) harassment of any member,

Harrassment:(2) Repeated critical and sharply negative posts towards community members can also constitute harassment.

 

Now I'm sure you didn't intend to harrass any of these nice people, at least not to this post. Below this post. Fair game, you've been warned.

 

Now to your complaints:

 

1. Without using cookies, can you show me a website that can bookmark your place for you?

 

2.The story date are what they are, it's when we moved. They will sort themselves out later as some move past that day and some do not.

 

3. Callous is not a word I would have used. How about tomorrow you go back and give this author the same number of positive ratings to zero out your negetives. That might be helpful and MAKE it recover a little faster.

 

4. There is nothing skewed about Arbour's 574 and NickJames 74. Arbour has been very active on the site since the rep system into effect and he is well known and generally well liked. NickJames on the other hand is MIA. His points have come from his writing alone and no other source. It's apples and fruitcake.

 

5.

This whole web author thing that seems to say "I wrote it and here it is free" and therefore don't criticize syndrome scares me a little. I took polite issue with an author once who I thought was WAY out of line over when it's OK for an abused gay to commit murder, (Immature abused teens read this stuff) and got my head bit off, not "maybe you have a point." "It's only a story" was the comment. (Blood libel, anyone?)

 

ok I had to laugh for a while at this. You have the right to an opinion. Even if it's the wrong opinion. The author should have recognized it was the wrong opinion and sent you a thank you note for your incorrect perceptions and that would have been the end of that. Then again I will bet you didn't send another note back that said, sorry about your really bad day, maybe we can discuss this when the dog's not dying and the kids aren't crying and the wife's not lying and the boyfriend's not plying......

 

Everyone needs to grow a thicker skin when it comes to their writing, and to the writing of others actaully. You can't swimm in the big pond little fishies with those soft white underbellies exposed! The sharks will get them every time.

 

So Daffy, when are you reporting again?

 

Lugh

[daffy106]

My, I seemed to have stirred things up a bit? This site is perfect according to some comments and should never change for better or for worse, and how dare I have a few nitpicks. The things I have criticized as not being convenient exist and work properly on other sites. I believe that lobbying for improvement is a good thing. Most human endeavors that do not continuously strive to improve themselves eventually whither and fade away. I don't like that idea especially, but it the truth of American society. I take issue all of you who feel Gay Authors cannot be better and put down those who would point out weaknesses and errors. Gay Authors is currently the best out there. It won't stay the best without constant work, and sometimes an outside point of view is useful. I may not be spot on, but at least I open my mouth and dare to point out what I think might improve Gay Authors. I appreciate the thoughtful replies many have returned, but I deplore those who think I should not agitate the waters at all. Agitation is a good writing form! The definition of minor and major concerns is in the eye of the beholder, and telling me my concerns are minor (to you) is not kind.

As an example:

Why am I hot about seeing what chapters I have read? Well, that's kind of personal. Maybe even a bit selfish, but maybe there are others like me. You see, I am a speed reader. I can read 50,000 words in a few hours (or less). I read by keeping the slow scroll button permanently down. I usually have at least 50 to 60 stories in progress on my plate at the same time, hoping for a new chapter each week. Having to dig around and figure out using a spreadsheet to keep track is a serious waste of time. I could have read 10-20 chapters in that wasted time. It's annoying. Most other sites including Nifty tell me with a change of color that I have brought up that chapter and the unread ones show a link in a different color, so my browser keeps track of what I've read. Gay Authors website code BLOCKS this function for no discernible reason. My software engineer husband, who has written many major commercial websites, upon examining the source, thinks this is easy to correct, so why not bring it up?

 

And now for a real Flame.

"Don't start none, won't be none" If that had been true when I lived in my birth town of Baltimore in the 1960's and a lot of people including myself hadn't started a LOT, Maryland and this country would still be executing people for certain gay acts. At that time, the openly uber fabulous and stylish royal 5 star B****** all resided in the local jail. The cops hated their guts. I know, I bailed several of them (my dear friends) out.

I look back with joy that I could help "start some". And I still am. For all the hard work it takes to keep Gay Authors up, the loudmouthed hard and dangerous work of Gay Liberation first made it possible. And out of habit, some of us are just socially noisy.

 

Daffy106

PS My handle "Daffy" comes from "Daffodil", my Radical Faerie name.

[Graeme]

When I go to a chapter list, it does not remember I have already read this or that chapter. To get my browser to tell me I have already selected a particular chapter last week, I need to turn off the "see the page as the site wants" control.

 

I have no idea what that means. However, I can say that there will be no change here as it would be too resource intensive to track what people read and store for if/when they may return. It's not realistic to expect it. (See FanFiction.net which is a MUCH larger site than us. They don't do it either for the same reason)

I'm guessing that this is more a browser issue, in that his browser isn't showing read links. Cookies (as someone else has suggested) are too unworkable, at least for now.

 

I would also like it when I uprep a story if a trumpet would sound on the recipient's computer. And a downrep would result in a 10 volt shock on my own keyboard (or a 5 point downvote to my own rep - this can be a user settable option). If you wanna neg something, it should mean something, right?

LOL -

 

 

 

 

I was going to quote some of the other posts, but I decided against it. I'll just say that what we have now is a lot easier for the site and site staff than what was there before, and has the potential to become absolutely brilliant. However, I don't see any enhancements being made for at least 12 months, simply because it'll take that long to bed all the existing features into place. One particular bug that was found recently requires Myr to go into the database and fix things there... happily that's not something that will occur often, but it's already occurred a couple of times. We have to wait until all those things get sorted out, since the idea was to REDUCE Myr's workload, not increase it

 

As for some of the other things, they're teething issues because we're still in the process of bringing everything over from the old system into the new. We can't backdate story dates, so they're all appearing as if they were just published (which, in one sense, they are).

 

So, while I thought Daffy has some good suggestions, we're all going to have to be patient. What we have now is, I think, good. When there's time to breath again, we can make it better, but let's not get ahead of ourselves

[J.T.]

As much of a nice guy that I am, I'm filing this thread's so-called "complaints" into the ID 10T error pile. It's an ever growing list.

 

Perhaps instead of helping Lugh... Daffy can man the ID 10T Strategic Response Unit of GA.

[JamesSavik]

There's a lot not to like about the website

 

Respectfully- you couldn't be more wrong.

 

There's some first class writing talent here. Good enough for publication.

 

Beyond that, there's a community here that is special and unique. It has people from all ages and around the world. Americans, and Aussies, and Canadians, OH MY! Germans, and Chinese and Czech, oh my! Every point on the political spectrum is covered from arch-conservative to revolutionary communist. It's a damned interesting place to be.

 

It's not the layouts or the fonts or code that make GA so special: it's the people.

 

People you get to meet and learn about- their lives, their stories and who they are. That can enrich you life in amazing ways.

 

All of the people here add something to the community.

 

Here's just a few I've been privileged to get to know- past and present.

 

*HJ*,.::Jσey::.,abbillion, acassimaty, Adrian Michaels, Aeroplane, AFriendlyFace, Arpeggio, azula, B1ue, Bao, Bardeara, BeaStKid, Benji, BoyNeedsTherapy, Bugeye, Bumblebee, C James, C.L.L, cabbagepatchwife, Caipirinha, Camy, Chaz, Christian000, Clovis, colinian, ComeWhatMay, Comicality, Coming Undone, corvus, Curti, Cyberia_Desire, Cyhort, Darion, davek48, David McLeod, Demetz, Dezlboi, Dio, DomLuka, Drewbie, Elemental, Eros, Foolplaya, Gaytron87, Gay_In_Flanders, Graeme, Greedya, Hylas, Irony, ixyam, jalaki, James Albert, Jamie de Valen, JamieD, Jeebus,

JensenC, Johnathan Colourfield, Jovian_w2002, JSmith, JTRandall, Juss, JustynC, Kavrik, Kitten, KiwiShadow, LittleBuddhaTW, Luc, lurker, maddy, Mari, Mark Arbor, Mark M

Matthew, Meeko, Menorain, Menzoberranzen, meowsan, miguelsanchez55, MikeL, Mirage, MMandM, moonwolf, Morganx, Myk, Myr, myself_i_must_remake, Myval, Naiilo, Narcidius, NateB, Nephylim,

Nerotorb, NickolasJames8, nicks_a_writer, nono, Objectivist, OperaGhostV, Pablo, Pai-kun, phrere, PrivateTim, Razor, rekop1, ricky, Rigel, Riley Jericho, Rush, S t e v e n, Sagar, Sendraguy, shadows, sidLove, Simon, Skiller1294, slaveboy, sumbloke, TalonRider, tator_tot2010, Team Emmett, TetRefine, thatboyChase, The Reaper, TheEggman61, TheFountainhead, TheUnwanted,

TheZot, Thirdeye, Tiger, VickyS, vlista20, W.L., WatchPatRun, wildone, x Trevor x, xander, Xiao_Chun, Yang Bang, Young Sage

 

It is this amazing community that lets a redneck from Mississippi get to know people from the UK, Canada, Mexico, Australia, India, China, Brazil, Uraguay, New Zealand, Germany, the Czech Republic, Israel, the Ukraine, Belarus, Slovenia and goodness knows how many places.

 

And it teaches that they are all special, all unique, all worthy of knowing and even caring about.

 

No. GA is under construction. Be patient. Maybe come back later when the paint is dry.

 

There is something very special here that is well worth getting to know and to be a part of.

[Former Member]

My, I seemed to have stirred things up a bit? This site is perfect according to some comments and should never change for better or for worse, and how dare I have a few nitpicks. The things I have criticized as not being convenient exist and work properly on other sites. I believe that lobbying for improvement is a good thing. Most human endeavors that do not continuously strive to improve themselves eventually whither and fade away. I don't like that idea especially, but it the truth of American society. I take issue all of you who feel Gay Authors cannot be better and put down those who would point out weaknesses and errors. Gay Authors is currently the best out there. It won't stay the best without constant work, and sometimes an outside point of view is useful. I may not be spot on, but at least I open my mouth and dare to point out what I think might improve Gay Authors. I appreciate the thoughtful replies many have returned, but I deplore those who think I should not agitate the waters at all. Agitation is a good writing form! The definition of minor and major concerns is in the eye of the beholder, and telling me my concerns are minor (to you) is not kind.

 

I don't think there is a single website on the entire planet that's perfect. But the way you are putting it, it seems like GA has some flaws that aren't being worked on at all. And I think that's the wrong thing to think. Because GA is constantly trying to improve, it's experimenting with things, it's trying to become better every day, but it's a slow process, and it's not always visible. Yes, of course there are things that could be improved, but I think GA is already a very good website and certainly not as lazy (for lack of a better word) as you make it sound here and there.

 

You say "at least I open my mouth and dare to point out what I think might improve Gay Authors", but please know that you're not the first and onyl one! The GA Staff knows that there's always room for improverment and they are constantly working on improvement, at least that's the impression I get. I think you are right to point out some things that worry you, but the way you're doing it sometimes looks more like flaming than constructive criticism.

 

As an example:

Why am I hot about seeing what chapters I have read? Well, that's kind of personal. Maybe even a bit selfish, but maybe there are others like me. You see, I am a speed reader. I can read 50,000 words in a few hours (or less). I read by keeping the slow scroll button permanently down. I usually have at least 50 to 60 stories in progress on my plate at the same time, hoping for a new chapter each week. Having to dig around and figure out using a spreadsheet to keep track is a serious waste of time. I could have read 10-20 chapters in that wasted time. It's annoying. Most other sites including Nifty tell me with a change of color that I have brought up that chapter and the unread ones show a link in a different color, so my browser keeps track of what I've read. Gay Authors website code BLOCKS this function for no discernible reason. My software engineer husband, who has written many major commercial websites, upon examining the source, thinks this is easy to correct, so why not bring it up?

 

Okay, you may have a point there, I see how this can be annoying. I myself am mostly reading the work of one specific Hosted Author on his/her own part of the site, and there you do have the system with highlighting the chapters that have already been read, so what you are pointing out has never bothered me. But if you are reading many stories at once (like you), it can be annoying. Although I also think that having 50 stories in progress on your plate at the same time is a bit much and maybe not the most sensible thing to do, but who am I to judge the way other people read?

 

You say: there is a lot not to like about the website. I think it's the other way around: there is a lot to like about this website! Like James pointed out:

 

There's some first class writing talent here. Good enough for publication.

 

Beyond that, there's a community here that is special and unique. It has people from all ages and around the world. Americans, and Aussies, and Canadians, OH MY! Germans, and Chinese and Czech, oh my! Every point on the political spectrum is covered from arch-conservative to revolutionary communist. It's a damned interesting place to be.

 

It's not the layouts or the fonts or code that make GA so special: it's the people.

 

I couldn't agree more! I think one of the main reasons that GA is such an awesome website, if not THE main reason, is that there are so many amazing people here, who help each other, support each other, and have a good time together. Taking that into account, I think most of us couldn't care less that there's a little error here and there.

[Ara]

My contribution to this thread

 

[TetRefine]

Respectfully- you couldn't be more wrong.

 

There's some first class writing talent here. Good enough for publication.

 

Beyond that, there's a community here that is special and unique. It has people from all ages and around the world. Americans, and Aussies, and Canadians, OH MY! Germans, and Chinese and Czech, oh my! Every point on the political spectrum is covered from arch-conservative to revolutionary communist. It's a damned interesting place to be.

 

It's not the layouts or the fonts or code that make GA so special: it's the people.

 

People you get to meet and learn about- their lives, their stories and who they are. That can enrich you life in amazing ways.

 

All of the people here add something to the community.

 

Here's just a few I've been privileged to get to know- past and present.

 

*HJ*,.::Jσey::.,abbillion, acassimaty, Adrian Michaels, Aeroplane, AFriendlyFace, Arpeggio, azula, B1ue, Bao, Bardeara, BeaStKid, Benji, BoyNeedsTherapy, Bugeye, Bumblebee, C James, C.L.L, cabbagepatchwife, Caipirinha, Camy, Chaz, Christian000, Clovis, colinian, ComeWhatMay, Comicality, Coming Undone, corvus, Curti, Cyberia_Desire, Cyhort, Darion, davek48, David McLeod, Demetz, Dezlboi, Dio, DomLuka, Drewbie, Elemental, Eros, Foolplaya, Gaytron87, Gay_In_Flanders, Graeme, Greedya, Hylas, Irony, ixyam, jalaki, James Albert, Jamie de Valen, JamieD, Jeebus,

JensenC, Johnathan Colourfield, Jovian_w2002, JSmith, JTRandall, Juss, JustynC, Kavrik, Kitten, KiwiShadow, LittleBuddhaTW, Luc, lurker, maddy, Mari, Mark Arbor, Mark M

Matthew, Meeko, Menorain, Menzoberranzen, meowsan, miguelsanchez55, MikeL, Mirage, MMandM, moonwolf, Morganx, Myk, Myr, myself_i_must_remake, Myval, Naiilo, Narcidius, NateB, Nephylim,

Nerotorb, NickolasJames8, nicks_a_writer, nono, Objectivist, OperaGhostV, Pablo, Pai-kun, phrere, PrivateTim, Razor, rekop1, ricky, Rigel, Riley Jericho, Rush, S t e v e n, Sagar, Sendraguy, shadows, sidLove, Simon, Skiller1294, slaveboy, sumbloke, TalonRider, tator_tot2010, Team Emmett, TetRefine, thatboyChase, The Reaper, TheEggman61, TheFountainhead, TheUnwanted,

TheZot, Thirdeye, Tiger, VickyS, vlista20, W.L., WatchPatRun, wildone, x Trevor x, xander, Xiao_Chun, Yang Bang, Young Sage

 

It is this amazing community that lets a redneck from Mississippi get to know people from the UK, Canada, Mexico, Australia, India, China, Brazil, Uraguay, New Zealand, Germany, the Czech Republic, Israel, the Ukraine, Belarus, Slovenia and goodness knows how many places.

 

And it teaches that they are all special, all unique, all worthy of knowing and even caring about.

 

No. GA is under construction. Be patient. Maybe come back later when the paint is dry.

 

There is something very special here that is well worth getting to know and to be a part of.

 

I think this post best explains and shuts up the people who want to complain that everything isn't 110% perfect on here and expect it to cater to their specific needs. There close to 9,000 members on this site, and I find it pathetically laughable that one person expects the whole system to change just for them.

[Lugh]

pouts

 

he wasn't on Jame's list of interesting people

 

now that is a tragedy and something I do not like about this website *sad lugh*

[TetRefine]

pouts

 

he wasn't on Jame's list of interesting people

 

now that is a tragedy and something I do not like about this website *sad lugh*

 

LMAO.

[Cia]

I myself am a speed reader and while I often have to 'refresh' my memory with a story if it doesn't post that often so I will sometimes read the last chapter or two I already read. When I read chapters/stories or books though, even with the hundreds I average each month, my memory is good enough to keep track. Perhaps that isn't the case for you. On the other hand, here at GA I have the option to favorite my stories and set it for notifications from this site which means, if I can't get to reading right away what comes AFTER the last chapter available that I read, I leave it in my inbox so I know where to start. Yeah, that means at times I have a lot of stories favorited but you can do it anonymously and remove it after 1) you are done reading for whatever reason, or 2) the author completes the story. A lot of other sites don't send you a message when a story is updated, so I personally think from a speed reader standpoint that is perfect! This way I don't have to go searching for what stories were updated, they come to me. I set my notifications to pm and my pm's to send me an email. Voila... instantly in the know. Now I have 2 places/messages to track where I should be in reading a story.

[Myr]

Daffy,

I think most people, including myself, are objecting to your subject title choices and provocative manner of describing your issues. The suggestion that we're not making continuous improvements is well, 'daffy' at best. The members can't see this because it is an administrator forum, but I have a forum titled "Continuous Improvement Projects". It has projects for short term and long term. There are projects spread out going forward for as long as the eye can see. Just a deplorable dearth of those able to do it or the funds to do it with. GA.Stories was a tremendous investment in time and resources and is the only major project we're doing in 2011.

[Skyline]