Death of Fiction Stories Web Site

[Drak]

From what I've observed, another writing site, shortbreadstories.co.uk appears to be dying. The site's domain registration expires Feb. 24th, 2015, opening up an opportunity for an enterprising individual to seize an url with a considerable profile on Google and redirect incoming traffic to, say, gayauthors.org. Word to the wise.

 

The funeral may be viewed here and in their message forum. Nothing's certain, but the situation doesn't seem promising.

 

Hopefully, a similar fate won't ever befall GA. I know what happens when the principal person behind a web site loses interest or croaks. Zip, bam, boom, the thing can disappear overnight in a flash or with a few weeks' notice if the owner still lives and cares.

 

[WestcliffWriter]

I think like with everything in this mighty process of constant renewal, if this site went another one would take its place so I'm not overly worried. We had a butcher's up the street go bust the other day. It was a family business that had been trading for 157 years. When the shutters came down for the last time I don’t think many people even blinked. As humans we are always on to bigger, better, newer things and there is just not the time to be nostalgic any longer.

 

Shame, but thats life. The only way to stay above water is to be better than whats already out there. As far as I can see (having looked at other sites) GA is ok for the moment. But look what happened to Friends Reunited when Facebook came along. Nothing is ever forever, and no one can ever get comfortable.

 

EDIT: Just looked at Shortbread, and I can kinda see why its dying of death. Eeeek!

Edited February 16, 2015 by WestcliffWriter

[Drak]

I think like with everything in this mighty process of constant renewal, if this site went another one would take its place so I'm not overly worried. We had a butcher's up the street go bust the other day. It was a family business that had been trading for 157 years. When the shutters came down for the last time I don’t think many people even blinked. As humans we are always on to bigger, better, newer things and there is just not the time to be nostalgic any longer.

 

Shame, but thats life. The only way to stay above water is to be better than whats already out there. As far as I can see (having looked at other sites) GA is ok for the moment. But look what happened to Friends Reunited when Facebook came along. Nothing is ever forever, and no one can ever get comfortable.

 

EDIT: Just looked at Shortbread, and I can kinda see why its dying of death. Eeeek!

 

ha ha, no tears at the funeral, eh?

One thing I have learned is to make backups on my local hard drive, not only of the stories but any comments/criticism received.

I like GayAuthors and feel it is advanced compared to a lot of other story-posting sites. Plenty of sites do not have the capabilities that GA does. I was browsing Nifty the other day and noticed it does not link to GA, although GA links to it. Nifty has not changed since back in the day, I think ten years ago. The only way to offer feedback to a writer is via direct personal email, if said writer posted an email address, and if that email address remains valid.

[Dabeagle]

It's always tough to maintain a site, especially if you're a one man show.  It sounds like there was a staff of sorts to help but I have to say, even being as long in the tooth as I am, I hadn't heard of them. There are a variety of reasons why a site comes and goes. Frankly, stories can flow in so quickly that a popular site may have stories slide off their 'most recent postings' rather quickly. I note on Shortbread it's very long, and yet tough to keep newer things in front of folks for very long. Also the coding for a site is repetitive - for each story.

 

Even though GA has found a way to automate it, there is so much content that things tend to slide off the main page within about 48hours max. Great for people looking for new things to read, harder for an author that posts a short story and sees hours of work go by quickly and, possibly, lost in a sea of posts.

 

I'm not sure what a better answer would be. I've shortened up my own listings since I don't have the volume of a place like GA, but when things get busy, I have the same issue. I mourn the loss of good stories that disappear with sites like that, though, that will go undiscovered.

[Cia]

GA is much like a bookstore. We have featured sections up front for new content, special features for those who've proved themselves a 'good name' to draw readers, and a lot of shelves of a lot of okay stories mixed with good stories mixed with great stories. As with most creative or marketing endeavors, how well someone does on GA is directly proportional to how much work they put into it.

 

As for the site, we do have authors who come and go, and staff who come and go, but the site is built for longevity. We have new members, authors, and eventual staff and team members funneling in as well. We also take the time to try and keep the site updated, as Drak mentioned, compared to some other sites available. We don't want to become obsolete so we try to adjust to growing technology as well as writing standards that have improved with the advent of mobile technology and low-priced, easily hidden/discreet gay fiction eBooks on eReaders.

 

I don't see us going anywhere. If, for no other reason, than that Myr is just too stubborn to throw in the towel, and will continue to drag us along with him.

[Drak]

It's always tough to maintain a site, especially if you're a one man show.  It sounds like there was a staff of sorts to help but I have to say, even being as long in the tooth as I am, I hadn't heard of them. There are a variety of reasons why a site comes and goes. Frankly, stories can flow in so quickly that a popular site may have stories slide off their 'most recent postings' rather quickly. I note on Shortbread it's very long, and yet tough to keep newer things in front of folks for very long. Also the coding for a site is repetitive - for each story.

 

Even though GA has found a way to automate it, there is so much content that things tend to slide off the main page within about 48hours max. Great for people looking for new things to read, harder for an author that posts a short story and sees hours of work go by quickly and, possibly, lost in a sea of posts.

 

I'm not sure what a better answer would be. I've shortened up my own listings since I don't have the volume of a place like GA, but when things get busy, I have the same issue. I mourn the loss of good stories that disappear with sites like that, though, that will go undiscovered.

 

Some of the writers at shortbread see the proverbial writing on the wall and have started up a new site, although unfortunately they chose an url with a year-date in it, something like newlit2014, which doesn't sound so cool now in 2015. They may be stuck with that. Honestly I don't know why they just didn't head over to one of the many already established competing sites. Starting a new site is a lot of work. No. Just, no.

 

As for the stories, they will not be lost. If the rebel faction, the geeks creating newlit2014 or whatever, can create a web site, then they can use one of those infernal programs that can vacuum all the content up from a site, programs with names like AutoSuck (?I think?), and I imagine they have been using just such a program to preserve all the content so it will not be lost when shortbread goes off the air. Problem with shortbread though is their site has some kind of bot-defeating feature that requires the user to click a button prior to reading the full story. I don't know whether that will defeat AutoSuck or not. That may indeed be the intent. I hate those programs myself because they're kind of, not nice, put it that way, not the sort of activity an admin wants to observe in the site log. (Probably a quick way to get oneself banned, btw.) The best sorts of those programs are extremely advanced though and probably can do everything needed.

 

Plenty of content is a good 'problem' to have. In theory, more content should translate into more and longer visits from new and old readers. I always search the database and never browse new, maybe because I'm aware of the precise issue you mention and want to go find the hidden stuff from those that post once in a while or posted long ago or are long forgotten and have moss growing over their stories. Also, I am still in the process of discovery.

 

One thing that seems amiss about the search function is how it defaults to alphabetical order. That allows gaming the system, i.e. naming your story "000 Aardvark" or something early in the alphabet or having a nym like "00Aardvark" in order to appear near the top of the displayed results, or contrariwise, "Zzz" in order to catch those readers that click the Descending/Ascending button. Probably defaulting to search by-date would actually be fairer, although that favors authors who post frequently, say, tiny easily produced stories or chapters over those that post a single, big, chunky novel with all the chapters included at once. If you're posting all hundred-thousand words at a time, then you get less time on the New Posts list. It's not really possible to please everybody and probably any system could be gamed somehow or favors one group or another.

 

I don't see us going anywhere. If, for no other reason, than that Myr is just too stubborn to throw in the towel, and will continue to drag us along with him.

I think so too. It is also fortunate that Myr understands the tech side.

[Cia]

Use Advanced Search in Stories and then choose your story options and then sort options. You can order story results by title, yes, but you can also sort by series title, publish date, last update, rating, reviews, word count, times read or favorited or watched. I constantly tell people to use that feature. It's the main reason why we have so many fields to fill out for authors when they post a story--that way readers can find EXACTLY what they want to read. Well, if it's here.

[GrimIsaac]

Use Advanced Search in Stories and then choose your story options and then sort options. You can order story results by title, yes, but you can also sort by series title, publish date, last update, rating, reviews, word count, times read or favorited or watched. I constantly tell people to use that feature. It's the main reason why we have so many fields to fill out for authors when they post a story--that way readers can find EXACTLY what they want to read. Well, if it's here.

 

GA has a great searching system, but it only allows for one tag per type, and if it could be increased to two, I would be very happy (if it is too hard to code, just tell me so I can shut up in understanding)

[Cia]

GA has a great searching system, but it only allows for one tag per type, and if it could be increased to two, I would be very happy (if it is too hard to code, just tell me so I can shut up in understanding)

Try holding down the Control key when using the fields with more than one option, like Genre, Tags, and Status. You can select 1, 2, 5, or all but 1 if you want.