Announcements On Story Pages

[ColumbusGuy]

My issue with the Announcement box showing up on our story entry pages is this: the one for Spring Anthologies was no help at all since it led only to a statement that those stories were now posted, with no link at all to the collection itself.  Since my eye surgeries and need for high-contrast browser settings, things at GA are much harder to find with the new updated site, so why not make things a little easier and post a link to the stories in the Announcement?

 

I tried several links including going to the Home page to find them, without success.  And I tried posting this on the Announcements thread itself, but there wasn't a button to add a post that I could find either visually or via narration.

 

Thanks for listening. 

[northie]

Hi, there is a link. It's contained in the banner / header that appears above the text. Perhaps your assistive technology obscures it?

[Cia]

I'm uncertain as to what announcement you mean as to the "on our story entry pages". Was this something posted previously when the blog first went live? As for the announcement posted on the 27th that appears all over the site, other than the text "In case you missed it" has links. Anytime there's a link placed somewhere like a post, blog, or announcement, that makes that sort of snapshot of the post/blog/ the link goes to, which includes the image banner, the title of the topic, a preview of the reactions, and the number of comments. The banner, title of the post/topic/blog, and even things like the comments are all links you can click on. When you click on the link in the announcement Myr shared, that goes to the blog announcement for the anthology, and the title of all the stories included in the anthology featured in that blog are links. 

 

And, of course, the anthologies can all be reached anytime through the categories link in the Browse options on the Stories page. 

[Ivor Slipper]

CG will  have to speak for himself, but I think he is talking about the announcement that appears on the Stories page.

 

If you click on the banner there you get taken somewhere and if you opt to click again there (without any indication that you should) you do then arrive at a place where all the Anthology stories are listed.

 

So, yes it can be done, but he was expressing the view that perhaps there should be a direct link rather than an indirect one.

[Cia]

Since members stated not having enough time to write was an issue for not participating in quarterly anthologies, but still wanted four themes total to write about each year, there are dual themes for each of the anthology events that happen in 2018. That means two different anthology categories are made live at the same time. Sure, we could just post links to the anthology categories in the announcement, but why do two different links to the anthology categories alone instead of just one link to the already existing blog post that explains what the anthologies are, thanks all the people who put in hard work to help make them happen on the site, and lists all the stories with links? Besides, those links to the categories would visually appear just like the link to the blog post would. 

 

To avoid downgrading the site's content rating, we don't want to duplicate content on the site, so it doesn't make sense to post the identical information in the announcement, so that's why just the link to the blog was added to bring more attention to the event as a whole. And hopefully more attention will translate to the next anthology, since it doesn't seem like having six months to write for one or both themes really helped increase the number of authors who had the time/inclination to enter a story in the event. 

 

Also, as with most websites, the title of a blog post is the link to the content itself. You don't have to click on the banner, then the blog post's title. All you have to do is click on the blog title in the announcement, just like you click on the title of a story or the title of a forum topic, etc... If you pay attention, you'll note that the old style of underlined/different colored link titles has changed and it's more common to see embedded text links that change color when you scroll over them to indicate they are a link. That is a drawback to those using touchscreens or adaptive technology, I agree, but we don't control the format the links now appear as on the forums as that is an IP Board feature.

 

 

[Myr]

10 hours ago, ColumbusGuy said:

post a link to the stories in the Announcement?

The Announcement feature does not work like that.  And as @Cia said, we are not duplicating content since the blog post already links to all the stories. 

[Reader1810]

On 5/29/2018 at 6:30 AM, ColumbusGuy said:

My issue with the Announcement box showing up on our story entry pages is this: the one for Spring Anthologies was no help at all since it led only to a statement that those stories were now posted, with no link at all to the collection itself.  Since my eye surgeries and need for high-contrast browser settings, things at GA are much harder to find with the new updated site, so why not make things a little easier and post a link to the stories in the Announcement?

 

I tried several links including going to the Home page to find them, without success.  And I tried posting this on the Announcements thread itself, but there wasn't a button to add a post that I could find either visually or via narration.

 

Thanks for listening. 

CG

I did some poking around and found a link to the anthologies - well everything, I think because the list is alphabetical - under the Categories tab on the right hand side of the Story page.  There are two links for Spring 2018 (this list is chronological, so Spring 2018 is at the top) because there are two themes. Under each link is an accessible list of the stories for the chosen theme. 

 

Hope this helps. 

 

Edited May 31, 2018 by Reader1810