Looking Ahead into 2024 for Gay Authors

[Myr]

As is often the case, I am looking ahead to what is coming down the road for us on the software front.  A significant revision of the forum software is coming for the first time in about eight years.  Invision Community 5.0 will be upon us probably late this year or early next year.  It's going to cause some very serious retooling of software for us.  We will also be due for a server replacement in that timeframe.  Lots of fun things to deal with on the software side.

Some things we know are changing:

• Status Replies are going away.  We will be turning those off ahead of time to start easing into that transition.  The news will be posted in the next few weeks on it.
• Support Requests are going away—at least the email part of it.  We'll have a simplified version.
• Such significant changes will be going on under the hood that we'll be rewriting the Stories Archive again.

As we did on the last major revision of the software, we'll be going through a lot of preparation and beta testing before deploying it live on the site.  How fast we go will be dependent on our programmer.

We will also be doing a complete evaluation of our own short-term and long-term goals so far as plans are for 2024 and 2025-2030.

I will be asking this a few times before the time comes in many different ways, but as an open-ended question: 

What do you realistically want to see from Gay Authors over the next year?

 

[Hero]

4 hours ago, Myr said:

What do you want to see from Gay Authors over the next year?

I would like to see a library of books, completed stories (not short stories of one chapter) available for download in pdf.

[Daddydavek]

@Hero the site did that several years ago.  As I recall, it stopped as demand was so small that it could not be justified for the resources it took. Mark Arbour has some of his books in PDF format and may be able to provide them if requested in a PM.

[Hero]

@Daddydavek there are lots of available free books to download online from different sites like https://www.booksfree.org where authors give their work and this way of reading books has a lot of advantages.

1. The book is complete

2. You never lose your place with an ebook app

3. The author gets to see how many books have been downloaded, popularity, and some sites allow feedback

As for resources, that amounts to nothing more than all the space used by holding all the stories already here, maybe less if you zip up the ebooks, pdf

For me, downloading an ebook or pdf and putting it on the virtual bookshelf of my personal library is the equivalent of a real paperback. You can pick it up and read it anytime, anywhere, and share it. Of course, the writing online novels in progress is a whole other thing, but asked what I would like, it's books with covers, summaries and reviews to download.

 

[astone2292]

It would probably be a big task but perhaps a bookmarking system, more or less aimed at stories with larger chapters. Although leaving the browser (window or tab) open can solve this, one could lose their place when reading. 

I'm unsure of the coding and technical aspect of how the software operates, and I'm certain it would be a daunting task to create. Perhaps imbedded within the mini-bar when a member highlights a word/passage and the "quote selection" button pops up when in forums/blogs/clubs. I'm imagining a second button for "bookmark" where when pressed, it creates an activity stream for "My Bookmarks". 

Unless I'm a dolt and this idea is already implemented, aside from following a story/saving it to one's browser favorites.

[Myr]

On 7/30/2023 at 1:10 AM, Hero said:

I would like to see a library of books, completed stories (not short stories of one chapter) available for download in pdf.

As @Daddydavek was nice enough to mention, we've done that previously and there was less than minimal interest.  The ROI for this suggestion has already proven itself poor. We can't compete with the likes of Amazon and it is not our place to try.  If you wish eBooks, go get them from Amazon.

16 hours ago, Hero said:

virtual bookshelf of my personal library is the equivalent of a real paperback. You can pick it up and read it anytime, anywhere, and share it. Of course, the writing online novels in progress is a whole other thing, but asked what I would like, it's books with covers, summaries and reviews to download.

I've seen this suggestion exactly once before from a former member.  Gay Authors is an online story archive, not a bookstore. If you want bookstore, try Amazon.com... they have a rather sizable inventory of your wide appeal options. 

6 hours ago, astone2292 said:

bookmarking system, more or less aimed at stories with larger chapters

with over 60% of the site now using mobile devices, it's quite likely that your browser stays sitting where you left it.  I have added an action to investigate an option, though you are correct that it is probably daunting mostly because it would require programmatic tracking, which slows page loads.

[Hero]

6 hours ago, Myr said:

Gay Authors is an online story archive, not a bookstore. If you want bookstore, try Amazon.com..

Ha, ha! If you don't want to know what readers want... don't ask. I can be rude too!

[Myr]

One thing that we'll be trying to get working is a better story suggestion system.  I found one that is the basis of the concept of how Amazon and Netflix recommend new content to people.  Though, obviously, the basic version and not the crazy creepy version Amazon uses

The one I found for the site should be within the budget for us to implement and will help surface stories you are likely to enjoy based on things you've already read and enjoyed.

 

[LJCC]

One suggestion is past daily/weekly story recommendations.

If we can get a list of 10+ or 20+ completed stories posted years ago or recently finished ones, then this will revive the readership of some authors, both new and old.

Daily recommendations could be recently finished stories. Weekly recommendations can be dated from years ago.

It's like, once a story is completed, it's relegated to the back burner until someone happens to stumble on it. Unless the story is popular, lesser-known (active/inactive) authors are forgotten, and their stories are lost in the thick of the postings.

It's just sad, if you think about it.

[Myr]

On 8/2/2023 at 11:19 PM, LJCC said:

One suggestion is past daily/weekly story recommendations.

This, or something like it, is on the list already.  We've had a number of technical issues we still have to work through.  (Same with having more than the handful we can show)

We are definitely aware of the issue of surfacing the stories that are no longer actively posting. 

[Bardeara]

Just something to consider:

Trying to navigate ways to find stories.  an example is I've yet to find an easy location to find the Anthologies which have been submitted.  Maybe I'm missing something, but I guess the take away is if I'm struggling to find them, I'm sure others are too. 

 

Maybe, a timed posting that scrolls through for new things. An example would be any website that shows an image with a bunch of dots on the bottom, (I believe SteamPower gaming site is what I'm referencing.) and have it show new stories which can time out after a period of time or if the dropped from like the top 10 newest story posts.    

 

anyways, that's just a thought.  Prob a lot of work to make it work, but I can only suggest it. hope it helps. 

[Myr]

5 hours ago, Bardeara said:

an example is I've yet to find an easy location to find the Anthologies which have been submitted. 

Just click "Categories" if you want to get to the anthologies specifically.  They are part of the main list as well. (see below)

 

5 hours ago, Bardeara said:

Maybe, a timed posting that scrolls through for new things. An example would be any website that shows an image with a bunch of dots on the bottom, (I believe SteamPower gaming site is what I'm referencing.) and have it show new stories which can time out after a period of time or if the dropped from like the top 10 newest story posts.

Not sure adding this again is needed as it is already on the both the forums and stories page...

Or the Latest Stories Activity Stream...

https://gayauthors.org/discover/6/?&

 

[Bardeara]

1 hour ago, Myr said:

Just click "Categories" if you want to get to the anthologies specifically.  They are part of the main list as well. (see below)

 

Not sure adding this again is needed as it is already on the both the forums and stories page...

Or the Latest Stories Activity Stream...

https://gayauthors.org/discover/6/?&

 

Thank you for the pictures... clearly I suck at finding ways to look things up. 

Might I suggest a FAQ for fools like me?

[Bardeara]

4 minutes ago, Bardeara said:

Thank you for the pictures... clearly I suck at finding ways to look things up. 

Might I suggest a FAQ for fools like me?

I just found the FAQ section.  I swear if you put a neon sign and have it flashing, I wouldn't see it... kinda reminds me of my love life.  

There's daft people, and than theirs me. lol

[Mark Arbour]

On 7/31/2023 at 5:31 PM, Myr said:

As @Daddydavek was nice enough to mention, we've done that previously and there was less than minimal interest.  The ROI for this suggestion has already proven itself poor. We can't compete with the likes of Amazon and it is not our place to try.  If you wish eBooks, go get them from Amazon.

GA set up an entire e-book area, which was pretty cool.  I understand the ROI issue, but I'm also wondering if there isn't a way just to make a PDF or Epub file available without a lot of fanfare?  Maybe as an attachment to the existing story? 

[Mark Arbour]

On 7/30/2023 at 10:08 AM, Daddydavek said:

@Hero the site did that several years ago.  As I recall, it stopped as demand was so small that it could not be justified for the resources it took. Mark Arbour has some of his books in PDF format and may be able to provide them if requested in a PM.

I have all of my books in PDF format and I would be happy to provide them if I got a PM.  😀

You know me so well.  💕