Major Forum Upgrade Coming Soonish - Story Archive Future Discussion

[Myr]

Intro

Invision Community 4.X series software is coming to an end.  Invision Community 5.0 will be launching soon.  They have run 16 Alpha tests and will be releasing Beta next week.  Their stated intention is to hit the release version quickly. I figure it will probably be by December.

Those of you who have been with us for a while know that we have to do a major update to our Story Archive software to meet the new Invision Community revision when it is released.  As the 5.0 version is essentially a complete rewrite under the hood, that means some significant investment in time for us to convert the Story Archive.  Since we are doing this update, this is the easiest time to adjust features.  Adding and removing things as our needs change.

For everyone saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," that would be an incorrect understanding.  The 4.0 version of the software was retrofitted to handle mobile devices.  About 15% of site traffic at the time it was released was mobile.  Fast forward to today and it is 60%.  While 4.0 and it's retrofit works well enough, it, and especially the text editor, where not designed for mobile devices.  Invision Community 5.0 is designed to be mobile first. There is a brand new, more functional editor that is mobile first.

Time To Weigh In

Some features from 5.0:

• Light Mode, Dark Mode, and Auto - Theme will be light or dark or switch automatically with your device settings.
• All new more capable text editor. Including editor controls staying on top of screen as box gets larger, so no back and forth to fix formatting.
• Must faster, mobile first design. 
• Side Menu that scrolls independently of the main page, so all links can be on the page at once.
• Use built in emoticons and icons in the editor
• Lots of ease of use improvements for supporting the community.  Such as "Community Experts," which highlights posts and provides more weight to active, helpful members of the community.
• Tagging has more weight, with each tag getting it's own page and tying items together better.

So, what would you like to see in Stories?  What function are we missing?

Examples:

• Suggested stories based on the story you are looking at. (Coming in next update)
• Suggested stories based on stories you rated as liking. (Coming in next update)
• More control over reading fonts (size, style, etc). (Planned for 5.0 Story Archive Update)
• Simple/Advanced Mode to reduce complexity. (Planned for 5.0 Story Archive Update)
• More icons/graphics for quick glance information (Planned for 5.0 Story Archive Update)
• Overhaul of "Adding a Story" to the system for Authors. (Planned for 5.0 Story Archive Update)

Since this type of thing has happened more than once, such asks as "Make it look like books on shelves in a library" are not really up for discussion. We have to fit within the framework of the software.  We are stuck with text and icons, essentially.

So, what would you like to see in the new Stories Archive 5.0?

 

[LJCC]

• Light Mode, Dark Mode, and Auto - Theme will be light or dark or switch automatically with your device settings.
  • Yes please. I'm in love with these updates already. My eyes aren't suited to the brightness. I'm a nocturnal animal.

So, what would you like to see in Stories?  What function are we missing?

Personally speaking, this is just me; I want to see updated stories that last more than 24 to 48 hours. Imagine posting a chapter, only for it to be relegated to the back pages of the stories tab, or you find your story on the 5th or 8th page after several days and then no one reads it anymore. It would be great to see your story chapter last for at least a week to help that story gain traction with readers who are TOO LAZY (I'm looking at you, some Lazy McGuire readers out there) in browsing the back pages. Not sure if this is possible, but yeah, I just want some stories full visibility. Because it feels like your story has visibility for the first 48 hours until your next chapter post.

I post really long chapters, and I'm planning on posting my story once a week because per chapter is 7k to 10k+.

And I'm worried if, let's say, there are a lot of people posting chapters on that particular day, by day 2 after I posted my chapter, my chapter story would be on page 5 or 8. I'm not sure if we'll still have the same format in the new upgrade, but yep. That's what my spider teets are telling me. 

Like I really like AwesomeDudes presentation of their stories. Their new stories, new authors, updated stories, etc. are all presented in the foreground on their front page. But then they do have curated stories and a lesser amount of X authors so I'm not sure if their site management is easier (I'm not a software programmer so I have no idea what I'm suggesting.)

And as I'm about to screenshot their front page, their site is down. Maybe it's just me or it's really down.

I'm really excited about this update though. All I want to see is black. 😂

 

Edited October 6 by Myr
Removed Google Banned Word referring to female mammary glands

[Myr]

23 minutes ago, LJCC said:

Because it feels like your story has visibility for the first 48 hours until your next chapter post.

You can always look at the Stories Update feed - https://gayauthors.org/discover/6/

The feed shows every chapter/story posted going back in time.  If you view it in default condensed mode, it shows quite a bit in a small space.

27 minutes ago, LJCC said:

But then they do have curated stories and a lesser amount of X authors

They are curated as you mention, last I looked.  We allow for posting your own stories. And they have a few less authors, so they can put them all on the front page.   We have a bit more volume.

 

I will look into options about different ways to surface fresh content though.

[Zombie]

will old emoji favourites still be available?

🙀😱

[Myr]

2 hours ago, Zombie said:

will old emoji favourites still be available?

🙀😱

I think so, yes.

[Krista]

Ah, I need to get to writing, so I can continue my streak of attempting to upload a chapter/story and breaking the whole system for a few hours. 

On a serious note: The changes listed and upgrades we're getting seems like a healthy and structurally sound list. I hope it all goes smoothly. For me personally, I'm a visual person, I have to immerse myself and learn the changes, the tools, etc, for me to know whether or not I feel something is lacking.

Enhanced for Mobile users is a big one though, whilst out camping in the summer that's when I know I have a lot of time to sit and browse stories on GA. I do not take any other devices other than my phone, and GA feels very clunky as it is. So, as far as the list above, that's the one I think will help most people.  As well as the font sizes and minor issues associated with Light and Dark modes.

Anything that makes submitting a story/chapter easier is also a plus, if it is a bit smoother than what we have now, good. 

Edited October 7 by Krista

[JamesSavik]

Does it offer any features to help writers block?

[Myr]

2 hours ago, JamesSavik said:

Does it offer any features to help writers block?

https://gayauthors.org/prompts/

This does. 

[BendtedWreath]

You had me at "dark mode." I can read chapters in dark mode just fine, but when I get to the comments, I often have to switch back to see what everyone wrote. I think the quotes pulls from the black on white text. 

[SilentandBroken]

Dark mode is a must for me. And mobile. Loving the of it all. I think the only two minor (very minor) gripes I have are when you’re searching through the filters and pick only 1 or 2 things to keep and leave the rest, it doesn’t do a great filtering but this might be me not using the damn option fully . The other thing I find a bit frustrating is when I go to comment off of someone else’s comment, the quote option doesn’t always behave and drop me down so I can start typing 

[SilentandBroken]

Oh and sometimes when I’m reading a story and come back to in and complete a chapter, it doesn’t like me when I go to like it. 

[Myr]

7 hours ago, BentedWreath said:

I think the quotes pulls from the black on white text. 

The way the chapter text darkmode works only effects the chapter text and not the quote text.  That should be addressed in next version.

 

3 hours ago, SilentandBroken said:

filters and pick only 1 or 2 things to keep and leave the rest, it doesn’t do a great filtering but this might be me not using the damn option fully

The filters are working properly last time I checked.  But you have to be careful of how you choose to filter. The bottom part makes a BIG difference in results:

3 hours ago, SilentandBroken said:

The other thing I find a bit frustrating is when I go to comment off of someone else’s comment, the quote option doesn’t always behave and drop me down so I can start typing 

This is likely some combination of chapter size, device type you are using and speed of your connection.  (Mobile being the most likely issue to encounter this). The behavior is not 'normal' though.  That is, I've not encountered it or been able to produce it.

 

3 hours ago, SilentandBroken said:

Oh and sometimes when I’m reading a story and come back to in and complete a chapter, it doesn’t like me when I go to like it. 

Not sure what you mean by this one.

[SilentandBroken]

5 hours ago, Myr said:

The way the chapter text darkmode works only effects the chapter text and not the quote text.  That should be addressed in next version.

 

The filters are working properly last time I checked.  But you have to be careful of how you choose to filter. The bottom part makes a BIG difference in results:

This is likely some combination of chapter size, device type you are using and speed of your connection.  (Mobile being the most likely issue to encounter this). The behavior is not 'normal' though.  That is, I've not encountered it or been able to produce it.

 

Not sure what you mean by this one.

Your first two replies make sense. I realize I wasn’t clear on the last one. I think what I was trying to say was that when I leave the browser up on my phone and return back to it later to complete the chapter, sometimes when I go to like or whatever the chapter it says there was an error. I think it’s because it’s likely been hours since I was last there and even though it refreshed, it’s like nope. Not happening. Again, all mobile browser

Edited October 9 by SilentandBroken
Additional comment

[Jeff Burton]

My only comment to this is, my heart goes out to Myr and the other site administrators, having a background in development, systems administration and other tech things I know what a job this is about to be. 

Godspeed.

[Bill W]

I'm another one who has to see and interact with the changes first, and then I'll let you know what I think of them.  

[W_L]

So, what would you like to see in Stories?  What function are we missing?
 

For me, I do like the idea of dark mode, since I use color inversion to reduce eye strain when I read. It will make reading much easier.

As for other features, I am wondering how's proposed mobile interface for TTS (Text-to-Speech) compatibility? One of the issues with some story sites with updated interfaces is read-back with third-party apps. I've figured a few workarounds by converting stories to MP3s, when I want to continue reading, while I work. 

Also, will there be a bookmark feature, so readers can keep their places in longer stories?

Edited October 19 by W_L

[Myr]

2 hours ago, W_L said:

Also, will there be a bookmark feature, so readers can keep their places in longer stories?

Nope. That's not really possible with the web, since window and browser sizes can change. You can also switch devices. 

2 hours ago, W_L said:

As for other features, I am wondering how's proposed mobile interface for TTS (Text-to-Speech) compatibility? One of the issues with some story sites with updated interfaces is read-back with third-party apps. I've figured a few workarounds by converting stories to MP3s, when I want to continue reading, while I work. 

Only what would be built in.  Chapter Text is in a clearly defined location.

[Myr]

On 10/18/2024 at 8:20 PM, W_L said:

proposed mobile interface for TTS (Text-to-Speech) compatibility?

I was just fiddling around with the windows REad Aloud feature here on my story. And damn.  If you download the natural voice (free), it does a damn good job of turning the story into an audio book. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/download-languages-and-voices-for-immersive-reader-read-mode-and-read-aloud-4c83a8d8-7486-42f7-8e46-2b0fdf753130?wt.mc_id=edgeui-readaloud-voices&ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us

 

[SilentandBroken]

I’m sure this isn’t compatible with iPhones. They have their own highlight and speak /read option which is what I use.  I love it

[Myr]

Works with Edge on Android too... though the it won't switch from system voice for some reason

[Myr]

7 minutes ago, SilentandBroken said:

I’m sure this isn’t compatible with iPhones. They have their own highlight and speak /read option which is what I use.  I love it

Works on iPad if you have Edge installed. just tested.