Just One Thing

[Myr]

As a reader on the site, what is just one thing that you wish would work better than it does currently?

As an author on the site, what is just one thing that you wish would work better than it does now? 

I'm asking so that I can make sure that the things we are working on address concerns every where we can. 

Honest answers help. We know things aren't perfect. We have a lot of constraints we are working around. But telling us helps make sure we have plans to address it. 

[Gary L]

As a reader, the box to search for an author by name is the one thing that drives me mad both on tablet and mobile.  If it could be a bit more intuitive and you not have to get every detail correct.   Also, if the name suggested is the one I want, clicking on it is not always guaranteed to take me to the author.  It’s not the end of the world but you did ask!

As an author, the process takes some getting used to, but the guide is excellent.  I’m very happy with it

thank you to all the team for making GA such a great site. 🤗 

ps I’ve just tried to enter @kbois via author search and I can’t get in, neither by me spelling (correctly) the name, nor clicking on the link.  I’m being punished!

Edited July 29 by Gary L

[Myr]

1 hour ago, Gary L said:

ps I’ve just tried to enter @kbois via author search and I can’t get in, neither by me spelling (correctly) the name, nor clicking on the link.  I’m being punished!

Click Authors on menu first. Then search for kbois. Then click the name and nothing else. This general area is something we are working on, just to confirm. 

[Mike Carss]

I appreciate all the genres an author can set for their story, but choosing them is very awkward (on step 3 in the "Edit Story" page). It's a long list to scroll through in a small window, compared to the tags window (on step 4 page) which lists everything clearly with checkmarks. If the genre selection could be viewed the same way, that'd be helpful.

As an aside, I think the Manage Story cogwheel button has a lot of options that don't need to be there.
My recommendation: keep "Edit Story", "Add Prologue", "Add Chapter", "Add Discussion Topic", and remove everything else from the list.
All those other options should be accessed via the "Edit Story" pages. Having multiple ways to do the same thing only adds to the messiness of the UI.

(Perhaps the "Unpublish Story" could be moved to the step 1 page.)

 

[Myr]

3 hours ago, Mike Carss said:

I appreciate all the genres an author can set for their story, but choosing them is very awkward (on step 3 in the "Edit Story" page). It's a long list to scroll through in a small window, compared to the tags window (on step 4 page) which lists everything clearly with checkmarks. If the genre selection could be viewed the same way, that'd be helpful.

Improving this is on the development list, yes.

3 hours ago, Mike Carss said:

I think the Manage Story cogwheel button has a lot of options that don't need to be there.
My recommendation: keep "Edit Story", "Add Prologue", "Add Chapter", "Add Discussion Topic", and remove everything else from the list.
All those other options should be accessed via the "Edit Story" pages. Having multiple ways to do the same thing only adds to the messiness of the UI.

(Perhaps the "Unpublish Story" could be moved to the step 1 page.)

This will not be done.  In fact, there will be more items added to the external menu to make all controls easy to get to to address the feedback that it is too hard to update stories because the controls are buried in the edit stories menu.  I will evaluate if we can split up that menu a bit more though.  The intention will be to be able to update the stories easily without going deep into the edit stories menu, which has confused a lot of people.

[Mike Carss]

10 minutes ago, Myr said:

The intention will be to be able to update the stories easily without going deep into the edit stories menu, which has confused a lot of people.

Fair enough. 😄 Thanks for hearing me out.

[Myr]

What an adventure.  A former member spammed this topic, so if you saw it in the last couple of hours, sorry for the display.  

To summarize, we are working on a number of new features specifically geared towards making things easier for readers and easier for authors.  

[ReaderPaul]

I have noticed that when I click "Follow" on a particular story, I then get notices for EVERY new story that author publishes, not just the story on which I click follow.  Is it supposed to work that way?

[Myr]

6 minutes ago, ReaderPaul said:

I have noticed that when I click "Follow" on a particular story, I then get notices for EVERY new story that author publishes, not just the story on which I click follow.  Is it supposed to work that way?

It is supposed to do that if you follow the author. It should only notify chapters of the story you follow. 

[Cane23]

Sometimes, quoting a specific line or paragraph of the text is not possible, especially when using a phone. In most cases, you have to copy and paste the part you want to quote into the comment, and it usually appears with a different font and size.

Additionally, spelling and grammar checks do not seem to be available on the phone (I am not sure whether this is a limitation of the program or the device). This feature is very useful for us...non-native English speakers.

[Myr]

50 minutes ago, Cane23 said:

Sometimes, quoting a specific line or paragraph of the text is not possible, especially when using a phone. In most cases, you have to copy and paste the part you want to quote into the comment, and it usually appears with a different font and size.

Additionally, spelling and grammar checks do not seem to be available on the phone (I am not sure whether this is a limitation of the program or the device). This feature is very useful for us...non-native English speakers.

Both of those things are device and browser dependent. Where GA has any impact will be on the text editor which is being replaced in the software upgrade. It will make it more compatible with more devices 

[Jason Rimbaud]

4 hours ago, Cane23 said:

Sometimes, quoting a specific line or paragraph of the text is not possible, especially when using a phone. In most cases, you have to copy and paste the part you want to quote into the comment, and it usually appears with a different font and size.

Additionally, spelling and grammar checks do not seem to be available on the phone (I am not sure whether this is a limitation of the program or the device). This feature is very useful for us...non-native English speakers.

The quote feature does not work for me in the story itself. I can quote comments but never in the actual story. I guess my Mac using Chrome isn't compatible. . For now, maybe once the update rolls out. 

[Myr]

50 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

The quote feature does not work for me in the story itself. I can quote comments but never in the actual story. I guess my Mac using Chrome isn't compatible. . For now, maybe once the update rolls out. 

This is current design in Stories and how software works 

[Jason Rimbaud]

2 minutes ago, Myr said:

This is current design in Stories and how software works 

So you mean if I had read just one more comment down, I would have gotten the answer that you already gave instead of making you repeat yourself. Opps..  

[Myr]

2 hours ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

So you mean if I had read just one more comment down, I would have gotten the answer that you already gave instead of making you repeat yourself. Opps..  

not exactly.  the option to quote text will never show up in the current software version.  it should popup for comments.  two different, though related issues.