There are many different ways to search through and filter the many stories on GA. 

Recent Story Updates

You can see the most recently updated stories:

• In the right sidebar on the main forum page under the 'Stories' bar
• In the right sidebar of the Stories page below the Browse options
• In the main page center of Stories under the Genre list

Browse Options

You can search stories in a variety of ways:

• Newest Stories: Lists stories by when they were last updated, with the newest on top.
• Longest Stories: Lists the longest stories, sorted by length.
• Story Title: Lists stories sorted alphabetically by title. *Search field on screen left above stories allows searches by specific title.
• Category: Lists all categories and their sub-categories. Stories are sorted by date posted, most recent to oldest. 
• Genres: Lists all story genres on GA. Stories are sorted by date posted, most recent to oldest.
• Prolific Authors: Lists Authors on site based on total word count, most prolific to least. 
• Authors: Lists Authors on site based alphabetically by author name. *Search field above Authors allows searches by specific author name.
• Advanced Search: Allows readers to fully customize search for stories fitting specific parameters. Fill in any/all fields specific to reader needs. To choose categories, genres, ratings, etc... uncheck the 'any' box and then select preferred options. More than one option can be chosen in each search option. Click Search. Stories are listed by most recent update. 
• Advanced Options: Additional browse options-peer reviewed, editors, beta readers, series, shortest stories, longest stories, top read, top reviewed, prolific reviewers. 
• Premium Stories: Lists Premium content available by subscription only. Stories listed by most recent to oldest.

Top Stories

• Stories sorted by number of likes received. Results available by week, month, year, all time. 

Top Authors:

• Authors sorted by number of chapters posted. Results available by week, month, year, all time.

Searching by specific title:

• Use the Title option in the Browse menu. The search field on the left side of the screen will auto-generate titles as you type it in. Select it as soon as you see the one you want. 

Searching by specific author name: 

• Use the Authors option in the Browse menu. The search field on the left side of the screen will auto-generate author names as you type it in. Select it as soon as you see the one you want. 

Guided Search:

• https://gayauthors.org/guidedsearch/

There are three ways to find suggested stories that are like the stories you already like:

1. Go the the "My" Menu (My Collections for Readers, My STories for Authors) and select My Suggested Stories
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   2. This will automatically filter stories by the suggestions "More Like" and "Less Like".  
2. You can go to the Sort option on the menu and sort by Suggestions (More) or Suggestions (Less)
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3. Option 3, once you have rated / reacted / reviewed for a few stories, you'll start seeting the Less Like / More Like scale on stories that tells you whether the story you are looking at is similar to other stories you've enjoyed in the past.

1. Go to Stories
2. Go to the "My" Menu, for readers it will say "My Collections". For Authors, it'll say "My Stories"
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3. Select "My Reading History"
4. Read the agreement that you understand that the system will track what you read.
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5. Check the box to confirm you read it.
6. Then click "Setup Reading History"
7. Now when you read stories, they'll be tracked in 2 locations - the My Reading History area AND on every story you have read.
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• Category - Set your category or categories, such as "Fiction" or "FanFiction"
• Genre - Set your genre or sub-genres of interest
• Fandoms - Filter by FanFiction-related items such as Fandoms, Characters, and custom Story Tags
• Tags - Filter stories by Tags author has applied to story
• Date - Filter stories by when they were updated or published
• Author - Filter stories by Author, Editor or Beta Readers
• Sort Stories - Sort Stories by large number of methods such as Alphabetically or Latest Updates
• Followed Content - Filter stories to show only stories or authors that you follow
• Filter Stories - Filter stories by such things as completion status or word count
• Quick Search - Select pre-made common search settings, such as newest completed stories
• Clear Filters - Clear Filters. You can also click "Stories" on the red menu to fully clear previous settings.
• Help - This page.

One of the most important aspects to our Stories software is allowing members to make the reading window fit their need for reading.  Whether that is to adjust the text size, the contrast, the indents or the width of the text window.  Here are the controls:

Text size should be obvious here.  The green highlight, as shown here, means that the current text is larger than the default text.  If you have no highlight, then you have default text size.  If you have A- highlighted, then your text size is set smaller than default. Press A+ to adjust text size bigger until it fits what you want.  Use A- to make text smaller.

Text Window Width is whether the entire window is filled or not.  This is mostly used on the desktop with a wide screen.  There is no need on smaller screens.

Contrast Mode shows a dark background.  This helps to save battery and your eyes on mobile devices.

Settings are stored on your device so you just need to set it once and it'll remember.

Important note: Firefox Mobile has a bug as part of it's Auto Text Size setting that breaks the site controls. You must go to Settings -> Accessibility -> Automatic Text Sizing and turn it off if the site text size only grows and will not shrink.

Yes. 

1. You may post a link to any story on any site anywhere it is legal to do so.  Please check with each place you intend to post before doing so.
2. You can blog about the stories you have read.

• Follow the story to get notifications.  (found on the Table of Contents Page)
• Comment on their Stories on the Table of Contents page.
  • Use the field at the bottom of the Table of Contents page for the story to leave a general comment about the story.
• Comment on their chapters
  • Use the field at the end of each chapter to leave a comment. You can also reply to other comments from readers/the author.
• React to the story (Like, Love, etc)
• React to the chapters (Like, Love, etc)
• Recommend the story by using the recommend button on the Table of Contents page and check the boxes of the reasons you think the story is worth reading.
• Leave a review on completed stories
  • Once a story is complete, you may leave a review on the overall story.
• Follow the Author
  • Go to the Authors Story Archive Profile (where the stories are listed) and select Follow.
• Add a link to the story in your personal signature so it is seen when you post.

• Click "Stories" on the red menu to bring you to the Stories Archive
• Click on the Title of the story to bring you to the table of contents
• Click on "First Chapter" to the bottom right of the description box
• Or scroll down further and select chapter you wish to start at.

• Scroll to the bottom of a chapter to the 'User Feedback' area.
• Click in the text editor box that says, "Add Comment". 
• Leave a thought, review, compliment, criticism (keep it polite, please) about the chapter. In the text editor you can use the mention feature @membername or the quote feature to address other readers' or the author's comments as well as leave your own.
• Click 'Add Comment'

How do I leave a review on a story?

• A Story review can only be added to a completed story.
• Scroll to the bottom of the Table of Contents (chapter listing) page of a completed story

• Select "View Guidelines" for suggestions on writing a review.
• Select "Write a Review"
• Select a rating from 5 stars to 1 star. See Guidelines for suggestions on how to use the rating
• Write a story review without including spoilers
• Click Add Review

How doe I leave a comment on a Story?

• Scroll to the bottom of any story's Table of Contents page
• On stories that are not complete, only Comments will be available in User Feedback.  On completed stories, select the comments tab.
• Enter your story comments in the box
• Click Add Comment.

Option 1: Go to the story's Table of Contents page and scroll to the bottom.  Press the Recommend button.

Option 2:  On the Top Recommend Stories Page, press the Plus.

Either way, pops up the Recommendation Reasons:

Select as many reasons as you would like and press Recommend.

You will be prompted with your current recommendation and you can either remove or change it.

The numbers 38, 41, 45 to the left of the story title in the picture above represent the overall story rank in most views. In the example here, the stats are showing Fantasy stories, by most views.  So Rich Boy is the Number 1 Fantasy story by views, but number 38 over all.  Broadswords is #3 in Fantasy, but #45 over all.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Overall rank is a cached value.  This means is not updated in real time, so it is entirely possible to be looking at the unfiltered list and have the large number not match the order.  It will within a few hours when the value is re-cached.

The Top Recommended Stories on the site can be found here: https://gayauthors.org/stories/top/recommended/

Story recommendations on this page are time stamped

There are four tabs:

• Week - Stories recommended in the last week
• Month - Stories recommended in the last month
• Year - Stories recommended in the last Year
• All Time - All stories that have ever been recommended.