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Myr

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  1. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Premium Subscription System

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    For those of you that don't know, Gay Authors stays open and improving through the combination of Premium Membership subscribers and advertising.  This pays the bills and allows to maintain and improve the site.  In the last version of the forum software, they introduced a simplified Subscription Management tool.  The most important thing it does is fixes that stupid error "You have already purchased... etc".  The catch, of course, is that any time the software changes like this, there are hiccups.  I've waited sometime now for them to have plenty of time to fix bugs.  I'm hoping we don't see any.  
     
    We'll be switching to the new system soon. In theory, all current and past subscribers should be switched over and there will be a new simple interface for you to use to renew or change renewal times.
    I'm also putting a link to Premium directly on the Main Menu.

     
    This is how it will look, basically.  @Cia is still finalizing the graphics as I write this.

     
    Once you have subscribed, the interface is MUCH better than the old system.  It is very clear as to what you are subscribed to, when it expires/renews:

     
    Expect this change to hit this week!
  2. Myr

    Stories 2.3.2 Is now Live

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    We have just posted a new version of Stories.  In theory, this finally corrects the notification bugs.  If you Follow a Story, you should now get your notifications every time.  If you Follow an Author (on the author page) you should be alerted when they post a new story.
     
    A "Part of Series" toggle has been added to filters:

     
    The quick search links now properly activate existing filters and you should be able to change them or remove them with the minus sign.
    Example, Series stories by dkstories:
    https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/?filter_authors=212&filter_series=1
     
    There is now a reminder on "Add New Chapter" box that reminds you about the posting rules:

     
    Moderation Queue Important Note:
    The moderation queue is now based on Story/Chapter reputation only!  We are working on a method of displaying an author's current story/chapter reputation if they're under the limit.  So if you suddenly find yourself in the Story Moderation Queue, where you were not before, this is why.
     
    Reply to Review should be working properly now.
     
    The filterbox on the Series page is now working properly.  The Quick Search on Series page is now correct as well.  Searching by Series word count is also working:
    https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/browse/series/?sortby=totalwords&filter_sort=totalwords
     
     
  5. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - New Search Filters

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    For those of you that have not yet watched the video on how the new search filters work, please watch it now:
     
     
    Back?  Good...  Now to add a few things.  Since the new search system uses the URL to add filters, you can now bookmark your search. Or copy it for others.  For example, this is all the Sci-Fi stories by dkstories:
    https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/?filter_genres=9&filter_authors=212

     
     
    Or maybe your thing is complete Long Fantasy stories?
    https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/browse/?filter_genres=5&filter_statuses=1&filter_sort=wordcount-desc

     
     
    Or, how about you want to see the newest in progress romance stories that have exceeded 20,000 words?
    https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/browse/?filter_genres=8&filter_statuses=3&filter_words=%3E20000

     
    Now you can set what you want to find and bookmark it.  Easy.  You can do any combination of things.  Like adding some tags to the above search.
     
    Does this help you find stuff?
     
    If this blog was helpful to you, be sure to like this post and follow the blog!
  7. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Story Archive Next Version

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    So I shared a sneak peek of this post in our Writer's Circle.  I encourage authors to join the club if you haven't yet because there are a ton of great posts in there, and sometimes early information about upcoming features for authors.
     
    So, we've got the new Stories user interface worked out, and we're fixing the bugs.  Here's a sneak peek at it: 
     
     
    The quick Title search will now be on every page.  The previously empty search field now has "Search stories..." to give a clear indication of what it is.  The filter bar replaces the advanced search functions... and it is a live filter.  This means if you select "Follow" and then select Stories I Follow, you get this:
     

     
    The search is applied instantly, and you can see it dropped from 883 pages of results to 2. 
     
     
    Or how about Complete Fantasy Stories sorted by word count:

     
    We've updated the Authors' pages as well:

     
    We are hoping to be able to upgrade this week.  There will be some bugs to work out, but we need to test on the live server with more people to finally squash them all. When we upgrade, there will be a topic posted for with more information and for bugs like we've done before with directions of what to do if you encounter one and what information you need to share. 
  8. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Following Blogs

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    Today we are going to talk about how Follow works.  In the forum software, Follow works by notifying you to new content in the item you wish to follow. So, if you follow a blog, you get notified of new blog posts.  If you follow a blog post, you get notified of comments to that blog post.  If you follow a Forum, you are notified of new topics to the forum.  If you follow a topic, you're notified of new replies to the topic.
     

     
    When you click the follow button, you get these options:

     
    The default is "A Notification when new content is posted".  Right below that is "change how the notification is sent".  You can choose Inline (default) or email or both.
    You can also choose a daily digest of updates (good on busy topics/blogs you follow) or a Weekly digest.  You can also choose to follow something and then not get notifications.  This is handy if you want to support the author without getting the alerts.
     
    Since following at multiple levels can be confusing, I'd thought I'd use this blog as an example.  If you were one of the members following the blog "Anthology News", then you got a notification this Anthology Flashback blog was posted:

    There are only 11 people following the blog at the moment... so this is a great time to click Follow (it changes to Following once you've done so)!
     
    If you wanted to be alerted to comments on this blog post, you'd need to follow the blog post.  In the example above, you can see 5 people are following that blog post.
     
    I was one of those followers so I could respond to comments and use reactions.  If you comment on a blog post and want to see what others think of your comment or if they reply, then following the blog post would alert you to any additional comments.
     
    Now, we have a whole bunch of site news blogs I think are worth following that are intended to highlight writing tips, ideas, and stories.  Be sure to follow them here:
     
     
    I hope this helps!  Let me know what you think in the comments below.  And be sure to like and follow those blogs. 
     
    P.S.  The process described in following works in theory for Stories as well.  There are still some odd quirks with the system we are working to correct.  The proper advice here is to be sure to both follow and like a story.  You can also follow an author.  When you follow an author, you get notifications when they post new stories.  (Follow the Author to get notifications to new Stories. Follow a Story to get notifications to new Chapters).  We are actively trying to address the issue where you are not getting notified of new stories/chapters properly.  It is a very stubborn and persistent bug.
     
     
  9. Myr
    Welcome to another week of Anthology Flashbacks.  This week brings back to the summer of 2012...

     
     
     
    Do you like these weekly flashbacks?  Let us know in the comments below.  Click Follow on the Anthology News Blog at the top of the page.  And, of course, be sure to review stories to let the authors know how you felt about their stories!
  10. Myr

    Writing Prompts #676 & #677

    By Myr,


    Prompts
    I hope everyone is having a great week! I'll be filling in for Renee for a while.
    It's time for this weeks prompts, supplied by our prompt guru, Comicfan. Just a reminder, and for those who haven't worked with the prompts before: prompt responses under 1,000 words must be posted as part of a collection.
    Prompt 676 – Creative
    Tag – The Myth
    There are myths all are all around the world to explain nature. Your task is to write a ta/’le explaining why volcanos explode.
     
    Prompt 677 – Creative
    Tag – List of words
    Use the following words in a story – An old photo, a book, a bird, a topaz ring, and a newspaper.
     
    Did you write a prompt response last week? Don't forget to share it below.
  11. Myr
    The first thing I need everyone to do today is click on the Follow Button.

     
    This blog is something Authors should be following as a great way to participate in the community.  Whether it is writing an anthology story or two or three for the Fall Anthologies or reading the ones below and leaving a review, participation is a great way to get yourself or your stories in front of more people.  And in case you need this... *hint* *hint*
     
    This week's flashback brings us up to Spring of 2012 with the topic of It Wasn't Me!

     
     
     
  12. Myr

    Happy 20th Anniversary Comicality!

    By Myr,


    News Archive
    Instead of the usual Tuesday Tech Blog this week, I'm taking the day to wish my first online author friend a very very happy 20th Anniversary of him posting his stories for us all to enjoy!

      
     
    On June 19, 1998, 20 years ago today, Comicality posted his first chapter of New Kid In School on Nifty.  https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/highschool/new-kid-in-school/
    (If you look at chapter 1-2, you'll see the date stamp)
     
    Comicality hooked me right away on his stories.  I emailed him early, and we had a few exchanges.  Eventually, I formed Gay Authors, and I got him as my very first Hosted Author here.  Comicality is, in fact, the only author who still has a hosted site here on Gay Authors.  https://www.gayauthors.org/comicality/
     
    💗💜 Love you Lots Comsie!  💜💗
    Thanks for all the great memories for the last 20 years!
    🍹 Here is to many, many more! 🍹
  13. Myr

    Eragon

    By Myr,


    Movies
    I mentioned the Eragon books a few weeks ago.  They did make a movie out of the book.  I liked the movie enough, but it has some weaknesses.  The director's leather fetish for the young male actors was not one of them.   This is worth seeing if you enjoy fantasy, dragons etc.  The effects were done well and Jeremy Irons always adds some gravitas to what he shows up in. And the bad guy is played by John Malcovitch.  Check it out.
  14. Myr
    This is a 7 book series.  It is also a complete classic, though most people are only familiar with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.  (Book 1 in published order)
    There has been a long debate amongst fans of what order you are supposed to read the books.  This single volume version puts the story in chronological order, instead of published order.  It makes a lot more sense this way.
    The books Chronologically:
    The Magician's Nephew The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe The Horse and His Boy Prince Caspian Voyage of the Dawn Treader The Silver Chair The Last Battle They are a pretty quick read and if you've never taken the time, they are well worth it.
  16. Myr

    Tech Tuesday: Clubs

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    I thought I would swing around to Clubs again for this Tech Tuesday.  Clubs are semi-private groups here on Gay Authors.  We have a few different clubs available currently, and you can find them under the Club Link on the main red menu.

     
    I strongly encourage our authors to join the Writer's Circle.  There are a lot of ongoing discussions in there, and our friend @BHopper2 has been nice enough to start his own ongoing topic discussions each Tuesday which have brought forth some great discussions on writing and interacting in the community.
    The Pit, of course, is where you can talk about politics.  For the Fantasy Writers out there, there is a fantasy writing group.  Same for Sci-Fi and Poetry.  If you are just a general tech and science geek, there is a club of that.  There is also a health group where folks are discussing health and fitness stuff.
     
    Getting into a club is easy.  Just hit the Join Club button and someone will approve you within a day, typically.
    When you've joined a club, and you go to the Club page, you can see which clubs you are a member of and the latest updated topics.

     
    When you're in a club, theres a button on the home page of the club that allows you to follow the entire club and see the latest activity with notifications.

     
    If you are on the Main Forums page and you scroll to the bottom, you can see all of your Club Forums in one place. 

     
    If you haven't jumped into a club yet, now is a great time! 
     
  17. Myr

    I Am Number Four

    By Myr,


    Movies
    So I mentioned I am Number Four series of books by Pittacus Lore last Friday in my book blog.  They did manage to make one movie of the series.  It was a decent adventure with some nice eyecandy.  Special effects were good and the movie was decent.
  18. Myr
    I Am Number Four is an interesting book.  Human looking aliens are amongst us and they are being hunted by some really bad aliens.  It's quite the romp and an enjoyable book.  It's the first in a whole series that has a follow up in the pipeline as well.  I enjoyed it and I really need to spend some time to finish reading the whole series.  Check it out!
  19. Myr
    So, there are times where I want to read a little lighter fare that is still good.  Alex Rider series definitely fits this niche for me.  His adventures are all over the top.  He's pretty much a teenage James Bond.  
    The author is good across multiple genres as well.  I've read a few different things.  He's also written a well-received James Bond novel and two Sherlock Holmes novels.
     
    Anyway, if action-adventure is your thing, the Alex Rider series of books (11 and counting) is worth a read.
  20. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - When Tech Breaks

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    I've just enjoyed, and I use the term loosely, an Internet free weekend.  This was not my desire in the least.  The several-year-old network interface board for Verizon FiOS decided to die Friday afternoon.  The tech was able to replace it fairly quickly, thankfully.  Unfortunately, it wasn't until Monday morning that they got around to getting here to do it.  The only internet access I had over the weekend was through my phone.  That means that time I would normally have for taking care of stuff around here was totally zapped.  This includes being able to write one of the more detailed blogs that show up here on Tuesdays.  I'm writing this as I'm overdue for bed because like Winter is Coming, so does Work.

     
    To our authors, if you've noticed the "Respond to Review" option now showing up on reviews... don't use it.  Stories doesn't know what to do with it yet so, you'll just get an error when you submit whatever you write.  I've reported it to our programmer, so it should be included when we roll the next version out.  It's currently going through bug squashing.  The weekend without internet, when I actually had time to work on it, didn't help.  Anyway, I will hopefully have more a more helpful blog next week
     
  21. Myr

    Eragon by Christopher Paolini

    By Myr,


    Books
    I really enjoyed Eragon when I read it years ago.  I liked the sequel as well and then I was so tied up I never finished reading the series.  I have them in my giant pile... but I still haven't gotten back to them.  I really need to, since I did enjoy the book so much.
     
    Has anyone else read this?  What do you think?
  22. Myr

    Tech Tuesday: Forum Update 4.3.3

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    As we roll ever closer to Armeggedon... er.. the go date for GDPR, Invision, the software company for the forum software is releasing another update to specifically address the ongoing concerns of pretty much anyone running anything on the Internet.   We will be rolling the update ASAP.  It is set to release Tuesday (Today). 
    Some features in it:
    Downloading personal data.  One of the requirements of GDPR is to be able to provide what personal data is tracked.  They've added a feature to create an export file of personal data. Deleting Members.  We now have the option to anonymize data when we delete a member.  As a reminder, in most cases where users have content posted, we delete your account and leave the content per the Terms of Service you Agreed to upon joining and re-agreed to if you are logged in and reading this.  As a general rule, deleting content causes community disruption and we avoid that wherever possible.  But we can now easily strip said content of anything the EU considers to be personal data. The Privacy Policy page gets more updates as well.  Currently, there are a lot of third-party services that integrate with the forum software and any of them that are used, have their own privacy policy.  The system will now automatically display said policies and thus allow us to simplify our own.  
    We are also working through the bugs on the new story update as well.  This is the update that will put all the sorting and filtering right at your fingertips.  I leave you with a current image:

    As you can see, we have the theme working on the test server.  This shows Stories I follow sorted by word count (most)
     
  23. Myr

    Batman Begins

    By Myr,


    Movies
    Of all the times Batman has been in movie form, the first two movies in Chris Nolan's reboot top them.  Batman Begins gives the gritty, more realistic and most important of all, less campy version of Batman.  This movie hit all the right notes and was only really topped by it immediate sequel, the Dark Knight.  (And then pissed away in that god-awful mess called the Dark Knight Rises.  I swear Nolan purposely trashed that movie so that no one would ask him to make another)
     
    Anyway, Batman Begins set the stage.  Well worth it.
     
  24. Myr

    Animal Farm by George Orwell

    By Myr,


    Books
    If you have somehow stumbled through life and not read this, you really should.  I just loved that the history department head at my school, assigned this book.   Far too many of the current generation indoctrinated on BS need something to wake them up.
     
  25. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Reading Away in 2018

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    A few weeks back, our tech guru extraordinaire, A.J., compiled the reading stats to date for me.  I poked them around to see what I could see and I made a little pie chart for everyone.

     
    Now, any math person will tell you that you need context to understand what that means.  So here are the relevant details:
    Data is compiled based on "reads" from Jan-April 2018.  This is about one quarter of the year. The data shown here represents 2.89 million views, which compromised the top 717 stories.  The cut off for that number was 1000 views in the time period. Stories can (and do) have more than one genre listed on them. The displayed data was compiled this way: Stories were ranked by most views Jan-April All stories with more than 1000 views were left in. We counted up the number of times a genre was tagged in those stories. The pie shows the proportion of stories so tagged. As you can see, people are reading Romance and Drama in high numbers.  Though, to be honest, many of the stories on the site are tagged with Romance in addition to whatever else someone wanted to be listed. Western is not shown but is half the size of Paranormal.
     
    Enhanced story stats will be part of a future update to Stories.
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