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Myr

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  1. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Series Feature in Stories

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    This week's blog was triggered by the observation that some authors and members seem to be unaware of a built-in feature of our Stories system.  This is the Series function.  First, for the readers, you can find Series easiest by using the right-side menu on the main stories page. See below:

     
    If the Longest Series is not your thing, you can easily adjust it by selecting "Sort By" and choosing a different option:

     
    When you click on a Series Title, say "Gone From Daylight", the stories will be listed in Series order.  You'll recognize Series stories in the system because they'll have a Series # followed by Series Title after the Story Title.  For example, on the Gone From Daylight Series page, you can see the highlighted Series # and Series Title:

     
    That's all great for Readers, but how to Authors make a Story part of a Series?  Easy!  Edit the Story and right at the top of Step 1 is the Series Title and Series Number:

     
    We do ask that Authors not add the Series Title and Series number until there are at least two Stories in the Series posted in the system.
    Also note, that is a great way to tie related Anthology stories together.  Although in the case of Anthologies, the staff will have to edit the story for you. 
     
    I hope that helps everyone understand our Series function in Stories.
  2. Myr
    So, I thought I'd start with one of the first published gay books I've ever read.  I have this in both paperback and Kindle.  This book is outstanding in that it creates a fantasy world that has a very unique magic system.  I've never really read anything that was similar.  The fact that it has a gay teenager as a lead character just rocks my world.  There is an age struggle basically between an immortal 20-something? 30-something?  and a teenager.  It works very well since, by the time anything happens, there is certainly no coercion or even ability to coerce in place.  
     
    I loved the book and have read a few times over the years.
     
    By the same measure, I can't stand the sequels.  The sequels to this book suck to such an extreme it is hard to believe the same author wrote them.  So, by all means, check out this book.  Skip the sequels at all costs.
     
  3. Myr

    Baby Driver

    By Myr,


    Movies
    So, while I was laid up this weekend, I finally had some time where I could do pretty much nothing but catch up on the very large pile of movies I have sitting here.  Well, I could have caught up on the very large pile of books or games or reading lists or nevermind.  I watched movies.  Baby Driver was one of them.
     
    Now, I love action movies.  Check.  This has action.
    I'm rather fond of any movie with a Twink-like character in it.  Check. Check. 
    Kevin Spacey almost always plays an obnoxious prick.  Turns out the reason why is because he's not actually acting that part.  Knowing what we know about Mr. Spacey, I have some concern for Ansel Elgort... after all... Mr. Spacey was calling the guy Baby the whole time.  And was a manipulative bastard of the first order.
     
    Anyway, I enjoyed the movie.  It went pretty quick and there were only a couple of slower spots to distract. 
     
    The links above are affiliate links, so if you decide to go buy them from Amazon (USA), then Gay Authors gets a cut.
     
  4. Myr

    Writing Habits and Stuff

    By Myr,


    Writing
    The start of a new year is a time of reflecting.  I've been doing a lot of reflecting lately.  I'm in the process of searching for a new employer so that I can move.  We're coming up on three years since dad passed away.  I've more than quadrupled my visits to mom since then.  Most of the summer and fall, it was every weekend.  It's not a horrible drive, but I'm tired of it.  Mom wants me to move back in with her and I'm good with that.  It would let me take care of the stuff she needs and let her take care of her parents.  (Grandpa is 86, Grandma is 83).  My career is flexible enough, in theory, to move and get a new job and with the economy going finally, this should work in theory.  But I am getting rather sick of working for other people.
     
    When you step back in look... there are 168 hours in a week.  Scratch 50 hours for sleep.  Scratch 60 hours for work, going to work or getting ready for work.  Scratch another 10 hours for chores/bills/other requirements of life.  That leaves 48 total hours in the week.  then GA.  figure 4 hours a day averaged out for what I do.  That leaves 20 hours.  chances are good that not more an 2 or 3 of those hours are consecutively available.  And by the time all that is done, I don't want to be on the computer anymore.  I usually read or occasionally I'll get time up in gaming.  This pattern has been pretty much the same for 10 years.
     
    So, I'm working on breaking that pattern a bit and get into a pattern of writing more.  Some of this is the blogs.  I'm now handling three site blogs per week.  Some of them are fairly simple, but the Tech Tuesday blog is a lot more involved.  I'm also thinking of doing just a general sort personal blog, like this one, once a week.  I'm also looking more into alternative revenue sources for the site.  One of those options is what they call affiliate marketing.  That is, we link to products that other people are selling and we get a small fee if you buy after clicking on our links.  Since I'm a gadget kind of guy, I've thought about talking about some of the gadgets I get in my blog and putting up an Amazon link to it so that if you decide you want to try it too, the site can get a cut.  Also thinking of doing the same with books and movies.
     
    Writing and posting blogs regularly keeps me in the writing mood and helps prompt me to write more in other areas.  I'm currently reviewing my Harry Potter and Parliament of Dreams story so I can finally complete it and then focus on new stuff that is wholly my own.  I'm also targeting the anthologies this year.  Slowly but surely I want to get myself back into a regular writing habit. 
    Time will tell!
     
    Let me know what you think.
     
  5. Myr

    Potpourri of Updates

    By Myr,


    Life
    Welcome to my little potpourri of updates.  It has been a little while again.  As it happens, I get way too busy bouncing all over the place with all the stuff I'm doing.  Some personal stuff first... the project I started two years ago with my mother after dad died is now pretty much done.  We converted the back porch of the house into a very nice family room that is pretty much all windows.  (There are 15 windows in the room).  It turned into a great place for me to write and to read when I stayed there during my vacation from work.  Mom is also very happy with it, which is the most important part, of course.
    I can also report that the mancave I built in the barn at moms is also finished stage 1.  Aside from the nice Phillips Hue lights in the room, I have some black lights mounted on the back of the projection screen. There are no windows, so this room can truly be a cave.
    As for the site, we have worked out the majority of the bugs from the transition to the new software.  Just in time for the next transition, it seems.  Forum software 4.2 is in Beta 8 and is scheduled to be released in the first week of August or there about.  We will be waiting until 4.2.0.2 or so before we upgrade if we even have our software update ready for that.  Stories do work with the update already, but some new features aren't integrated yet.  We hope to have that all set by the time the software is ready to upgrade.  The upgrade to the new version should not cause all the issues we just went through, as the hardest parts are now behind us.
    I am also in the process of writing the specifications for the next feature update to stories that focuses on adding the "Reading Lists" feature into stories.  This will also replace our dodgy "Favorite Author" and "Favorite Stories" list with something much more useful and obvious.
    In addition to that stuff, I have also been researching business and marketing stuff.  With our business model, we need a constant flow of new people and new material and the success of eBooks has taken away a lot of our feeder streams.  These means that we have to take more effort, time and resources in order to further develop our own stream.  We are working on a bunch of stuff that's more long term development in nature.  It is exactly what the revenues from Premium Content gets sunk into.  If you don't already subscribe, doing so keeps this train moving:
    In addition to all of that, we are also working on developing more writing resources for our authors. Comicality has been very kind in helping me out with articles for a new feature that will be coming later this summer.  I hope to get that set up so we have regular articles and other helpful material to be released on a regular schedule.  
     
    I've also been making an effort to write something every day.  None of it is worthy of you guys seeing yet, but it will be when I get back into the regular swing of things. I promise.
     
    That's all for now.  I'll try to do this more regularly, even if it is just to bs a bit.  
  6. Myr

    Articles in Review Week 5

    By Myr,


    Writing Tips
    Welcome to the New Year!  We are wrapping up the last of the Writing Tips before launching our new weekly article feature.  Be sure to check these out and let Comicality know what you think!
     
  7. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Starting off 2018 Secure

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    I thought I'd start off 2018 with a reminder to everyone about computer security.  In the past year, we've seen major security breaches that gave away pretty much everyone's personal financial information and worse.  It was bad, to put it mildly.  So, first, I'm not a security expert but I'm offering some common sense items for everyone.
    Use different passwords on all of your accounts. Use Strong passwords( 8+ characters, mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters like $#@!) If this sounds scary to you, use a password manager. I use LastPass personally as it works on all my devices. Use Two-Factor Authentication on your major email addresses and all financial accounts.  This could be an authenticator app, using the option to get codes texted to you, or setting up security questions. Keep your computer software up to date!   
    You can change your password in your Account Settings. It shows you how strong your password is as you type it.  Go for green! (a password Strength indicator shows up when you start typing)

     
     
    Gay Authors offers two-factor authentication as well.  Either questions or the Google Authenticator App.  Or both.

     
    Further resources from MIT:
    https://ist.mit.edu/security/tips
     
    I also use Secunia PSI for making sure all the programs on my machine are updated.  It's free for home use:
    http://learn.flexerasoftware.com/SVM-EVAL-Personal-Software-Inspector
     
  9. Myr

    Articles in Review Week 4

    By Myr,


    Writing Tips
    This week, we start posting articles by Comicality.  These are in our Writing Tips category in the story system.  When we catch up on all those tips, we'll start posting new ones directly right in this blog.  Keep an eye out!  In the meantime, check out these tips by our very own Comicality:
     
  10. Myr

    Did you read these classic Anthologies?

    By Myr,


    Anthologies
    We hope you had a great Christmas!  As we march closer to the end of 2017, did you get the chance to read our previous holiday anthologies? 
    Our 2004 Christmas Anthology:

    https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/browse/category/7-2004-anthology-christmas/
     
    Our 2006 Winter Anthology Blizzard Theme:

    https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/browse/category/11-winter-blizzard/
     
    Our 2015 Secret Santa Short Story contest:

     
    https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/browse/category/80-2015-secret-santa-short-story/
     
    Also, this story was strongly recommended:
     
    We'd also like to remind all authors that we have four anthology themes for 2018 and a novella contest:
    Contests
    2018 Summer Novella Anthology - Due April 15th, 2018  
    Anthologies
    2018 Spring Anthology: Now or Never - Due May 15th 2018 Spring Anthology: Encounters - Due May 15th 2018 Fall Anthology: Fight Back - Due Nov 15th 2018 Fall Anthology: Good Intentions - Due Nov 15th  
  11. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - 2017 Year in Review

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    There seems to be an unwritten rule out there for websites and publications everywhere that the last week of the year is the time to do a year in review wrap-up sort of post.  This is the one for Gay Authors.
    2017.  What a year!  This was the year we jumped 50 versions of software to finally break free of the 3.4 version of the forum software and break into the world of 4.1 and then 4.2 versions of the software.  We've had hundreds of Stories archive software updates in the same timeframe as we've worked through all the bugs from going through a complete software rewrite and carrying a ton of existing data along.  The good news?  The biggest part is behind us for now.  It took considerably longer than we wanted to get where we are, but the system is mostly working as intended.  There are some outstanding notification bugs and quirky language that will be the target of a patch sometime soon.   The important thing here is that we made it!  We had a much smoother transition this time around.
     
    It's time to look ahead at 2018.  Just what is coming?
    Blogs and Newsletters:
    Sunday Weekly Wrap-ups Blogs - These will continue. Sunday Newsletter -This will continue Monday - No change Tech Tuesday Blogs - I'm hoping to keep this going as a weekly feature to highlight features on the site and new features that will be coming. Wed Blogs - No change Thursday Anthology Blogs - We will be featuring a previous anthology (or two) on a weekly basis.  We will also be reminding authors about new anthologies and contests coming up. Friday Prompts - This will continue Saturday - Writing Tips.  We will be wrapping up the previously posted tips next week and then we start with new content provided by Comicality, a (20 year!) veteran of writing on the web.   We'll also feature other author's tips along the way.   
    Tech updates
    We are testing the bug fixes for notifications and wonky notification wording now and hope to patch that soon. This version is also going to streamline the story pages so we have a standard listing everywhere instead of the odd front page we have now.  Very large advanced search improvements will be added as well to make it much easier to sort and filter stories in the system.  This will include being able to do so by author.  Example, if you want to look at all of Comicality's Fantasy Stories, the filter bar on his author page will let you do that with a couple of clicks.  It will look similar to the filters you see on the Activity Streams. The major update after that will be Reading Lists.  This will allow you to have "Favorite Stories", "Favorite Authors", "Reading History", "To Read", "Recommended" and custom lists of stories and authors.  The intention is to make things clear and easy for you.  The Reading History list, which will be private unless you choose to share, will include the chapter you were last reading to help make finding things easier.  We'll go into more details when we get closer. The major update after that will be aimed at authors.  We are working to provide far more robust stats on what people are reading so an author can see how they are doing.  We'll also be working to provide more stats for authors on what readers are looking for.  This will appeal to authors who like writing for the market and challenging themselves to appeal to that market will differentiate themselves.  We'll go into more details when we get closer to this one as well. The final currently planned update for Stories is to improve the Story Queue.  This will automate some of the rules and let us do mass updates.  For example, the plan is for you to be able to post all your chapters at once so they are in the queue, and then you can just click a couple of buttons saying to post weekly on Friday at 9 am.  Stuff like that.  We know it is a bit tedious posting multiple chapters currently.  We'll get a lot more into this later in 2018. The forum software 4.3 updates is also expected earlier in the new year.  The only announced features we are aware of right now are Improved search, Emojis support and Club enhancements to make them more visible when they have activity.  We'll post more as we know about it in our Tech Tuesday posts.  
    My personal 2018 Stuff:
    I am planning on writing an entry for the anthologies and novella contest for this year. I am hoping to complete my Harry Potter and the Parliament of Dreams story finally.  16 years is really procrastinating. I am also hoping to spend more time writing in general. And I'm making an active effort to be posting on the site regularly.  A good portion of that will be with the various writer clubs.  
    Thanks to everyone for making 2017 so great for us!  Here is to all of us having an even better 2018!
  13. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Chapter Text Controls

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    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.
     

     
    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.

     
    I hope this blog helps you understand the power of our text controls.  You can have any combination of the controls and it is stored on your device so you just need to set it once and it'll remember.
     
     
  15. Myr

    Ghosts of Christmases Past

    By Myr,


    Anthologies
    As we head into the final days before Christmas 2017, it might be a great time to take a break from the hectic holiday season and reread some of our anthologies from Christmases Past.
    Our 2004 Christmas Anthology:

    https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/browse/category/7-2004-anthology-christmas/
     
    Our 2006 Winter Anthology Blizzard Theme:

    https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/browse/category/11-winter-blizzard/
     
    Our 2015 Secret Santa Short Story Contest:

     
    https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/browse/category/80-2015-secret-santa-short-story/
     
    We'd also like to remind all authors that we have 4 Anthology themes for 2018 and a Novella Contest:
    Contests
    2018 Summer Novella Anthology - Due April 15th, 2018  
    Anthologies
    2018 Spring Anthology: Now or Never - Due May 15th 2018 Spring Anthology: Encounters - Due May 15th 2018 Fall Anthology: Fight Back - Due Nov 15th 2018 Fall Anthology: Good Intentions - Due Nov 15th  
     
  18. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Premium Content and Gift Cards

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    Greetings everyone!  It occurred to me that since this is the gift-giving season, we should share with you that GA does have a built-in Gift Card system that you can use to gift Premium Content (or credit for eBooks).  
     
    But first, let me get to the why Premium?
     
    Everyone who has been on the Internet for awhile and is familiar with the other story sites like Gay Authors knows that there are basically 4 business options out there:
    A private or small group that covers the cost of running the site and everything associated with it. Advertising covers cost of running the site. Donations cover the cost of running the site and everything associated with it. Freemium Model (GA), where there are tiered membership and advertising with most content being free.  
    The biggest site out there is, of course, Nifty.  They have advertising, but they mostly run on donations.
     
    When Gay Authors started 15 years ago, we also ran on the good graces of others.  I found that trying to juggle grad school and never knowing if the bills were going to be covered month to month on Gay Authors was just too stressful.  I decided early on that we were going to hitch our wagon to the advertising wagon, and, when we started making enough to cover the cost of the bills, we stopped taking donations.  Now, advertising tends to fluctuate a lot day to day and month to month.  For a long time, we were able to keep our growing costs under the curve of the fluctuating ad revenues.  However, we eventually hit the point where the costs of running the server were exceeding the revenue we could get to cover it.  At that point we faced a situation where we had to decide whether to go back to a mixed advertising/donation model.  From the beginning, and to this day, I'm not comfortable with that model.  I want to provide value to our members with an explicit promise, that if you pay for premium, I'll keep the doors open.  We'll provide you with additional content AND we won't show you ads.  This has worked very well over the years.
     
    What you get for Premium:
    You keep Gay Authors Open for Everyone. You get to browse the site ad-free without hurting the site like Ad Blockers do. You get additional stories that aren't available elsewhere.  Or, they might be available as paid eBooks. You help authors that are involved in Premium.  We compensate authors via different options like buying rights to use the story for Premium, by advertising for the author, helping the author with self-publishing through services.  We also are an honest to goodness publisher with our own block of ISBN numbers that we can assign to eBooks or other options.  
    You can also use the Gift Card system to purchase a membership for your friends who might not be able to cover the cost of a subscription.
    The Gift card option is right on the front page of the store:  https://www.gayauthors.org/store/

     
     

    To get one, just click the Buy Button. Then, select the color for your gift card.  Fill in the card. Select the amount.  (The prices correspond to the various subscription options for Premium) Choose to send via email or print it out. Add to cart. Select your payment method and checkout. If you used email, you're done.  If you printed, you have a redemption code for the gift card amount.  Share that with the person you wish to gift it.  
    Redeeming the code is easy.  "Redeem" is right next to "Buy" in the picture above.
    Click redeem and enter the code.  It will put credit in your account which will be visible in the store, and you can go make your purchase.  The system uses account credits before billing anything else.
     
    Thank you all for supporting Gay Authors through the years! 
    Myr
  19. Myr

    Launching Gay Authors Articles

    By Myr,


    Writing Tips
    Welcome, everyone!  Starting early in 2018, we will be posting weekly articles by Comicality and other authors every Saturday morning.  I wanted to get this kicked off so between now and then we'll be posting links to previous Writing Tips, which can currently be found in our Stories Archive in the Non-Fiction -> Writing Tips category.
    Please be sure to check them out.  Read and review!
    The three for this week are from Lugh:
     
     
  20. Myr

    Tech Tuesday - Letter and IM/Texting Formatting.

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    As I mentioned last week, it is my plan to post short feature highlights as well as other tech-related items here each Tuesday.  This week it is about our Letter format and IM/texting formatting.
    This feature is available across the site, and the buttons are displayed in desktop/laptop-sized windows and tablet-sized windows.  The buttons are not in the mobile browser due to space limitations.

     
    There are two ways you can use this feature:
    You can type everything you want to format (or paste it), highlight it and then press the format button. Or you can press the format button and then type everything you want (or paste it) in the box.  
    The formatting will appear as it does when you post, right in the editor.  If you are typing in the box and want to get out of it, just hit enter twice and you'll be back into the normal editor.
     
    Please note that the formatting does vary from browser to browser and from operating system to operating system.  The Letter format is more script based to imply handwriting, while the IM/Text formatting uses monospace (Courier) to imply computerized text.  In both cases, the text is indented and put into its own box.
     
    If you have stories that need this format, I suggest going back and editing your story accordingly.  This method does work properly with our chapter text control and won't later run afoul of formatting problems.  (it is just putting this in a format box and we then could tweak the formatting for everything tagged this way all at once, thus providing improvements to ALL stories that are properly tagged in one go.)  As time permits, the staff will clean up older stories by authors no longer with us for one reason or another.
     
    Please let me know what you think in the comments below.  Was this feature helpful?  Did you have something else you wanted to see?  I have a list of topics I'm planning to share but I will shuffle dates around if people show a strong desire for a topic.
  21. Myr

    Gay Authors Officially 15 Years Old on 9/13

    By Myr,


    News Archive
    Gay Authors 15th Anniversary
    September 13, 2017
     
    Gay Authors has a big date now upon us.  On September 13, 2002, Gay Authors was officially started.  It is our official 15th Anniversary.  We started off with just Comicality's and my stories hosted.
    We didn't really start building the community until July 31, 2003.  In order to celebrate this remarkable milestone, I've asked a bunch of authors and members to reflect upon their time here at Gay Authors.  I list Comicality first with the comments to honor the fact he was here from day one.  Everyone else appears in no particular order.  I want to thank all of them for taking the time to give some commentary for me.
    And I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart.  Our authors and our community are the very things that have kept Gay Authors going strong all these years.  To many more!
    Myr
     
     
     
    From our very first author, Comicality @Comicality

    "Has it been 15 years already? A decade and a half of quality gay themed fiction. Stop and think about that for a moment. Drink in the idea of how extremely rare something like this is online. Out of countless platforms providing gay stories and erotic fiction...how awesome is it for Gay Authors to be one of the first choices among them?
    Being a part of this site from the very beginning, I can say that the attention is well deserved. Well earned. Standards of quality and integrity have been upheld over the years, and I am so proud to be a part of something that has worked so hard to be a beacon of light for its audience and an inspiration to the new talent to sprout up in the future. Make no mistake, the Shack wouldn't be here if it wasn't for GA, and their belief in me as well as others! I never once had to doubt that I was on a winning team here, and I want to take a moment to wish you guys a happy anniversary! Here's to the celebration! And here's to many more anniversaries to come!
    ((Hugz)) All around!"
     
     
    From Bill W @Bill W

    Not only am I one of the oldest members on GA (in chronological years), but I'm also one of those who have been around since the beginning.  Myr asked if I would like to become involved back in August 2003, and I humbly accepted his invitation.  Back then, each of us had his own website, but they were all united under the GA umbrella.  I was one of the last to have my site absorbed into the new format, and I think it's much better and easier for the members to view the works of all authors now, since you can find each of them at one location.  I've also seen GA become a very active and vibrant community during this time, adding new members and an influx of new authors along the way.  May GA's future be just as bright and productive as the fifteen years since its founding.
     
     
    From Renee Stevens @Renee Stevens

    I can’t believe that GA is 15 years old, or that I’ve been part of it for over half that time. I’ve been here nearly 8 years and honestly, I don’t even remember exactly how I found GA, but I did and I started posting in the old eFiction. I became staff within a couple of years, and I helped with the transition from eFiction to our current GA Stories software. The story section is so much better now than it was before, ask anyone who was around during the eFiction days, and the site just keeps growing and improving. I can't wait to see the ways in which it continues to grow!

    I’ve seen members come and go, and saw some great authors develop their talent thanks to the feedback they have received from the wonderful community here. I’ve also, thanks to the help and feedback I myself have gotten, managed to publish a few of my novels. I owe a huge thank you to GA, not just for helping polish my craft, but for all the friendships that began on-site and have just grown stronger over the years!  Happy Anniversary GA!!!
     
    From Dolores Esteban @Dolores Esteban

    I joined GA in 2008. My writing had progressed from role playing and fanfiction stories to original stories. GA seemed a good place to share my work. I remember how excited I was when I submitted my first story to the Anthologies. Later I worked with the story and poetry prompts provided by GA staff and members. I found that poetry was definitely worth to explore. GA was always the one place to share my work. I think my writing improved over the years. The site is to me both a challenge and a source of support. There was change over the years and I remember community issues in the past, things I disliked, but overall the change was good and there was steady improvement. There were real life issues that kept me from writing, once for more than a year, but I always come back to GA. The site is the one place for writing that I visit daily, although real life still keeps me from engaging more. My thanks to GA staff and member who keep the site going, and Happy Birthday, GA.
     
    From Graeme @Graeme

    I have been a member of GA for over 11 years, and been a moderator here for almost 10. In that time, there have been a lot of changes as both the story system and forums have evolved. I have to congratulate Myr on his effects to continuously improve and refine the capabilities of the site, and the success GA has enjoyed can be largely laid at his feet and the feet of the other Administrators. However, in all that time, there have been two constants: great stories and a wonderful community. I have made a lot of friends here, some of which have moved on to other things, and others that have, sadly, passed on. There are many past members that I still miss, but I have many new friends to enjoy, too. As an author, a gay dad, and a member of this community, I'm proud of what we have here and I look forward to many more years of being part of what makes GA so special. 
     
     
    From Mark Arbour @Mark Arbour

    Gay Authors celebrating 15 years: what a ride it’s been! I was asked to spend a paragraph reflecting on the time I’ve been at GA, but as one of GA’s most prolific authors, I decided that I’m allowed to take more than that.  I joined GA on February 24, 2005, following Domluka over here like the loyal slave to him that I am.  That makes me one of first wave of people to join this organization, so I’ve been around for the growth, the growing pains, and much of the drama, some of which I caused.  I wasn’t always one of the easiest people to deal with:  It took me all of three months before I got my first warning notification from Myr, who suffers fools badly. 
     
    Before I’d spent time at GA, I’d never known that I could write anything, much less a whole story.  I never knew that I could build plotlines and stories and make them flow together, and I never dreamed I’d be able to wind them together to create whole sagas.  Yet with examples from other authors, support from my team of editors and beta readers, encouragement from the GA community, and tolerance by the GA Admins, I’ve been able to do just that.   As of September 10, 2017, I’m working on my 16th story in the Chronicles of an Academic Predator (CAP) saga, and the 8th story in the Bridgemont adventure. 
     
    One would think that would be ode enough to GA, and certainly reason enough to stop rambling, but that’s not what a prolific author does. Besides, that doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of talking about all that I got out of being affiliated with GA.  Writing and interacting within this community gave me an outlet for the gay side of my bisexuality, and helped me grapple with that in a much healthier way than I’d done before.  My offline relationships and my overall psyche have benefitted greatly from that.  Even more importantly, GA, or more precisely the GA community, taught me to be a better person.   I learned some tough lessons on how to behave online, and I learned that online words can hurt just as much as those hurled in person, and I learned that being the one who hurled them is more painful than being the recipient, even if it takes a while to figure that out.  I also experienced the extreme sadness of losing members of this community (Trebs and Vic, you are always in my heart!), disappointment in losing contact with others (Domluka!), the extreme happiness of seeing some of my loyal readers become accomplished authors in their own right, and the true satisfaction of developing deep friendships (Sharon! – I yell that just like Ozzie Osbourne does).  In short, GA civilized and matured me, both online and offline.    So when I reflect on my life journey over the past 15 years, I find it’s impossible to separate the progress I’ve made from my affiliation with Gay Authors.  Even more, I’m quite convinced that if I did, I wouldn’t like the person I’d be without GA and all of you who have helped me become a better human being. 
     
    From Krista @Krista

    Happy Anniversary GA, congratulations on making it fifteen years. On the internet that is a real recognizable milestone worth noting. Myself, I came to GayAuthors, twelve years ago. I hadn’t been writing very long and all of my posting experience had been on Nifty and a yahoo group - back when Yahoo was actually relevant. E-fiction was the posting place for Non-Hosted authors. There also wasn’t any Promising, Classing, and the pinnacle of writing goal of recognition was termed Hosted.
     
    A friend of mine, a young fan of my stories told me about Gay Authors. It took a lot of convincing to get me to join, but since he kept bringing up how nice the place was. I finally joined. It helped to see that the site hosted some of my favorite authors at the time. I hadn’t been writing very long at all when I first started posting. I had “Something Unexpected,” nearly completed and, “Good Guys Finish Last,” on its closing chapters as well. Still a high school student, with no real teaching in creative writing. I honestly didn’t know where I would be going with writing or how long. I definitely still had a lot to learn.
     
    I began writing just because at the time, especially in Kentucky there just wasn’t a gay culture where we lived. I had gay friends and I didn’t like thinking they felt so isolated. They were also scared, so scared that I honestly never was able to convince them to join the site itself. Even after my experience had been for the most part positive. People seemed to enjoy my writing, I didn’t post much in the forums, but I loved the quality of feedback I got from readers here. So much so that I closed my Yahoo group completely, saying goodbye to over a couple thousand members. I likely wouldn’t have went beyond two stories if I hadn’t joined. My friends liked my writing, but they really weren’t into reading online, amateur fiction. So Gay Author’s audience gave me a bit of a writing bug so I continued.
     
    Gay Authors allowed me to develop as a writer. I doubt I would be able to be where I am today with my writing without this community and forums. I met a lot of great people with similar interests and goals. I saw what the community did for LGBT people like my friends that didn’t have opportunities to be themselves and not be judged or scorned for it. My time here on Gay Authors has been a worthwhile ride, everything from being a Global Moderator, blowing up and nearly wrecking GA.Stories on its debut, calling JSmith a flat-ass, and being the top author on eFiction before its well deserved retirement (speaking of which, when do I get to retire?). Here’s to fifteen more. Congratulations!
     
    P.S. I love Steven, despite his Canadian shortcomings.
     
    From Jamessavik @jamessavik

    I joined GA in May 2005. I had some stories on other sites and saw GA as the big time of gay literature.
    GA hosts such notables as Dom Luka and Comicality and many others, so I joined to read them and maybe learn a thing or two.
    When it comes to sites like GA, people come and go with regularity. The thing that makes people stay is this community. Over the years we have literally watched a number of kids grow up, old friends pass away and you never know when someone new will bring that one brilliant spark that will change everything. 
     
    This is what people were talking about back in the day when we were dreaming about what the web could bring us: a living, breathing, dynamic community.
     
    Happy anniversary GA. Here's wishing you many more. This is a very special place.
     
    From David McLeod @David McLeod

    I've been a member of the Gay Author's web site for longer than I thought possible. In those years, so many people... both readers and authors... have offered their comments, thoughts, and critiques of my writing. Some have thanked me for my stories, but the greatest thanks are due from me to them. I've been able to explore style and technique in a safe and friendly environment. Even those who were frank in their criticism were not angry or ugly, but supportive. And that's what has been the best part of this association—the members who have taken the time to read, offer their thoughts, and then read some more. Thank you all for our association, and best wishes for another 15 years, and more. David
     
    From Cia @Cia

    It’s hard to believe I joined GA almost eight years ago! I lurked for the longest time, reading all the promoted author stories I could because I was a stay-at-home mom with two young kids, ie: no money and picking up a book meant instantly someone needed my attention. So much has changed since then, both for the site and for me. But the important part has stayed the same: I love to read and write, and I visit GA every single day.
    Over the years as a staff member I’ve helped on so many projects, the biggest being the move from eFiction to Stories, but my goal has always been to feature the great stories we have on the site and help make them even better—mine included. Without GA, I never would have taken that first step to putting fingers to keyboard and sharing my stories, much less gotten involved in publishing and finding success there. I want to give back, and being a staff member lets me do that, even if sometimes it makes GA a little less fun. The work must be done!  
    There are so many wonderful people willing to make GA their online fiction home, even as our active members and authors fluctuate and change, bringing so much to our community. I wasn’t here in the beginning, but I’ll damn sure be here until GA ends… which won’t be until the zombie horde rises up and the apocalypse halts technology as we know it.
     
    *   *   *   *
    Thanks again to everyone that provided comments.  And to everyone reading this... what has your time here at Gay Authors meant for you?
  22. Myr

    Updates and Feedback From Survey

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    Thanks and Introduction
    So, right up front, I want to thank everyone for taking the time to do the survey.  I would especially like to thank the kind words that many people left in the comments.  They meant more than you know.
     
    In the rest of this blog, I'll go over some of the feedback and offer advice as well as covering the open bugs.
     
    Bugs
    So, yes, there are still a few active bugs:
    Chapter comment notifications are not being sent.  We missed this one in the original bug hunt mostly because Story comment notifications are being sent.  This will hopefully be addressed this week in a bug patch as we get ready to upgrade the forums to 4.2.2. Some combinations of Advanced search options are not working consistently.  Specifically, combining Status and Genre seems to cough a hairball about half the time.  There are other combinations that don't quite work as expected every time as well. Top Reviewed Stories link is listing all the completed stories that have reviews but is not ranking them properly.  (Highest Star Average with most votes.  This means a story ranked 4.7 stars with forty votes is ranked higher than a story ranked 5 stars with one vote).  This feature will probably take a couple of patches to correct. Those are the bugs that we are aware of that are open.  If you are aware of a bug that is not listed here, please open a topic on it in the Help forum.
     
    Survey Results
    I'm going to give general results of the survey now with fuller results most likely at a future date.  There is a lot of data, and I've read it all, but it is going to take some time to compile it.  I'm also using it as a basis of some articles and blog posts in the future.
    What is the most important feature that brings you back to Gay Authors?  90% said Stories. 8% said Community.  1% said Blog. 1% said Other. On the question of registered membership, 81% of the people responding to the survey were registered members. On the questions on Social Media, 85% (or more) do not follow us on Social Media. On the question of the newsletter, 40% of those surveyed subscribe. On the Premium Content question, the answers were all over the place.  25% were subscribers.  50% felt they could not afford it and 5% didn't know about Premium.  The remainder felt that Premium Content, despite keeping the site open, provided them no value.  
    Feedback from Comments
    This is the one that will take the most time to formulate data from the survey since it was completely open-ended.  There was a lot of feedback in this section, and I've read it all and will work on addressing a few things.
     
    To state a few obvious things right up front.  No, we are not going back to the old site.  No, we are not deleting everything except stories.  No, we are not going to make all authors the same.  
     
    Homepage
    This is a tough one.  Every homepage is a compromise between three competing purposes.  One, the homepage must provide enough details so that search engines know the purpose of your site.  If you don't provide the details, then the site is not listed on the search engine results page where it will do you any good. (top three results, typically).  Two, the homepage must provide an explanation of your site to new people that are arriving from search engines.  You have about 1.5 seconds to catch their attention, or they hit the back button and tracking software counts this as a Bounce.  We're about half the average bounce rate, which is really good for us.  Three, the homepage must provide the gateway to returning guests and members so they can jump off to wherever they are going.  A LOT of members never even bother going to the front page after getting used to the site.
     
    Given these partially overlapping and partially competing purposes, we have to strike a balance.  The homepage we have now is striking that balance and hitting our needs as far as tracking is concerned.
     
    I have added a small section called "Quick Links" to give members a direct link to three different story options. 
    Newest Stories  - The latest stories updated on the site. Completed Stories - The latest stories updated on the site, listing only completed stories. Most Reviewed Completed Stories - Completed stories with reviews.  
    You can also click on the "Story Updates" link which is listed on every page by default and show the Latest Stories Activity Stream
     
    Enough people asked for story listings, or reviewed stories, or a list of completed stories that I provided those links directly.  If you want to make it easier for yourself, select the listing you like best and then bookmark it.  Then go straight to that page and don't bother with the homepage at all.  If you struggle with using your computer, here is a nice video on how to use bookmarks.
    These links should help address the biggest items that were mentioned most often in comments.  We focused on making the front page as fast as possible, and that is why we don't list stories there.  There are several other places better suited to that listing, as the links above all show.
     
    Reviews
    As I mentioned in the announcement that is showing everywhere, we have not emphasized reviews much with all the other changes.  As of the updated version of Stories, only completed stories can have reviews.  A review consists of a star rating of 1 to 5 stars and commentary.  Please see the announcement for more details, including a YouTube video on how to leave a review.
     
    I'd like to ask everyone to take the time and go back and review the completed stories that you've read.  This helps both the authors, who want your feedback, and the readers who are looking for new stories to read.  Be sure to be constructive in your feedback and your review is likely to be found to be helpful and marked as such by others.  The system shows the most helpful reviews on top by default. 
     
    As more reviews fill the system, a list of curated stories will automatically be created.  We have a LOT of really great stories on the site that tend to get buried because they aren't being actively posted.  Check out the completed story list and dive in!  Or check out the reviewed story list and weigh in yourself. 
     
    Thanks again!  We'll continue to work hard to improve Gay Authors!
  23. Myr

    Site Improvement Survey

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    Hello everyone!
    I have been working behind the scenes on quite a few things lately and I wanted to get some feedback.  I would really appreciate it you took some time to fill out this survey.
    It is short, but it will help us focus on some of the things we need to focus on.
     
    Thanks everyone!  The poll is now closed.
     
  24. Myr

    Working

    By Myr,


    Life
    Has it been two weeks?  It already feels like two years.  Aside from all the work here, I work full time.  We have the same issue with our programmer, but he's on a totally different time schedule.  So it adds to some complications in getting these bugs fixed.  I'm sorry it is taking so long, but some things are being a bit stubborn.  You guys see the ship is moving, but you don't see that the engine keeps randomly spewing oil all over the engine room.  I'm just happy we keep moving.
     
    In order to stay somewhat sane, I've been taking a break from working on stuff to enjoy the new game, Mass Effect: Andromeda.  I'm enjoying the game a lot, even with all the well documented quirks, shall we say.  It is truly funny at times... both intentionally and not so intentionally. (look up duck walk Mass Effect on YouTube)
     
    Hopefully, we'll get these bugs all wrapped up in the next couple weeks and we can focus on the new stuff going forward.  There are some pretty nice changes coming in 4.2 version of the forums.  We're looking at replacing Chat.  The next version of stories should have the previously mentioned "Reading Lists" feature in it that does a much better job with Favorite Authors, Favorite Stories, a To Read List, Your Reading History, and custom lists.  (Stories 2.1).  The version after that is aimed at authors and making managing story posting a lot easier for both authors and for us with our new Story Queue system. (Stories 2.2).  Both of these features were removed from this release of stories in order to get it out faster.  Also, we should have a lot less issues with the next updates, as they are relatively minor changes to existing stuff, unlike the giant upgrade we just did.
     
    Once all that stuff is finally behind us, I'd really like to get back to reading and writing for fun.
     
  25. Myr

    Tech Tuesday: Tagging Tutorial

    By Myr,


    Technology Archive
    This week I wanted to talk about the power of the Tag in the forum software. It has been a feature in the software for a long time now. Although we use them slightly differently in our Stories Archive, they function the same with our search system.
     
    What is a tag?
    It is a descriptive word that you can attach to a topic, blog, gallery image, ebook, story, etc. This word is that searchable. The system is set up so you can group like-tagged items together.
    For example, anything tagged "Renee Stevens" would show up if you click here: http://www.gayauthors.org/forums/tags/forums/Renee+Stevens/
     
    What is a prefix tag?
    On the forums in particular, the tag section has a check box next to it that says 'use first tag as prefix'. What this does is put the first tag as a highlighted word preceding the Topic Title in the forum index.
     
    Why do we want to use prefix's?
    As part of our cleaning up of the forums, we are combining some forums and would like to use the prefixes as a way to still keep things sortable. For example, we already use common forums for our author groups. When we use tags, say 'myr' for any topics relating to my stories, it allows us to group like topics together when we click on the tag. So if you click the 'myr' tag, you'd get all the topics that have that tag. We could do the same with "humor" or "gamer" or "sports" for example.
     
    How do I use tags?
    Tags are pretty simple. If you want to use a prefix, then write that tag first and then hit comma. each time you hit comma, the word will solidify into a tag with a little 'x' next to it. If you're using the prefix, just tap the check box. If you'd like to add more tags, just write the tag and follow it with a comma. It's that easy.
     
    Hey, why isn't my new topic showing up in search?
    The search system is slightly delayed and updates about every 15 min. It will be after that that your topic should show up under the tag search.
     
    Why can I only select certain tags?
    Some areas of the site have the tag listed in order to control sorting. Stories Archive is a great example. You cannot type your own tag there, you must select from what is available. In some forums, we have prepopulated tags as well. This is done to make things easier. For example: domluka, dom luka mean the same thing, but would be two different tags in the system.
     
    I encourage everyone to start using tags. They are there to make your lives easier after all
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