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Be sure to thank @Cia! All of our categories now have an image associated with them (I think) or are listed for an update. For those that were around a few minutes before this post, the site received a minor security update. There are no visual changes associated with it.

We've recently had a couple of noticeable updates for authors and for everyone pasting a story link. I wanted to make sure everyone saw the information. First, some changes to the software: Also, A.J. has been able to fix the Preview Chapter button so you can now see how your story will post into the system, with all of the filters applied: As mentioned in the first topic, when you place a link to a story in a post or a blog, etc, it will now format with a story banner. Banner priority - Antholology Banner, Story Banner, Author Banner, then Category Banner. So every story will get something. Cia updated our Fiction banner: Or maybe it's a Valdemar FanFiction: Or Star Trek: Or an Anthology: If you're just clicking Newest Stories, remember, you can click "Categories" and get the list of all sorts of stories that are in the system. https://www.gayauthors.org/stories/browse/category/ Forums 4.3 software has entered beta testing, and we'll be looking at getting everything updated to work with it. Some new things with Forums 4.3 include: Improved Search. They have really focused on improving search so things work more as you'd expect them to. They have also implemented a third-party search solution that we will be deploying on Gay Authors that should improve search noticeably. They are deploying Emojii support in the editor. This will vastly increase the amount of readily available emoticons. The current smilies are supposed to still work the same. They are making Clubs a lot easier to find and deal with, including better Follow features and more visibility of topic forums. Gallery is being made a LOT easier to use. Blog is getting a facelift. There are improvements in payment methods for Premium Content subscribers. I would expect that we'll be able to upgrade in about 4-6 weeks. We also have some structural improvements to simplify the Stories interface that has been in the works. Hope this helps. Be sure to Like the post and Follow the Site Technology blog so you don't miss any updates!

Interesting. I just looked him up... that's about a 45 min drive from me. lol.

Like last week, I've pulled this movie out of my gay movie collection. This has some nice eye candy is a touching movie. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is in this movie as well. He auditioned to for the gay lead. (just a bit of trivia from IMDB on the movie)

Rest In Peace... He did a lot of animated stuff after MASH. And for gamers from back in 2000 or so... Icewind Dale.

Yeah, I do like Pol a lot. the Jack of All Trades Herald.

Excellent! I'm glad I'm not the only one hearing voices in my head.

Thanks for another great article @Comicality!

Mercedes Lackey excels at telling stories of the coming of age of characters blessed... and cursed... with special powers. Lavan is an interesting young man with a tragic story. This story truly pulls at your heartstrings, which is one of the things Mercedes Lackey really excels at. If you like reading fantasy stories, this story is well worth the read!

It's time for another Anthology Flashback! This time, we are going back 10 years to Spring 2008. This time, here they are in alphabetical order: Be sure to read and review!

The game looks and sounds great. But it is single-handedly the worst combat system I have ever seen. It is confusing as hell. It doesn't work. And it isn't explained. It was so bad, I've stopped playing the game and dumped it to the bottom of my pile. I'd recommend avoiding until they can get that mess fixed.

There are a lot of settings and options on the site. It can be a real chore for people who don't make a habit of clicking on things. I'll admit, I'm an engineer, and I tend to explore every option. I realize most people aren't as shiny object driven, however. So... settings. You can find the link in the pop-up menu under your Display Name on the upper right part of the site. (Or in the hamburger menu if you are on a mobile device). Choose "Account Settings". Today we are going to cover Changing your Email. It is important that you have a working email address for using Gay Authors. If you need to update your email, it is under Account Settings -> Email. https://www.gayauthors.org/settings/email/ Very easy to deal with. Just enter your new email address and your current password. If you have set up Account Security, you might have additional passwords to enter as part of multi-factor authentication. The other topic for today is Profile Settings. You can go to your profile by clicking your account picture in the upper right of any page. You can add a Cover Photo, which is the cool image that you can have on your profile that goes in the dark blue space shown above. You can also easily edit your profile by clicking "Edit Profile" in the upper right of your profile page. First up is your birthday. Please make sure that it is accurate. It is not displayed to others unless you choose to, which you can do farther down the page. Second, you can enable Status Updates on your profile. Next, if you are an author, you can fill out your Author Bio. This appears in the Author listing when you post stories. It should be a general promotion all about the stories you write and about yourself as an author. Next, is the About Me section. Let people know about you. This appears only on your profile. Next up are gender and sexuality. You can fill these out if you wish to share or leave them blank. Next up is important and is required. You can choose to show your Birthday on the Calendar. If you choose yes, your birthday will display in the Calendar App and in the Today's Birthdays widget on the main forum page. The default is off, and you must choose to show it or not. Next is where you choose your favorite genre. You can select multiples by holding down control and clicking the ones you want. Or, if you like everything, you can scroll to the bottom and choose All. Or you can ignore it altogether. Your Favorite Genres appear under your name when you post on the forums. You can choose to mention your location. If you are not an adult, please do not show your real location. Interests are next, and you can just type some more stuff about yourself there if you are so inclined. Contact Methods is last up. Here you can share the various ways to get in contact with you. Obviously, anything you show here is public to everyone. So don't share anything here you don't want public. Hope this helps! Be sure to follow the Site Technology Blog if you find these posts helpful.

So this week, I wanted to break into my extensive collection of gay movies. This is a good movie. The British accent can be a bit much at times if you are in the USA. It sounds sexy though, even if you can't figure out what the hell they are saying. That really is only a few scenes. It is a good movie. Well worth having in the collection. What are you waiting for? Go get it

I've heard many rumors on this...

Yes. OneNote is something getting a lot of use. I pretty much live in OneNote at work. I've got a different tab for every project. It's a very powerful tool.

I'd strongly, strongly, strongly, recommend that you take advantage of the cloud. My writing is backed up on every computer I've got, and One Drive and Dropbox. Just saying.

That happens from time to time, but there should be a pop up at the bottom of the editor that asks if you want to clear it. I'm not sure how the narrator would pick up on it though.

If you like the Nighrunner series, this anthology of short stories gives more insights to the histories of the characters. And the cover is cute too! Definitely worth the read!

@ReaderPaul This video should help you with your author searching. @Timothy M. The Review/Comments error is fixed in the upcoming story software update. We are reviewing the code now for issues. Current: Updated: (this is the test server, no numbers are different)

This week's Anthology Flashback brings us back to 2007 and the 2007 Annual Anthology. Check out The Road Not Taken...

I created an announcement a few weeks ago asking people for topics they wanted to be covered here in more detail. You can find it here: One of those requests was how to we make the fancy links, like I use in my post signature to link to my story. It's really, really simple. Just copy the link in the url address bar and then paste the link to a story on the site into an editor, and it'll auto format for you. For example, I could paste a link to my Sci-Fi Anthology story, A Bad Day to Be WET: And it automatically formats. The neat thing is, that this applies to topics, like the first example, stories, like the second and other things like the Gallery and Blog's linked below: If you are planning on updating your signature to link to a story, just remember you can only link one story that way. Further rules can be found here: Some offsite links also auto-populate. YouTube and Google Maps, for example: Hope this helps! Leave a comment below.

I loved the eyecandy on screen. Special effects and good looking actors. It was a good movie. Plenty of action and it tied logically into the existing X-men movies. This is definitely in my collection and staying there.

Well, yes. The entire market for gay stories matured and we purposely targeted stories with plot. Meh. This is a function of how much total content is posted and whether the story is just full of sex. As a new starting out author on the site, Cia does clip wings to remind folks that we aren't a PWP story site. (PWP is either Porn Without Plot or Plot? What Plot? depending on who you ask)

You could always write fantasy stories. then you can really make magical sex scenes. Pardon me, I may have crossed over to the dark side of the pun.

I was going back through my list of books that I had bought over the years and this one sprang to mind. I think it is the cover that got me to read it. Teenager with greenhair just begs the question why. This is definitely a layered story. It has great character development and is interesting. I definitely found it worth the read.