Myr

From what I can see from the more limited history tracking we had in 2018, none of the stories were marked as "Complete" at time of notification.  As I have not personally read the stories, I don't know if they are or are not.  If you know of stories that are complete and marked as "Author Deceased", add them here and I'll correct them to "Complete"
"Author Deceased" is a complete status in the system, allowing reviews.  "Unfinished" implies future finish.  "Abandoned" implies deliberately giving up.  "Author Deceased" was about all we could come up with to indicate something was unfinished and would never be finished, but wasn't deliberately left that way.  And we maxed out the text field size for that too.
Site metrics indicate that the vast majority of traffic doesn't use the filters and would see any story of any status listed.  Especially if they click on an authors name.  If you are filtering to "Complete" status in order to read, congrats, you are in the 1%.
Not offended... just REALLY long week at work and limited time to reply.  Sorry if it's sharper than intended.

This is the way the software works, sorry.
If you want it horizonal, then make sure you are using a PC  (or other full-sized screen).  It only goes vertical on mobile devices or when you have a smaller than standard resolution.

Looking at the code, it appears that font size, font color, and font background were set. 
As you can see from what you are currently experiencing, the sheer number of combos of writing software, browsers and whatever means there is no one answer to what causes this.  My past experience, and it is written in FAQ, says that if you have default text size, default text type and only use italics, you can copy and past into the editor with no issue.
But you must check when it posts. 

Both the dark mode text and text resizing are broke.
You can edit the chapter and do what usually works, pasting from your Mac and not your iPad.
or you can use highlight your text and hit the Text Format Remover button

Be aware that since you used italics, you'll need to reapply.
 
Either way, please verify your chapters work when they are posted. The text controls are critical for readability for many members.
 

No. That's not the purpose of a category in our system. (Fiction, FanFiction, Poetry, Non-Fiction, World Building, Special Event Fiction, basically).  All other categorization occurs through the deep genre/sub-genre categorizations.
I'm rather confused. The picture you included  tells you to go through each Step. And two different Steps have a ❗showing you there is an issue on that step. 
Just follow the "How Do I Post A Story on GA FAQ"
 
 

There was a corrupt notification in the queue that caused the queue to lock. I've reached out to the programmer for assistance on it.

This saves your chapter to the site, but does not publish it publicly:

This is default and recommended, especially for people that have troubles with chapters looking the way they want in the system.  This allows you to edit a few times while only you can see it.
 
If you toggle the Publish Chapter button:

You get another toggle option (publish now) that will only be available if you have not posted in the last 24 hours.
It defaults to 24 hours after the last published chapter or about 5 minutes into the future if you are past the 24 hours.
Pushing the "Save Chapter" button as show above will Save the story to the system and Publish it publicly at the listed date/time.
 
If you toggle the Publish Chapter and Publish Now toggles:

 
Then hit "save chapter" , it will save to the system and publish publicly immediately.  This was the old default prior to the update. Reminder: "Publish Now" will be grayed out if you are attempting to publish a chapter inside that warning time.
I will update the FAQ with images to make it clearer.

Yes, since we went to the 4.X version of the software in about 2016?

 
Titles can be duplicated.  Link titles must be unique.  The system should automatically create one or you can override it if it gets tetchy. (You really should let the system set it for you)

Ah hah!  Thank you!  It is so hard to track down bugs when people don't include enough information.  You provided the final link I think for tracking this down.  I've reported it to our programmer.

Our programmer has identified the issue. It is a design flaw in FireFox Mobile.  You must go to Settings -> Accessibility -> Automatic Text Sizing and turn it off.

Nothing really.  Just Chrome adding a mobile feature to windows.  There is code on Gay Authors that allows you to put an "app" like link on mobile devices. It drops a Gay Authors icon with your other apps and it behaves like a connected app.  Apparently Chrome is now doing something similar for windows. If you install it, it gives you a Gay Authors browser, basically focusing 100% on the Gay Authors interface.
Installing Gay Authors in this way has been a capability for a couple years now on mobile.

Direct link for you: https://gayauthors.org/settings/email/
 

Sounds like you turned on fluid view. Tap the left button of the pair above top right of forum list. 

@PaulP I added "Complete Stories" to the Read Menu, which is on every page.

Below that on the menu is Prolific Authors, which brings you to the list of most active authors, which is mostly Signature and Classic.  But you can filter easily form there or click the "Classic Authors" link which is on the right side menu.
We are constantly dancing on the end of the string as Google punishes for not enough links then punishes for too many links then punishes for not changing content frequently enough for their magic formula, which changes daily and without notice.  It's quite annoying for all of us. 

I have added a link to the Help menu.

Excellent!  The programmer was able to stick in a hard limit on the activity feed so it's not trying to process a full chapter.  Apparently, Chrome wasn't handling it the same was as other browsers.  It should now be working across the board and I found it to be noticeably faster too on Firefox.

Hmm.  That's a bug. You shouldn't see an option post New Stories or Chapters unless you are an author.  You'll need to go through the Help "Become an Author on Gay Authors" from the Help Menu link on the Help-FAQ page.  Also linked below:
 

It's so fun dealing with software. You fix one issue and it causes another...
 

You need to update your Notification settings.  Link is in the member menu and when you click the notification bell.  or here: https://gayauthors.org/notifications/options/
Sounds like you need to check these 2 sections:

Fixed.

Yes. Use Ignore. It can be found in a couple locations or you can go directly,
https://gayauthors.org/ignore/

To edit your Member Title, do this. 
Go to your profile Click Edit Profile Change first box to title of your choice Scroll to bottom of page and hit Save The reputation level is not editable.

The Story Archive will automatically update the status of a story based on how long it has been since it posted and if the author doesn't visit the site.   Since you haven't been approved yet from the queue, the system considers it over that time requirement.  Once you didn't visit the site during the required time, it updated the status to Temporary Hold.  You can change it when it is out of the queue.

This is now fixed.

Probably related to the inactive account removals still going on.  (accounts with 0 posts and no visits since before 2020 are being removed, especially if they have not subscribed to our newsletter.) We can only remove a few hundred accounts at a time without crashing the server and only in the mornings when the site is less busy.

Just a quirk of the system and how it caches.  nothing to worry about unless you are seeing it everywhere or every time.