Rant

[Lee]

Whatever you guys want.

My two cents is that I think only a fraction of authors will participate in this page and will bother to figure out how to do it. It is actually pretty agonizing trying to explain to everyone how to post to the blog and getting them to do it properly. I don't want to be the one to explain to people that they also have to set up an author's page, and update two separate sites every time they write something.

I think if there is one TOC/summary post associated with each story, that might be something at least some people would actually do.

But I may be wrong. It's happened once or twice before.

[Dee Dee]

Sept 15, 2012 17:12:41 GMT -5 Lee said:

Whatever you guys want.

My two cents is that I think only a fraction of authors will participate in this page and will bother to figure out how to do it. It is actually pretty agonizing trying to explain to everyone how to post to the blog and getting them to do it properly. I don't want to be the one to explain to people that they also have to set up an author's page, and update two separate sites every time they write something.

I think if there is one TOC/summary post associated with each story, that might be something at least some people would actually do.

But I may be wrong. It's happened once or twice before.

Thank you both for coming up with possible solutions!

I am in favour of the table of contents. I would prefer it at the beginning of chapter one. That would give us a neat overview.

I suppose the authors would have to update their TOCs when they update their stories, but I assume that is an easy and quick task.

[devogirl]

A simple TOC on the stories page seems fine to me. In the future, if you have comments or suggestions about the organization of the stories page, it will be more efficient to email Lee directly rather than posting about it here.

[Dee Dee]

Sept 15, 2012 20:38:20 GMT -5 devogirl said:

A simple TOC on the stories page seems fine to me. In the future, if you have comments or suggestions about the organization of the stories page, it will be more efficient to email him directly rather than posting about it here.

Hmm, but how would that give others an opportunity to discuss the layout of the site?

Edited to ask, if it would not be better to discuss the issues here, come up with solutions and agree on one - which Lee then implements?

Otherwise he would have to make changes based on just one suggestion - and he would have to make them every time someone had an issue?

[Dee Dee]

Am I the only one who cannot post comments to stories?

[Lee]

Sept 15, 2012 21:18:09 GMT -5 Dee Dee said:

Edited to ask, if it would not be better to discuss the issues here, come up with solutions and agree on one - which Lee then implements?

Otherwise he would have to make changes based on just one suggestion - and he would have to make them every time someone had an issue?

No. Because if I'm going to be the one implementing a solution, I think I should have some input into whether it's something I could do or want to do. It seems like a waste of everyone's time to brainstorm a solution that isn't viable.

You guys are welcome to talk about whatever you want. But if you want stuff to actually change and improve on a site that I run, it makes sense to include me in the discussion. Devogirl alerted me to the presence of this thread. I do log in daily so a simple PM would be enough to let me know.

I think I've been really receptive to everyone's suggestions about the site. No need to be scared of me or anything.

[Dee Dee]

Sept 15, 2012 21:52:45 GMT -5 Lee said:

Sept 15, 2012 21:18:09 GMT -5 Dee Dee said:

Edited to ask, if it would not be better to discuss the issues here, come up with solutions and agree on one - which Lee then implements?

Otherwise he would have to make changes based on just one suggestion - and he would have to make them every time someone had an issue?

No. Because if I'm going to be the one implementing a solution, I think I should have some input into whether it's something I could do or want to do. It seems like a waste of everyone's time to brainstorm a solution that isn't viable.

You guys are welcome to talk about whatever you want. But if you want stuff to actually change and improve on a site that I run, it makes sense to include me in the discussion. Devogirl alerted me to the presence of this thread. I do log in daily so a simple PM would be enough to let me know.

I think I've been really receptive to everyone's suggestions about the site. No need to be scared of me or anything.

I am sorry, Lee, I should have specified that obviously you should be asked and have the upper hand in the decision-making.

(I do not think discussing a topic like this is a waste of time though - if we do not discuss it, how are we to know what is (theoretically) possible?)

ETA: I am not scared of you Lee ;D

[RyooT]

I am also happy with the TOC solution.

I think it would also help if authors added a follow-on link to the bottom of the previous chapter when they post the next part.

[Enid]

Sept 15, 2012 23:27:47 GMT -5 RyooT said:

I am also happy with the TOC solution.

I think it would also help if authors added a follow-on link to the bottom of the previous chapter when they post the next part.

I think that's a great idea. I don't know if you can easily edit the posts once they're there... but maybe they could even go back add a little "next chapter" link when they post it.

And I'm gonna have to agree with Lucretia's original point. For god's sake, try to make update posts as small as possible! The pics and the actually story should not be visible from the main page!

[Deleted]

I think you guys are getting somewhere, I just took look and it looks a very tidy. I have allows had troubles with the links so if you guys come up with an idea can someone write some instructions to follow to post correctly. Can you make the linking part really easy to follow.

[Lee]

So in summary, I think we've decided to add the TOC to the initial chapter, before the story begins. I supposed this can be added by the author when there's at least two parts. At the author's discretion, you can also put a date for each chapter that it was published.

Enid: I think it's a great idea to put a link to the next chapter at the bottom of the previous chapter. I will add that as a suggestion to the authors, although these things are a little hard to enforce. I always used to do that myself on the old stories page... that was why it was a PITA for me... because I always had to alter 3 files to make an update.

[Dee Dee]

It is definitely a good idea to put a date to each chapter - I often ask myself when the chapters/stories have been written.

Also, as Lee just said, in the good ol´ design, there was always a link to click to get to the next chapter of a story quickly and easily. Lee, that was great!

[Ximena]

If only blogger was like WP and let you easily link to previous posts... would make it a lot more streamlined.