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Hi NJC,
I was curious about your chapter issues, so I looked at what you have. I noticed your renumbered chapters are missing 5-7, and you have two chapter 3s, one of which is numbered v1 with a manually added "(v2.2)" in parentheses. The other chapter 3 is numbered v2.
Did you intend for two chapter 3s? If not, which is correct: v2 or "(v2.2)"?
Regards,
Dirk
Where a number is duplicated, one of the two should be inactive. I'll have to double-check.
When I made my first pass through the story, I was working different threads so I left holes in the sequence. I'll have to be a little more fastidious now. (grumbles.)
Making one change requires several page loazds just to see if you got it right and what the fallout is. Fixing a domino-tumble could take all day.
After playing with the new versioning system, I found it works best if you're posting changes to the same chapter as before, and want reviews of the new version, while keeping reviews of the previous version of the same chapter in the system for your own reference. So you repost the same chapter with a newer version number and hide the old. If you keep both versions visible, you could ask for reviews of both to tell you if your new chapter is really much better than the old.
If, on the other hand, your chapter numbers begin to change (e.g., you add or delete chapters in the new version), the TNBW versioning doesn't really address that as well. If your reader can't read all of the new v2 chapters and then drop down to v1 and pick up the story from there (e.g., from v2 of ch. 2 down to v1 of ch. 3, they would become confused).
In my case, v3 of my book will soon be substantially different than v2 since I'll be adding/deleting chapters in v3 as I get further along. It will be increasingly difficult to read the first few chapters of v3 and then pick up the story in v2 without continuity problems. My v2 is meant to be read sequentially from ch. 1 onward, and my v3 is also meant to be read sequentially from ch. 1 onward, but you're not meant to read the early part of v3 and then continue with the rest of v2. For this reason, I created two separate books, Into the Mind of God v2 and Into the Mind of God v3.
To further minimize confusion between my v2 and v3, I explicitly set all of the chapters in my v2 to TNBW v2, and all of the chapters in my v3 to TNBW v3. This is because, by default, TNBW labels all of my chapters as v1 unless I choose otherwise. I don't want a reader to be in v2 or v3 of my book seeing TNBW v1 on every chapter they read.
I hope that makes sense. Hopefully, Sol can add to this if I've made some incorrect assumptions.
Regards,
Dirk
Sol, I have a small item for the wishlist and I am very aware of how difficult this could be to implement.
A bit of background: My vision is not what it should be. Let's face it - I'm getting older. Fonts and color combinations that wouldn't have bothered me a few years ago are beginning to really "bug" me. Sites that have jumped on the "black is GREAT"" bandwagon leave me completely cold - especially if they use grey or some other low-contrast color for fonts. This site, while nice and white uses a light blue font that is very tiring to my eyes. Making a highlight in order to change/delete in this box, for instance, is kind of a light-yellow color and barely distinguishable to my eyes. Not at all like the blue highlight in an in-line review. For my own use in my web browser I've devised a script (for Pale Moon) I call "colorchange". What it does is remove the colors to fonts and the like, including background colors. It works here, but only to a limited extent.
What would be great is if we could have a change to our "settings" page that added check boxes or something that indicated whether or not we wanted light blue fonts or just plain black. The font size icons are nice, but color can't be changed.
EDIT: After holding a magnifying glass to the screen, I've determined that the font on this page seems to be black, but the very faint blue background makes the font appear with a blue tinge. Killing the background color makes the font stand out much better - and it is black now. Apparently, it is an optical illusion on my part. Some control over local font (color and/or size) might be handy though.
Tom
Sol, the following would be a "nice to have" when time allows.
Currently on the home page, it lists all new content (books, essays, poems, etc.) followed by a Read More New Content button. Scrolling all the way down to find that button is tedious, nor is it obvious to a new user. Ideally, that button should appear below each section of new content (i.e., after new books, new poems, etc.).
If you really want to make it cool, make the buttons different for each type of work: Read More New Books, Read More New Poems, etc. Obviously, that would require you to take the user to the Content screen and pre-filter on content type. I think a lot of users would find that useful.
Thanks.
Dirk
Currently on the home page, it lists all new content (books, essays, poems, etc.) followed by a Read More New Content button. Scrolling all the way down to find that button is tedious, nor is it obvious to a new user. Ideally, that button should appear below each section of new content (i.e., after new books, new poems, etc.)
Agree. This is on the enhancement list and should be out soon. Thanks for the suggestion.
Howdy, Sol. I couldn't find the earlier discussion about restricting minors from some posted work, so I thought I would add a few more suggestions here. Everyone agrees that prompting for user's age when they sign up and then forbidding them to read certain work marked for older readers can be easily overcome by the user lying about their age.
An easier alternative would be a simple rating selected by the author for each published work marking whether it is G, PG-13, R, or NC-17. That rating should then be made visible whenever a chapter is displayed. That way, you've done as much effort as the motion picture industry to keep kids away from adult material. Obviously, some kids are going to be attracted to R or NC-17, but that happens with movies too. It's up to parents to know what their kids are watching or reading.
I'd be a lot more comfortable to have at least something to steer kids clear of my book.
Thanks.
Dirk
Minor suggestion - please add a Leave Regular Review button beside the Leave Inline Review button at the top of the posting view. I already know which of my readers want regular reviews vs. inline reviews before I start reading, so it would be nice if it was consistent, without the need to scroll to the bottom of the chapter for regular reviews.
Thanks.
Dirk
Amen, Dirk. And, it would be nice if a piece saved to my reading list would pull up at the last chapter read rather than at chapter 1.
The old site did have a rating system. I think Dirk has a good idea. I just noted on CreateSpace and Amazon that Broken contains what I consider adult content. I think rape and child molestation are topics too mature for some kids. Of course, Sol did note that a person has to be 13 to join the site. Some 13-year-olds can handle my material, but not all. If it were rated, it would be a hard R. Of course, parents must be held responsible for their children's participation in the site, but some place to note adult content like the old site would be good.
I'll think about the rating idea. I'm still struck by the fact that a teen can walk into a library and take out whatever book they want. There is no rating system. Same with a bookstore.
If you do decide to add a rating system, another nice-to-have would be a field next to it that allows authors to specify why they rated the work the way they did (e.g., adult content, coarse language, violence, etc.).
Naturally, all of this can be done by individual authors, if they want, with just the content summary field you already have. However, since only two lines of the content summary are visible by default, I'm not sure how many people will stop to expand/read it, rather than simply diving into the chapter notes and proceeding from there. I know when the chapter notes weren't fully expanded, people were skipping over it.
Thanks!
Dirk
There is a section in my local library listed as Adult Fiction. I think parents should be ultimately responsible for books their kids read and I'm not set on a rating system, just a way to note adult content. Actually, many libraries and bookstores do monitor this, just like they do music now.
In 7th grade, my son wrote a short story and included the "F" word. They were going to suspend him. At the time he was reading Jurassic Park. This momma walked into the principal's office with book in hand and threw a fit about suspending my kid. I pointed out the double standard. He had checked the book out of the school library and it has the "F" word on almost every page. I pointed this out and asked how they could let him read it but penalize him for writing it. BTW, without the word, it would have been an A???? Really? Suspension thrown in the trash. He also wrote a serialized short story for the school paper--9 parts, 9 issues. He used the word straddled for a person putting one leg on one side of the stick shift and the other leg on the other side so she could be close to her b/f. They made him take the correctly used word out and write "sat across."
So, Sol, just a way for us to note content is enough. That way we are not responsible for a misguided teen.
I think were getting paranoiac with the rating stuff. Even in porn sites where the first thing you see is an ad saying, "If you're under 18 , leave immediately", any minor can hit the "I am over 18" button an access the info. Now, TNBW is a literary site. There's no explicit nudity, pornography, or something of the like here--not even the hardest erotica can be considered porn, however detailed. Inadequate for youngsters maybe, but it all depends on whether you are or are not a member of the League of Decency. Even the "Motion Picture Production Code" was dropped by the late 60's!
If any censorship/rating is implemented, then what TNBW considers appropriate and not would need to be defined. For example:
1. Is pointed profanity – by either title or lip and this includes the words "God," "Lord," "Jesus," "Christ" - acceptable or not? Should stories including profanity be rated R of PG 13?
2. If sex perversions are mentioned, should a story be considered R, or only if the said perversions are explained?
3. Rape and child molestation are topic too mature for some kids, according Jannet. What about extreme violence? Is it too mature too? If so, should we warn about stories similar to The Hunger Games about teens killing teens--and even being particularly sadistic? Or should rating be restricted to issues concerning sex?
And so on, and so on.
It's way to complicated. I agree with Sol. Any kid can walk into a library or bookstore, pick some erotica, and start reading. No rating system would warn or prevent the kid from doing so, and nobody cares about it. Explicit nudity and sex is treated in a different way but, again, this is a literary site, for god's sake. The most explicit thing anybody can find here is the word "fuck" written in all caps. Gimmie a break! There are thousands of explicit sites that a minor may try to enter before they think about TNBW as the place where to gather experiences/knowledge/visuals they are otherwise not entitled to.
Kiss,
Gacela.
You have very good points, Gacela. I think the best thing would be for the author to note what he/she thinks about his/her own story. Maybe something like:
Contains graphic violence, rape, profanity and obscenity. Might be too mature for some readers. Then, they have been warned.
Janet provided a good example why we shouldn't start rating the content. Is soooo very easy to start exaggerating and lost focus. I agree that her kid should be taught that the F word is not a word proper for a 7th grader in particular and well educated people in general. However, asking him to remove straddle from his prose is a symptom of how much people can exaggerate and try to cover themselves "just in case", moving towards a ridiculous and hyprocrite positions. The League of Decency in full action.
STRADDLE
/ˈstrad(ə)l /
VERB
[WITH OBJECT]
1Sit or stand with one leg on either side of:
he turned the chair round and straddled it
1.1Place (one’s legs) wide apart:
he shifted his legs, straddling them to keep his balance
1.2 [NO OBJECT] archaic Stand, walk, or sit with one’s legs wide apart:
the colonel straddled in front of the fire
1.3Extend across or be situated on both sides of:
a mountain range straddling the Franco-Swiss border
1.4North American Take up or maintain an equivocal position with regard to (a political issue):
a man who had straddled the issue of taxes
1.5Fire at (a target) with shots or bombs so that they fall short of and beyond it:
the crew of a plane straddled the submarine with depth charges
Source http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/es/de … =straddled
And not one single inappropriate connotation.
Let's don't waste our time in this topic anymore.
Kiss,
Gacela
Just make sure we don't start with a rating and later some members start suggesting moving towards censorship. It has happened before, not here, but in many other places in the past (the Prohibition, the Motion Picture Production Code, you name it).
Kiss,
Gacela.
don't know if this has already been said, but I'd like a place on the mobile site to be able to see consolidated new forum posts like on the right hand side of the regular home page. Let me know if that was not clear. I think I'm describing it right.
Bimmy
I don't know if this is repetitive, but I'd like to see a list of under-reviewed works on a daily or perhaps weekly basis. It was easy before. There was a ranking list and if you headed to the bottom on a daily basis you could see who needed attention. Unless I missing something...which is entirely possible...you have to go I to each posted work to see if they have reviews.
Bimmy
One nice-to-have that may have been mentioned already would be the ability to go from a posted review to the next chapter in someone's book, if there is one. I use the reviews tabs to see what the last review was I gave each author and then proceed from there. For regular reviews posted, it's pretty easy, since clicking on the posted review takes you to the book's posting view where you can select the next chapter and read from there. For inline reviews, however, you need to click on the most recent review's author, then scroll to/click on the author's postings, then scroll to/click on the book, before being allowed to select the next chapter, at which point one mouses to/clicks on Leave Inline Review. Less clicking and scrolling would be great. Right now, all of the links in the Inline Posted tab take you to the review, except for the author link.
Thanks.
Dirk
Sol, would it be possible to show the space/line formatting that we type into the chapter notes? You do so with the book summary, which makes it much more readable.
I use spaces/blank lines to help my readers read my book summary and chapter notes. Right now I have to use *** SCREAMING HEADLINES *** to make the chapter notes easy for my reviewers to scan through.
I know you're generally trying to keep the book summary and chapter notes "real estate" as small as possible, presumably for handheld devices, but I use white space to add readability. If I wanted to write everything as one long paragraph, I would do so.
Notice how I use separate paragraphs to make my point. :-)
Thanks.
Dirk
I want a place to make announcements that everyone can see, regardless of group affiliations. And on the home page, I'd really like to see my books on Amazon cycle through.
Much bigger wish item: for each author, and for each work, an authomatically created forum thread that appears in its own place AND ALSO can, at the author's discretion, appear in each or any of the groups in which the author is a member. For the 'root' groups (premium and ?base?) the author/work threads should probably be shunted to a nested set of forums.
You are understanding me, actually. But I could modify that and allow the user to decide whether a work merited a new forum thread or not.
You are understanding me, actually. But I could modify that and allow the user to decide whether a work merited a new forum thread or not.
Now, that's a good idea. Just a check box marked "Create forum thread(s)" would be all it takes (except for the coding to actually DO it, that is). It could even be an option exercised post-facto - that is, several chapters down the line a author might want to create the thread.
~Tom
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