New feature idea

What I miss is the scroll of new posts so that I can decide if I want to read new writers.  This system is too insular for me.  In other words, I only follow the people I've already befriended.  I have a great group already, but other new members would find it hard to find content they want to read (in any other place than the Groups).  For example, I never would have found Skeptikoi under this system because he writes short stories and I rarely do.

I also miss the option of going to the list of reviews given and received (the one-line list) as opposed to the full reviews.  I used to use this as a way of finding other people who gave me reviews, and referencing other writers from a long time ago.  I hit the 1000 review mark a while ago, so slogging through old reviews (in their entirety) is too much of a chore.

Do I understand you? 
you want to  1) Go back to the way it was on the old site,  2) Make the new site even more ungainly by adding features to a list formerly not needed, nor even desired, 3) Go back to the way it was on the old site?  I said once before, I thought things were getting top-heavy (well, maybe not in those exact words), but not because things are new.  It's because everybody wants to do things their own way!  Let's give the new site a chance--we've just gone from fourth grade to Middle School.  It's a whole new world out there!  With pictures!  I love the pictures!  JP
P.S. If anyone has a real serious problem that must be solved in order for them to use the site, let them send you a private email so everybody else doesn't start getting wishful ideas.

I'm not telling Sol that I desperately need to have access to the 'reviews received/ reviews given' option.  I just said that I missed it.  I realize that it's a huge frustration to Sol to have a massive effort like this new site to be questioned after-the-fact. 

I'll look at the Read option.  I haven't used that yet.  (wrinkles brow and decides to start hitting random buttons again.  Hey, it works for my sons)

A

The read menu is cool in so far as it goes with book covers and all, but there simply aren't enough choices on a page. Perhaps if it would scroll through say fifty or so works per page as opposed to what, a dozen or so, then it would be so much more efficient to check for works which haven't just been published when you decide to log on. It is a pain to have to click through so many pages to get to a point where you are comfortable that you've already seen all those works listed before - you don' feel like you missed something just because you weren't able to check in for a few days.

It's kind of the same argument from the old site where everyone wanted their work listed on the front page and didn't want to take time to go to the "read and review" where lots of works were readily available. Limiting the works to so few listed on the first page only encourages people to adopt the same habit/mindframe which is counterproductive imho.

But, hey, the site just opened and we can't expect everything to be perfect for everyone at the outset - or at any point. Still some bugs, but I'm getting more comfortable all the time. Good job to date. Take care. Vern

PS: Wheee, all the delays are finally behind us. Just a little more patience for the bugs, folks.

From Amy S.: "What I miss is the scroll of new posts so that I can decide if I want to read new writers.  This system is too insular for me.  In other words, I only follow the people I've already befriended.  I have a great group already, but other new members would find it hard to find content they want to read (in any other place than the Groups).  For example, I never would have found Skeptikoi under this system because he writes short stories and I rarely do."

I agree completely!!! A scroll without images, which distract and take up space. This was we don;t have to go to [age 5 to see stuff posted only yesterday. And I realize there are more genres now - scripts, etc. But shorts stories covered all short works, novels covered all long works, and of course poetry.
Amy's right - the current set up is too insular!

Can't find the old 'Future Wishlist', so I'll write here.

Minor but irritating thing that could be improved:  When I go to publish, I get a 'Warning: Are you sure you want to do this' on the point cost.  'Warning: are you sure you want to do this' I associate with file deletion and such.  Perhaps you could make this particular message a little more like a bank transfer or phone payment: 'Confirm: 3.25 points will be deducted from your account to pay for this transaction' or similar words.  It would be just as effective and less jarring.  I don't know if there are other places where this could apply.

When it comes time to get the email notifications working, I suggest multi-level options on the creation or publishing of work.

1. An alert on an author.

2. An alert on an entire group.

3. An alert on an author IN a group, thus Mrs. Plum, but only for posts in Medieval Fantasy and Magic, but not for postings in Literary Fiction (unless it's also in the other group)

And then a further distinction:

1. Creating/first publishing of a work by the author/group, as above

2. Updates/publishing a chapter in said work

3. Updates/publishing a chapter of a =selected= work

so that I'm notified when Mrs. Plum has a new work, but I have chosen not to get subsequent chapter updates on her work--unless I mark that specific work for chapter updates.  (And I should be able to mark such any work that I can read, even if I'm not following the authors or groups.)

Yeah, a few more columns in the database, but I suspect that many of us writers here will want these capabilities sooner or later.

=Postscript=: Attempting to do this list with bullets instead of numbers didn't work.  I'm going to play with the posting a bit and see if I can get some clues.

Okay.  The BBCode document says that (open-square-bracket)list(close-square-bracket) is the correct syntax, but when I go back in to edit it's been changed to (open-square-bracket)list=*(close-square-bracket).  In any case, the HTML is <ul> <li>...</ul>  ......  with no indication of what the bulleting character is.  I don't have my HTML references with me so I can't check them at the momement.

As an aside, can someone tell me, as the BBCode article does not, how to escape square brackets when I mean to use them to indicate the BBCode itself?
Let me know if you can use the screencap.