Sol, just to clarify, if free members can only join one group, does that mean they won't be able to post to multiple groups simultaneously as well? So, if a budding sci-fi author wants to post work to the sci-fi group, they have to drop the Premium group? Why the switch from five groups down to one?
Thanks.
Dirk
Maybe something slightly annoying on the Reviews screen, reminding people how many reviews they haven't responded to.
I'm still working on my second major revision, and there will be a third that will include significant chapter surgery. Edits aside, I'm hoping v3 is my last major rewrite. I rewrote and posted v3 of chapter 1, just to take a break from v2. Some thought it was great, others ripped it apart. Even the critical feedback was less drastic than in the past, so I may be able to stick with v3 as my last major rewrite. Since I'm writing a series of three books, I don't mind taking extra time to make the first one as good as possible - it helps me define the universe/technology/characters as much as possible. Once I release book one, I won't be able to go back and alter those elements significantly. Of course, at my current pace, book one won't be ready until 2017.
Dirk
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
Would TNBW Free still be non-points group? If not, how should we post so that free members see our work?
Let me ask you this, have you received any reviews from free members?
I haven't received any reviews from free members, although I've given about a half dozen. I started as a free member on the old site and almost immediately upgraded when I saw that I needed to do so in order to post and get reviews.
However, when I first upgraded, I didn't understand the need to reciprocate to keep some of my preferred reviewers going with my book. I lost two important potential reviewers given the nature of book. (Unfortunately, I took that book down and replaced it with my current version, so the initial reviews/reviewer names are gone.)
Whatever you decide, be sure to give free members enough time, access, and how-to information to understand how the site works before they decide to leave. A three month trial ought to be enough, or, as you suggested, a requirement to read more than premium members in order to keep posting. I would definitely give them access to inline reviews, even if it's only for a short time, because they make the new site really shine.
Dirk
Hi Sol. Would TNBW Free still be non-points group? If not, how should we post so that free members see our work? I currently post to TNBW Premium and TNBW Free on the assumption that free members can't see Premium posts.
Are my assumptions incorrect?
Thanks.
Dirk
They were my private messages, both sent and received.. After navigating around the site, all of the messages are now back to normal. Go figure . I'll let you know if it comes up again.
Thanks.
Dirk
Sol, I clicked an email link to take me to my messages, and all were gone even the unread ones.I don't really need all the old ones, but it would be nice if you could bring back the unread one. I'm an running Android 4.4.4 on a Motorola g smartphone.
Thanks
Dirk
This is the new chapter 1 of version 3 of the book (technically, this is a prologue). If you haven't already read v3's Book Content Summary, please do so. It provides some useful information about the story and may help you decide if it's right for you. Please note that v3 is a separate book from v2 for technical reasons. My primary focus remains v2.
IMPORTANT CHANGES: This chapter includes a number of name changes compared to v2 to clean things up. Luna II is now called Neuer Mond since it's neutral territory (think Switzerland) and therefore shouldn't have an Imperial/Latin name. Similarly, a colossus (the largest Realm warship) is now called a dreadnaught, also to avoid the obvious Imperial/Latin connection. The opposite is true for behemoths, the largest Imperial warships - they're now called titans. For the same reason, Admiral Adalwulf is now Admiral Gaius Lupus. Incinerators (always hated that name) are now called supernovas for ship-mounted cannons, deep fryers for energy rifles, and light toasters for the handguns. :-)
FEEDBACK: Besides the usual, if anyone has the time, please nit my comma and paragraph usage with an inline review. I'd prefer to get this right up front, before I write a whole book full of errors.
Thanks.
Dirk
Time to have a little fun in this chapter.
IMPORTANT CHANGES: I'm still cleaning up some of the story tech. Incinerators are finally gone (yay!), replaced with nova cannons (small), supernova cannons (big), deep fryers (energy rifles), and light toasters (handguns).
FEEDBACK: Besides the usual, if anyone has the time, please nit my comma and paragraph usage with an inline review. I'd prefer to get this right up front, before I write a whole book full of errors. Janet?
Thanks!
Dirk
What would you do with paragraph 1, Kenny? Would you split off Joseph's line of dialogue from the rest of that paragraph?
Dirk
Thanks, Kenny.
Interesting thing about paragraph 2: It's a non-verbal response to Joseph's dialogue. The rule I've read for that one is that a nonverbal response should be treated the same as a verbal one. Go figure.
Dirk
I've noticed a few different authors on the site using different rules to break up paragraphs, especially when it's mixed with dialogue. Following is from one of my chapters (with paragraph numbers for clarity):
1. Next, Joseph exited the bathroom, set the weapon back to full power, and fired at the glass booth over the head of the remaining guard. It exploded in a shower of glass, momentarily stunning the guard. Joseph quickly reset the weapon to stun, then fired repeatedly at the man until he was sure this guard was unconscious as well. He called to his fellow slaves and said, “Everyone, Paul and I are leaving. If you want out of here, we can escort you.”
2. Paul and the others came running.
3. At Joseph’s direction, they carried the unconscious man into the bathroom, stripped both guards of their uniforms, and placed them in restraints. Joseph and Paul quickly put the uniforms on, grabbed the rifles, and led the others out of the warehouse. “Try not to act suspicious,” Joseph told everyone. “It’s a simple slave escort. Nothing more.”
4. The group walked past multiple open warehouses where other guarded slaves loaded and unloaded ships.
5. “So far, so good,” Joseph said.
Should the sentence in (1) starting with "He called to his fellow slaves..." be a separate paragraph? It's still a continuation of Joseph's actions. Does it come down to stylistic preference?
Same question for the dialogue in (3) that starts with "Try not to act suspicious..."
Should paragraphs (2) and (3) be combined? What about (4) and (5)?
I'd be interested in hearing as many opinions as possible.
Thanks.
Dirk
Somehow, the site has kicked me out of a couple of my groups. I don't know exactly how long ago it happened, but I typically glance at my groups list on the right of the Home page daily looking for recent forum posts. Today, I added the new Queries, Blurbs, and Synopsis group to my list of groups, then noticed that Old Forums and Dew Drops Readers were no longer there. I was able to add Old Forums back to my list. I didn't add Dew Drops Readers back in since the author is posting elsewhere as well. I was well under my 10 group limit when this happened.
Win 7 PC with latest Google Chrome.
Thanks.
Dirk
Sol, you're probably already aware of this, but just in case ... when I go to send a private message, the drop down list is cut off at the bottom. even when I've scrolled all the way down the list. I usually can't select the latest connection(s). Not sure if there's a workaround, although I haven't found one.
Win 7 PC with latest Google Chrome.
Thanks.
Dirk
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
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
Minor nits:
The tooltip that comes up when the mouse pointer hovers over The Next Big Writer label says "The next Big Writer". It should probably say something like "Go to Home Page".
Also, many of the buttons change color slightly when you hover over them (good!). Is it possible to do the same when someone hovers over the aforementioned label?
Both of these are just to help new users. I don't think they're a problem for anyone else.
Regards,
Dirk
I joined the old site because I wanted to post and receive reviews. I stay because of the excellent feedback and the fact that I learn a lot reading others' work. I do the free reviews because I want to help others the way I've been helped.
There were three parts to this:
1. We need a way to prevent reviewers from wasting their time giving inline reviews if the author can't read them.
2. It would be useful if we could see if members are free/premium, although that's less important if item 1 is fixed.
3. Ways of encouraging free-to-premium upgrades, either via a trial period or by limited access to inline reviews.
Restricting free members to regular reviews also restricts the reviewer to regular reviews, which isn't the easiest workflow for inline nitting. There's only so much time that I'm able to put into free reviews, and I'd like the workflow to be as efficient as possible, resulting in the best possible reviews for free members, so they can see what the site can really do for them if they pay up.
Thanks for all the hard work, Sol.
Dirk
I think author's should receive points from any review given to their post. Shouldn't matter if its free or premium.
Also a great idea. That way premium members would be more inclined to read everything.
Dirk
JP, the list of groups next to a book that you refer to only shows which groups the book was posted to, not the free/premium status of an author. New premium authors may choose to post for free until they have enough points to do otherwise, or for other reasons. As you say, the red button doesn't help either since premium members can post for free. The best idea remains disabling the inline button for free members or adding a warning re-directing the reviewer to a regular review. The free member in question also has other inline reviews he can't read, probably from people who stumbled on this feature as I and others have.
However, the main argument I was trying to make was to give free members temporary access to inline reviews of their own work, so they can see what they're missing and, hopefully, become premium members and help pay to improve the site for everyone. This can be done by given either temporary access to all premium features, or by giving limited access to perhaps one to three inline reviews per reviewer, so they can see the quality of the reviews. Inlines can be a huge draw for free members to sign up.
Regards,
Dirk
They all strike me as being similar to thoughts. I would use italics. One downside to italics is that it is such a busy font, I have to use underlining to show emphasis within italics. Not really a big deal if you self-publish. The other options for showing emphasis within italics didn't work for me. I tried using regular font within italics to show emphasis, but the occasional word in regular font within a sea of italics is not easily distinguished. I also tried bold, but it stood out like a sore thumb, dragging the eye away from what I was trying to read.
You're up late. :-)
Dirk
I just did a very detailed review for a new member only to realize part-way through that he was probably a free member and won't be able to see it. I'm aware of the limitation and still got burned by it. Also, I won't be able to do nearly as detailed a review using a regular review (commas, dialogue punctuation, formatting, bits of grammar, etc.), so the user won't be aware of what he's missing, since he can't see it. I know regular reviews can be used for very detailed feedback as well, but it's a royal pain and I know I won't be as thorough with dozens of small suggestions if I have to revert to old-site style copy-and-paste.
Perhaps a way to go would be for free members to get a three-month premium trial or some other way to see what they could have by becoming premium. Another way to go would be to let a free user see one (three?) inline reviews from each reviewer, but then no more. The former is probably easier to implement, but I think the latter is preferable, since it takes more than three months (in my experience) to really find and make helpful connections. If I was a free member and saw a Charles Brass-style inline review of my work, I'd sign up in a heartbeat. Lucky for me, I've got several awesome reviewers, but it took time to find and build those relationships. If someone can see inlines applied to their work, it would be a major hook.
Regardless, we really need a way to warn reviewers when someone won't be able to see an inline review. The button to leave inline reviews should warn off reviewers if the recipient won't be able to see it. The warning message could include the suggestion to leave a regular review instead.
In the mean time, is there a way to tell if someone is free or premium?
Thanks.
Dirk
Who are the judges?
Thanks.
Dirk
Since notifications to my regular reviewers aren't working yet, I thought I'd post ongoing requests for reviews here for now.
Chapter 24 (Hail, Apollo!) is up in "Into the Mind of God v2".
Chapter 1 (For the Realm!) is up in "Into the Mind of God v3" (separate book). I used a separate book, since versioning won't work well for me as I do major chapter surgery in v3.
Thanks.
Dirk
