New Site questions

What? Because I see most other members who just post a meme or a picture. Update: I try that and it says the message field is required.

Quote by GirlGenius

What? Because I see most other members who just post a meme or a picture. Update: I try that and it says the message field is required.

Okay, so I've tested it, and literally just hitting the space bar is enough to satisfy the systems desire to have text in the box.

Quote by AppleByBoom

Quote by GirlGenius

What? Because I see most other members who just post a meme or a picture. Update: I try that and it says the message field is required.

Okay, so I've tested it, and literally just hitting the space bar is enough to satisfy the systems desire to have text in the box.

But it isn't for me. It won't let me do it without text.

Quote by GirlGenius

Quote by AppleByBoom

Quote by GirlGenius

What? Because I see most other members who just post a meme or a picture. Update: I try that and it says the message field is required.

Okay, so I've tested it, and literally just hitting the space bar is enough to satisfy the systems desire to have text in the box.

But it isn't for me. It won't let me do it without text.

You need to type a space into the text box. Just a space will. Hit the space bar once, the code recognises this as text.

^^^ I hit the space bar once, the above posted.

yay! Thank you, Apple!!! 🤣

Quote by GirlGenius

yay! Thank you, Apple!!! 🤣

woooo

I've been having a new problem with the site today. On a number of occasions, I've tried to respond to a comment on one of my stories, only to be thrown out of the site. If I open another tab, I'm still signed in, but if I try comment again, I'm thrown out again.

I eventually had to close the browser and reopen it.

Annoying.

1) When are we going to get PMs about stories by authors we're following? Notifications don't work worth a damn! This is the 50th time of asking.

2) When can we PM our followers or friends as a group? This is a major missing feature. Moreover, I can't figure out how to PM more than one person at a time – MAJOR problem. And I know I'm not the only person to ask.

3) When are we going to be able to go back to full-sized images for cover art. These widgey little panel illustrations are like trying to ballroom dance in a phone booth (if there were any phone booths!)

Here endeth the kvetch.

Quote by JamesLlewellyn

I've been having a new problem with the site today. On a number of occasions, I've tried to respond to a comment on one of my stories, only to be thrown out of the site. If I open another tab, I'm still signed in, but if I try comment again, I'm thrown out again.

I eventually had to close the browser and reopen it.

Annoying.

This may be related, but I find that switching to another app on my phone, or even another tab in Edge, throws me out and I have to sign in again. I am living with it but it is annoying at times

Quote by JamesLlewellyn
1) When are we going to get PMs about stories by authors we're following?

When we get an option in the Settings>Email tab to enable it, I guess. Something akin to the timeline is also planned so at the very least you'll be able to see what your friends are up to and filter by type of event (new story, new comment, etc). That will relegate the need for an email option as a nice-to-have fallback rather than what is (currently) a necessity because bell notifications are... how can I put this... unreliable.

2) When can we PM our followers or friends as a group?

Spam is the devil's work ;)

Seriously, when it does resurface this feature needs to be introduced in tandem with a privacy option to opt-out of such messages because it's seriously fucking annoying. Come the re-revolution, to get a bell notification that someone's written a new story, and get an email, and see it on your timeline/activity feed and then get an email begging for reads/votes is massive overkill. Before I opted out of them in Lush 1, I've actually been ready to sit down and read a story, until I received a spam message. I binned the story and didn't bother reading it at all.

3) When are we going to be able to go back to full-sized images for cover art.

When someone can convince the designers that it's desirable, and images of any aspect ratio can live harmoniously in a responsive, grid-based design. I've tried.

You can on your profile Icon up along the top, and the select "Comments" and that should show you at least some of what your looking for. Your comments and likes are certainly there.

Quote by FiestyFiona

Is there a way to see my own activity I've made on other people's profiles/pics/stories?

No.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith
3) When are we going to be able to go back to full-sized images for cover art.

When someone can convince the designers that it's desirable, and images of any aspect ratio can live harmoniously in a responsive, grid-based design. I've tried.

Let me see if I can put this diplomatically enough: FUCK the designer's wishes. I've worked in IT for decades, and software people will ALWAYS default to what is convenient for them, or to something they think is "cool." I also know the proper response to that is: NOT GOOD ENOUGH. FIX IT.

This site is supposed to be for the benefit of the writers, not the designers. There is NO good reason to force fine writers like Kistenspencil, or Kimmibegood, or your own good self, who work hard at creating interesting cover art to accompany their brilliant stories to suit the piss-ant wishes of website designers.

And there is NO good reason why the template for one kind of page needs to be foisted on another kind of page, which is what we are being told. I've been there and done that, and that's an excuse, not an explanation.

So, to sum up: Tell them to take their irrelevant preferences, fold them until they are all corners, and shove them up their collective and individual asses. They might just find their heads up there.

.

And you can quote me.

Quote by JamesLlewellyn

Quote by WannabeWordsmith
3) When are we going to be able to go back to full-sized images for cover art.

When someone can convince the designers that it's desirable, and images of any aspect ratio can live harmoniously in a responsive, grid-based design. I've tried.

Let me see if I can put this diplomatically enough: FUCK the designer's wishes. I've worked in IT for decades, and software people will ALWAYS default to what is convenient for them, or to something they think is "cool." I also know the proper response to that is: NOT GOOD ENOUGH. FIX IT.

This site is supposed to be for the benefit of the writers, not the designers. There is NO good reason to force fine writers like Kistenspencil, or Kimmibegood, or your own good self, who work hard at creating interesting cover art to accompany their brilliant stories to suit the piss-ant wishes of website designers.

And there is NO good reason why the template for one kind of page needs to be foisted on another kind of page, which is what we are being told. I've been there and done that, and that's an excuse, not an explanation.

So, to sum up: Tell them to take their irrelevant preferences, fold them until they are all corners, and shove them up their collective and individual asses. They might just find their heads up there.

.

And you can quote me.

If a story is great, it doesn't need a cover page. Your words should paint the picture. And you sound stupid w/ such a comment. Nothing you said was helpful.

Quote by JamesLlewellyn

Quote by WannabeWordsmith
3) When are we going to be able to go back to full-sized images for cover art.

When someone can convince the designers that it's desirable, and images of any aspect ratio can live harmoniously in a responsive, grid-based design. I've tried.

Let me see if I can put this diplomatically enough: FUCK the designer's wishes. I've worked in IT for decades, and software people will ALWAYS default to what is convenient for them, or to something they think is "cool." I also know the proper response to that is: NOT GOOD ENOUGH. FIX IT.

This site is supposed to be for the benefit of the writers, not the designers. There is NO good reason to force fine writers like Kistenspencil, or Kimmibegood, or your own good self, who work hard at creating interesting cover art to accompany their brilliant stories to suit the piss-ant wishes of website designers.

And there is NO good reason why the template for one kind of page needs to be foisted on another kind of page, which is what we are being told. I've been there and done that, and that's an excuse, not an explanation.

So, to sum up: Tell them to take their irrelevant preferences, fold them until they are all corners, and shove them up their collective and individual asses. They might just find their heads up there.

.

And you can quote me.

Rude, unkind, not helpful and has been and continues to be raised with the developers. There's no need for this kind of comment.

Quote by AppleByBoom

Quote by JamesLlewellyn

Quote by WannabeWordsmith
3) When are we going to be able to go back to full-sized images for cover art.

When someone can convince the designers that it's desirable, and images of any aspect ratio can live harmoniously in a responsive, grid-based design. I've tried.

Let me see if I can put this diplomatically enough: FUCK the designer's wishes. I've worked in IT for decades, and software people will ALWAYS default to what is convenient for them, or to something they think is "cool." I also know the proper response to that is: NOT GOOD ENOUGH. FIX IT.

This site is supposed to be for the benefit of the writers, not the designers. There is NO good reason to force fine writers like Kistenspencil, or Kimmibegood, or your own good self, who work hard at creating interesting cover art to accompany their brilliant stories to suit the piss-ant wishes of website designers.

And there is NO good reason why the template for one kind of page needs to be foisted on another kind of page, which is what we are being told. I've been there and done that, and that's an excuse, not an explanation.

So, to sum up: Tell them to take their irrelevant preferences, fold them until they are all corners, and shove them up their collective and individual asses. They might just find their heads up there.

.

And you can quote me.

Rude, unkind, not helpful and has been and continues to be raised with the developers. There's no need for this kind of comment.

Perhaps I was a tad intemperate, Harley, but I've worked in IT, and I've heard these kinds of excuses for decades. They are that – excuses, nothing more.

Look, there have been some very constructive changes, and I've been a big defender of the changeover, right from the start, even standing up and going on the same kind of intemperate rant defending it, in public, in Rumps, for all the world to see. But how many MONTHS has it been, and we're still getting these kinds of feeble, unacceptable, dog-ate-my-homework excuses.

And as for the words being good enough, Natalya, in a perfect world perhaps that would be true, but in our world, it's not. Why does The New York Times spend millions of dollars on design, and have full-time staff who worry about the intricacies of fonts, white space, appearance, and placement? Why don't they just publish a grey broadsheet with none of these irrelevant fripperies? Because design matters, because neatness counts, and because first impressions are important. Because cover art matters, to the artists/authors who create it, the readers who see it, and to Lush itself.

Moreover, as Kisten has so ably put it, she puts a lot of thought and effort into her cover art to have it reflect the story, and intrigue the reader. And since she specializes in magnificent micros, she considers them an important part OF the story, not just a banner filling the space above it.

Part of the answer here as to why cover art is important is that in the real world, marketing matters, even though, in theory, it shouldn't.

It should be that the goodness of a product sells it. But that's not the way the world actually works.

Why are the two continents in the Western Hemisphere named after a man, Amerigo Vespucci, who may never have even been to the Western Hemisphere, instead of being called North and South Columbia? Because Vespucci wrote pamphlets about his supposed voyages that were colourful and intrigued people. That is probably the greatest marketing job in history.

Cover art is part marketing – but also part storytelling in its own right. Because it has become an art form in itself, and some of the cover art produced here has been incredibly inventive, fun, and interesting on its own.

As an analogy, why not just have everyone just read Shakespeare instead of having it acted out? After all, the words should speak for themselves, right?

But suppose you are right, and I'm wrong. It's possible. Then let's take it to the next step. If cover art is so irrelevant, why not do away with it? Let the words speak entirely for themselves. None of these silly, frivolous irrelevant images, none of this gingerbread frippery. Just solid, plodding, grey text. Let the words sell themselves, right? Why not?

Because creative cover art makes Lush better, that's why.

Don't eviscerate it on the pretext that it's too difficult for website designers to fix what is in essence a matter of creating a different page template.

So, in more moderate language, please don't give us this incredibly lame excuse that it's "too hard" for software people to do what they're supposed to do.

Quote by JamesLlewellyn

Quote by AppleByBoom

Quote by JamesLlewellyn

Quote by WannabeWordsmith
3) When are we going to be able to go back to full-sized images for cover art.

When someone can convince the designers that it's desirable, and images of any aspect ratio can live harmoniously in a responsive, grid-based design. I've tried.

Let me see if I can put this diplomatically enough: FUCK the designer's wishes. I've worked in IT for decades, and software people will ALWAYS default to what is convenient for them, or to something they think is "cool." I also know the proper response to that is: NOT GOOD ENOUGH. FIX IT.

This site is supposed to be for the benefit of the writers, not the designers. There is NO good reason to force fine writers like Kistenspencil, or Kimmibegood, or your own good self, who work hard at creating interesting cover art to accompany their brilliant stories to suit the piss-ant wishes of website designers.

And there is NO good reason why the template for one kind of page needs to be foisted on another kind of page, which is what we are being told. I've been there and done that, and that's an excuse, not an explanation.

So, to sum up: Tell them to take their irrelevant preferences, fold them until they are all corners, and shove them up their collective and individual asses. They might just find their heads up there.

.

And you can quote me.

Rude, unkind, not helpful and has been and continues to be raised with the developers. There's no need for this kind of comment.

Perhaps I was a tad intemperate, Harley, but I've worked in IT, and I've heard these kinds of excuses for decades. They are that – excuses, nothing more.

Look, there have been some very constructive changes, and I've been a big defender of the changeover, right from the start, even standing up and going on the same kind of intemperate rant defending it, in public, in Rumps, for all the world to see. But how many MONTHS has it been, and we're still getting these kinds of feeble, unacceptable, dog-ate-my-homework excuses.

And as for the words being good enough, Natalya, in a perfect world perhaps that would be true, but in our world, it's not. Why does The New York Times spend millions of dollars on design, and have full-time staff who worry about the intricacies of fonts, white space, appearance, and placement? Why don't they just publish a grey broadsheet with none of these irrelevant fripperies? Because design matters, because neatness counts, and because first impressions are important. Because cover art matters, to the artists/authors who create it, the readers who see it, and to Lush itself.

Moreover, as Kisten has so ably put it, she puts a lot of thought and effort into her cover art to have it reflect the story, and intrigue the reader. And since she specializes in magnificent micros, she considers them an important part OF the story, not just a banner filling the space above it.

Part of the answer here as to why cover art is important is that in the real world, marketing matters, even though, in theory, it shouldn't.

It should be that the goodness of a product sells it. But that's not the way the world actually works.

Why are the two continents in the Western Hemisphere named after a man, Amerigo Vespucci, who may never have even been to the Western Hemisphere, instead of being called North and South Columbia? Because Vespucci wrote pamphlets about his supposed voyages that were colourful and intrigued people. That is probably the greatest marketing job in history.

Cover art is part marketing – but also part storytelling in its own right. Because it has become an art form in itself, and some of the cover art produced here has been incredibly inventive, fun, and interesting on its own.

As an analogy, why not just have everyone just read Shakespeare instead of having it acted out? After all, the words should speak for themselves, right?

But suppose you are right, and I'm wrong. It's possible. Then let's take it to the next step. If cover art is so irrelevant, why not do away with it? Let the words speak entirely for themselves. None of these silly, frivolous irrelevant images, none of this gingerbread frippery. Just solid, plodding, grey text. Let the words sell themselves, right? Why not?

Because creative cover art makes Lush better, that's why.

Don't eviscerate it on the pretext that it's too difficult for website designers to fix what is in essence a matter of creating a different page template.

So, in more moderate language, please don't give us this incredibly lame excuse that it's "too hard" for software people to do what they're supposed to do.

Homeboy, you go off topic way too much. Create another blog on tumblr if you haven't created one already. Goodness me.

James, it's not "too hard". It's a 2-line CSS tweak. I've done it. I submitted it as a patch suggestion months ago.

Having the cover art full/any aspect ratio on the story page is fine and fits the design space easily. Having it show up on the landing pages (front-page and category pages, which they don't do at the moment but probably will one day) will be made more tricky by not having a fixed aspect. Not impossible, just tricky.

The limitations of the grid that makes things look pretty and consistent on these pages will be compromised OR we will have to have cover art truncated/cropped to fit the container OR it will be scaled to fit, leaving ugly whitespace or borders (like we have now in the story pages). None are ideal.

There are creative solutions...

1: don't show cover art on landing pages at all in future, freeing them to be any aspect on story pages.

2: permit multiple images to be uploaded. One for the story page and, if you don't like the crop/resize it makes, supply a 2nd image specifically for the list pages. More storage space. More work for authors. But the best of both worlds.

3: adaptive resizing (which is computationally expensive but can be cached, at the expense of storage).

There are other avenues, I'm sure. But to deny that the issue of aspect ratio is not something that plagues web design, and is only an excuse, is short sighted.

A decision was made when the layouts were hastily put together prior to migration. Probably too few templates, truth be told, but time was at a premium. That has ramifications that will need unpicking over time.

First off, I am going to agree with Apple that James' first post was unacceptable and I am glad to see him backing off the language in the followup.

However, as an IT manager and the admin of a forum myself, I get the frustration. Time and time again, I see problems on this site that I know are due to the heavy amount of customization involved and that I have never dealt with on my site (e.g. the login issues that dog me and that I have given up on and am living with) that runs out-of-box forum software. In fact, I could build a site like this using that software plus a few off-the-rack add-ons that would have far fewer issues and most of them due to importing the data rather than missing or not-quite-right functionality. In the 21st century, I would argue that any software project should have a goal of meeting 80-90% of its functional requirements out of box, with custom being needed only for styling and extreme edge cases and done using out of the box tools, not adding code. So consider me unimpressed, but that's as far as I will go here.

In the case of cover images, the software I use has something called an article thread that could easily be used for story publishing (in fact, my first test of it was post an early draft of a story I was writing for SS at the time) and it handles cover images of any size and adapts them to a mobile screen just fine. How? It uses the same image handling as any other forum post. So out of box, cover images would work as James suggests. In fact, you can embed multiple images in an "Article" and the software knows to use the first attached image as the cover. And that's just the basic forum software with no custom or add-ons. There's an add-on you can put on top that extends that functionality into something very like our story publishing here on Lush and SS. Again, out-of-box. Just configuration is needed, no custom code.

So I applaud all the work that's been done here and the improvements that have happened. Love the new site in so many ways and glad to see things moving along. I just wonder if it could been better out of the box and required less time and effort by the devs (and fewer user blowups) on re-adding functionality if the project had been done differently.

And I am leaving it there. Kudos to the team, just some thoughts on how they might save themselves some grief and work in future projects.

Well it's good that a bit of civility has returned.

The issue of cover art is something that has been raised, it's not as simple as many seem to think, as Mr WannabeWordsmith has explained really well.

Nobody is saying that the transition was perfect, but it was as good as it was going to be considering the limits and constraints that were placed on the team. If things had been different and the team had had more time, then yes, I imagine the site would have been pretty much good to go.

Quote by JamesLlewellyn

Quote by WannabeWordsmith
3) When are we going to be able to go back to full-sized images for cover art.

When someone can convince the designers that it's desirable, and images of any aspect ratio can live harmoniously in a responsive, grid-based design. I've tried.

Let me see if I can put this diplomatically enough: FUCK the designer's wishes. I've worked in IT for decades, and software people will ALWAYS default to what is convenient for them, or to something they think is "cool." I also know the proper response to that is: NOT GOOD ENOUGH. FIX IT.

This site is supposed to be for the benefit of the writers, not the designers. There is NO good reason to force fine writers like Kistenspencil, or Kimmibegood, or your own good self, who work hard at creating interesting cover art to accompany their brilliant stories to suit the piss-ant wishes of website designers.

And there is NO good reason why the template for one kind of page needs to be foisted on another kind of page, which is what we are being told. I've been there and done that, and that's an excuse, not an explanation.

So, to sum up: Tell them to take their irrelevant preferences, fold them until they are all corners, and shove them up their collective and individual asses. They might just find their heads up there.

.

And you can quote me.

watching as the priority for the designers to make any changes to the cover art plummet to the bottom of the list.

Oh goodness, Kimmi spied her name in a rant with her one good eye. Agree with the fur-ruffled Bear that cover art is important. Many male readers have told me mine adds to my stories. Maybe my words are crap or maybe males tend to be more visual creatures.

That said, as a developer, we tend to think we know more about our software than our users and can get OUR fur ruffled when cursed at or insulted. So Bear, we are friends, i know you mean well for us writers, you are a great writer on and off Lush, a successful businessman, and you KNOW your first post will get you NOWHERE. You should have led with your second. I know you are frustrated, but maybe don't post when triggered and emotional. I have done the same and regretted it once calm.

I'm going to Rumps now to stuff my face with donuts.

Quote by KimmiBeGood

Oh goodness, Kimmi spied her name in a rant with her one good eye. Agree with the fur-ruffled Bear that cover art is important. Many male readers have told me mine adds to my stories. Maybe my words are crap or maybe males tend to be more visual creatures.

That said, as a developer, we tend to think we know more about our software than our users and can get OUR fur ruffled when cursed at or insulted. So Bear, we are friends, i know you mean well for us writers, you are a great writer on and off Lush, a successful businessman, and you KNOW your first post will get you NOWHERE. You should have led with your second. I know you are frustrated, but maybe don't post when triggered and emotional. I have done the same and regretted it once calm.

I'm going to Rumps now to stuff my face with donuts.

Harley, Natalia, WW, Rachel, and Kimmi, this issue has been raised, repeatedly, and politely by me and several others.

How far has it gotten us?

Bear, you do what you feel you need to do. I disagree your post will get it done faster. I just know how I would respond if directed at me. We are friends and can agree to disagree on this.

Natalya.

We've been here since September. We can wait longer.

Quote by JamesLlewellyn

Quote by KimmiBeGood

Oh goodness, Kimmi spied her name in a rant with her one good eye. Agree with the fur-ruffled Bear that cover art is important. Many male readers have told me mine adds to my stories. Maybe my words are crap or maybe males tend to be more visual creatures.

That said, as a developer, we tend to think we know more about our software than our users and can get OUR fur ruffled when cursed at or insulted. So Bear, we are friends, i know you mean well for us writers, you are a great writer on and off Lush, a successful businessman, and you KNOW your first post will get you NOWHERE. You should have led with your second. I know you are frustrated, but maybe don't post when triggered and emotional. I have done the same and regretted it once calm.

I'm going to Rumps now to stuff my face with donuts.

Harley, Natalia, WW, Rachel, and Kimmi, this issue has been raised, repeatedly, and politely by me and several others.

How far has it gotten us?

Yes, it has, and WW has agreed with you repeatedly and advised that he has raised it. There are other things taking precedent just now and I know that's not what you want to hear, but that's what it is. I do hope it can be resolved, but it's one of those things that's not a quick fix.

I believe being polite has gotten the majority of us pretty far. The developers are pretty responsive, they're working hard to make Lush more fitting for writers, but not everything will be the same as it was before.

Quote by IMPÜRETHOUGHTS

Natalya.

My apologies for misspelling your name, Natalya.