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Upgrades and changes to Lush

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RejectReality
Testing The Waters.
Quote by noll


True, though you probably don't want an extremely long page to load either, and there will also be a difference between stories below and above the 'fold'.

Maybe part of the list could be a random selection from the latest stories. That way stories that quickly get pushed out of view, or entirely off the list, would still get displayed some additional number times.


For the landing page, that could be an appropriate strategy, with only six stories listed. Randomize those from the last 24 hours of published stories, rather than a straight order of approval listing. Something from below the fold or on page 2 could jump out and catch someone before they click through to the new story listing, which will probably be the primary story selection point.

Actually, from a cold business point of view, it should probably be stories with the most activity on that landing page, in order to draw people in. It's giving a boost to stories that are already doing well, but for Lush's bottom line, a story with 40 votes and 1k views is a better selling point than one with 2 votes and 75 views. I don't like the idea, but it makes sense nevertheless. That's what the landing page is for.

Also, random is never random. The odds are that it's just going to create an entirely different set of winners and losers, rather than leveling the playing field. Then you have to add in the cost of additional programming and explanation. Approval order is easy to explain. Once math is involved, it become witchcraft to many people, and that's what randomization is.

As things are — good and bad luck aside — you get about a day on the front page. Cut the number displayed in half, and you're most likely going to cut the time in half. That's going to be especially true in the beginning, because readers are very slow to change their habits, and it's painfully obvious that they don't bother clicking to page 2 in most cases.

With all the sidebars and other extraneous load time removed ( the landing page is the new story page in the current design ) I doubt loading 30 will cause the page to be slow.
dlcalguy
Active Ink Slinger
On storiesspace forum, it looks like pages within threads are presented oldest first. But there is no way to skip to the last page.
I can't seem to find a way to change that. I'm not interested in reading, responding to, or tiresomely scrolling through obsolete pages.
Am I missing something? AND, will this be the same in the new forum on Lush?
If there is a setting I can use to toggle the order, I'd be glad to know where it can be found.

There are also other ways that the forum has changed that make it less user-friendly, in my opinion. In general, I feel like I have to ask: did the new storiesspace forum UI get looked at and approved by a single person that is a regular forum user?
KimmiBeGood
Simple Scribbler
Quote by dlcalguy
On storiesspace forum, it looks like pages within threads are presented oldest first. But there is no way to skip to the last page.
I can't seem to find a way to change that. I'm not interested in reading, responding to, or tiresomely scrolling through obsolete pages.
Am I missing something? AND, will this be the same in the new forum on Lush?
If there is a setting I can use to toggle the order, I'd be glad to know where it can be found.

There are also other ways that the forum has changed that make it less user-friendly, in my opinion. In general, I feel like I have to ask: did the new storiesspace forum UI get looked at and approved by a single person that is a regular forum user?


There's a button to click at the top of the thread that says "last reply". Click it and you should be taken to the most recent post. Hope this helps...
Jen
Charming as fuck
Quote by dlcalguy
On storiesspace forum, it looks like pages within threads are presented oldest first. But there is no way to skip to the last page.
I can't seem to find a way to change that. I'm not interested in reading, responding to, or tiresomely scrolling through obsolete pages.
Am I missing something? AND, will this be the same in the new forum on Lush?
If there is a setting I can use to toggle the order, I'd be glad to know where it can be found.

There are also other ways that the forum has changed that make it less user-friendly, in my opinion. In general, I feel like I have to ask: did the new storiesspace forum UI get looked at and approved by a single person that is a regular forum user?


As Kimmi says, it gives the last date a post was made. Just click on the date.
Jen
Charming as fuck
Quote by Lucky_lildragonfly
Will we be able to put our own background pics on the new lushstories? It doesn’t let me do it on stories space.


That's the plan.

It's mission critical things first, as that's time bound, and then design elements will follow.
Mysteria27
Prolific Writer
Will we still be able to see our stats, views etc. I can’t find it anywhere?

It also doesn’t have the popular stories and or poems for the month, last month or all time anymore. Will that show anymore.

It doesn’t show what kind of badges are offered. It just says what you have.

Some of us have worked hard for our views and are acknowledgements but it doesn’t seem to be anywhere now. We would have to tally up ourselves our total views per story etc.

Hugs,
Mysteria
Ensorceled
Easily amused
Quote by dlcalguy
On storiesspace forum, it looks like pages within threads are presented oldest first. But there is no way to skip to the last page.
I can't seem to find a way to change that. I'm not interested in reading, responding to, or tiresomely scrolling through obsolete pages.
Am I missing something? AND, will this be the same in the new forum on Lush?
If there is a setting I can use to toggle the order, I'd be glad to know where it can be found.

There are also other ways that the forum has changed that make it less user-friendly, in my opinion. In general, I feel like I have to ask: did the new storiesspace forum UI get looked at and approved by a single person that is a regular forum user?


There's a Latest Posts link on the forum page, with the most recent posts, and most recent posts in threads you participate in are bolded. It's really much easier than the old site.

I have a few issues with the new SS site, but the Forums are probably the most improved element. Poke around for awhile - it's a cool redesign.

Tintinnabulation - first place (Free Spirit)
Comet Q - second place (Quick and Risqué Sex)
Amnesia - third place (Le Noir Erotique)
Unknown User
The new site is definitely faster with a sleeker design.

I've been trying to go to SS and see if any weird stuff happens to add to the relevant thread there in the hopes that it will help all the hard-working IT people find and fix any problems with the functionality.

As it stands, the forums are by far the best improvement. Although there are a few small things to work out with them, they look to be on course to be highly functional with easy formatting.

The story submission and editing process still needs some work, but is mostly functional save a few things (I'm assuming that's being looked into).

Chat functions definitely need work lol. I know SS will have less functions than Lush, but if there are no black box online messages here when it changes over, I can see that being more than a little chaotic as people scurry to find other ways to one-on-one chat outside of the IM chat. I can't really give an opinion on the Instant messenger style setup as it's still being worked on to make it functional.

Same for having a separate timeline and friends activity rather than all of it showing together from a single notification bell.

I hope a lot of Lush privacy settings that currently aren't on SS get carried over or re-established once the groundwork is cleaned up.

I'm a little disappointed with how gender still appears to be hardcoded. There's currently no way to have no gender (binary or non-binary) associated with one's account. The drop-down box did get incorporated (I've made my opinion on this being fill-in-the-blank clear in other threads and messages), but now there are colored markers next to each user name (blue for boys, pink for girls, and black for everyone else - a little othering to lump the 'everyone else' all together like that in my opinion) which just makes it even more gendered than before. Although I'm starting to get tired of bringing this up, I won't stop talking about it until there are more changes. I know a lot of this is lesser priority as it isn't as vital as the stories, forums, and modes of inter-user communication working.

I'd appreciate (if gender is absolutely necessary for something) for it to be opt-in, even if that means one can't access certain chat rooms because the members of that room want to vet people by something like gender. I'm sure many writers, queer or not, might be interested in not making their gender available to others, or writing one in of their choosing.

You can see previous discussion on this forum thread on Lush:

http://https://forum.lushstories.com/yaf_postst74400_More-realisitc-and-inclusive-gender-options.aspx

Thanks for everyone's time and effort. I'm pleased with how so many issues have already been fixed in such a short timespan and seeing Stories Space update almost every day with more improvements to the initial release.
LuceDevlin
Advanced Wordsmith
Hey, so a few thoughts in my head, first of all, change is stressful but looks like having more people on board to help with the update and such will be a good thing. Hope the programmer who helped for so long is able to return if he wants to in the future.

I have never used lush on my phone, not once. I type so slow on my phone and mostly use my phone for games anyway, not reading smut LOL. So I am worried that if they make it too mobile-friendly that the desktop users will suffer, I hope that is not the case.

And while we are doing all this tweaking and changes, I wonder if it is possible to tweak the profile process especially around personal information like gender/sex/orientation. It is very, very discouraging when I log into a new site and have to reveal my information like that that is frankly no one's business unless I want to share it. Having the author's sex listed in the binary is not only unfair to intersex people who are not represented, but it exposes certain users, like women and probably some men to be targeted by others for lewd messaging. I appreciate the selection of 'don't let straight males contact or interact' with me as a way to remedy that, but I don't think it would be necessary to that extreme if biological sex wasn't forcibly exposed on the profile and listed as a binary option.

It would be a real bummer if lush does all this updating and LOSES users and authors or any potential new authors bringing new perspectives and ideas to the site and helping it grow because certain users feel upset, annoyed, or outright triggered by having to have their biological sex exposed and having to choose between a limited option of orientations (which btw, transsexual is NOT an orientation, and it is also very different from transgender, etc). I appreciate that sex and gender are separate and not listed as the same thing and other orientations have been added over time etc. but the way it has been done as of now before this update, as someone in the LGBTQ+ community, I look at the options and it reveals a significant amount of ignorance on the queer community and blatant erasure of certain demographics.

So a possible solution would be to just let the user write down their answer. That way they can be as forthcoming as they would like to be, or as silly as some folk would like to be, humor is a great ice breaker to try to get to know someone, 'Oh wow, you gender identify as this unique way, I thought I was the only one that felt that way, this is so cool I read your story on this particular kink I also like can we talk more and be friends', etc. A simple drop-down box to type in your own expression not only encourages creativity which a writing site is all about, I imagine, but it also I would think, diminish any sort of troll behavior. Also, giving an option to whether or not certain things are visible to other users is also good, as orientations and gender identities CHANGE over time as we learn new things about ourselves.

Surely these are not the only options to try to remedy this particular issue, but, I don't like highlighting a problem without also offering possible solutions to remedy the problem and figured since the site is going thru a huge overhaul at the moment, its the perfect time to change this detail as well.

xoxo Luce
Jen
Charming as fuck
Quote by VioletVixen




Quote by LuceDevlin







Hey both, on the subject of gender, it's not going to be possible to change things immediately, but it is something we're keeping on the list of changes when time allows.

HQ run a range of sites so although the Lush platform will be new, it builds on existing foundations and it just wouldn't be possible to change and test all that in the time we have unfortunately.

Just wanted to update you. You will still be able to use your profiles to give more information on gender/sex if you want to.


All the search functionality, message & user block functionality, filters, chatroom etc to name but a few. It would essentially remove peoples ability to do a wide range of operations on the site before we even start trying to think about how many errors and bugs on different levels removing system design fundamentals like this would cause.
nicola
Matriarch
Thanks Jen.

People need to look at the bigger picture rather than get bogged down with minor irritations and issues at this juncture.

The new site will not be perfect and as we'd like it at the start. It a massive undertaking moving a 15 year old site which has TB's of data to transfer, for 600,000+ members.

Time is of the essence as there will be no further support on this current platform from Mid-September and it's essential we try and get LS 2.0 up by then.

So let's get the bulk of the site up and running, and then anything missing can be patched / addressed later, and improvements will then be ongoing.

We have a whole support / dev team now who will be able to implement required changes as they become necessary / on the members' essential wish list.

Thank you for your support and understanding while we are in transition.

Nicola

P.S. I'm locking this thread as we'd like to keep all suggestions / issues to the one going forward.

Please post any comments or suggestions you have in this thread: https://forum.lushstories.com/yaf_postst75398_Lush-Stories-20-Coming-Soon.aspx