Wouldn't it be cool if YWS...

Carina · 2013-05-20T01:16:48Z

...had an easier portfolio, a chapter option for novels, a favorite button, a better use of subscriptions, and a traffic stat for views? Maybe these are all things that Nate has thought about and it's a project for the future, but nonetheless, I was curious to see what it would look like if YWS had these options, so I photoshopped screencaps instead of working on my huge pile of homework that I've been procrastinating on. (Man, I really need to get my priorities straight...) "All" Option for Portfolios http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag120/carinanng/miscellaneous/1_zpsd9f5bb93.png I don't know about you, but sometimes I want to read someone's story that they have recently submitted, and to do that, I'd have to click through a bunch of folders and look at each individual date for each story. This was the main reason why I thought an "all" option for the portfolio would be great; it would be the first thing you'd see once you access someone's portfolio, and all their works would be right in front of you from most recent to old. If you want to be specific and, for example, only want to see poetry, then you are free to access it (assuming the user made a poetry folder, of course). Also, if there is an "all" option, I don't think an unsorted button is really necessary. Basically, all the works you're just "eh" about are in the "all" folder, and you can categorize works you think are good somewhere else, but they'd still be in the "all" folder. Chapter Option and Favorite Button for Novels http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag120/carinanng/miscellaneous/2_zps588a0230.png *the chapter button in the picture is taken directly from my old account in FictionPress.com* (I currently do not have a novel submitted in YWS, so for the sake of this topic, I'm going to pretend that one of my short stories is a novel.) There are three new things in that picture: a "last updated" text box, a favorite button, and a chapter option. The favorite button could also be called the watch button, the alert button, the bookmark button (which I'm vaguely aware YWS has, though I'm not sure how to use it, lol), etc. Basically, the button would give you a notification every time the novel is updated with a new chapter. I've noticed that YWS has this thing where, if there's, say, a tenth chapter of a novel out, the number of readers decline. It's like a decaying exponential graph; there's a lot of readers for the first few chapters, but after that, it slowly declines. Why does it do that? I think it's because people are seeing the words "Chapter 10" and think, "Oh, boy, this story looks really interesting, but I don't feel like reading all the way from chapter one," or, "Chapter ten? Well, I haven't read the earlier chapters, and it would be awkward if I randomly started to review earlier chapters posted a year ago, so I'm going to skimp out on this one," or, "I'm too lazy to find chapter one." I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the site FictionPress.com or FanFiction.com, but stories there get more views and more reviews. Yeah, maybe it's not much of a comparison since YWS is puny compared to those big boy sites, but I think it helps that those two sites have a great way of organizing novels. Unlike YWS, FictionPress stories update when a new chapter is out; that means new chapters would not be titled "Chapter 2" or "Chapter 3" while being cut out from its original chapter, but would instead by embedded into chapter one, as seen from the picture above. Pretend that my story The Box is the first chapter to a novel. When I update it with the second, third, fourth chapter, there will be a drop down menu with all the chapters there so readers can easily navigate back and forth. http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag120/carinanng/miscellaneous/3_zps4958c906.png So, if I updated The Box with chapter ten, the story would be back up in the "most recent" pile, maybe looking like this: http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag120/carinanng/miscellaneous/4_zps7ccb1a69.png Again, there's the "last updated" text box. And, although I didn't put it in, maybe there can be the original submitted date. Also, on the side against the blue boxes, there a gray box that says "CH10." That means there are ten current chapters in the story. A Better Subscription Tab http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag120/carinanng/miscellaneous/5_zps816ee2d5.png If there was a favorite button, then there should be a list for all favorited work. This would be only limited to literary. (And if someone favorites a story, should it be listed in their profile? I've seen some sites do this.) The subscription list is similar to the current subscription list here, but would not be a hassle to use and would only be limited to the forums. For example, if you really wanna know Nate's Apollo thread for all the updates, there could be a button on the bottom of the page that says "subscribe," and if you click on it, that Apollo thread will be on your listed subscriptions. Then there's the storybook option. This is only limited to storybooks you've posted in—both for the SB and the DT. Also, I made the picture late at night and forgot to put the profile option. So the little tab would tell you about wall posts and comments on your profile, too. All the tabs would have a (1) notification next to the text if there's a new novel updated on your favorited list, a new post in your subscribed thread, a new post in the DT/SB, or a new wall comment on your profile. So, if you scroll your cursor over the "1 Notification" button on the top of the page, the drop down menu would come down and tell you specifically what the notification is. Of course, you can also control the notification type. Maybe you don't want to be notified every time there's a new post in your subscriptions—that's alright, you can change the setting. However, if you click on the subscription tab on the drop-down menu, you can see that the thread has new posts; you just wouldn't be notified of it. Traffic Stats http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag120/carinanng/miscellaneous/6_zpsffc9449a.png Views! All other sites where I can post my work has them, but YWS doesn't. It's just really cool to see how many views a work you posted can get, and...well... I JUST THINK IT'S COOL, ALRIGHT? Here's what it could look like with all the stats and stuff (once again taken directly from Fictionpress): http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag120/carinanng/miscellaneous/9_zps6375db2d.png Here's what a month-by-month could look like (taken from FictionPress): http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag120/carinanng/miscellaneous/6a_zpscae4500d.png ...And maybe for each country, too? http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag120/carinanng/miscellaneous/6b_zpsbe11e406.png Hmm...yep, I think these features would be really great on YWS. :) They're just thoughts thrown up there for possible updates. What do you think could make YWS better? I spent way too much time on this... TL;DR Look at the shiny pictures and bask.

EscapeToNeverland

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Sun May 26, 2013 10:26 pm

EscapeToNeverland says... · Sun May 26, 2013 10:26 pm

yeah, i think its a really good idea. if they introduce the stuff it could really improve the site.

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StoneHeart

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Wed May 29, 2013 6:38 pm

StoneHeart says... · Wed May 29, 2013 6:38 pm

I wish YWS had a check box for subscribing and unsubscribing to Forum discussions and SB's (I mean: Click subscribe and you'll get notified of all new posts).

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CowLogic

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Wed May 29, 2013 7:41 pm

CowLogic says... · Wed May 29, 2013 7:41 pm

They have that, but unsubscribing doesn't really work.

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DragonGirl11

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Sat Jun 22, 2013 9:01 pm

DragonGirl11 says... · Sat Jun 22, 2013 9:01 pm

I think it would be cool if you could search within a single thread. Like, if I wanted to find where a user posted first in a topic or find if I'm mentioned in the yearbook.

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Omni

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Sat Jun 22, 2013 9:27 pm

Omni says... · Sat Jun 22, 2013 9:27 pm

@DragonGirl11

I think what you're talking about is Control f, where you can search for a certain key word or letter. That's a good substitute.

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DragonGirl11

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Sun Jun 23, 2013 11:52 pm

DragonGirl11 says... · Sun Jun 23, 2013 11:52 pm

@aquestioning

Yes, that works, but it only searches one page at a time. For longer threads like storybooks and randomosity, it can take a long time to search each page individually.

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"You could look at the raindrops on your window, or you could look through the window and see the rainbow."

~K.C. Oxford

<YWS>

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Sins

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Tue Jun 25, 2013 9:35 pm

Sins says... · Tue Jun 25, 2013 9:35 pm

This has probably been mentioned already because it seems like something that would have been (if it has, please go ahead and ignore this post), but I think it would be really neat to be able to 'follow' novels so that you'd get notified every time a new chapter is posted.

I'm pretty useless and always lose track of novels I'm trying to follow, so a notification for every new chapter would be handy. Also, whenever I post my own novels I have some YWSers asking for me to let them know when I post a new chapter, but I almost always forget to do so because I'm me and me is useless.

I didn't know what to put here so I put this.

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