I've been giving myself some time to let the changes on the revamped site sink in a bit, to make sure that I'm not just reacting in my typically poor Cancerian way to the c-word ("change").
However, it's been awhile, and certain things about the new site are still rubbing me the wrong way. I only like to be rubbed the right way, with lavender oil, especially when I'm paying good money for it. Oh, wait...
Anyway, there are three concerns I have at the moment:
1.) In the story listings, for instance on the Highest Rated page, the brief descriptions no longer appear next to the story title. First of all, just in terms of visuals and spacing, it was helpful to have these descriptions because they added an extra line or two of depth and prevented the listings from getting too compressed. I also thought the descriptions were fun and served as a good way to give a sense of the overall flavor of the story when the title alone wasn't too explanatory. I know that the descriptions now show up on the intro page, but that just takes me to number 2 on this list:
2.) Do we really need those intro/cover pages? It creates sort of an awkward delay without offering anything very informative or visually appealing. My impression is that the hits on my stories have actually been down since the new site started up. I'm not opposed to the idea of a cover page in general, but I think it's the sort of thing that could be opened up for some interesting art work or a brief introduction or something a bit more user-controlled. It's great to have so many statistics available, but these were always easy to access and not everyone wants or needs to see them. There just seems to be a bit of disconnect between "read story" and "research story". Except perhaps for stories with a Mature rating, I just don't think it's necessary to put a block between someone's interest in a story and the first page of that story.
3.) Finally, I'm not crazy about the stars. They give the impression that IS is now a movie review site. I rather liked having the numerical ratings, since they're more exact and made it clear that we were working with a 10- rather than a 4- or 5-point system (hence, we're terribly sophisticated).
I'm really sort of throwing this out there for group discussion. I'm thrilled by a lot of the changes on the new site, particularly by the fact that the Mature rated stories are now listed automatically. Nonetheless, I think there's still room for improvement and y'all know I'm never afraid to speak my mind.
(Note to self: send PayPal donation before X-mas!!)
However, it's been awhile, and certain things about the new site are still rubbing me the wrong way. I only like to be rubbed the right way, with lavender oil, especially when I'm paying good money for it. Oh, wait...
Anyway, there are three concerns I have at the moment:
1.) In the story listings, for instance on the Highest Rated page, the brief descriptions no longer appear next to the story title. First of all, just in terms of visuals and spacing, it was helpful to have these descriptions because they added an extra line or two of depth and prevented the listings from getting too compressed. I also thought the descriptions were fun and served as a good way to give a sense of the overall flavor of the story when the title alone wasn't too explanatory. I know that the descriptions now show up on the intro page, but that just takes me to number 2 on this list:
2.) Do we really need those intro/cover pages? It creates sort of an awkward delay without offering anything very informative or visually appealing. My impression is that the hits on my stories have actually been down since the new site started up. I'm not opposed to the idea of a cover page in general, but I think it's the sort of thing that could be opened up for some interesting art work or a brief introduction or something a bit more user-controlled. It's great to have so many statistics available, but these were always easy to access and not everyone wants or needs to see them. There just seems to be a bit of disconnect between "read story" and "research story". Except perhaps for stories with a Mature rating, I just don't think it's necessary to put a block between someone's interest in a story and the first page of that story.
3.) Finally, I'm not crazy about the stars. They give the impression that IS is now a movie review site. I rather liked having the numerical ratings, since they're more exact and made it clear that we were working with a 10- rather than a 4- or 5-point system (hence, we're terribly sophisticated).
I'm really sort of throwing this out there for group discussion. I'm thrilled by a lot of the changes on the new site, particularly by the fact that the Mature rated stories are now listed automatically. Nonetheless, I think there's still room for improvement and y'all know I'm never afraid to speak my mind.
(Note to self: send PayPal donation before X-mas!!)
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