The Pub Discussion Board

I will only respond to part of this, layout and design is not my thing. I leave that kind of thing to Annie. I will comment what I think should be displayed, what I would want displayed as both a reader and, every now and then, a writer.

First thing to remember, is these are search results. If you want more information, you can click on it and get ALL the information. So... with that in mind...

Story title, author, genre, complete or in progress, a quick description and the codes.

For search results, this should be enough. If it looks interesting, you can always click on it and get all the information.

Eric Storm wrote:

Can I ask why you need the codes on the initial page?

Eric

I can't speak for Jefferson but for me it would be so that I could easily pick out the type of story I'm looking for.

I'm not sure if this would make a difference in the loading times because I don't fully know what the hangup is for the display but can you do some sort of Java Script thingy where you hover you mouse over the item and the long explanation appears?  Alternatively you could do something like what Amazon does where it only displays a limited portion of the text not worrying if it cuts off, if I want to read the whole thing I then click a link at the end to get the full text.

What they said.

I would like the same things on the search results page, as Jefferson.  I think a short description, that is maybe a portion of the full description.  Something like the first 200 characters of the description and then it cuts it off, if you want to read the rest of it, click on the link.  Just my two cents.

No, but it will add quite a bit to the load time, unless I do a little reworking on the database.  I've already figured out how to do that, since it's quite obvious that everyone insists on seeing the story codes first-thing out.

Eric Storm

What I find distressing, on a purely personal level, is that everyone who has commented here has been willing to forego the description - the "real" information about what the story is about - in favor of codes about the sex.

Since people want the codes, I've found a way to get the codes more efficiently, but I do find it, as I said, a bit distressing that the sex is still more important than the plot.

Eric Storm

Okay, to continue this discussion, here is a screenshot of the proposed new results list:



As you can see, all the codes have been included. (except on things that have no codes - check the Image Series, rated PG, it has no codes in it.)  I have even shown how the tooltips for the codes will work.  These tooltips are assigned to content codes, pairing codes, genres, statuses, and ratings.

The icons on the right-hand side are informational only, and are explained in a legend.  The two on the left-hand side are the ones that do work.

The folder icon is (as you would expect), the "open story" icon.  You can also achieve this by clicking on the name of the story.

The magnifying glass icon is the "more information" icon.  If you click this, a box pops up (strictly within the site, it is not a "system" dialog), which gives you all of the information about the story you could ever want.  If requested, I'll take a screenshot of that, too.

So, seeing this in front of you, please give constructive comments.

Eric Storm

It looks great Eric.

If it doesn't do it already, the only thing I would add is when you hover your pointer over the icons it does the popup balloon to explain what it does.