Hi guys, I just wanted to give you a quick update on some of the changes that we've been making lately.
Story submission period selection has been simplified
Previously when you submitted a story you would choose a crit period (also known as slot) into which to place your story. If you wanted the story to be guaranteed to come up no sooner than this you would then need to check 'do not move story up' or something like that.
This was a bit clunky to use since most of the time people just want their stories to come up as soon as possible.
To that end we've simplified the process so that by default you don't select a slot by hand and your story will come up as soon as its able, but if you do want to choose a slot then the story will be guaranteed to remain in that slot, come hell or high water.
Note that your story should now never be moved back. Your story will never come up later than the date you see on the submit story receipt page (unless you submitted into the wrong queue (e.g. General for a fantasy story) and the story is moved its correct queue which happens to be longer). This will reduce the level of uncertainty and allow you to better plan your submissions.
You can paste MS Word text in the revise story page
Like we mentioned in a recent news item the ability to paste MS Word text has been added to the Revise Story page. Previously you could only do this on the submit story page, Many thanks to Catesquire suggesting this.
You can now move stories to a later date yourself
If you submit a story and you're not quite ready for it to come up for review you can now push the story back yourself without needing to ask the admins. Simply click Move story back on your story's page. Once you do, however, you cannot move the story forward again. You can however move it backwards as you want.
When you do this the story will be pinned to the period that you choose and will be guaranteed to come up for review then; it will not automatically come up earlier.
Format Story sidebar
Did you know that you can format story and crit text and layout?
A new font has been added to the format story options. If you have not used that sidebar before we highly recommend it. The formatting sidebar was hidden by default before so many people might have missed it.
The formatting sidebar is now also available when you're viewing inline crits.
Using the formatting options allows you to make the stories and crits look however you want to. I suggest checking out the new Source Sans font with the Huge text size. It's very nice on the eyes.
We've also cleaned up inline crits so that the comments will also use the chosen formatting.
All sidebars are now visible by default but if you close them they will remain closed.
Jump to other crits of your story
When you are reading a crit you can now directly jump to other crits of the same story from the new 'Critiques' sidebar. If you like a crit, label it or mark it with an icon, those will be visible in the sidebar as well, making it very convenient to jump between the crits that you want to read.
Let us know if there is something in this new feature that you think is lacking.
Top Critters now visible in the Novel page
You can now see a top 10 list of the top critters on your novel. The list is broken down by number of crits, words and a couple of other interesting fields. From the list you can jump directly to the crit list for each member.
Some stylistic changes here and there
The submit story wizard has been improved (in my opinion) and looks and feels nicer.
In your message box list, you can now see a link to the story that a discussion pertains to.
Menus and titles have been revamped slightly and standardized. For example, main title for each page is now left-aligned instead of centered.
We've also made some small stylistic changes here and there to modernize the look and feel of the site. There should little less bling bling and more functional simplicity.
Please let us know what you think of these changes and if you have encounter any issues.
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