Ability to reply to reviews

[solunvar]

All right, so if direct review replies can't be done... What about implementing some kind of way to automatically hide author replies in a chapter, but make it so that the replies can be extended when you click on it. Don't know if that was a clear explanation or not, but I'll give an example:

---story information/disclaimer/?---

Review Replies //clickable

---story/chapter text---

//Clicked

Review Replies

@user1: Thanks for reviewing

@user4872: Whatever.

I know it's possible to do something like that. Some Javascript, and some kind of code for authors to insert, like [responses]blabla[/responses] which in turn gets parsed by the PHP interpreter and translated into the necessary code.

Of course, it's a system that relies on the authors to apply it, but it seems like a good compromize between having your replies and preventing stuff like chapters whose actual story text is half a page long, while the replies to reviews go on and on and on.

Personally, I don't mind if people reply to some reviews in their chapters, but there's a limit. When you're reading, you want to read, not scroll through an endless of information you're not interesting at the moment. (Maybe later on, when you've read the rest of the story/chapter, yes.)

[DemonGoddess]

What I've been saying ALL ALONG is that it's not possible with the current script. I've also said many, many times that we are in the process of writing new software. So, sure, there are options that will be written in to the new stuff. Having said that, I must reiterate the other though.

Aside from that, what you're talking about would require some sort of db insert with the javascripting as well, for the data to be there for the script to parse in the first place. Hence the phpmail function that we're wanting to use for review replies instead. Considering the size of the database as it is (6.6GB and GROWING), I think you can see why we'd prefer not to have even more data being inserted with review replies as well.

[_C_]

Probably necroposting, but YES! I've had nonmembers ask me a question and then leave me NO way to contact them and it's usually a GOOD question that I can't ever answer without adding an unrelated author's note to another fic, which I absolutely don't like to do!

[Satai Delenn]

Sorry if this is beating a dead horse, but is there anything in the works to make the "reply within review" function available? I know I don't have any stories up yet, but I'm working on some and would prefer if at all possible, to be able to reply to reviews within the reviewer's post. I'd rather not have to reply to reviews in an Author's Note within the story. Of course, that's assuming I get reviews, lol.

[DemonGoddess]

It's not possible with the current software. The best interaction I've been able to come up with is to have you guys make a topic in forum and have discussions. I'm sure you noticed when this started, that I said the db was 6.6GB. It was, at the time. Damn thing is now 7.5GB, inching towards 7.6GB. That is primarily story and chapter data. Having said that, there is still a significant amount of data in the review tables themselves.

I've tinkered off and on with bridging the two applications (off site) and have yet to be able to come up with a way to bridge them without crashing the archive app. Again, due to the age of the archive software.

There are a few things I've also been tinkering with to help speed up the archive itself, but they have nothing to do with the storyboard stuff. It's something for in the background, primarily, but will help ease the load. If I can get it to work the way I want. Good for other stuff, but no good for this particular issue.

[Satai Delenn]

Oh, yeah. It would not be a good idea to crash the archive. Oh well. Thanks for the update though. It's much appreciated!

[Girlycard666]

Long-dead post is long dead, but looks to be semi-temporarily resurrected. But I can't help commenting, as most people are want to do when they're bored and sleepless at 6am.

I completely understand that right now a Review Reply feature is not possible. To perhaps take stress? Off our lovely Divinities, perhaps I could offer a suggestion for fellow authors who may not have previously thought of such or thought it appealing?

Currently, I find it extremely difficult to believe that anyone using this site does not have an active email address, or instant messenger service. I saw that the topic of email responses was brought up once or twice in the older comments, but not really built on all so much. While this option by no means aids in lessening ones effort to not have to navigate multiple windows or tabs, it does hold merit, if you're like me and despise spamming innocent readers with walls of Authors Notes text every chapter.

On my stories at least, I notice a trend of reviewers leaving their email addresses behind, in case I want to respond, or asking that I contact them when I update a story, or simply to chat them up if I'm so inclined.

I have taken to informing readers within the very first authors note of the story, that they should send their reviews to the contact locations I have listed on my profile (MSN messenger/email in this case) if they want a response. This takes pressure off me if they use the site Review feature, and off of reviewers if they genuinely want a reply to their comments.

Fearing spam or Flames is a genuine concern when using such a method, but that's why I thank the Internet Gods that you can have multiple email addresses and IM accounts. If you don't wish for your primary email to be flooded with reviews or spam, it's quite easy to create a different account solely and specifically for such a thing.

Hopefully this helps a bit. It's not the ideal or viable solution for everyone, but it works until the Archives would not be in danger of going *boom* if a feature were implemented.

[Rain7777]

Yes a review board would be great and I know of other sites that do them. HOWEVER it must take SO much for the moderators and admin and whoever who work behind the scenes just to keep the site running. Let alone adding fancy technical new features, however much they are wanted.

As for reviews.

Personally I love getting really indepth feedback, be it critical or not, from my readers. SO I came up with a couple of options.

1. A new email address. It's free and it was made only for my fanfic purposes so why not ay? It saves the mods lots of hassle and I can talk all sorts with my new email friends.

2. A blogsite. I'm on http://serpentstonguesandlionstails.blogsp...290500c46920a6b and I've found it really handy to keep my readers up to date (because I have ongoing medical problems/treatment/procedures) when I have to break from writing for example. I've also ended up showing sketches of things to do with my fic and encouraged the readers to submit fanart if they had any and/or wanted to.

3. I do tend to put a reply to my readers in my author's notes but also understand that its being asked that we don't do that so much anymore because of how much stuff there is on the site (from what I understood anyway.) I also understand what someone else in the thread said about it taking away from the story- especially if you're reading many chapters in one go. However, if a reader hasn't reviewed before and isn't looking for a reply then they can skip it without a problem.

Don't know if this was helpful or not, just saw the thread and thought I'd drop a line. But I think we do have to remember how much work this site must take to run. I think we really don't appreciate the mods and admin staff ect enough.

B xxx

[Guest Mulle]

I wholeheartedly agree. It would DEFINITELY improve this site alot if authors could respond to reviewers. I personally jump up and down in my seat with joy every time I get a review, and the reviewers should be showed proper gratitude for their review, it's a gem to the author. The ability to respond individually to the reviews would be very nice, and bring around much creativity. I personally have started writing review responses in the author's note, but for long stories with MANY reviews that could be too much.

But I'm a tech-computer-anything-to-do-with-technology-IDIOT, so I'll just stick with encouraging you guys, and then settle down to wait patiently, since I can imagine it's gonna take time, creativity and lots of work.

Good luck!

[DemonGoddess]

Mulle,

One thing that you can do, even though it's not within the story, is create a topic in the forum associated where you have your work uploaded.

For example, if you publish in originals, you would go here, choose the appropriate forum and make your topic. Not only can you make responses as long as you want, individually if that's your preference; (start topic, make an individual post to the topic to each reviewer) you're also not limited by word count, unlike in the archive. In the archive, if you have an AN that exceeds 600 words, you can't do it, and we do say something to you. You end up having to edit it, or potentially losing all the work. Anyway, after you make your topic, you put a link in your story (I know the html is not clickable, but it is easy enough to copy/paste or highlight link/follow link) and your readers will see your replies. Not only that, they can in turn respond to you. Without logging in, or creating a login.

I do understand authors wanting to respond within the archive, and having their readers respond there as well, but as I've said many times before, the code simply does not support it. Not only that, with the size of the archive database itself, it's much healthier for it, if the answers are redirected to a program which can handle the load better. That has everything to do with how each program handles data inserts, but I won't get in to that here.

[Shadowknight12]

A rather imbecilic question, I'm fully aware, but isn't it possible to do a donation drive (or several?) to set aside a bit of revenue from each month to save for a software upgrade? Something that can enable this feature and handle more customization, database size, etc. Sort of what you guys have done for the forum, actually.

[DemonGoddess]

We're looking at thousands to source the programmers and such, if that's how we go about it. Further, the whole thing is, if I rework it to allow reviews and review replies to live in a separate db, that's honestly the only way it'll be doable. That's for STARTERS. The archive database is 7.7GB. That's HUGE.

[Shadowknight12]

Bloody hell, I thought it was just a few hundred bucks. And yeah, that sounds about right, having a separate database for reviews/replies and stories is likely the smartest choice. Though holy shit, with less than a thousand dollars in the AFF account, a software upgrade isn't likely to happen anytime soon.

[DemonGoddess]

The problem here is that the software is abandonware. The company which originally made the scripts is defunct. So any programming changes have to be made independently.

Now, there has been extensive rewriting of many parts of the archive. However, there's only so much any one person can do on any given day. Add to that, that I'm very, very careful before instituting any changes, in that anything drastic has to be tested before being unleashed. Tested extensively, I might add.

[Shadowknight12]

Ah, that explains a lot. So no software upgrades. Yeah, I definitely see the problem with making changes, since nobody's around to help. Oh well. Hopefully this site will continue to grow, along with donations, and eventually it'll be affordable.

[BlackMaiden]

THello all,

I get like u this idea. I think that they should make a private message box in the user's control panel. That waay people can send responses to their reviews without filling up the 'review' link already on the stories info.

For example, when an author gets a review, the system will automatically send aan update in the control panel or send a pre-recorded message to the user, telling them they have new messages, reviews and/or ratings. Perhaps at the top of the page, there can be a 'updates' or 'new!' Link and when clicked on, it can either open a small list of sub links or a new page altogether and have links on that new page offering new private messages, reviews, rating, etc. It could even have numbers orbe highlighted to include if something is recent or read.

Also, a link could even be added on the reviews page saying to reply. As either in a sub box that expands when one wishes to reply or read all the options (kinda like the forums here) ar a like u by the review thhat says 'respond'that that redirects you to your personal messages. That way people can discuss back and forth without spamming. The site

I personally like the secondd optio better (redirecting to pvt messaging) because this can be managed better by the user and the site admins. AFF can set a limit on how many messages one can sen and recieve, before it is deleted based on older messages. The site can make a link on the pvt messages page, giving u a heads up to either save (which can actually be a link to save on computer or sent to personal email) or be deleted.

Just an idea, something easy for site to maintain (memory overload and spamming) and also keep the user happy.

Darkest Regards,

BlackMaiden

[DemonGoddess]

For example, when an author gets a review, the system will automatically send aan update in the control panel or send a pre-recorded message to the user, telling them they have new messages, reviews and/or ratings. Perhaps at the top of the page, there can be a 'updates' or 'new!' Link and when clicked on, it can either open a small list of sub links or a new page altogether and have links on that new page offering new private messages, reviews, rating, etc. It could even have numbers orbe highlighted to include if something is recent or read.

Also, a link could even be added on the reviews page saying to reply. As either in a sub box that expands when one wishes to reply or read all the options (kinda like the forums here) ar a like u by the review thhat says 'respond'that that redirects you to your personal messages. That way people can discuss back and forth without spamming. The site

You're talking about writing a whole series of functions. Before we even start looking at extra things such as this, the base workings of the archive have to work, and work right. THEN we can possibly look at integrating other things.

[BlackMaiden]

You're talking about writing a whole series of functions. Before we even start looking at extra things such as this, the base workings of the archive have to work, and work right. THEN we can possibly look at integrating other things.

How far off are so the tech people from updating the new format. I knew it was fairly new but wasnt sure hong long they done designing and the how many glitches were to be repaired once the site was made over. Atleast, adding small links like 'new'the buttons onto the page format would be easier than making a whole new list of functions. I know the site is still working on the resent updates, just thought id give some ideas to post later. Perhaps in the next six months, if they like the ideas and find them usedul. Good luck on the site

Darkest regards,

BlackMaiden

[DemonGoddess]

The storyboarding still has to be completely overhauled, as does the base category function. And a host of other things I'm not going in to at this point in time.

[BlackMaiden]

Hello there,

Fist i want to say, the site looks good, probably better than i could create on your guys' budget.

Have you thought of CSS codex, its a spin off on html but still an older codex. (Ill look into some update, test trial the and post them as i learn them if you want.)

I wrote a recent post on codex to the forum admins stationg on the codex and how i first found it. I done some web developing and noticed css codex took less space than html.

Hope that help your issues. Let me know if you need clarification or examples. Ill help any way i can.

Darkest Regards,

BlackMaiden

[DemonGoddess]

The new parts of the software are heavily reliant on css