Log in suggestion

[Guest Guest]

Hi, this is just a suggestion and I apologize if you already have this in place but I didn't notice. Anyway, over at hpfandom(dot)net the members sign in by clicking log-in, they also have a register link and lost password link right below it so authors who want to sign up just clicks that link and follows the directions. I also noticed that authors can respond to reviews very easily instead of having to use a forum. I am just suggesting that a moderator check that site out to see what I am talking about. They seem to have it very user friendly with easy to find links/instructions. I mean no harm but just was reading topics in the forum and noticed how many people seemed to be having difficulties with how to use your site and they were getting upset over not being able to due to one reason or another. I think you all are doing a fantastic job running this site and don't know how you keep so calm when some of the people posting the comments seem rather rude.

[DemonGoddess]

First of all, the login. The login is done via the centralized location for it. Yes, there are issues with the CENTER boxes, but using the ones located at the upper right there are no problems.

Sure, we could let users reply in the review boards rather than lengthy ANs and what not, but then again, I'm the one who is going THROUGH all that and fixing the data from the multiple crashes this site has suffered over the years. For my sanity, we use the forum for responses. I am the ONLY one with DB access, so you can see what I mean. I have 8.6GB of data to go through record by record, and fix where needed. I'm hoping we have a function for the actual replies once the storyboarding is rewritten. (I've asked for it, we'll see how that goes). In the meantime, the forum options works just as well.

For lost passwords, with the hashing in place to prevent users from being hacked, the login retrieval is done via a password RESET. It's simple enough and there are directions in the email sent to do this. Underneath the login boxes themselves, it's clearly stated that users must me mindful of password entry being CASE sensitive.

As to difficulties, many of them are directly Internet Explorer related. That particular browser creates issues not just here, but at most sites. In fact, to make something like this IE compatible, the coding often BREAKS in all the other browsers. So, no, not going there. EVER.

As to what the abovementioned site uses for software, eFiction has its own set of issues, including many security vulnerabilities, the inability to work with a dataset this size, and some other things I won't bore you with on a tech end. When looking to revamp all the old code here (which where it's not yet been rewritten is over ten years old and iffy) I did experiment with an import (offsite of course), and managed to crash the program rather quickly. So it's clearly NOT an option for us.

Given that writing a new code base takes time, there are many functions which are planned and not yet in place. Such as clicking a link to set a story in the recommended reading, clicking an author name for the same. The big thing right now, is to make sure that the new code WORKS, which is does quite nicely. We'll add the little extras (and they are tiny in comparison to the big picture) AFTER making sure all the base code is in place and working correctly.