Site Functionality

[Guest Arc-Angel_of_Fire]

I am sorry if this is weird or rude. But what the heck happened to this site? I was all for the domain change to distance the flak from the people thinking you all were related to FFN but why has the site itself been degrading for lack of a better word? I mean to compare the AFF.com of now to the original AFF.net and AFF.com right after domain change it’s as if 80 percent of the site was systematically loss. I know at one point whole chunks of the archives went missing during one of the ‘upgrades’ only to partially return over the course of the next year with some lose forever. I am honestly confused by many of the changes done over the past several years. I mean while still different AFF use to function somewhat similar to FFN. Now I don’t know if there was any trouble between your two groups but to be honest AFF has been getting harder to use and navigate in these past couple years. If i put this in the wrong place i am sorry.

[BronxWench]

Most of the recent changes to the archive code have been to improve site functionality for mobile users, since we were getting a great deal of input from them about difficulties with the archive code as it was and the smaller screen format of mobile devices.

To be quite frank, none of our archive updates are driven in any way by FFN, or any perceived issues with that site. We are not, and never have been affiliated with FFN. They are a for-profit site, with a user base from age 13 and up, while we have always been an adult-oriented site with an age-limited membership. We did run into problems with old injections of code when we did an update, which caused one subdomain to experience issues displaying stories. None were lost, and our tech admin and coder worked tirelessly for several days to repair the issue. Certainly, with 22 other databases experiencing no issues, it’s not really accurate to say we lost 80% of the site. 

Is the site harder to navigate now? We certainly are working to avoid that, although I would say it is somewhat easier for mobile users than for those of us who prefer PCs and laptops. The new menus are less intuitive in some ways, and display awkwardly, in my opinion. It is unfortunate, but we are working with a fairly limited budget since we are not-for-profit. We do not require support from users, although we always appreciate help in the form of donations, or by volunteering as a staff member. We are all, top to bottom, unpaid volunteers who do this because we believe in what AFF stands for—censorship-free fiction.

I don’t think you have been weird or rude, but if you can be more specific about the areas which have been less than satisfactory, that is helpful for us as we continue to work to improve AFF for all users. We do listen to our members, and we do pay attention to member comments and suggestions. After all, a fiction archive without authors and readers isn’t much of a fiction archive. If something isn’t possible, we’ll do our best to explain why, or to explain what we’ve done in lieu of a feature. So, let us know, and we’ll be happy to do our best to help.

[WillowDarkling]

I just noticed something in your post, but I’m not sure it is all that important. But the site went from the .net domain to a .org domain, not .com. 

Don't know how much that matters, but it stuck out to me. 

[Arc-Angel_of_Fire]

i actually meant dot-org. I only saw the typo after i posted but as a guest at the time i couldn’t edit so...yeah. As for specifics well i honestly meant the site as a whole. It’s just feels clunky and slow. The number sub-archives we have to navigate now is crazy. To simplify my searches I’ve had to complete reject the site as a whole and just google whatever series i am looking for at the time pick a random story and back track via the category header at the top of the page.

[BronxWench]

We’ve always had separate databases for each subdomain. That’s nothing new.  The new levels of sub-categories and categories within those are something we have been asked to do by many members, who want to be able to navigate to a specific pairing within a subdomain. In the more general subdomains, ie, Anime, you do need to navigate to the specific anime you want to read, such as Pokemon, which has its own sub-category and levels of categories under that, or Ai no Kusabi, which is in the .+ to F sub-category and which gives you 4 pages of stories to look through.

Is it slow to navigate? I expect it is, but you need to navigate within FFN in a similar manner. I f I want to read Dragon Age stories on FFN, I would need to Browse to Games, and then to D, and then find Dragon Age on the list which appears. From there, it’s all chronological based on dated published or updated, with 20.6K of stories for me to peruse.  On AO3, I need to Browse, which takes me to a page of recent fics from every fandom, and then I have to click the link to take me to fandoms, and from there figure out where my fandom might live. I’m not sure what the difference is between Dragon Age – All Media Types and Dragon Age (Video Games), but I’m sure if I poked, I’d eventually figure it out, but with 46,669 works under Dragon Age (Video Games) I don’t anticipate the search being too quick.

I don’t think any fiction archive has managed to find a way to streamline the search process.  Certainly, since AFF was founded in 2002, the site has grown considerably, and what was a speedy process has become more time-consuming as we embraced new fandoms. It’s really only a few clicks to arrive at a fandom, and while I personally liked the left-side menus a lot better, they didn’t work for mobile users.

But what can help is to navigate once to a fandom you like, and then bookmark that category. It’s faster to click that bookmark, and get to the fandom than to navigate through the menus, or Google a random story and backtrack. Using one of my examples above, you can go to Ai no Kusabi, and bookmark the category url: http://anime.adult-fanfiction.org/index.php?cat=1049  Most browsers let you edit the text for a bookmark, so you can edit it to read something like AFF-Ai no Kusabi, and then you’ll be able to rapidly find your fandom. You can also add specific stories to your Currently Reading section of your profile, which I do to be able to access a specific story with ease. Our FAQ here explains how to do that.

[DemonGoddess]

I’m going to ask Manta what we can do about the menuing, as when we made it more mobile friendly, it certainly became LESS friendly to desktop.  We have to find a happy medium with this.

[BronxWench]

I actually broke all my own personal rules and accessed AFF from my phone the other day. I wanted to see how the Review and Report links at the bottom of a chapter displayed, since I have an inordinate number of reports in Tosmail (largely from iPhones)  from people who are either doing the smartphone equivalent of butt-dialing me, or who leave reviews in the staff email which authors never see.

I will say, perhaps in AFF’s defense, that my phone is a less-than-cutting-edge Samsung Galaxy S5 , and the screen is not immense. However, unless I held the phone sideways, it was really obnoxious to try and read on my phone. Navigating past what felt like endless menu links to get to the actual story text was not even remotely convenient, and has convinced me never to do that again.  :shudders:

[DemonGoddess]

Okay, will point Manta to this topic