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7/8 Status Update 2

08 Jul

We just pushed out a large update which fixes a few bugs and preps the site for upcoming upgrades.

Updates

  1. Reverted guest review system to previous setup where one can enter a name instead of using the default “Guest” name tag. Please note authors should not trust the name tag from guest reviews since everything in a guest review is from an unverified source.
  2. Today’s update included tremendous amount of changes under-the-hood and if you see a broken link somewhere, please notify us immediately.

Bugs fixed

  1. Forum alert un-subscribe links in email alerts.
  2. Community links in community alerts.
 
199 Comments

Posted by on 07/08/2012 in community, forum, reviews

 

Tags: , ,

199 responses to “7/8 Status Update 2

  1. Protection-Girl

    07/08/2012 at 4:15 pm

    Just clicked that side bar to the Twitter account. It must just be your link that’s not working.

    Anyway, I thought I would state this here. Please stop deleting stuff without looking! Some of the story’s I’ve noticed gone are great and not in breach of TOS anyway, while others that are still great get deleted too for an infringement they might not be aware of. If you have a problem with a story you should take the time (which we authors do to write for your site) to discus the matter with us. Plus your ‘rules’ are so loose when it comes to ratings its near criminal. M (16+) so how can you say not too much violence? Have you not watched or read hardly any of the fandoms your site caters for? Most of which isn’t even rated that high and has visual violence!

     
    • Candy Cane

      07/08/2012 at 10:59 pm

      First let me say thank you for finally opening a forum where fans and users can actually see that they can contact and interact with you. And with that being said I would like to make you aware of your fans standing

      Fanfiction.Net Admins,

      You risk losing many readers and authors by enforcing the only M/no MA rule. Taking away the MA rating while, it may have done the job of giving more freedom to younger members to use and navigate the site it has in a way shunned the older users.

      It does not seem fair for the older readers and writers of this site (some of us who have been here for over a decade) to be judged by the same standers as a 13 year old. Now I understand that the disuse of the MA rating was done so minors would not be able to access MA material thus leaving FF.Net open to reprimand, but if FF.Net were to bring back the MA rating and were to have disclaimer at the top of the page (like most all stories do) then would you still be held accountable? If a minor were to still see MA stories, the accountability would not be with the site, but with the parents for not monitoring their children. If minors are the ones that the Admins are worried are going to see what the shouldn’t, then why not go the route of AdultFF.net where they ask for a birthday, or why not make it mandatory for users to give their birthday at registration, then make it so only those who are 18 and up are able to access the MA rating while the minors can go no higher then M.

      As a 26 year old member I must say that I have read many wonderful stories here that were intended for a mature audience and I would hate for so many wonderful stories and talented authors to be deleted or banned from this site just because someone decided to write a story geared toward the adult age groups, I would really hate to see so many authors decide to pull their stories and leave the site because they feel they aren’t being treated fairly.

      I have been coming to this site for 13 years, I would love to be coming here for another 13 years but if there aren’t any stories here that appeal to a more mature reader, that likes that little something extra, then I may just have to move on, and I’m sure others would feel the same. But for FF.Net to keep both the new comers and the old timers interest and coming back for more, there will have to be a change and I believe that bringing back the MA rating and keeping both stories and authors who have a more mature taste to them on site is the way to do it.

      Thank You And Looking Forward To Seeing MA In The Rating List Soon

       
      • Writer

        07/11/2012 at 4:39 pm

        A simple fix would for those stories have an age limit and require a profile. So even if minors lie about their age, you won’t be held accountable for said lies.

         
      • yemi hikari

        07/20/2012 at 10:25 pm

        Except the rule has been there for ten years now and MA content is actually regulated by the law in the fact you can’t provide it to a minor. While they could have an age check there is the fact they can’t verify the age with an id like one can do offline. Providing a minor with MA material is against the law and before you say minors shouldn’t be reading M content remember that M is for sixteen and up and sixteen to eighteen is typically seen as being a minor.

         
      • Graham King

        07/21/2012 at 1:49 am

        If that is the case why are all the stories featuring BDSM and paedophilic relationships on the HP pages still up?

         
    • Jenna

      11/19/2012 at 9:56 pm

      Agree with ya there Protection-Girl

       
  2. chocosuperlative879

    07/08/2012 at 4:16 pm

    On the My Stories page, there’s a double arrow next to the name of each story, and when you click on it, it gets the Oops page.

     
  3. Edye Benedict

    07/08/2012 at 4:49 pm

    hi, so for some reason whenever i go to “edit profile” and attempt to edit my bio, the entire page freezes and i eventually get the google chrome pop up asking if i want to “kill pages”. i have no idea what’s wrong with it as this keeps happening and i cannot edit my bio. can you try to fix it please?

     
    • Xing

      07/09/2012 at 2:19 am

      What browser are you using? Do you have an extremely long profile?

       
      • slightlysmall

        07/12/2012 at 10:08 am

        I’m going to take a stab at it and say she’s using Google Chrome, if she’s getting a Google Chrome pop up asking her if she wants to kill pages.

         
  4. konarciq

    07/08/2012 at 5:04 pm

    Having the guest review system reverted to the previous set-up is indeed good news. Thank you!

    The general feeling at our Hogan’s Heroes forum however can be described as, “Can you guys *please* stop fixing what isn’t broken?”

    The site is fine as it is (or rather: as it was a few weeks ago) – so stop messing around with it!

    Another bug to fix is the automatic alert on both story and author when leaving a review. It’s just highly annoying to have to remember to untick all those 4 boxes.

    And a question: have you realized that changing the dates on the forums to mere month and day numbers is very confusing for especially non-Americans, who write the date the other way around? That puzzlement can easily be avoided by having the name of the month (or an abbreviation of it) written out in letters, as it was before. So once again: please stop fixing things that don’t need fixing…

     
  5. Donna

    07/08/2012 at 5:05 pm

    What about the bug that won’t allow you to change your story to ‘complete’?

    I’ve just now attempted to do so – and it won’t change.

     
  6. ryan slicer

    07/08/2012 at 5:24 pm

    The Facebook connection doesn’t work if you all ready have a login that uses that name. Works for Google+ no problem. but Facebook login doesn’t work correctly. It may be the username tied into the account.

     
    • Xing

      07/09/2012 at 1:55 am

      Can you elborate on the facebook connection error? We connect accounts by email first, so if your facebook book email is same as one already registered with the site, we will log you into that account. If your facebook email is different, we create a new account for you using your facebook username whenever possible.

       
  7. brendan2k5

    07/08/2012 at 5:27 pm

    Before I begin, I am a longtime member of both Fictionpress and Fanfiction.net. I have been using both sites even before they were split in two 10 years ago. I’ve emailed you guys over the years and have gotten not so much as an automated notice telling me it was received (speaking of which you guys really need to work on that) so I’ve decided to give you the last email I tried sending here with a few updates.

    In light of the unsolicited spam I’ve been getting via PM at Fictionpress I would like to propose a few changes to help get rid of the problem at their source:

    1. Add a Report Profile feature to Author profiles. This would link users to a page where they would have a list of things with which to report the offending person for. Such options would include ToS Violations, harassment, spam, etc.

    2. Disable Anonymous Reviews or rework it so it only functions as intended. I have noticed on FF.net expecially people have been using Anonymous Reviews to spam or troll an author’s stories. Let’s say someone has an account on the site but they’re simply too lazy to log in or accessing the site via moble device/tablet. A dialogue will pop up asking if they have an account. Instead of being prompted to log in they will enter their authorname. When they post the Anonymous Review they will be asked to log in to confirm if they want the Review they posted for X Story to be published. This is a measure to prevent abuse or unauthorized Anonymous Reviews. This feature would be listed under Anonymous Reviews in Author Control Panels

    3. Upon registration, new members will have ALL Communication Features (PMs, Reviews, Forum Creation, etc.) disabled. During the registration process they will be asked to specify if they will use the account for writing stories/poems/etc., Submitting reviews or a combination of both. They will then be required to make X Reviews or publish a story or two in order to gain the use of the communication features.

    4. Allow Authors to delete signed reviews akin to Anonymous Reviews. Not everyone hides behind anonymous reviews to spam people. Some use their own accounts.

    I also have a few unrelated ideas I’d like to see implemented in the near future.

    1. Add a Like and Dislike button to stories, reviews and author profiles. In addition, add agree/disagree buttons to go with them that the authors themselves can use to help build a fanbase.

    2. Create a Friends List feature separate from the Favorite Authors list. The Friends List requires both parties to sign off on it. Once they do, they will have access to some enhanced features such as Beta Requests, collaboration stories (no having to create a separate account) and instant notification when new content from that author is submitted (story, review, etc.).

    3. Give members the ability to write reviews on authors that will be posted on their profile. In addition, the author being written about will be notified automatically so that they can decide based on the content if they’d like it removed or like it.

    4. Allow the majority who’ve been following the rules from Day One the ability to link to Social Networking and Media Host Sites (Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Photobucket, Box.net, etc.) from their profiles, PMs and on their created Message Boards. I myself use Xanga, WordPress, Box.net, Photobucket Twitter and You Tube extensively and I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling like I’m being punished because of a few people.

    5. Bring back Premium Membership! Members can opt into premium memberships as either recurring or prepaid for a specific amount of time. Premium Members will enjoy extra exposure for their stories as before but will also be able to embed media (videos and pictures) into their stories and profiles. They would also have access to a Preium Members Board where they can chat with site staff and other premium members.

    6. Blog Integration. I myself use my FF.net/FP.com Profile like a blog. A more formal Blog System would be a great help as folks would be able to subscribe to me and keep track of what I’m doing without having to use an external site including my own. This would also eliminate the need for people to use up a Chapter for non-story content (announcements, etc.).

    7. Mass-Email everyone whenever site updates are made so that EVERYONE will find out at once whenever changes are made to the site. Better yet, people like me who are following FF.net/FP.com on Social Media should get notified that way too so that they feel like they’re being “rewarded”, so to speak.

    …Finally, keep the Dialogue with the userbase two way. This blog is a good first step but you need to keep in mind ALOT of people have lost faith in FF.net/FP.com over the years. During that 2-year period of no news or updates a few years back alot of people got tired of waiting and took talents to rival sites Writer’s Cafe and Archive of Our Own (both of which have been open about their desire to recruit FF.net/FP.com’s userbase) or in a few cases, went on to get their original stories published.

    TRUST ME, alot of people still hold animosity towards you guys and will unless you acknowlege the past. I happen to be one of them. The only reason I haven’t “jumped ship” is because the fans of my stories are not willing to move so that means I’m “stuck” here like it or not. I figure since you’ve made the effort to reach out to people via this blog I will take advantage before you change your minds or something.

    This is it for now. My Authorname on both sites is Brendan Aurabolt or you can just reply to my blog. Thank you for your time.

    ~Brendan Aurabolt

     
    • Anon Person Who Disagrees

      07/09/2012 at 12:51 am

      I…can’t say I agree with all of this. :/ I’m going to be honest. Let’s go to the things I do disagree with.

      1. Disable anonymous reviews. There’s already an option for authors to do it. In addition, FFn/FP has added the feature to moderate the anonymous reviews. That needs no attention whatsoever…unless it’s being glitchy. >.>

      2. Disabling all the features of a new member and making them take a survey to ask what the profile is for. …Why? That…that wouldn’t do a thing. That would only prevent new users from being able to reach out to other authors in that site, forcing them to resort to other means.

      3. Majority who’s been following the rules get the ability to link to sites. Well…you do realize how many people use FFn and FP, right? Checking through every user would kind of be wasting time and effort…

      4. Premium membership. …No. Just…no. It’s especially not fair if premium members get more exposure to their story. Not everyone can pay, not everyone wants to. Besides, just because one can pay does not mean they will try hard when writing their stories. If anything, the authors that write more words in their stories deserve more exposure–which they generally get. And media embedded in writing…? Why? Why embed videos into what is meant to be like a book? Pictures, possibly, but they could cause problems too. And the staff aren’t paid to chat with the users…unfortunately. It’d be an easy job if they were.

      5. Blog Integration. The sites aren’t blogs. They’re sites that allows you to publish fanfiction or original stories. Let’s keep it that way.

       
      • Protection-Girl

        07/09/2012 at 1:27 am

        It sounds like he wants FFN to mate with Facebook and upload on the baby! (Damn that sounds wrong but funny so I’ll leave it).

         
      • brendan2k5

        07/09/2012 at 2:26 am

        My Reply, in order:

        1. In my opinion you stopped at the first sentence here. Either that you overlook what’s been a problem for me and a load of other authors. I’m not speaking just for myself on this one.

        2. I definitely could have phrased this one better. Basically what I’m asking for is for them to implement the same automation-resistent system currently being used for Logins for new accounts. Nothing more, nothing less. This should cut down if not eliminate the unsolicited Private Messages that were part of the reason HTML Linking is disabled on Author Profiles.

        3. You took what I said literally. Obviously this would apply to everyone.

        4. People like choices and money talks. I bought the premium membership in the past to get rid of the ads on FF.net and on FP.com it gave my stories extra explosure. I don’t know about you but there’s hundreds, maybe thousands of GOOD stories (and Poems) on both sites that don’t get the attention they deserve. Do you have any idea how many dozen Review Guilds there are on both sites to help get these stories get explosure? I’ve seen over 50 of them myself across both sites, Facebook, MySpace, LJ and WordPress alone.

        As for media embeds there would be a hard cap to prevent abuse and videos would be for Profiles only.

        5. I agree BUT if you want to cut down own people who spend a chunk of a chapter or story on non-story content you need to meet people halfway. There is a “need” for this otherwise I wouldn’t have suggested this.

         
      • yemi hikari

        07/20/2012 at 10:33 pm

        4. I’ll add the fact that fanfiction is a form of derivative work. The only person allowed to make money off of derivative work of copyrighted works is the actual copy right holder.

         
    • Xing

      07/09/2012 at 2:12 am

      Brendan, we are already working on several items on your wish-list and we are currently knocking off each one off the to-do list as fast as we can. As for premium accounts, we do not see it happening in the future since it actually creates more problem then it solves. We might have been a bit slow in some years past but that is no longer the case.

      As for your fp spam problem, please email support if you haven’t done so with spam content so we can track down the user and close their account. There will be an auto-spam feature integrated with the PM feature later today to address this exact problem.

       
      • brendan2k5

        07/09/2012 at 2:30 am

        …Thank you for taking me seriously. I apologize for coming off rude at the end of my original post. I was venting obviously but thanks for the prompt reply. Now I can put the past behind me and move forward.

        You can count on my support in the years to come ^_^

         
    • yemi hikari

      07/20/2012 at 10:30 pm

      I only agree with the first point of your first list. I don’t want to see this site turned into another social networking site.

       
  8. :-U

    07/08/2012 at 5:28 pm

    There is 2 search ‘box’ thinghy on the same page. The old one that is on the left side of the ‘Mobile’ link. And the new one on the right most side of the ‘Mobile’ link. Both are set by default to search for story. But only the old search box have easily accesible options on the side to search within story, author, community or forum. So, the question is, why put a new optionless search box when the old box with option function perfectly?

     
    • Xing

      07/09/2012 at 1:33 am

      The right search is designed for tablet users so they can search without having to click anything.

       
      • :-)

        07/09/2012 at 3:30 am

        Hmm, here’s a suggestion – just move the old search box out of the hover popup menu. With the old search box out in the open the option box will be easily accessible to tablet user. Right now if a tablet user want to search something other than story he/she will have to search using the new one, wait a sec for the result page and then change the search type in the option box that come with it.

         
  9. abloodredmoon

    07/08/2012 at 5:37 pm

    Can we have the option of turning off guest moderation, I disabled anonymous comments a long time ago and don’t particularly want them turned on with no option to turn them off now.

     
  10. Jinzle

    07/08/2012 at 5:57 pm

    Danke!

     
  11. Gustav

    07/08/2012 at 5:59 pm

    Any plans of changing the syntax for the E-mail subjects to make it easier to sort alerts by story name, this is impossible today since the chapter information is before the story name in the subject. By changing the order to have the story name before the chapter number in the subject it would group all alerts by story name when sorting on E-mail subject.

     
    • Xing

      07/09/2012 at 2:30 am

      We have just improved email subjects for several alerts including the chapter alerts you wanted to allow better user-side email sorting.

       
      • moxiegirl44

        07/09/2012 at 6:03 am

        Is there any way to print out our reviews without having to copy and paste each one individually into a word file? Thank you in advance for your reply. I LOVE all the wonderful advancements and the ability to interact with you guys who stand behind the magic curtain.

        MoxieGirl

         
  12. VeThena

    07/08/2012 at 6:07 pm

    I cannot review on my phone anymore on the mobile site.

     
    • moxiegirl44

      07/09/2012 at 6:00 am

      I have had many readers tell me they can’t review from their phones. Can this be changes so that they can somehow?

       
  13. Cyber5555

    07/08/2012 at 6:33 pm

    Thank you

     
  14. kat

    07/08/2012 at 7:47 pm

    We need a way to see a list of all the forums and communities we’re subscribed to.

     
    • ALT

      07/08/2012 at 10:54 pm

      For communities you’re subscribed to, you can just look under Alerts -> Community Alerts. As for forums, I’m not quite sure, as I don’t really go on the forums and so lack any subscriptions to them.

       
      • kat

        07/09/2012 at 4:58 pm

        It doesn’t show any of the communities I subscribed to the other day.

         
  15. Ashbear (@AshbearVIII)

    07/08/2012 at 8:02 pm

    Thank you, it’s appreciated that you’ve taken into consideration suggestions. I’ve been on the site for twelve years and have known some of the ‘guest’ reviewers who cannot log in/access their account for various reasons, sometimes beyond their control. And while ‘guest’ was a perfectly fine default, I’m glad you’ve reinstated the ability to place a name in a specified location instead of leaving it in the body of the review.

     
    • yemi hikari

      07/20/2012 at 10:35 pm

      Lol! I had someone contact me the other day and apologize for leaving a quest review…

       
  16. Angela Suzanne

    07/08/2012 at 9:02 pm

    Thank you so much for addressing the Guest review option. I have some readers who are not members and it appeared that I’d then have trouble deciphering who had left the reviews. Now that it’s been fixed, that’s great to hear.

    Something I’ve wanted to ask about to see if it’s possible….

    I review my story stats daily. Is there any way to upgrade the system to identify members who have generated such stats on our stories and profiles. I like to interact with my readers and I feel that it would be great if we had the ability to know what members are accessing our stories. It would help to get a feel for a more detailed demographic standpoint. For instance, if I could see that a particular story was being “Hit” by those more in the age range of 16-19yrs old, that would provide more incentive of my expanding my writing to market more towards that age group in addition to what I’m already writing, etc. I typically get a high volume of stats on my stories each month and I’d love to know what percentage is members and which percentage is guests AND when it is members, I’d love to know who they are because if they are taking the time to read my writing, I want to do the same and encourage them by reading theirs.

    Thank you for listening.

     
    • Random Ipsy

      08/04/2012 at 8:30 pm

      I like the thought of being able to tell how many of your hits are guests or registered users, but as to who they are? I feel that’s too interactive for a writing site. It isn’t Facebook after all. If they want you to know they’ve read your story, they’ll leave a review and/or you’ll see you are in their story/author alert / story/author favorites list(s).

       
  17. ALT

    07/08/2012 at 10:26 pm

    That’s great! I have some anonymous reviewers I’ll be happy to see again :)

     
  18. Estelli

    07/08/2012 at 11:47 pm

    Yay for number 1! ^^

     
  19. Lady Aracne

    07/09/2012 at 12:02 am

    Hey, I’ve got a broken link. When I open up a browser and I type in ‘Fanfiction.net’ in the address bar, it says that the link appears to be broken. Can you see if it’s happening to others and fix it?

     
  20. Lady Aracne

    07/09/2012 at 12:03 am

    Nevermind, it’s working now

     
  21. bobmin356

    07/09/2012 at 12:19 am

    I totally dislike the change to the review policy. You made a change, forcing me to announce a change to my readers. I am rejecting all unsigned reviews. If people can’t take the time to log in I don’t care what they have to say.

    Originally we could block unsigned reviews and it was a great way to cut back on the flamers that were too cowardly to review using a traceable account. Since the publication of the latest chapter to my current story I have gotten over 100 signed reviews and about 30 unsigned. Of the unsigned at least a half dozen were profane, ugly and threatening.

    I fail to see how forcing us to accept unsigned reviews is of any benefit. OH I can hear you say, but you can reject them! Yeah we can reject them, but why do we need to have the extra work? Just let us set a flag in the profile to reject all unsigned reviews and be done with it. Then it’s the authors call to make that choice. Right now you’ve given me extra work and I’m not happy about it.

     
  22. AjL

    07/09/2012 at 1:08 am

    We need a rate system for the forums

     
  23. Incinirmatt

    07/09/2012 at 1:12 am

    Well, it appears that there is a little bug.

    http://incinirmatt.deviantart.com/art/Posting-Problem-313467597 Here’s a direct link to a picture the problem, if you’re allowing links to go through on this blog. I mean, you might not be interested in reading a long post and can probably gain more from a picture than my story. Anyways!

    I and a couple other users were posting on a forum on fanfiction.net and trying to fill up our chat thread since it was almost full. We were close to reaching ten-thousand posts and we were holding a little contest: whoever could get the last post in the topic would be the one who created the new chat.

    Naturally, we were posting as fast as we could. Well, two of us were, myself included. Another was just lurking and waiting for the moment to post and steal the last post from us. Soon enough, I got post number ten-thousand. I was overjoyed, yet confused. When I went to the forum’s main page I saw that the one who was lurking was the last one to post. I kept checking back for a couple minutes, after making the new chat thread, and found nothing. After about three minutes, I saw something that made my brain even more bewildered.

    The lurker did post after me. He was post number 10,001. I just couldn’t see the post yet because it was on a new page and it needed time to load, which is normal for new pages in forum topics.

    We discussed in the new chat I made for a bit before I told the lurker to make a new thread for a chat room and that I would delete the one I made. However, I was still curious. I remembered there were only ten-thousand posts allow, nine-thousand ninety-nine of them being replies to the original post or other posts. So I went on a former chat thread, which had only ten-thousand posts total as opposed to the one that had broken ten-thousand posts, but when I tried to post on it, a message came up saying only ten-thousand posts were allowed in a topic.

    That was weird though. I mean, there were clearly more posts in the other chat. A few more tries later and it still wasn’t letting me post in either chat.

    So, yeah. We’re all baffled by this mystery. If you need to get to the forum, it’s the OC Forum which is the number one forum in post count. (WOO!)

     
    • Xing

      07/09/2012 at 1:31 am

      Not a bug. It is possible to go over the 10K limit if several people attempt to post at the exact same precise moment when the thread count is at 9999, it can go over the limit by a few posts.

      Please note we have just increased the reply limit to full 20K (20001 if you include the topic itself). The limit is there to actually prevent spams overloading the forums. Again, if the stars are aligned, some lucky users can exceed the limit but only barely so.

       
  24. Rose

    07/09/2012 at 1:48 am

    Thank you so much for making this blog. It’s so nice to see you people at Fictionpress and Fanfiction care about your users. It’s comforting to see all these updates – reminds me to stay patient when something isn’t working. You guys are obviously hard at work! So thank you very much. You have fantastic sites, and I am proud to be apart of this community.

     
  25. Izraill

    07/09/2012 at 2:25 am

    Your site is good, but it only has one trouble:
    Some people (like me) wants to make collaborative stories with other authors, but doing it means a HUGE argument about what account will upload it. A feature to show stories in two (or more accounts would be good, something like:

    “Ultimate battle by Izraill, Metallic-dragon-angel and Mr.E’s-pen”

    The story would have the names of all the authors that worked on it and would be shown in their accounts, being only one story. Maybe you don’t want something like that because you think that if one of the author modifies the story without the others knowing it there would be a problem. But you could fix that making that the changes were applied only if most of the authors approve it (or all of them in the case there were only two authors working on it)

    I’m sure I’m not the only one who would like that.

     
    • Xing

      07/09/2012 at 2:38 am

      There is no technical problem for this feature but rather a big human one. The site cannot function nor do we desire to function as an arbitrator when conflicts arise from co-authors. Due to this issue, we do not have this feature at this time.

       
      • Izraill

        07/09/2012 at 3:05 am

        I guess you’re right, the democracy would be the solution, but even that makes trouble just think about it, you don’t need to be an arbitrator, those conflicts always fix themselves (the bad thing is that usually they are fixed when someone quits). Can you at least try it? please, I mean, give it a try, like 1 month or 2 if it shows trouble then remove it, Having to cancel a work because of not being able to decide who will publish it is very frustrating (I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that) the problems are always there, the conflicts arise even without the feature, the change wouldn’t be that big.

         
      • yemi hikari

        07/20/2012 at 10:39 pm

        That I completely understand.

         
  26. Carol

    07/09/2012 at 2:32 am

    Just like to say Thanks. Thanks for the site, for updating, for caring enough to listen to all the complaining. I’m new as of four months ago.

     
  27. Liza Minnelli's bakelite compact

    07/09/2012 at 2:56 am

    I really dislike the changes FF.net is going through almost every other day now. As one person has already stated it’s as though FF wants to be like Facebook and we really, really don’t need that. I wish it would stay as it is in regard to signing in and so on but I agree with yet another poster that it would be lovely to know just who reads our stories and to be able to write reviews for authors in general. However, We should NEVER have to pay for better membership. That would be unjust.

    Here are just a few changes I’m unhappy about:
    It’s wrong that you have placed the “Report story” option so close to the review box at the end of stories, If people see it they’ll click it just to be nasty.
    Also, Most everyone I’ve spoken to is happy with the fact that we can add covers to our stories but have had many problems uploading photos. I, for one, cannot upload a cover for each individual story. FF.net states that there is a limit of ten per author but I hardly see where it matters if everytime I’ve tried to upload one it will only display the first three on my list. I have to delete others to get to the ones I want and It’s VERY annoying because I write about several different shows but many have to left with my default user pic. Please check into this. Plus it’s silly that you make us say that we have to own the image when all the shows/ movies/ video games etc we write about don’t belong to us in the first place. Do you honestly think people want to post a photo of their cat or Uncle Bob when they write about House Md, Doctor Who or whatever? It’s not like readers are going to sit there and say “Oh gosh, oh Golly They’re claiming to own the rights to that photo” No, we’re not. We just want to add a picture of the character we’re writing about. BTW, I haven’t uploaded any photos I don’t own but it’s a drag.
    One final thing: instead of plunging head first into all the social media sites and revamping FF.net to make the teeny-boppers hap-hap-happy, why don’t you try to fix some of the things that are already badly in need of help, such as adding characters to stories…So many shows have been up for ages and do not have the option to let readers search for the characters by name. Plus, my God, You need to add some more movies and Tv Shows to the line up! Agh, We need more BBC shows on there too instead of having to make them “Misc” because not too many people want to search through that horrible mess.
    Thank you for reading this, Sorry if I seem nasty. I’m not trying to be.

     
    • yemi hikari

      07/20/2012 at 10:46 pm

      Screen captures for cover pages doesn’t fall under fair use in this circumstance and thus could get the site into legal trouble. It is similar to the rule about publishing from copyrighted works. And if this rule wasn’t in place people would be snagging other people’s fanart without asking permission first. As an artist I have to completely agree with this decision too.

       
  28. klaine123lover

    07/09/2012 at 3:00 am

    I really don’t see why you guys keep changing things,The site was easier to use with the older version.

     
  29. kurt123lover

    07/09/2012 at 3:01 am

    I don’t see why you guys have to change most of the things on the sites.Only the cover art feature is useful for my account.

     
  30. bmorlang

    07/09/2012 at 3:30 am

    Could you please bring back the option of emailing the story links? I always emailed story links to myself so I could find them later on my phone. The only way to do it now is a multi-step process whereas before it was one click then hitting send.

     
  31. Wingless Hymn

    07/09/2012 at 3:31 am

    I have a sort of complaint ^^; About a few weeks or so ago, I made a community by accident and tried to remove it, but there is no option to remove the community.

     
  32. Nataly S Potter

    07/09/2012 at 3:55 am

    Hi
    I have noticed for sometime now that the Communities links in the E-mails of Story Added to C2 alert are broken. I subscribe to a lot of C2, so i don’t think it is a problem from just some of them.
    Another thing is that my Account page doesn’t fit to the window when i am using firefox.

    I really liked the changes to the way we enter the alerts, favorites and reviews in the fic’s actual page, but i would like to make some sugestions: i regularly use the add story to alert, but almost never use the add author to alert. I think it would be best if no choice was pre-marked, it is bothersome to unmark it every time. Likewise, i don’t think (hope so) that there are as much people that report abuse as those that add a fic to a C2. I personally hate having to change that all the time. Also, i use the shortcut Top in the end of the page almost all the time, and think it would be best if it had more emphasis than the other options in the last line. I liked the way it was before, in the right corner. And lastly, i think it would be nice if the image of the fic could be square as well as retangular. Some images get cut that way.

    I apreciate all the changes to the site, and understand that it is a lenght task, and that it is hard to please everyone. So thanks for your effort in trying to better the site. I love this site and hope the best for it. :)

    Ps.: Excuse my english, please XD

     
    • Xing

      07/09/2012 at 4:46 am

      The borken links for C2 alerts should have been fixed in our update last night.

       
      • Protection-Girl

        07/09/2012 at 5:01 am

        What’s wrong with the site? I can’t log in. It keeps having these glitches. Its a nightmare. I love your site and feel its slipping a lot!

         
      • Protection-Girl

        07/09/2012 at 5:09 am

        The cursor alignment is off. When I click during a message/review etc. it drops the the blinking cursor to the left by a millimetre or so.

         
      • Nataly S Potter

        07/09/2012 at 12:11 pm

        The C2 links seems to be working now. Thank you!

         
  33. Marie1964

    07/09/2012 at 5:22 am

    >nother bug to fix is the automatic alert on both story and author when leaving a review. It’s just highly annoying to have to remember to untick all those 4 boxes.

    I would like to second what Konarciq wrote. I don’t want to read every story by every author–only the stories in the fandom that I’m familiar with. Remembering to uncheck the boxes for “follow author” every time I leave a review is a bit tiresome.

     
    • newkathy97

      07/09/2012 at 5:35 am

      I agree with Marie and konarciq. It is annoying to have to un-tick those boxes every time you leave a review. Just because you review a story doesn’t necessarily mean you want to follow the author or like the story.
      To repeat the question: What was wrong with the old way? I am only two or three months old on the site and I’d just become used to everything.

       
      • Liza Minnelli's bakelite compact

        07/13/2012 at 9:51 pm

        You are so right, It’s very annoying! And upsetting when you become excited after seeing that someone has added you story to their favorites only to find they’ve left a review and didn’t mean to. If FF.net won’t go back to the way things were then please, please don’t change anything else!!!

         
  34. Missy

    07/09/2012 at 5:30 am

    There’s one thing I have noticed lately that is rather annoying…in forums when you write a post and make a mistake, when you highlight the material you want to delete it deletes the whole message and takes you back to the forum page. Another thing with the forums is in mobile mode who can not bold it, use italics, hightlight words, or create paragraphs, is there any way that you can enable these features in mobile mood??

     
  35. Lisa

    07/09/2012 at 8:34 am

    I have a question that related to what some people have said. You said, in response to Brendan’s post, that some of the things he’d said are things that will be added to the site. I’m just wondering: does this include rating? Because rating is just an awful system. People who leave constructive reviews will automatically garner some hate, and if there’s a rating system, that’ll only serve as a way to troll the user. That, and the more popular stories are not always the best ones in terms of writing, plot, and characterization. If a very well-written story only has ten readers who give it a good rating, while a less well-written story has 100 people who rate it as good, then that’d just serve to make the less well-written story even more popular.

    There are already authors who barely care about writing, and more about getting as many “good” reviews (e.g. “Love it, please update soon!”) as possible. Reviews are, of course, irreplaceable; it’s what makes FanFiction a community. But if rating was added… It would make FanFiction into a competition instead of a place where people can upload (and share) their writing and improve.

    Anyhow, my question still stands: is rating a system that you plan on adding?

     
    • Xing

      07/09/2012 at 9:26 am

      No. We are not adding a star rating system.

       
      • Lord Kelvin

        07/09/2012 at 11:35 am

        Thank goodness.

         
      • konarciq

        07/13/2012 at 3:27 am

        Although having the Favs and Follows public serves as a rather similar function, doesn’t it?

         
  36. Graham King

    07/09/2012 at 12:07 pm

    Why can’t we have the option to block guest reviews like we used to. I blocked unsigned reviews because people use the chance to be anonymous to leave abusive reviews, at least if they sign them you can ban the person from posting

     
    • bobmin356

      07/09/2012 at 6:38 pm

      YES! I said the same thing and my comment still hasn’t been approved for others to see.

       
  37. ShikiKira

    07/09/2012 at 7:19 pm

    The community pages where you change how it’s sorted, by add date or update date, or by the rating, lead you to a page that say that particular page doesn’t exist. One example is this ones, http://www.fanfiction.net/community/Kagome_chan_Crossovers/63879/99/1/1/

     
    • Xing

      07/09/2012 at 11:05 pm

      Fixed.

       
      • ShikiKira

        07/09/2012 at 11:19 pm

        Thank you!

         
  38. Atem's Sister Atea

    07/10/2012 at 4:16 am

    Can I make a complaint about the new review set-up? IT STINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

    When the review box was in a separate window, I could type my review for long chapters or one-shots while I scrolled through said chapter/one-shot. Now that the review box is fixed at the bottom, I’d have to keep scrolling UP and DOWN if I want to leave my VERY long and VERY descriptive reviews for the author!! It’s so TEDIOUS!!

    Can we PLEASE go back to the old window version?! I’m not alone in my opinion! A LOT of my friends agree with me about this!!

     
    • Torchwood Cardiff

      07/10/2012 at 9:54 am

      I second that. It was nicer before, without having to uncheck all the boxes before submitting.

       
      • Atem's Sister Atea

        07/10/2012 at 10:30 am

        Yet ANOTHER point!! Thanks for pointing that out! Glad to know I’m not the only one against this lame change!!

         
      • Graham King

        07/10/2012 at 12:14 pm

        I’m in full agreement, just because i review doesn’t mean I want to follow

         
    • konarciq

      07/13/2012 at 3:28 am

      100% agreed!

      Though I realize it’s hard to please everybody…

       
      • Marie1964

        07/13/2012 at 8:46 am

        I would like to agree with what people have stated here. I would love to see the old review system put back in place. Also, please don’t make the follows and faves public, as it makes FanFiction look more like a popularity contest than a literary/writing website.

         
  39. Liza Minnelli's bakelite compact

    07/13/2012 at 9:56 pm

    I agree with Marie1964. We REALLY don’t need the faves or follows to be displayed. for the world to see. When I logged in today and saw that they are public I said “Oh great! Something else to make me feel worse about myself”. Writing Fanfic is one of the ways I try to make myself feel better and you guys at FF.net want to make it all about who can get the most followers, reviews etc. Just stop it already!!!!

     
    • yemi hikari

      07/20/2012 at 10:57 pm

      Except there are two positives to showing the favorites and follows.

      First, a writer can now see if their story is getting a normal amount of favorites and follows as the other fanfics for their fandom, pairing, genre ect. This can help them decide whether they need to post more frequently or try to get their fanfic out there.

      Second, I’ve had people who tried telling me their story was popular and a lot of other people like it so my critique doesn’t matter, yet they had a small number of reviews and thus would resort to using their invisible stats against me. They can’t do that anymore. Not that popularity means quality. Better to have an unpopular fic with good quality then one that is popular and of low quality.

       
      • myrddinlefay

        07/22/2012 at 9:08 am

        I don’t agree. What about those hunters that read based on review stats. Now they’ll read on faves and alerts while new stories or authors may lose out on readers. And seeing whether they’re normal doesn’t matter as a lot of the time it depends on the summary to draw you in. Sometimes a bad summary can hurt.

         
  40. Graham King

    07/16/2012 at 10:36 am

    Please let us have the option to block guest reviews as most anonymous reviews are abusive, I liked being able to stop the trolls from abusing me

     
  41. Enaid Aderyn

    07/19/2012 at 8:02 am

    The ‘moderate anon review’ feature is an interesting enhancement, but I don’t understand why you took away the ability to block anon reviews altogether. Please, please return it! Since I don’t want anon reviews in the first place, you force me to go in & play administrator – it’s solely a disadvantage to me, the writer, and really only benefits the trolls or lurkers.

     
    • Graham King

      07/19/2012 at 10:47 am

      I have asked this question as have others and we haven’t had a reply, so I’ll ask xing who answers other things why why haven’t we had the courtesy of an answer to this question, even if it’s just to say it can’t be done

       
  42. Carlie

    07/23/2012 at 7:11 pm

    I don’t really mind any of the changes being made- the cover art was a great (but time-consuming, haha) idea.
    The only thing I was wondering about is why anonymous reviews are no longer counted in the review total on FF.net?
    Because I totally count those as reviews, so do many of my fellow authors. I often like to give a shout-out to whoever was reviewer 100 0r such, but that’s hard if I have to manually go through and count every review, in case who ever was number 100 was anonymous.

     
    • Xing

      07/23/2012 at 7:29 pm

      All reviews are counted.

       
      • Graham King

        07/24/2012 at 12:16 am

        Why can’t we get an answer to why we can’t block anonymous reviews as we once were able to. Please don’t ignore us, even telling us that you can’t do anything about it would be courteous.

         
      • ~Cherry!~

        07/29/2012 at 4:57 pm

        What happens after we report signed reviews?

         
  43. jacob

    07/23/2012 at 9:05 pm

    please help, something is wrong with my review counter… it says if you look for my story 50 reviews but when you start reading is say 60 review (which is right) but the 50 wont change its be like this for 2 days so it seems i am not geting review when i am

     
  44. Random Ipsy

    08/03/2012 at 5:58 pm

    I miss the option to turn on/off anonymous reviews. It only helps encourage trolls and flamers. Also pertaining to reviews, maybe we can choose the rating we want for reviews, like Paperdemon does. Like, to choose if we want potluck, critical, or positive reviews.

    Of course, that doesn’t mean positive reviews have to be sugary and sweet. They just have to be… positive. My explanation is coming off a little clumsily for positive reviews, my apologies. I mean, tell what you liked, give some helpful tips on how to improve, but don’t just tell them their story sucks. I feel that it helps new writers feel more secure in submitting their stories. Critical are just that: Tell them how it is. If your story sucks, they can and should tell you. Potluck is obviously just wanting any kind of review.

    Second: Make it possible to leave reviews AND comments – whether you leave both is up to you. Comments are for those: “OMG your story is awesome, please update soon!” And reviews are for the critiquing. I feel this helps encourage people to leave you at least SOMETHING for your work. I also feel a comment option is much better than a kudos option. Everyone complains about the story quality on the site, so I thought I’d suggest a way to improve the reviewing quality.

    Third: I understand why FFN is not allowing MA material on their site – but honestly, the biggest reason that everyone wants to anyway is because you are THE site to go to. Any story, no matter how bad, is guaranteed at least one review. It’s THE site for beginners and the experienced alike. You can find a story about almost any thing, including crack pairings – and crack pairings are a PAIN to find anywhere else. Same goes for small fandoms too. So, why not make an adult version of FFN? You already have a site for nonfiction. All you have to do is create an exact copy of FFN, except it allows MA and X stories. Then, people on FFN don’t have to worry about stumbling across a rape story with tentacles and chains and whips, or an explicit description of how some one is having their face torn off and the likes and all that other stuff in the M section, because that’s what people are prepared for when they go to the adult FFN website.

    Except on the adult website, they shouldn’t be allowed to post explicit pictures for story covers – suggestive maybe, but it’s supposed to be a mature website, not a p$rn site.

     
    • Graham King

      08/03/2012 at 6:06 pm

      I hope you get an answer to the question about blocking anonymous reviews, some of us have been waiting a few weeks for that answer while others seem to get answered promptly

       
  45. Random Ipsy

    08/03/2012 at 8:48 pm

    I wish that if you blocked someone, their reviews on your stories would be automatically removed. And I hope so to, Graham King. Xing, please respond to my question???

     
    • Random Ipsy

      08/04/2012 at 3:17 am

      Revising my comment on the blocking thing removing reviews left by them too – I’m aware it can be abused, but when does some one NOT abuse their options?

       
  46. monbade

    08/06/2012 at 11:04 am

    I don’t like the ability to not block anonymous reviews. If they are TO lazy to long in and leave a review then i don’t want the review. Another subject that i hate is even if you block someone, they can still leave a review under anonymous reviews. If you block someone, it should block them from reviews, looking at your profile or even reading your story. Thats what block means not just leaving reviews.

     
  47. MyNameIsJeffNImLost

    08/08/2012 at 12:03 pm

    I just used the moderate guest review feature for the first time, and it gave me a small enhancement idea. With a signed review email alert, there is a link to the reply URL. With a guest review, it would be nice if there was a link to https://www.fanfiction.net/reviews/moderate.php. I could use bookmarks or click through the menus, but the link in the email would be a nice reminder to moderate the review. It’d also be a nice enhancement for when I’m feeling lazy.

     
  48. Sonadowlover121

    08/10/2012 at 8:39 pm

    To whom it may concern:
    I e-mailed fanfiction support using my Yahoo account, but I didn’t know if you would read it since it’s from another site. I, along with many other writers on FanFiction, wish to have Lord Kelvin removed from the site. His reviews do not help us, but rather insult us and make us feel horrible as writers. It isn’t constructive criticism. He’s just rudely pointing out all the flaws in your story, and then he sometimes doesn’t even tell you how to improve! At first I, along with my two friends, thought Kelvin was only harshly reviewing us, until we looked at his stories and saw all the reviews people were giving him, not praising his story, but yelling at him about the flames he had given them. My friend actually cried when she read Kelvin’s review. This isn’t all he said. It’s just a part: ‘Unless this is some sick joke, the story wants to be treated seriously.’ He has flamed stories after the author has given him some constructive criticism, then after that, he even had some of the stories removed. And, at the end of every one of his ‘reviews,’ he puts his catchphrase ‘have a nice, abuse-free day.’ How can we have ‘a nice, abuse-free day’ when he has flamed our story, and didn’t even give us proper advice on how to fix our mistakes? So, please whoever is reading this, we don’t want him to flame our stories anymore. He calls himself a critic, but he really is a jerk, flaming our stories with the pure intention of making us depressed or angry, and making some- if not- all of us wonder if we should even continue the story he flamed. We would all greatly appreciate it if he was removed from the site. I thank you for taking the time to read this message. And I apologize if this wasn’t the right place to put this message. I just wanted someone working for Fanfiction to see this message.

     
    • monbade

      08/17/2012 at 1:21 pm

      They wont do anything about him or CU who are running off good authors and I’m not talking about the ones doing MA or read the books. They have attacked authors who dont know the English language that well because its a 2nd or 3rd language for them. One i was helping trying to clean up his stories had his deleted because CU attacked the story and it was deleted. The only thing wrong with it was he used the wrong words at times like dies instead of dead.

      Sigh,

      monbade

       
      • Graham King

        08/17/2012 at 2:25 pm

        They only seem to reply to easy questions, but ask something like why can’t I block ‘guest’ reviews anymore and they ignore you

         
      • ~Cherry!~

        08/17/2012 at 5:18 pm

        I agree with this. I reported a very abusive reviewer on a K rated story WEEKS ago and they still haven’t done anything about it. It’s very unprofessional.

         
    • xyoung4EVA

      08/17/2012 at 1:31 pm

      And what exactly would that accomplish? It’s the Internet; Lord Kelvin can just make another account under another email address. Fanfiction doesn’t take any personal information aside from your email. And even if the site did, Lord Kelvin can just lie. If he really wants to, he can just make another email account and make another Fanfiction account and continue reviewing stories. Then what happens? The cycle starts anew, of course.

      The Internet provides freedom, but some people abuse that. There are many other people just like Lord Kelvin out there, if not worse. There’s another critic just as bad in the Pokemon fandom. Even in the real world. Critics, people who don’t like you, spiteful people… they’re everywhere, and we can’t just go crying to someone and expect them to take care of it. And if you really think he isn’t helpful, ignore his reviews then or block him. There. Done. All taken care of.

      By the way, don’t expect every review to be nothing but praise. That’s a naive and stupid hope. And instead of complaining and trying to get back at him, work on becoming better. Just because he’s mean doesn’t mean he’s wrong.

       
      • Sonadowlover121

        08/18/2012 at 6:06 pm

        It would accomplish a lot, actually. Like I said, I’m not the only person wanting him banned. There’s a whole team on FanFiction wanting him off the site, so I’m not the only one ‘crying’ about it. I did block him, so I’m not really ‘crying’ anymore, but I’m trying to protect others who are writing stories on this site and are looking to get actual constructive criticism, rather than one of Kelvin’s flames saying their first story is awful, they should start it from scratch, or, and I quote: ‘Find a beta reader if you wish to get a condensed version of how the site works. Perhaps someone would bother to explain you the rudiments of writings you were Supposed to know Before getting here.’
        ‘just because he’s mean, doesn’t mean he’s wrong.': he’s removed countless fanfics for no reason. Some of the good writers of Fanfiction had their accounts and/or stories removed because Kelvin has reported them for NO reason! How does that make him right, huh?
        Your message could’ve done without the ‘by the way’ part, too.

         
  49. Angela Suzanne

    08/18/2012 at 1:46 am

    I am a member of a forum where someone got banned due to harassing members, etc. Upon them being banned from said forum, they found my profile on your website and began submitting guest reviews, only they weren’t reviews, they were actually hateful messages towards me. I was able to delete those “reviews” but once they figured out what I was doing, they created an account so that they could submit signed “reviews” that I can’t delete. I have submitted multiple requests to have these removed / reported abuse, etc. What else do I have to do in order to get these nasty-grams removed from my review count and from the view of my other readers and anyone else who chooses to read those pages???? Please help!!!!

     
  50. Graham King

    08/18/2012 at 5:34 am

    You can block them from posting in your home page on ff.net,

     
    • ~Cherry!~

      08/18/2012 at 8:00 am

      How do you block signed reviews? If they already left a review and you block them later, that review isn’t removed?

       

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