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What’s new? I’ll tell you what – the Den, that’s what. OK, not exactly new, but different.
Some of you may have seen my blog a while back, where I questioned the future of the Den. Well, I’m sorry if it all seemed to go quiet, but the truth is I’ve been beavering away finding how stuff works and how some of it it doesn’t. Long story short, there’s a TEST site which looks and feels like the Den with a handful of the changes that various folk suggested.
The changes are complicated and there are a lot of them, most of which are under the bonnet. But you will notice a few straight away:
1) a simple login prompt replaces the login widget which didn’t integrate 100% with the reCAPTCHA stuff (leaving some users waiting 20 mins to try again).
2) a completely new navigation menu. I hope this helps a bit.
3) Chat. Yes, there’s a chat option. This took a HUMUNGOUS amount of work. I lost track of the various alternatives I installed/tested/deleted. Suffice it to say that in our price range there is almost nothing that does what we want.
4) a new text editor (you can still use the old one as well)
5) a Beta reading group
6) a change to fix the horrible vanishing posts thing in the activity stream. The cost is a different appearance . Some will hate it. Personally it doesn’t bother me. I’d far rather have all the replies.
7) a “like” button (oh yes).It’s a start. To get to the test site use http://test.denofwriters.com
Note HTTP and NOT HTTPSLet me know your thoughts.
Let me be the first to give you a huge thank you for all the hard work you’ve obviously put in.
The new navigation is a huge improvement over the old impenetrable one. I think you’ve addressed all the concerns I raised. I particularly like the little explanation boxes that pop up when you hover over a heading. Finding your way around the site should be child’s play compared to what it has been.
I agree that having all the replies present and correct on the wall is far more important that what it looks like, and I don’t mind the change anyway. The only problem I have is that I can’t see any reply buttons, or indeed any means of posting a reply should I wish to. Or is it just me being thick?
I’ve never had any problems with logging in, so I can’t comment on that aspect.
All in all, a great improvement. I only hope your work hasn’t been wasted. In the last few weeks the Den has been overtaken by such tumultuous apathy that I’ve been wondering if it’s on its last legs. The fact that I’m the first to reply to such an important, nay vital, topic, over 24 hours since you posted, doesn’t exactly raise my hopes.
I worry about whether it’s all too late as well, but I shall carry on for the time being.
On a practical note, to reply to a post on the “activity” page, you should see a button marked “Comment” with a number next to it. This is a button to make a comment, as well as a count of those made so far. Below each reply, you should see a further Reply link, to reply to these. See this snippet (close/ignore the dropbox offer of signing up for a new account)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yjsvezdhjd2tuin/reply.png?dl=0
The changes are really just sticking plasters. We need visitors and content.
I’ve popped over and had a look. It all seems great and the looks is fine as far as I’m concerned.
How one goes about getting more punters is a bit of a head-scratcher.
It does look much improved @athelstone. Thank you for all the hard work. I love that copy/pasting from word works better & that reply threads won’t vanish. Also love the chat – I commented in there that I almost didn’t spot it though – is there a way of making it more prominent? Or listed on the ‘Activity’ drop down menu at the top?
THe other thing I spotted was that when I posted a test reply to a forum post (a monthly comp I set up), I could delete it off the main activity wall, but not actually properly delete it from the forum. Is that meant to be the case?As for getting more activity, I guess we get the new site up and running first, make sure it’s working & funded etc. Then think about a way forward. Some vague ideas are:
-We all (probably) have social media accounts elsewhere that we could try to remember to use to direct a bit of interest the Den’s way. Although that depends on there being relevant, interesting content to garner ‘shares’. I think sharing the monthly comp publicly might be a good ‘in’ (not the posts themselves, just the theme and a link to the Den). Give it a hashtag & maybe publicly publish the winning story if people want. Or a quote from it & a pretty picture.
-Brainstorm some good blog subjects that we’d like to see – to do with writing in particular – to feed into the above & see who feels able to write them at some point over the next few months (they don’t have to be super regular, so we wouldn’t need many/fast turnarounds).
-Get that self-taught MA thingy off the ground again. That was good.Anyway, time for that once this new format is sorted. Thank you again @athelstone. I feel spread very thin online-presence-wise, but I do miss the ease of chat with you guys so hope this can help us regain our sense of direction. 🙂
Delete button. That made me scratch my head. @raine do you have a delete button for forum threads at the moment? I sneaked Teabreak onto the (real) Den for a quick check, as my own userid has slightly different access, and it looks as if there isn’t one. It seems very strange that I hadn’t noticed before. I’ll add it to my investigation list. Yes to more visible chat and your other ideas.
Hi @Athelstone, sorry – no I don’t think there is a delete option currently either, it was just that I could delete it off the main wall, but not in the forum which seemed like it might cause confusion. It would be good to be able to delete your own comments though, particularly for the monthly comps & publication rights issues, but it’s not critical.
Had a quick peek and it looks great!
I’ll investigate further when I have more time but wanted to say thank you, Ath, for all the effort you’ve put in.Ath, I know I’ve not been round much recently, but that looks fab! Noticed that blogs and whatever the heading is next to it both go bold when you click on blogs, but it seems so much easier and intuitive to navigate. Thank you xxx
Hi Squidge, glad you like it. There are forums that hang directly from the Den, and forums that hang from groups. Blogs is a forum that hangs from the Den. The item next to Blogs on the main menu is the path to all the Den forums and you can also get to Blogs that way. What I’ve done is to copy the Blogs link up to the top of the main menu. Click on it and you are actually jumping down the Den forums path as well, which is why they both turn bold. Not sure I explained that very well.
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