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Major Visual Change

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I've been working for months on a new way to display pages on the site, so that I can do more radical themes.

Today I've deployed this new code.

However, since the change is so massive, I've been unable to check everything personally. Especially that it's mostly visual.

Please use this thread to report bugs and visual bugs.

When reporting a visual bug, please start the message with:

1 - System in use (Window, linux, Mac, android phone, iPhone, etc....)

2 - Browser (Safari, Chrome, Firefox etc...)

3 - The theme you have selected

4 - Page url where the problem manifests itself.

5 - As accurate of a description of the issue as you can.

spam.mc+a2 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Android tablet, Chrome browser, dark theme.

The My Library page now has a bright yellow background in the chapter column when a story has new unread content. This used to be a soothing green. The yellow is a bit jarring considering it's supposed to be a dark theme. Can it be toned down a bit please?

The actual main reading pages look to be fine still and that's where I spend most of the time.

Roger Greywolfe ๐Ÿšซ

@spam.mc+a2

Android (Samsung Galaxy) phone, Chrome Browser

Same, definitely prefer the green.
Banner about the change was the same.

If it matters, I use a dark theme on the website

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@spam.mc+a2

The yellow is a bit jarring considering it's supposed to be a dark theme. Can it be toned down a bit please?

I made some changes. Please check. You'll have to reload the stylesheet. Usually pulling down the page makes it reload.

gible ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Android Galaxy Fold5, Chrome.

On the active serials page, the notes column now has an army green highlight color. I'm not sure if that's what you toned the chapter column on the All Bookmarks and Reading Queue page to or not, but clearing my browser's cache and pulling down the pages hasn't helped, it's still bright yellow on those pages for me. Maybe it used to be even brighter?

Replies:   gible
gible ๐Ÿšซ

@gible

The thought occurs that it might matter that I'm in NZ too :/
I had no end of trouble just accessing SOL earlier this year :(

spam.mc+a2 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Much easier on the eyes! Thank you as always.

PolyOldFart ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Debian Linux, Firefox 128.14.0esr, Classic theme.

No obvious changes until I got to the Comments. Where they used to be ~1/3 of the page wide, now there is just a few-pixel-wide border and it's nearly full page. A bit jarring and the text seems to run right up to the border, which makes it a bit harder to read.

I do like the nice little list below the Post button that shows what HTML tags are allowed. If it works. That's new.

jpp123 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I made some changes. Please check. You'll have to reload the stylesheet. Usually pulling down the page makes it reload.

The yellow is better but still not great #460 looks much nicer to me than the #660 it is now.

Also the font size seemed jump with the new CSS (in setting it was showing 16, manualy setting it to 12 looked much better) maybe this was becasue I hadn't set a font size before?

Modern dark theme, Macbook, Brave

jaquesparblue ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

What is the point of changing it anyway? The green was fine on the dark theme. Yellow usually means there is something iffy going on (which is what I initially thought).

gible ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I can see it now :)

On the All Bookmarks page, Chap column, the black text on army green background is hard to read. Can it be the same white text like the Upd. Notes column on Active Serials?

doctor_wing_nut ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Linux, Firefox 142.0.1, classic theme.

Home page seems unchanged, New stories displays as usual with a centered column and space on either side, but Updates spans the whole page.

No other changes noticed, no big deal.

Dinsdale ๐Ÿšซ

@doctor_wing_nut

Linux, current Seamonkey, ditto.

NumberSix677 ๐Ÿšซ

@doctor_wing_nut

Ditto.
(Linux, Firefox 142.0.1, classic theme.)

Except that there seems to be some new options at the bottom of story pages in a "This story is in your Library" box:
(Remove from Library, Remove From Queue, Edit Bookmark).
I'm not sure whether those are actually 'new' or I just ignored/didn't really notice them till now.

Anyhow, nothing major.

Also: Quibble: rolling the cursor over the message in the yellow alert box The message turns white (practically invisible, and disconcerting) even though when rolling over the "Hide" option at the other end, that option gets highlighted (much better).

Replies:   jimq2  jamien42
jimq2 ๐Ÿšซ

@NumberSix677

Except that there seems to be some new options at the bottom of story pages in a "This story is in your Library" box:
(Remove from Library, Remove From Queue, Edit Bookmark).
I'm not sure whether those are actually 'new' or I just ignored/didn't really notice them till now.

Yeah, It has been there for a little while. I think it got redesigned a week or two ago.

jamien42 ๐Ÿšซ

@NumberSix677

Posting here because the site is broken. Can't reply to a comment in a story. Cant make a new post in any of the forums.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@jamien42

Posting here because the site is broken

Clearly not the whole site is broken.

Can't reply to a comment in a story.

Maybe the author blocked you.

Cant make a new post in any of the forums.

It's the exact same code to start a thread as to reply. You replied, that means you should also be able to create a new thread. I don't see how something could block you from starting threads.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)
Updated:

@doctor_wing_nut

New stories displays as usual with a centered column and space on either side, but Updates spans the whole page.

fixed.

ETA: Fixed a bunch of page that were too spread out.

boucher1 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows 10, Microsoft Edge - Same comments as doctor_wing_nut

Millie Dynamite ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Win 11 - Chrome.

When I'm reading a story, the column with the text appears even narrower to me. I've always favored a little wider than we had, but I can live with it. I don't remember the link to the previous and next chapter in the header before; that's a nice touch. However, it could've been there all along, but I just realized it.

My two abandoned stories are still glaring at me with angry, bright yellow. It reminds me I lost my way on them... Good work Laz!!!

All in all, the changes are pretty nice.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Millie Dynamite

When I'm reading a story, the column with the text appears even narrower to me.

No changes were made to the story display system. It's separate. This change pertains to the rest of the site.

akarge ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Samsung phone. Android. Mobile with Autodark.
No noticeable changes at all. I checked every link on the home page,

๐Ÿ‘

taulsk ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1
Mozilla Firefox 115.27.0esr (64-bit)
Modern Dark
No visual issues or even noticeable changes in any screen I have went through as a reader, and as a writer. All checked after a computer reboot, then using Ctrl F5 to clear the page and force a reload. Looks great on my side.

sieylianna ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Pixel phone. Android. Dark mode. Author page Carlos Santiago last update in 2025 is displaying white text in yellow box which is illegible.

hawkeye87 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

iOS Brave Light no issues

Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Mac, Safari, I never changed the theme so I guess it's classic.

The "Chap" column on the My Library page is really bright yellow. Too bright.

Riceeyes ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows 10, desktop, chrome. Annoying yellow previously mentioned in the active serials page where I spend most of my time. If possible I would prefer an option for things to remain the same. Then again, I suppose progress moves on.

UncleMerlin ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Amazon Fire Silk Browser
My Library page light gray text is small and hard to read.

doctor_wing_nut ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Had some more time to root around, and all of the links on the left of the homepage (ongoing serials, complete stories, older stories) open up full-width like the updated stories list.

Replies:   Grant
Grant ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@doctor_wing_nut

Just noticed this myself;

1 Win 10 Pro
2 Edge & Firefox.
3 Classic
4 https://storiesonline.net/list/3/top_50_stories_by_weekly_downloads
https://storiesonline.net/list/6/all_time_top_50_classic_long_stories
etc

5 When looking at links in the Top Lists, the lists take up the full width of the browser window (from memory it used to be the same width as the Home page stream) and it looks quite off-putting.

A border on either side about the width of the score column would be good (or the same width as the Home page stream again to make the look more consistent).

EDIT- looks like this has been sorted out.

Thanks.

Blun2 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

iPad, Chrome, default theme

missing last update date/time stamp on most of the My Library pages.

Dinsdale ๐Ÿšซ

@Blun2

Such as "Recently Deleted Stories", we only see the date when a story was deleted. The entries also take up more vertical real-estate than before, I think it was one line per entry then and now we have a couple of blank lines between entries.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Blun2

missing last update date/time stamp on most of the My Library pages.

Only the active serials list has an update date stamp. That's the way it's always been.

Claymore ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Selecting "More" under "Random story from the archives" returns a page with "No suitable stories found!".

Perhaps not directly related, or something was reset with this change.

Replies:   Dinsdale
Dinsdale ๐Ÿšซ

@Claymore

Not in my case, selecting "More" gets me a list of 10 stories.
Linux PC, Seamonkey browser (that's Mozilla).

Replies:   Switch Blayde
Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@Dinsdale

Not in my case, selecting "More" gets me a list of 10 stories.

"More" gives me "no suitable stories found."

Mac, Safari

Replies:   tendertouch
tendertouch ๐Ÿšซ

@Switch Blayde

"More" gives me "no suitable stories found."

Mac, Safari

Mac and Safari here, but 'More' does what it's supposed to โ€” 10 stories matching my criteria. It's soooo much fun debugging inconsistent errors. Here's hoping it gets worked out for those having an issue.

cybergrayghost ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

O.K., currently Win 10 Pro {Version 22H2 for x64 (KB5065957)} and Firefox 142.0.1 and only thing I'm noting is a 'note' of "(has Book Ad)" next to the "More Info" link in the main page story discription otherwise no other changes for me.

bturner1010 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows 10, Firefox.

My Library page, link for screenshot https://imgbox.com/zeoAgi9M

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@bturner1010

Fixed. I think. You didn't mention which theme you're using.

Unicornzvi ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Perhaps I'm missing something obvious, but where do you set the theme for the site?

Replies:   Dominions Son
Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@Unicornzvi

Perhaps I'm missing something obvious, but where do you set the theme for the site?

https://storiesonline.net/sol-secure/user/my_account.php?cmd=listingFonts

If you scroll down that you will find a list of the themes. Click on the one you want to use.

Replies:   Unicornzvi
Unicornzvi ๐Ÿšซ

@Dominions Son

Thanks, but I thought there was some option to choose the theme for the Home/library/etc display. That's at least what I gathered from Lazeez mention of selected themes when reporting bugs.

Replies:   Dominions Son
Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@Unicornzvi

I thought there was some option to choose the theme for the Home/library/etc display.

The selected theme will be used for all of those. Unless you were thinking of some way to select different themes for each? Sorry, One theme to rule them all. :)

Replies:   Unicornzvi
Unicornzvi ๐Ÿšซ

@Dominions Son

No, the issue seems to be the themes aren't applying 9 times out of 10. I did manage somehow to change it to the 2025 theme which made me realise the other times I tried to set the theme it simple didn't apply.

MooseBreath ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Hi, Lazeez.

TCL phone, Android, chrome, all settings default except font size for ancient eyes.

No problems yet, just a couple of questions. FWDLIW, what's with the "not" symbol after the sender's name? And why the transparent green bar down the right side in Mail? A brief explanation of the symbols at the bottom of a message would be appreciated.

If I had any money to spare, I would send a kind thank you for all your hard work.

Moose

K_Cool ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Win10 Pro
FF 140.2.0 ESR
2025 theme

There's a lot messed up with the theme that may or may not be related to whatever update is happening. https://imgur.com/a/Uk4bn1r link to screenshots. Basically just a lot of unreadable parts of the site. Switching to Modern light, some of the pages remain unreadable. I had to restart FF to change.

For what it's worth, today I just saw there's a theme called "2025" that looked a lot like Minimalist but figured I'd give it a shot and see.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@K_Cool

For what it's worth, today I just saw there's a theme called "2025" that looked a lot like Minimalist but figured I'd give it a shot and see.

That theme is the new one and it's not finished yet.

The story listings will shrink in it, but not like the minimalist.

tbltbl ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

MacOS

Firefox

Default Green theme is now gray/white. Much prefer the green theme.

https://storiesonline.net/library/my.php?sf=stories.story_size&so=asc&skip=380&list=lib

The "skip" function in the URL seems not to be working. The list starts at size=0.

This is true also for all similar, e.g.:

https://storiesonline.net/library/my.php?sf=stories.story_size&so=asc&skip=680&list=lib

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@tbltbl

Much prefer the green theme.

The library stopped having its own theme (the greens were there and in the submission wizard and nowhere else.)

The "skip" function in the URL seems not to be working.

As for the skip, you're not supposed to manipulate the URLs directly. It's not a 'function' for the user to use.

The paging is now by pages using the 'p' variable. So yes, no more 'skip'.

The new paging bar allows you to jump to arbitrary pages by editing the number in the current page box.

awkward42 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Firefox 142 Linux not sure what theme I'm using (or how to find out)

The top of the homepage (the header bar that starts with the logo) has a slightly different scaling on most elements to that used on other pages, which is annoying when switching between them. See animated gif at https://imgur.com/zgQUhTx

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@awkward42

slightly different scaling on most elements

I definitely need to know which theme, I couldn't replicate it on my end.

Click 'My Account' and look in the 'Site Appearance' sub-panel. There is a line that starts with 'Theme'.

Quasirandom ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows, Firefox, Classic theme (I think), https://storiesonline.net/library/my.php - the my library reading queue, two issues:

1. The column widths are less than ideal: the story titles are smushed, basically two words in width (so wrapping several lines) and the Info column is bloated with LOTS of padding around the โœŽ and >> icons, making that column almost as wide as the Accessed column.

2. There's no border lines between rows of the Chap column, unlike the rest of the table.

Quasirandom ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Quasirandom

Same setup, looking at any story review:

The ratings for Plot and Technical Qualities are not bolded, but the Appeal to Reviewer is. Intentional? It looks odd, and I've always understood the three components are supposed to be given equal ranking.

Edit to add: the same one of three ratings bolded also is on the list my own reviews.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Quasirandom

The ratings for Plot and Technical Qualities are not bolded, but the Appeal to Reviewer is. Intentional?

It must have been intentional.

But that formatting was done so long ago (around 2005) that I don't know what rationale I had for making it bold.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Quasirandom

Library spacing shrunk.

I personally find it too crowded. But obviously many users are on smaller screens than mine.

Unicornzvi ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Linux, Firefox.
seems to be a problem setting the theme.
when clicking on a theme the screen will blink as if reloading, but not select the theme.
I did manage once to select the 2025 theme and back to Modern w/Auto-Dark-Mode somehow, but haven't been able to duplicate the feat or select any other themes

Replies:   Unicornzvi
Unicornzvi ๐Ÿšซ

@Unicornzvi

Please disregard. I figured the issue - I had a problem with the cache on my computer.

Quasirandom ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

iOS, Safari, classic theme, the My Library (reading queue) page:

The arrow (which is nicely larger than the blue circled thing from before) to expand story details does not appear. It did when on Windows/Firefox.

Replies:   Quasirandom
Quasirandom ๐Ÿšซ

@Quasirandom

Ah โ€” seems to be fixed now.

Ahab ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Win7 Pro, IE11. What I want to know is how to get the original screen layout back. Similar to the home page, where there is a centered grid with wide borders either side, rather than the current view which I cannot seem to change, where the grid is stretched over the entire width of the screen. Maybe it's just me, but I want to be able to see the entirety of the information presented like a document, rather than having to view it like a tennis match, i.e. virtually turning my head side to side.

stupidboy804 ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

1 - System in use macOS 26 Beta

2 - Browser Waterfox and Thorium

3 - Modern Dark

4 - updated_stories.php, blogs.php

5 - As it seems the main table extends the entire screen instead of just the center as on new_stories.php

Comparing the parsed HTML from new_stories and updated_stories it looks like it is missing
div="wrapper"
before
table id="head-t"
the closing div is at the end on both

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@stupidboy804

Comparing the parsed HTML from new_stories and updated_stories it looks like it is missing
div="wrapper"

fixed.

Bud Ugly ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

iPad, Brave, Light
https://storiesonline.net/library/my.php
I no longer have the ability to jump to a specific number in my reading queue

spambox149 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Ubuntu Linux 24.04.3
Zen Browser 1.15.3b
I don't believe I've selected a theme yet.
https://storiesonline.net/s/14909/lena/6

I don't know if it's a bug or not, but I just noticed the absense of the "Click to load more text" link halfway through a page. The whole page loads now without interruption.

I've also just checked on Firefox 142.0.1 in a different story, and it's the same.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@spambox149

I don't know if it's a bug or not, but I just noticed the absense of the "Click to load more text" link halfway through a page. The whole page loads now without interruption.

Did away with that a month ago.

Grant ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

1 Win 10 Pro
2 Edge & Firefox.
3 Classic

4 https://storiesonline.net/d/s3/t13828/current-flood-of-extreme
https://storiesonline.net/d/s3/t13589/to-jay-cantrell
and others.

(https://storiesonline.net/d/s1/t13462/bookapy-is-now-zbookstore is one that displays normally).

5 When a thread has been selected, the posts expand to the full width of the browser window.
The date & time stamp are there, however the Reply, Report, Back to top and Private Message icons are all missing.

On other threads, the width stays the same as it was previously- ie the same as the main forum page & topic pages.

EDIT- that appears to have been fixed, although there is no border (thin solid vertical line) on the left or right of the posts.
So in Threaded view; posts indented on the left have no white space between the border and their indented position, so it looks rather odd.

And i noticed when i went to edit this post- the Edit and Delete post icons are missing, there is just a small underscore below where they should be (used the mouse over to find them).

EDIT- the border issue has been fixed. Thankyou.
Now just the missing Edit and Delete icons issue remains.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Grant

Now just the missing Edit and Delete icons issue remains.

Fixed.

Replies:   Grant
Grant ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

The underscores are also gone, and the icons are now larger than they were before the fix.

Also the text is now also slightly larger- i have now reduced the text size for listings back to what it was before all the changes, and i can still read the forum posts.

Double Thankyou.

manualsourcemy ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Search function not working when searching again. It returns error invalid input. Please start again.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@manualsourcemy

Search function not working when searching again. It returns error invalid input. Please start again.

Fixed.

AmigaClone ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Win 11home, Firefox, Modern Dark

Recently accessed stories
https://storiesonline.net/library/my.php?list=recent

and My Library
https://storiesonline.net/library/my.php

On the left column, the 'Show tags' pull-down menu extends into the 'Story Name' column.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@AmigaClone

On the left column, the 'Show tags' pull-down menu extends into the 'Story Name' column.

Fixed. I think. Please check now.

awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Since yesterday ie a further change after your initial set of changes, forum threads have a huge space for the title, borders are sometimes absent and the symbols at the bottom of each post (reply/abuse/top/PM) have been replaced by hyphens.
Firefox 52.9.0 ESR on Windows XP.

ETA: Edit and Delete show as hyphens a level above the other hyphens.

AJ

akarge ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Samsung galaxy phone. Chrome, I think. Auto dark.

YESTERDAY, I had noticed no changes. TODAY, I noticed there is a difference on the forum pages. The forum seems the same, UNTIL I click on a specific topic. Then I notice that the fonts seem different, possibly smaller. The text seems more crowded. Don't really like it, but it won't kill me.

No changes in story fonts or anyplace else, just inside the forum topics

Replies:   upper  akarge  Grant
upper ๐Ÿšซ

@akarge

Android, chrome, Mobile w/Auto-Dark-Mode

Same here. The text in the actual threads is smaller today than it was yesterday.

Replies:   upper
upper ๐Ÿšซ

@upper

confirm fixed. Forum content font size is ok now.

akarge ๐Ÿšซ

@akarge

Samsung galaxy phone. Chrome, I think. Auto dark.

YESTERDAY, I had noticed no changes. TODAY, I noticed there is a difference on the forum pages. The forum seems the same, UNTIL I click on a specific topic. Then I notice that the fonts seem different, possibly smaller. The text seems more crowded. Don't really like it, but it won't kill me.

No changes in story fonts or anyplace else, just inside the forum topics

Additionally, there is no left margin AT ALL for the text. It really crowds against the left edge, almost to the point of a missing letter on every line.

Grant ๐Ÿšซ

@akarge

I noticed a change in the text size over the site in general.

For some reason the forums are smaller than the other pages-
Setting the text size so that it's OK in the forums, makes everything else much bigger; setting the stories & listing pages so the text is a good size makes the forum text too small.

hush ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Ipad
Google Chrome 71.0.3578.89 (Official Build) stable (32-bit)
Revision

Listing page Dark mode

So, dark mode keeps switching back to auto dark mode
The yellow top bar hide link doesn't hide it any longer, does nothing

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@hush

Both mechanisms you mentioned haven't been altered. Which means the non-stickiness of the theme and the non-hiding of the note, is not a bug on my end.

I suggest you reboot the iPad. Also, if you're using a private tab for the site, the 'Hide' link for the notifications won't work as it depends on a cookie and a private tab deletes the cookies.

K_Cool ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Win10 Pro
FF 140.2.0 ESR
Modern Light

New issue showing up today, quoted text in Forum posts are dark and unreadable and links on bottom right of each post are white and unreadable.

https://i.imgur.com/ttdaBLd.png

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@K_Cool

New issue showing up today, quoted text in Forum posts are dark and unreadable and links on bottom right of each post are white and unreadable.

Made many changes to stylesheets, and code. Is this still an issue?

Replies:   K_Cool
K_Cool ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

unfortunately yes https://i.imgur.com/If1QIfN.png

went so far as to delete all storiesonline cookies and restart FF

doctor_wing_nut ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

For me, the links on the left side of the home page continue to open full-width.

In this thread, most if not all quoted text appears as a blacked-out bar, but if you attempt to copy inside the black the intended text is then highlighted. Also, all options inside a post (reply, etc) do not show the expected icons, only small dashes bottom-right of the post. Moving cursor over the dash brings up the expected icon.

edit - When viewing already-read posts they are greyed-out as usual, and then the icons lower-right show up as white-outlined.

Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Mac, Safari, Classic theme (I never changed the theme so I think that's what it's called)..
URL of the page I'm commenting on: https://storiesonline.net/library/my.php

When I go to My Library, there seems to be a column added to the left with links. I don't remember that being there, at least not in its current format. The reason I believe that is I no longer see all the columns of data. I have to scroll to the right to see the Score and Info columns (I actually see part of the Score column).

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Switch Blayde

When I go to My Library, there seems to be a column added to the left with links. I don't remember that being there, at least not in its current format. The reason I believe that is I no longer see all the columns of data. I have to scroll to the right to see the Score and Info columns (I actually see part of the Score column).

The left column has always been there. It was really stuck to the edge of the page. Now it's slightly offset.

I changed the spacing in the library to restore a tighter layout.

Replies:   Switch Blayde
Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

The left column has always been there.

Yeah, now that it's narrower and I see all the columns on the screen with your latest changes I realize it was always there. But my mind never saw it because I didn't use it on the My Library page. It just stuck out when it became wider.

Your latest changes are good (including the paler yellow in the Chap column).

I don't know what P (Program) and R (Rating) are, and now that they are one letter each I won't even remember that they're Program and Rating. Since they're only one letter, would a mouseover be helpful?

Reluctant_Sir ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

1 - System: Windows11
2 - Browser: Edge
3 - The theme: Dark
4 - Page url: All story Reader Comments(checked 5, all the same) Sample: https://storiesonline.net/n/49977/forever-yours-by-aroslav/10
5 - Description: While the rest of the site is in dark mode, the Reader Comments section remains stubbornly Black text on White background.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Reluctant_Sir

Description: While the rest of the site is in dark mode, the Reader Comments section remains stubbornly Black text on White background.

Stories use a different formatting mechanism than the rest of the site. It's highly configurable. Depending on which style you create, the system will try to figure out if it's dark text on light background or the reverse and will try to use a dark mode theme for the comments if it's light text on dark background.

Zellus ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

1. Windows 10 Pro
2. LibreWolf 136.0-2
3. Classic
4. https://storiesonline.net/d/s6/t13882/something-is-wrong-the
5:
Separating line missing from forum posts.
There is three - - - under forum post icons, and on the post listed above, the icons is also missing.

lulskartkski ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

1 - Debian GNU/Linux
2 - Firefox & Chromium
3 - Night. But applies to All
4 - Any Story, so here's the top one from the feed: https://storiesonline.net/s/22595/emptied-purse
5 - The #story CSS Selector has a rule for max-width: 35em;
It's fine when reading on my phone. But on a 20"+ display, over 2/3 of my screen is now wasted space.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@lulskartkski

The #story CSS Selector has a rule for max-width: 35em;
It's fine when reading on my phone. But on a 20"+ display, over 2/3 of my screen is now wasted space.

The story display system is independent from themes.

It allows you infinite customization, including that 35em max width. Create your own stylesheet and be comfortable:

https://storiesonline.net/sol-secure/user/style.php

Quasirandom ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows, Firefox, Classic theme, while editing a story review (https://storiesonline.net/review/myReviews.php?id=XXXX&cmd=editPosted), the labels for the rating dropdowns are doubled. That is, what appears is:

Plot: Plot: [box] Technical: Technical: [box] Appeal: Appeal: [box]

(The mixed bolding is a side issue.) This does not happen when writing a new review, only while editing.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Quasirandom

the labels for the rating dropdowns are doubled. That is, what appears is:

Plot: Plot: [box] Technical: Technical: [box] Appeal: Appeal: [box]

That has been like that for years!

Fixed.

Blun2 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

iPad, Chrome, default theme

I posted this already but I was obviously not clear in my description. On the Homepage, top left, just below the title, is a box that states how many stories there are on the site and a date/time stamp (down to the second) of when that page was loaded. It was previously on all pages but is now missing from My Library and most of it's subpages.

missing last update date/time stamp on most of the My Library pages

Diamond Porter ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows 11 ; Firefox ; Modern Light

At the end of a story, leaving a comment, the page slowly scrolled upwards, including the text box I was typing in, the end of the story, and the first few comments below the text box.

Having the text scroll as I read a story might be convenient, though disconcerting. Typing into a text box that is slowly scrolling up to the top of the window is a little annoying.

awkward42 ๐Ÿšซ

@Diamond Porter

I've experienced this too (Linux, Firefox, Classic (I think)), but it was happening before the changes so is probably unrelated to it.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Diamond Porter

At the end of a story, leaving a comment, the page slowly scrolled upwards, including the text box I was typing in, the end of the story, and the first few comments below the text box.

The auto-scroller has a keyboard short cut (escape key), so if you hit the escape key, it starts scrolling. It doesn't stop on its own when it reaches the bottom of the story. It only stops when you navigate to a different story or hit escape again to stop the auto-scroller.

So if the form is scrolling up, hit the escape key to stop it.

jimq2 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows10; Google Chrome Version 140.0.7339.81 (Official Build) (64-bit); Classic

Other than the bright yellow in "My Library" and the slightly smaller text in the forum, I have seen no differences to the website.

chestypullerjr ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

1 - System in use: Linux Mint 22

2 - Browser: Firefox 142.01

3 - The theme you have selected: Browser theme? Default Storiesonline theme? Probably default, I'm not sure where to change it, if possible

4 - Page url where the problem manifests itself: Bookmarks and Reading Queue

5 - As accurate of a description of the issue as you can: The cells in the "Chapter" column no longer have borders. All other cells do. Also, the text size seems to have changed overnight. Text that appeared on one line now wraps around. Being able to set font size would be a plus.

Desiderius Lustig ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Did I miss something or is the cover page a new feature?
Did try two and it is showing nicely!
Inspires me to translate more stories...

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Desiderius Lustig

Custom covers have been around for a year now.

mercuryman ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I find that using 1/3 of the page for the storyline title, smashes everything else together in a confusing manner. I would appreciate if the storyline title could be placed at the top and the balance of the entries below it.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@mercuryman

Don't know what any of this means. Story title where?

frodolives ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

iPad
Safari
Classic

https://storiesonline.net/n/50862/choices-by-don-lockwood

Comments are one long section with no way to reply to other comments or edit one's own comment.

PolyOldFart ๐Ÿšซ

@frodolives

Correct. Not only is the formatting screwed up, the icon for the ability to reply to a previous commenter (as I'm doing here) is missing.

Again: Debian 12, Firefox 128.14.0esr, Classic

Replies:   Dinsdale  awnlee jawking
Dinsdale ๐Ÿšซ

@PolyOldFart

I'm testing your statement.
OpenSUSE Leap 15.6, Seamonkey, presumably Classic.

Mind you, the 4 icons (for Reply to Post, Report Abuse, back to top, Send Private Message) are smaller than they should be. I don't frequent the Forum when using my smartphone but can imagine that selecting the correct one of them using my outsized fingers could be pretty fraught.

Replies:   Grant
Grant ๐Ÿšซ

@Dinsdale

Win 10 Pro, multiple browsers, Classic theme & no problems with those icons or their size (they're proportional to the size of the text, which i've made bigger).
However, the Delete and Edit icons are still missing. There are just the underscores to show where they should be.

awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@PolyOldFart

I used to get four hyphens but now they've disappeared. However mouseover causes blueish squares to appear, and clicking on the correct one allowed this reply.

AJ

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@awnlee jawking

I used to get four hyphens but now they've disappeared. However mouseover causes blueish squares to appear, and clicking on the correct one allowed this reply.

fixed.

awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Unfortunately I still get the blueish squares on mouseover, even after shutting down my browser to clear cookies and cache. However it's still usable as I was able to make this reply.

When the post is one of my own, so I'm allowed to edit or delete it, there are six blueish squares.

ETA Actually the hyphens were more useful. At least I could see where to mouseover rather than having to grope around.

AJ

awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

fixed.

I've just logged back in after a mini powercut forced my PC to reboot and the icons are now present.

Thank you.

Was it coincidence or did I actually need the reboot all along?

AJ

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@awnlee jawking

Was it coincidence or did I actually need the reboot all along?

No, I actually fixed a bug that needed fixing.

Replies:   awnlee jawking
awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

No, I actually fixed a bug that needed fixing.

Much appreciated.

AJ

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@frodolives

The story comments system and the forum are the most affected in the change and I'm working to fix them.

They relied heavily on custom CSS stylesheets and those cannot be used anymore in the new theme system.

Here_For_The_Articles ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Mobile/Android/DuckDuckGo browser/Classic theme

I somehow futzed around and lost my icons on the main page. I've got the menu items in text but not the icons that used to be along the top.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Here_For_The_Articles

Try rebooting your device.

Or check if your browser allows you to somehow block images and you have done that and turn it off.

Here_For_The_Articles ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

It's something in the DDG browser. I tried the standard Samsung/T-Mobile browser and everything looked like it used to. I'll have to poke around.

Here_For_The_Articles ๐Ÿšซ

@Here_For_The_Articles

Here's what I'm seeing.

https://ibb.co/TMfTd7rM

Here_For_The_Articles ๐Ÿšซ

@Here_For_The_Articles

Aaaaaand now it's back to normal? All I did differently was to tap the home icon instead of using the text links.

Here_For_The_Articles ๐Ÿšซ

@Here_For_The_Articles

Figured it out. I'm an idiot. I was toggling between the desktop and the mobile site. I'll go back to reading now. Everyone have a nice night.

Replies:   akarge
akarge ๐Ÿšซ

@Here_For_The_Articles

The first step in idiocy recovery is recognizing you have a problem. Welcome to the brotherhood.
I got my (ten thousandenth) 2 day pin today.

Zom ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

For many years I have used a window 960w for reading stories and other menus like the reading queue which had a good layout with that same width. Now, the reading queue (https://storiesonline.net/library/my.php) seems all jammed up with columns spaced weirdly, compressing up the story names most resulting in a much longer list (pixel wise) and scrolled horizontally in the same 960w. Much harder to navigate. Windows, Firefox latest, Classic theme.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Zom

Now, the reading queue (https://storiesonline.net/library/my.php) seems all jammed up with columns spaced weirdly, compressing up the story names most resulting in a much longer list (pixel wise) and scrolled horizontally in the same 960w.

I reworked some measurements and column titles with your width in mind. The 'Prog' column's title is now 'P' and the 'Rating' column's title is now 'R' (those two columns took a lot of space simply for their titles as the content is a single digit or a bullet).

Check it out.

You can also shrink the font size to make even more fit on screen, if you use 8pt (the minimum) I'm sure you can have decent enough width for the story's title.

Replies:   Zom
Zom ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Thanks. See my 'wierd' post, before I saw yours :-)

Zom ๐Ÿšซ

@Zom

And now it has reverted to the previous behavior. Weird!

sprinky ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Been happing for awhile
Periodically I get denied , to many downloads
Go back to home and then it's OK

Tablet , android phone
Both with foxpro

Replies:   Dinsdale
Dinsdale ๐Ÿšซ

@sprinky

https://storiesonline.net/d/s6/t13674/too-many-concurrent

LordDragon65 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows 10
Firefox
Classic Dark

Gotta admit I just don't like the comments being black on white. I prefer the white on black like the stories.

taulsk ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1
Mozilla Firefox 115.27.0esr (64-bit)
Modern Dark
An update to what I posted earlier. The banner for announcements looks like baby vomit, being some kind of green brown color that is ANNOYING AS HELL. I expect a banner for an announcement to be a bright color, even though I am using a dark theme. If not, make the color something that does not look like puke, please. My suggestion would be a brick red, with the blue highlighted words showing up just as well, but not being a nauseating color.

luser ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

1 - MacOS and iPadOS

2 - Safari

3 - Theme appears to be "2025"

4 - https://storiesonline.net/library/todaysAccesses.php (with or without ?cmd=h)

5 - The button at the top, that toggles between the fully history and today's stories, has a dark purple background with black text until you hover over it (or push on it for iPad) when it turns white. Unreadable in the purple/black combination.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@luser

2025 theme is not ready yet. But I had to release the main code to make sure that the existing themes are ok.

Tomorrow, 2025 will be hidden until it's mostly ready and then it will be open to more rigorous testing.

Thank you for the report and I'll fix the button color scheme. By the way, 2025 will be strictly auto-dark, auto-light modes. If your computer/device is in dark mode, the theme will be dark.

spam.mc+a2 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Can I sneak in a request? When filtering by tag, can you add an ใ€ŠAllใ€‹ option to the dropdown to go back to seeing everything?

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@spam.mc+a2

If you click the list's link on the left it should be back to 'All'

Replies:   Zen Master
Zen Master ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

As I've said before, I really like your site. You put a lot of work into keeping your readers happy. This is a good example. The site works great IF you know all these tricks, like what 'P' and 'R' mean. If we write a "How To Navigate SOL" guide, can we put it somewhere everyone can find it?
(I'm here trying to see if anyone else has already reported my issue, which is that I don't see the "You are on page 12" box for My Library > Active Serials.)

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Zen Master

(I'm here trying to see if anyone else has already reported my issue, which is that I don't see the "You are on page 12" box for My Library > Active Serials.)

I don't know what you means exactly, but under the header 'Active Serials' you should see something like 'Page 1 of 12'.

P and R were always there before, I simply reduced them to the first letter to shrink the width of the table as they took too much horizontal space. P is for 'progress' and R is for Rating.

Replies:   Zen Master  Zen Master
Zen Master ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Yes, you are right. There is a fixed line of text that says what page and how many. There used to be a box you could type into to skip X number of stories. That let me skip to the end where new stories with no updates collect. Now it's more awkward, especially on a slow satellite link. Wait for first page to load, click on the last page you can see, wait for it to load, click on the last one you see, wait for it to load...
For "active serials" it's even more awkward since the only page selector is on the bottom. It's wait for it to load, scroll to the bottom, click the last page you see, wait for it to load...

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Zen Master

The current page number is editable. Load the page, click the '1' page number and change it to the page number you want and hit enter or click outside of it.

Replies:   Zen Master
Zen Master ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Ah. On this phone the Samsung browser only shows "storiesonline.net" on the URL line, but if I stick my fat finger up there the browser changes to show the whole URL which ends with 'p=4'. That works.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Zen Master

but if I stick my fat finger up there the browser changes to show the whole URL which ends with 'p=4'.

You don't need to edit the URL. Please actually read what I wrote above.

The current page number in the page numbers bar is editable. Click it/Tap it, and change the number and tap outside or hit 'go' on the keyboard.

Zen Master ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

For P and R I apologize for being unclear. Everyone reading this thread now knows what they mean. I am asking if this is written anywhere besides this thread which will soon be buried under newer threads. Is there a "Using SOL 101" document anywhere? I looked a couple of times when trying to figure out how to do something when posting a story.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Zen Master

Is there a "Using SOL 101" document anywhere? I looked a couple of times when trying to figure out how to do something when posting a story.

The help link has a lot of details:

https://storiesonline.net/sol-secure/user/help.php

Replies:   Zen Master
Zen Master ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Thank you. That seems to be a lot more complete than the last time I checked. I clicked on a couple and they seemed helpful but they didn't have creation or update timestamps that I could see so they could all be new.

moondog_199 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

On my iPad, I see forum posts quoting a reply, the quoted text is covered by a black box rather than a highlight colour.

upper ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Linux, Firefox 140.0.4, Modern Dark, new stories page
https://storiesonline.net/library/new_stories.php

The announcement banners at the top of the page don't have enough contrast. They're dark blue text on yellowish-gray, and while it is readable, it is appreciably harder to read than the rest of the text on the page.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@upper

The announcement banners at the top of the page don't have enough contrast.

Fixed.

Assembler Maniac ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows 7, Chrome, Modern Dark, my stream

Announcment bars are much better with the almost white background

I played with the CSS pad spacing for the announcements, using 5px instead of 10px. It's still plenty visible without being a distraction.

Site looks great. Nicely done.

awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

This may be a stupid question but when I hopped over to SciFi Stories, the Random Story was the second entry on the home page. Is that new or has it always been that way? I thought that was the 'not logged in' order.

ETA That now seems to be 'fixed' as the random story is now top on SciFi Stories..

AJ

duanelloyd ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Not liking the gray

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@duanelloyd

Not liking the gray

Where? What theme?

jjmcdonald ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Using iPad 17 with IOS 18.16.2. When I go into library, the entire selection set is grey. The blue and white alternating backgrounds around the choices in the library are harder to read.

solitude ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Android, Chrome, Mobile Light

On the forum, the buttons under posts are white on white, thus invisible. (Just about visible on greyed-out posts.) Also the background for quoted text is too dark a grey, making the text difficult to read.

jimq2 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows10, FireFox, Classic

I just noticed in My Library, that the story count at the top of the Reading Queue is no longer there.

Grant ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

1 Win 10 Pro
2 Edge & Firefox.
3 Classic (Light)
4 https://storiesonline.net/n/27344/the-library-of-ibados/39
5 Reader Comments at the end of a story, there are no lines or change in colour to break up the comments.
It's just one white background with bits of text on it, actually makes it somewhat difficult to read the comments.

And the comments section is now the same width as the story text, before it was more like the forum width.
Neither good, nor bad IMHO. Just different.

Cassie63 ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows 10, Google, 2025 theme

https://storiesonline.net/library/authors.php?let=T

Authors page white spaces unreadable even w/being premier member to account for access to the "Blanked out" Authors

works fine on Android phone and now also windows in Dark mode only effected in 2025 theme

Reluctant_Sir ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

New anomaly today.

With Win 11, Edge, Dark, every page.

The notification banners (Contest, Test, Changes made) are behaving oddly.

Click on the home page, they appear. Hide them and click on the blog link, they are back. Hide them and click on the forum link, they are back. Hide them and every thread you clock on, they are back again.

They used to be one and done.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)
Updated:

@Reluctant_Sir

The notification banners (Contest, Test, Changes made) are behaving oddly.

Fixed.

Well, I guess the fix is an odd one if you're on a slow connection like me.

Now they appear and then if you hide them, on the next page they appear and disappear.

I'll fix them tomorrow.

Replies:   sunseeker
sunseeker ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

sounds good to me! the yellow ad/announcement banners started to flash and disappear quickly for me today and I never changed a thing...still using classic them lol

W11, FF 142.0.1, Classic

SunSeeker

Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@sunseeker

the yellow ad/announcement banners started to flash and disappear quickly for me today and I never changed a thing...still using classic them

I'm seeing the same thing, but only if I use an internal link. It doesn't happen if I use back or refresh.

Win 10, FF.

Replies:   jimq2
jimq2 ๐Ÿšซ

@Dominions Son

Ditto. Didn't do that when I logged on earlier.

Windows10, Firefox, Classic

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@sunseeker

sounds good to me! the yellow ad/announcement banners started to flash and disappear quickly for me today and I never changed a thing...still using classic them lol

Fixed.

Replies:   sunseeker
sunseeker ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

thank you!

geeko ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Not sure if this also applies to StoryRoom web site or not.

iPad, safari, classic theme

Some stories are now displaying "Has Book Ad" to the right of the more info link.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@geeko

Some stories are now displaying "Has Book Ad" to the right of the more info link.

That's a new indicator. It applies to all the site's that use SOL's software.

Replies:   solitude
solitude ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

It would be nice if the indicator was not bold - it's a bit shouty. Italics would be nicer.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@galen

3. "My Library"
4 In column of links at left,
- all links below "Show Tag" box, current date/time is visible
- all links above "Show Tag" box, no sign of current date'time/time

The links below the tag box are all pages external to the library, the links above it are to parts of the library itself.

The library's pages never had time stamps before now, so it's not missing, it's just different. The library doesn't really need a timestamp because its contents are controlled by the user.

Are the time stamps in the library really important to you?

taulsk ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1
Mozilla Firefox 115.27.0esr (64-bit)
Modern Dark
New change I just noticed. The comments of the story I just caught up on, is all white background with black letters, with no separation lines, unlike the forums being black background with white letters and separation lines. So Modern Dark is very not dark when viewing the comments to the story. The story in question is;
A Variation On A Theme Story (6) by Grey Wolf
Other stories also exhibit the same issue when I checked, though previously had been normal dark theme.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@taulsk

The comments need a significant update.

The story display system has its own independent formatting and display mechanism as it allows infinite modifications and it's hard to predict what the user is using in relation to the comments, whether their system is using dark mode too or not.

I'll work on it.

gil-more ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Android phone, Galaxy S23, Samsung Internet browser, not sure of the theme, Seeing it in the list of new stories and story updates and anywhere there is a list.

Story titles for me are showing up in the same font and size as the author field. Is this part of the changes?

doctor_wing_nut ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Linux, Firefox 142.0.1, classic theme.

All quoted text in the forum is still blacked-out, but visible if you mouse-over in the box, as if to copy text. All links inside a post (reply, send message) are invisible until mouse-over.

edit - when a post is grayed-out (read) the links appear as white against the gray.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@doctor_wing_nut

Fixed.

Replies:   K_Cool
K_Cool ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Win10Pro
FF140.2.0ESR
Modern Light

Doesn't seem like it for me. Even after clearing cookies and restarting FF.
unread posts https://i.imgur.com/6nFzn9Q.jpeg
read posts https://i.imgur.com/NaBgVhR.jpeg

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@K_Cool

Modern Light

Doesn't seem like it for me. Even after clearing cookies and restarting FF.

Finally figured it out.

You're using modern light, but your computer is set to dark mode.

Fixed.

Replies:   K_Cool
K_Cool ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Yeah looks alright now. Thanks.

I use dark versions on a lot of websites but Modern Dark gives me a headache.

awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Not a bug but perhaps a minor inconsistency.

On SciFi Stories and Storyroom, 'has book ad' is bold, but on StoriesOnline it's not.

AJ

TeNderLoin ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

The only thing I would change, is that the story layout is very narrow.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@TeNderLoin

The only thing I would change, is that the story layout is very narrow.

You're kidding, right?

After over 20 years on the site, you're telling me that you've never seen this page?:

https://storiesonline.net/sol-secure/user/style.php

cool ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Android phone, Firefox, Mobile w/Auto-Dark-Mode. When reading stories, the theme is white letters on a black background. After the recent change, the comments are now black letters on a white background, unlike the story above the comments. Many comments also do not display the comment author's name, but might display the name of who they are replying to. Everything other than the comments section seems fine.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@cool

The comments have issues. I'm working on them.

I was lazy when I implemented the commenting system and used the same initial code and styles as the forum, and now it's biting me in the ass.

I'll get it fixed with a single stylesheet that blends the comments with the story display system better.

Mementh ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

The font size of titles in new and updated for the story has changed somewhat and looks harder to read!
Ios and safari

gt2847c ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

On the My Library Page, the < and > buttons for prev/next pages gets separated from the page numbers on wide screens. < is far left, > is far right and the numbers are centered. maybe a CSS thing. On pages like Historical Story Access, the numbers and prev/next buttons are constrained within the box. Maybe have the library follow that design...

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@gt2847c

It's the same code.

The history list is narrower.

freetrav ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

The only change that I would make to the new look is to simply return the date/time to the My Library and Active Serials page; I often used that as confirmation that a balky mouse is actually taking the click and the page is simply refreshing faster than I'm seeing a reaction on the screen - if the time doesn't change, the mouse needs to be debalked; if it does, the referesh worked and the fact that I'm seeing no changes means that none of my stories has updated.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@freetrav

simply return the date/time to the My Library

done.

Replies:   freetrav
freetrav ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Thank you, sir! A small thing, but a helpful one!

Unicornzvi ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Not sure if this is related, but https://storiesonline.net/n/51058/a-man-named-mike shows up as having been posted on Posted: 19/09/2025, 13:14:39 (all three chapters the same second) and being Incomplete/inactive.
While it would be great if Gina was back writing and posting here, I doubt that's the case.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Unicornzvi

when I found out that beyondthefarhorizon is going away, I reached out to Gina and got her permission to post them here.

The story is on Gina's site incomplete and I doubt that she will ever complete it.

I posted it and I set it as incomplete right away.

Replies:   Unicornzvi  unrealtime
Unicornzvi ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Got it, thanks.

unrealtime ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

BTFH was a favorite of mine at one time, but for whatever reason I hadn't been on for a couple years. Glad that you're bringing over what you can. Sad that she isn't producing new stories. Frustrated that I can't get in touch or leave a comment to express my thanks for some 25 years of great writing. Still remember how pumped I was at her blog post announcing that her Tangent series in the Lord Kalvin universe would be published by John Carr. That apparently fell through, which was a real pity since I considered them as faithful to Piper as Carr's works. If you're still in contact, please ask her to consider allowing some form of communication from her myriad fans.

paglio69 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

All the best writers and stories are gone now . It's not worthmy time to come on here now .

Michael Loucks ๐Ÿšซ

@paglio69

All the best writers and stories are gone now . It's not worthmy time to come on here now .

I'd be curious who you included in this list. FYI, one of the all-time greats, Don Lockwood, is back.

al_3 ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@paglio69

The good authors are not gone. Their old stories are still on the site and new ones are being added but not to the same extent as in the past. At the moment the site is being flooded with poorly written & extreme porn but these trends are cyclical and hopefully the garbage writers will drop off when they realise that no-one is reading their rubbish.

AmigaClone ๐Ÿšซ

@paglio69

While some authors that were on my list of 'Best SOL authors' are gone, their stories have not been removed.

Several on my list have posted new chapters within the past two weeks, while others are in between stories but are active in the forums like Michael Loucks.

Between 2023 and 2024 there have been 15 finalists for the 'Author of the Year' clitorides award. One of those died in 2023. Of the 14 remaining, most have posted something in the past six months.

Replies:   Michael Loucks
Michael Loucks ๐Ÿšซ

@AmigaClone

active in the forums like Michael Loucks.

Next story is about six weeks away (2 weeks for ZBookstors).

Dai_wakizashi ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows, edge browser, classic
Serials updated table shows gray columns for each column except the downloads and score which show as yellow. I expected to see columns as mostly white (like it was before). I rather prefer the old classic settings, and not this new classic style. It certainly doesn't match the sample offered in the configuration/settings page.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Dai_wakizashi

Serials updated table shows gray columns for each column except the downloads and score which show as yellow.

What you're seeing is actually a feature. The greyed out stories in the Updated serials list and the new stories list are stories you've seen displayed for you. If the new stories list is not exhibiting the same 'problem', then go all the way to the end of the pages, and after that, new stories that haven't been viewed yet will have the classic view, and the one viewed will have the greyed out look.

I guess I should fix the stylesheet so that the yellow columns get greyed too.

akarge ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Samsung, auto dark, Google Chrome.
Just noticed today. Story comments are no longer separated from one comment to another. Just one long batch of white with black text.

Replies:   OmegaPet-58
OmegaPet-58 ๐Ÿšซ

@akarge

I too miss the dividing line between comments. The only thing separating comments is the hooked arrow for "reply" and other icons. The line exists in the Forum.

roadking_52 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Suddenly I am being asked to confirm my age every time I open the site, the having to provide my username and password. Also the titles of stories I am reading are not changing to a different color to indicate I have opened them. This is not an improvement.

Grant ๐Ÿšซ

@roadking_52

Have you made any changes to your browser lately? Or your AV software?
The issues you are describing are browser related- not the web site. If you clear your cookies and history every time you close your browser, then you will have to log in every time you come to the site & read stories colours won't change.
If your AV programme is set to clean up cookies, you'll have to log in every time.
If you're using In private/incognito or whatever private mode your browser calls it, you'll have to log in each time, etc.

It's an issue with your system software and it's settings, not the web site.

Michael Loucks ๐Ÿšซ

@roadking_52

You may have a stale cookie or a bad cache for SOL. Use your browser's feature to clear data for SOL, then restart your browser. That has solved this for me when it has happened.

palamedes ๐Ÿšซ

@roadking_52

Could it be a regional thing. Some States {23 enacted and 2 more not yet in effect} mandate/require Adult content age verification.

Replies:   jimq2  Dominions Son
jimq2 ๐Ÿšซ

@palamedes

Arizona's went into effect today.

Replies:   zitqhile
zitqhile ๐Ÿšซ

@jimq2

Using a VPN fixes that. There are even a few decent free ones that would be good enough.

Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@palamedes

That would still require individual websites implement age verification. They might have a really hard time enforcing that for sites where the servers and the operator are both outside the US (and in different countries)

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@roadking_52

Suddenly I am being asked to confirm my age every time I open the site, the having to provide my username and password. Also the titles of stories I am reading are not changing to a different color to indicate I have opened them. This is not an improvement.

You're using the site in a private tab/window.

Switch to a normal window/tab and the cookie will be preserved (you stay logged in) and your history will be used (the color of the links).

aldo ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Android Pixel 9p
Firefox Beta
Mobile Light (dark mode)

Add bookmark
Available tags are shown black on green, ok
Assigned tags are shown black on dark green, very hard to read, but X is white, please change text to white as well

Replies:   aldo
aldo ๐Ÿšซ

@aldo

Addendum

When saved and refreshed assigned tags are also black on light green, but X is white
Minor cosmetic, no real effect to usability ๐Ÿ˜€

Replies:   aldo
aldo ๐Ÿšซ

@aldo

Edit Bookmark

Tag background light green is better than colors in Add Bookmark

Section
Serial:
Show in Active Serials List
Reset progress back to chapter

Shown in edit but not in add bookmark

campbell349 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Win 10; Chrome

Classic Theme formating doesn't always apply to 1st page of updates. If I cascade through the pages on Updates and New Stories I can finally get the theme to apply. It's not a deal breaker but it is annoying.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Today I published a new alpha version of the new 2025 theme for desktop layouts.

It features radically different navigation system.

Give it a try and let me know what you think. Those with old systems and browsers, use caution, I'm not sure which features don't work.

If you're already using it, you need to force reload a page in order to reload the new stylesheet.

doctor_wing_nut ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Is it supposed to be a dark theme? It doesn't show that way (for me) until I select it. I do prefer this background over the Olive drab from the modern dark theme. Most, if not all of the old links seem to come off the 'Read' or 'Authors/Editors' tabs now. Seems to work fine for me (Linux, Firefox 143.0.3).

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@doctor_wing_nut

Is it supposed to be a dark theme?

It is auto-dark mode theme. If your system is in dark mode, then it will be dark, if your system is in light mode, then it will be white.

Replies:   doctor_wing_nut
doctor_wing_nut ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

The setting does not seem to survive a logout. When I log back in I have to select it again, if I want to continue using it. Maybe because it's still alpha?

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@doctor_wing_nut

You didn't mention what setting does not survive log out. I'm going to assume that it's selecting theme 2025.

It should be like other themes, once selected it sticks until something else is selected.

I've been using it myself for the last couple of weeks and it was never deselected.

Were you logged in when it was a different theme? When not logged in the site reverts to the default (modern with auto-dark).

Replies:   doctor_wing_nut
doctor_wing_nut ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Sorry, we were discussing the new 2025 theme. It just did it again, setting the 2025 theme does not hold, for me. Log out, then back in, and I'm back to classic theme. That's twice.

EDIT - None of the themes will hold a setting, for me. When logging back in, it always seems to revert to classic theme. I selected the modern dark theme, re-loaded the page to see the theme change, then closed the browser, refreshed, logged in again, and back to classic.

Replies:   Switch Blayde
Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@doctor_wing_nut

You don't delete cookies when you log out, do you?

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Switch Blayde

You don't delete cookies when you log out, do you?

The theme selection is not saved in a cookie. It's saved in the account info.

I don't know why his selection is not sticking yet.

Replies:   doctor_wing_nut
doctor_wing_nut ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

You don't delete cookies when you log out, do you?

No, only when I close the browser, but as Laz said, that shouldn't affect site settings.

As of this mornings login, the theme was retained. No idea why.

I did notice one other oddity. When selecting an option from the 'Read' drop-down, the drop-down itself stays down instead of retracting, until you click somewhere else on the page. No big deal.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@doctor_wing_nut

I did notice one other oddity. When selecting an option from the 'Read' drop-down, the drop-down itself stays down instead of retracting, until you click somewhere else on the page. No big deal.

That's the intended behavior, not an oddity or bug.

Gauthier ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

new 2025 theme for desktop layouts

1 To be sure the library menu is always on top of the read menu, add a z-index there:

.hmb-drp-cont li:hover > ul {
display: block;
z-index: 1;
}

2 It's a rather long menu those without a scroll wheel and with a text zoom may not be able to reach the end as it is allowed to develop bellow the viewport.

There are solution to that the simplest being multiple columns menu.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)
Updated:

@Gauthier

2 It's a rather long menu those without a scroll wheel and with a text zoom may not be able to reach the end as it is allowed to develop bellow the viewport.

In all my tests, including on tiny windows, the major browsers expanded the view port to show the full menu, so scrolling becomes possible.

There are solution to that the simplest being multiple columns menu.

I tried multiple columns briefly, but discarded the idea. Due to the multiple nested menus support, in the author's menu for authors with multiple pen names, it becomes very unmanageable, very quickly.

Marc Nobbs ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Today I published a new alpha version of the new 2025 theme for desktop layouts.

It features radically different navigation system.

I like the look and feel - feels very modern, which is good. I like some aspects of the new nav system and others, not so much.

For example, I like that I can get to the story stats from the homepage. Big win. BUT, it now takes two clicks to get to the forums instead of one. Might it be better if the menus appeared on 'hover' rather than on click?

(This might just be me, but I have a real bug bear for things being redesigned and it ending up taking more clicks to do something. For example, in Acrobt, I used to be able to attach an open file to an email with one click. Then they moved this behind a 'share' button and it became two clicks. Then they gave me the option of attaching the file or sending a link, so now it takes three clicks - it's bloody annoying)

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Marc Nobbs

For example, I like that I can get to the story stats from the homepage. Big win. BUT, it now takes two clicks to get to the forums instead of one.

Compromises. Isn't that what it's all about?

Might it be better if the menus appeared on 'hover' rather than on click?

I will be using the same mechanism in a future mobile theme that is similar, there is no hover on mobile. It has to be a tap/click.

Replies:   Marc Nobbs
Marc Nobbs ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Compromises. Isn't that what it's all about?

Quite. I literally typed the words "Nobody's perfect" in the story I'm working on just yesterday.

I will be using the same mechanism in a future mobile theme that is similar, there is no hover on mobile. It has to be a tap/click.

That makes perfect sense. Overall, I like the 2025 theme. It's quite refreshing.

Gauthier ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Today I published a new alpha version of the new 2025 theme for desktop layouts.

A slight annoyance when activating a button link, the whole story box got bigger, you shouldn't increase the font size or make sure the button doesn't get bigger when the font size increase from 86% to 102%.

a:active, a:visited:active {
font-size: 102%;
}

Quasirandom ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

From the Author Resources Page, click Post & Repost while there is at least one story waiting to be posted or reposted -- so at https://storiesonline.net/author/wizard.php when there's a table of what's in the queue with Make a New Submission above it. Below the table, there's a

n

on a line on its own. In the code, it's after the and the following .

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Quasirandom

Below the table, there's a 'n' on a line on its own.

Fixed. Thank you for the report.

braddibb ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Android phone, dark theme. I don't have any issues with the changes but for one page and I think even before the changes. When I add a bookmark, the screen is mostly unreadable with the white background and text that is an off white.
Otherwise very happy with the site.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@braddibb

Android phone, dark theme.

Is the phone itself in dark mode or light mode or auto?

On the site, is your theme selection strictly dark, or auto-dark?

I tried various combos on my phone and couldn't replicate the problem.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Another change today: I switched the story covers format from JPEG to WEBP. This would save about 50% of bandwidth for covers.

All browsers built from late 2018 can handle this format. Older browsers it's a hit or miss.

Edited to correct: Browsers since late 2018.

Replies:   awnlee jawking
awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

All browsers built since 2017 can handle this format. Older browsers it's a hit or miss.

Firefox 52.9.0 ESR 2017 vintage - no cover images :-(

AJ

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)
Updated:

@awnlee jawking

Firefox 52.9.0 ESR 2017

Corrected. 2018, late.

Firefox was the last major browser to support webp, in version 65.

Replies:   awnlee jawking
awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Is it the case that I'll still be able to see some cover images where the author has uploaded their own cover in jpeg format?

At the end of the day, as long as I can still read and write stories and contribute to the forums, that's what's important to me.

AJ

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@awnlee jawking

Is it the case that I'll still be able to see some cover images where the author has uploaded their own cover in jpeg format?

The old covers will remain. It's new covers that will be in WEBP. And no, even custom new covers will be in WEBP.

At the end of the day, as long as I can still read and write stories and contribute to the forums, that's what's important to me.

I know you've said it before, but please remind me, why are you still on XP?

It's hard moving forward when we get anchored to the past by a minority. Out of over 400,000 accounts in the database, only 84 are on firefox 52, and only 30 have logged in within the last 2 years.

Replies:   awnlee jawking  Pixy
awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I know you've said it before, but please remind me, why are you still on XP?

I need to run 32-bit legacy software for my research. If this computer dies, I'll be up shit creek :-(

AJ

Replies:   Marc Nobbs  whitedruid
Marc Nobbs ๐Ÿšซ

@awnlee jawking

I need to run 32-bit legacy software for my research. If this computer dies, I'll be up shit creek :-(

I've had to run 32-bit office on the PCs at work since 2008, since the Outlook "add-in" for our database only works with 32-bit. The database software itself is 32-bit, too. And every PC we currently have came with at least Windows 10, and most are now on Windows 11 (the remaining Win10 PC are being replaced this month).

Never had an issue running 32-bit software on Win 11.

whitedruid ๐Ÿšซ

@awnlee jawking

Any reason to not use a physical to virtual migration for the old 32 bit system to get it to run under a more up to date system hosting the old version as a virtual machine?

Being able to use snapshots of the old system to restore it if it has an issue would seem to make sense to me.

There are multiple options to host virtual machines for every device that is in common use.

Pixy ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

That makes me want to dig out my old Win 95 PC and (try to) log in with netscape....

Replies:   Marc Nobbs
Marc Nobbs ๐Ÿšซ

@Pixy

I'm sure I saw a video of someone trying this not long ago. Damn thing was so infected within seconds of being exposed to the internet, it crashed spectacularly.

doctor_wing_nut ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Linux, Firefox 143.0.3

Classic theme shows the date and time of the most recent update for each story when looking through the recent updates page, but the 2025 theme only shows when the story was originally posted.

edit - it does show under 'More info', if you ever look there.

Cassie63 ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows 10
G Chrome
Modern Dark

I've noticed a glitch in the system once in awhile, when i finish a new chapter and follow the link to library and then try to go to the next updated serial/artist it doesn't work it just sits there I have to hit the library link at the top then click on the new chapter then it goes to the chapter. It did the same thing today when I tried to go to the History link on the left side.

I've tried restarting my computer, clearing the history cache for google history it comes back the next day.

nlaak ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Seems like there might be a database problem in some of the rendering. This link: https://storiesonline.net/universe/934/original-realm-of-magic-and-magical-beings

is for a universe by QM. The header shows it's for Natures_sin_War

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@nlaak

In order to lower the load on the DB server, I built caching into the universe and series retrieval system.

I guess I introduced major bugs along the way.

I'll get to them on Monday.

nlaak ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Another maybe database problem. Looking at https://storiesonline.net/a/Uncle_Jim

all of the "A Ley Line Witch Story" stores say "Book #" rather than what I assume is supposed to be the actual book number

Mythic Shadow ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

On FireFox Windows 11
The comments below the story https://storiesonline.net/n/45426/champion-of-the-gods/31 are no longer in the framed boxes as they are in this topic, but are wide screen and fully fill the screen.

TheirTheyre ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

The changes have mostly been unobtrusive from my perspective, but all of the cover images show up as broken images to me...

For example, on Jason's Story, all I see is a broken image icon and a non-working link to "Jason's Story - Cover".

I have the same issue with Chrome or Safari.

Thanks!

Grant ๐Ÿšซ

@TheirTheyre

No problems for me on 3 different computers and two different browsers.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@TheirTheyre

The changes have mostly been unobtrusive from my perspective, but all of the cover images show up as broken images to me...

Is that for ALL stories, or only newer ones?

Both Chrome and Safari support webp, so that shouldn't happen normally.

Replies:   TheirTheyre  whitedruid
TheirTheyre ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Is that for ALL stories, or only newer ones?

Both Chrome and Safari support webp, so that shouldn't happen normally.

It's not all the stories - I've seen a few covers that work. But not all of the older ones work either. For example, https://anonsol.net/s/46291/greenies shows up as broken. Actually, all of the top 10 stories in the "Top Long Classics" list show as broken covers to me.

FWIW, https://anonsol.net/n/46475/matthew-s-story/i shows up correctly (finding one story where the cover worked was a royal pain - kept hitting the concurrent access limiter).

Replies:   TheirTheyre
TheirTheyre ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@TheirTheyre

For example, https://anonsol.net/s/46291/greenies shows up as broken.

If I inspect the element for that cover, I find:

&lt;img src=&quot;/i/46291-w&quot; width=&quot;2000&quot; height=&quot;800&quot; alt=&quot;Greenies - Cover&quot; id=&quot;cover&quot;&gt;

If I "Open Image in New Tab" on it, I get

This page isn't working
anonsol.net is currently unable to handle this request.
HTTP ERROR 500

for the image at URL https://anonsol.net/i/46291-w

Hope this helps!

(Sorry for the escaped HTML - couldn't get it into the forum otherwise)

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@TheirTheyre

for the image at URL https://storiesonline.net/i/46291-w

Hope this helps!

Indeed it did.

Issue fixed.

Replies:   TheirTheyre
TheirTheyre ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Confirmed, thanks!

whitedruid ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Just sent 7 titles to my kindle account and all four of them with a standard generic cover show as blank white until I open the title and then it goes to a failed image tiny icon.

Covers are not displayed in my kindle content manager website so can't see if they are viable elsewhere. I can display the generated cover on my iPad in Firefox.

I'm running iPad os 18.5 with up to date Firefox and kindle apps. Well, current as of yesterday, Firefox has a new version pending update, but that side of the split screen is working properly. I've pulled a screenshot showing the cover displaying on Firefox and error icon in kindle app if you want it.

The recent 7 were updated by author Thomas Spencer. 3 have custom cover artwork, the other four are generic generated covers. Presumably the update rebuilds the generated cover as part of the update.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@whitedruid

Send-to-Kindle doesn't support all the specs of EPUB 3.3 (released in early 2023) yet.

I switched back to jpg for the covers.

The few stories with custom covers uploaded in the last few days will keep the .webp format, the generic and template based covers will revert to .jpg.

Midsummerman ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Android Tablet, Chrome.

Some of the scores have disappeared from my stories; until recently it was just from the story stats list, but we're available when opening the page for each individual story. I now get a circle with a star motif in both instances, so have no idea of the rating.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)
Updated:

@Midsummerman

but we're available when opening the page for each individual story.

That was a bug, and I fixed it. Scores should NOT be visible to readers and authors before a sufficient number of votes has been cast.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Well, one would expect that major software would support the latest specs of a format within a couple of years, but no, Send-to-Kindle still doesn't support EPUB 3.3.

So, I switched the system back to the retarded .jpg format from .webp. Good thing I designed it as a simple switch.

I guess I'll try again in another couple of years and see what happens.

Replies:   whitedruid  Gauthier
whitedruid ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Howdy,

I think you might have broken something else in that area. Send to kindle now initiates a local download for any titles.

I access from my iPad and don't directly download titles but send them to my kindle account via email. Allowing me to access them as needed later regardless of what bandwidth I have locally.

I'm used to very large files not being able to send via email, but now everything is that way.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@whitedruid

I access from my iPad and don't directly download titles but send them to my kindle account via email. Allowing me to access them as needed later regardless of what bandwidth I have locally.

As I added some options to the download preferences page, you may need to redo your preference to mail files to your kindle.

Replies:   whitedruid
whitedruid ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Confirming covers are coming through again properly

Gauthier ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

If the goal was to limit the bandwidth, I would suggest using a blank src and on client side, use feature detection for support of webp (and heic?) set the image src to the smallest supported.
However, for epub, your stuck with jpg for the next 10 years (at least).

TheirTheyre ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

The images work for me on storiesonline.net URLs, but not on the alternate hostname.

nlaak ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Another database/caching problem (presumably).

I was doing a category search for rags to riches, sorted by score, omitting incomplete and in progress stories, and on page 2, the story "Spyder's Web Carter Davis Book Three" by Rottweiler, is showing as "Absence of Living Book #1".

If it click into the series, it does show it as the third book there.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@nlaak

is showing as "Absence of Living Book #1".

It turns out that the changes that I made by adding caching are exposing these things. The author actually put that #1 in the series info.

Before the changes it would have been displayed on the site like this:

Absence of Living Book #1 (3)

I removed the numbering, and any additional numbering that the author had added is now looking wrong instead of weird.

PT ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Some stories in to be continued do not have the bookmark next function at the bottom, the option is completely missing. Some stories have it.
Noticed with books by A Well Traveled Man

Android Firefox

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@PT

Some stories in to be continued do not have the bookmark next function at the bottom, the option is completely missing. Some stories have it.

Stories in your library, as in bookmarked already, have it.

Stories not in your library should have 'Add to Library' link instead.

Are both absent?

Replies:   PT
PT ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Both are absent
If i go to the more info section i can choose the bookmark button to bookmark the story thru the bookmark dialog page, then bookmark next option shows up.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I managed to whip up a quick new theme. We now have a 'Classic Dark'.

It's a dark mode version of the classic theme with tables.

I may have missed some spots, so for now it's labelled as Beta.

If you use it, please report any places where the colors don't work.

akarge ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I just posted a story comment and as I reread it, I noticed a typo. However, there was no edit option to allow me to fix it. I seem to remember being able to edit my comments previously.

K_Cool ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Some issues with the dark themes.
2025 - various page titles have the words on top of each other
Classic Dark - some words are unreadable because text font is too dark
Modern w/ auto dark mode - Forum section titles are barely readable (black text font might not be the best choice)

https://imgur.com/a/5WYQQpC

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@K_Cool

Some issues with the dark themes.

2025 - various page titles have the words on top of each other

That was fixed a week ago. I guess you tried it and the CSS file was cached. I changed the CSS file's name. Try now.

Classic Dark - some words are unreadable because text font is too dark

Fixed. Thank you.

Modern w/ auto dark mode - Forum section titles are barely readable (black text font might not be the best choice)

I couldn't replicate this one. Modern Auto-Dark in dark mode works well, and has been for over 2 years now.

Replies:   K_Cool
K_Cool ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

found another issue in 2025, archived authors in the authors list are unreadable

https://i.imgur.com/sTdvR7H.png

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@K_Cool

found another issue in 2025, archived authors in the authors list are unreadable

Fixed.

Thank you for the report.

Replies:   K_Cool
K_Cool ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

found another issue, sorry

https://i.imgur.com/JiftLo1.png

the blue font color is unreadable

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@K_Cool

found another issue, sorry

https://i.imgur.com/JiftLo1.png

the blue font color is unreadable

Fixed.

Thank you for the bug report.

Gauthier ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Issues with the classical dark theme home page.
1 Blue background for in progress and modifications should be desaturated.
2 box-shadows should preferably be avoided in dark theme (or made darker than they are now)

Maybe stick to these guidelines:
https://m2.material.io/design/color/dark-theme.html

Gauthier ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Mouse over the link in the yellow site notification and the link appears white on yellow (unreadable).
a:hover{backround-color:teal} isn't applied to the text in a div.

Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I have a question that is sort of related to this discussion.

Have you checked the site on the Mac Tahoe 26.0.1 OS?

Tahoe has only been out for about a week so I normally wouldn't upgrade to an OS so new, but I recently updated to Sequoia 15.7.1 which changed the way bookmarks are displayed on the left of the Safari screen. The change is awful and takes many more clicks to get to a bookmark than in the past. Apple told me with Tahoe, I can change it back to the way it was. But, like I said, I'm hesitant to upgrade to such a new (untested) OS.

So have you run SOL on Tahoe?

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Switch Blayde

So have you run SOL on Tahoe?

Both my Desktop computer and my laptop are now running 26.0.1.

All good, no complaints. No bugs that I encountered. Some long standing bugs in Sequoia were fixed in Tahoe.

I'm not sure of the issue that you had in sequoia with bookmarks, as I don't use many bookmarks to need their interface to be there all the time.

Replies:   Switch Blayde
Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I'm not sure of the issue that you had in sequoia with bookmarks

I use bookmarks constantly to navigate around the web. They appear on the left side of the Safari screen. They used to be:

Group1
bookmark 1
bookmark 2
etc.

Group2
bookmark 3
bookmark 4
etc.

With the old way, if I click on bookmark 1 in Group1, I go to that URL (let's say Google). When done, if I want to go to bookmark 3 in Group2 (say SOL), it's showing so I click on it. Easy.

But now they are displayed as:

Group1
Group2

I have to click on Group1 which gets expanded to:

Bookmark 1
Bookmark 2

I click on Bookmark 1 to go to Google. But when I want to go to SOL, that bookmark is not showing on the list of bookmarks. All I see are the bookmarks in Group1. I have to go to the top and hit the < by Group1. That brings it back to listing the groups. Then I have to click on Group2 which then shows the bookmarks for Group2. I click on bookmark 3 and go to the SOL page. Then if I want to go to a bookmark that's not in Group2, I have to go back to the top, hit the "back" symbol, get the list of groups, and, well, start over.

ADDED:
Right now I read all the posts that had green dots so I want to go to Fidelity.com to see how the stock market is doing. That bookmark isn't showing because I'm in the wrong group. It used to be one click to get to Fidelity. Now I have to back out of the group I'm in, expand the group Fidelity is in, and click on the Fidelity bookmark. After checking the stock market, I may want to come back here to see if there are any new unread posts. That used to be one click. Not it will take me several clicks.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Switch Blayde

With the old way, if I click on bookmark 1 in Group1, I go to that URL (let's say Google). When done, if I want to go to bookmark 3 in Group2 (say SOL), it's showing so I click on it. Easy.

Oh, Workspaces!

Yeah, it's a conceptual change that you would need to understand in order to take full advantage of it. It's very powerful, but can be confusing and frustrating.

In Sequoia, those groups are not groups of bookmarks; Those are workspaces.

Think of a work space as a completely different browser. They can hold their own cookies separate from each other. So if you're in Workspace 1 (group1) and you're logged into SOL, then if you switch to workspace 2 (or group 2) then you may or may not be logged into SOL if you hadn't logged into SOL when in Workspace 2.

I never used the sidebar, so I'm not sure how it worked in sequoia, but in Tahoe, at the bottom of the side bar, there is 'Bookmarks' which mirror the 'Bookmarks' menu and those are actually just bookmarks or links to sites and they're independent from Workspaces.

So for example, you could have a workspace dedicated to your reading and writing activities and you would call it let's say 'SwitchBlayde' and you open as many tabs as you need like one for SOL, one for Bookapy, one for Grammarian, one for Google for research, etc...

Then you create a new workspace for your banking and investments sites and you open whatever tabs you need like fidelity, your bank, etc... From the top, you can easily switch between workspaces and all the tabs would change to show what's open in that workspace.

Workspaces are very powerful that way, especially when combined with pinned tabs.

Replies:   Switch Blayde
Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Oh, Workspaces!

I don't think we're talking about the same thing. I sometimes have multiple browser windows open. In fact, I always have two: 1) my ZBookStore sales stats page and 2) my active window (like what I'm typing on now). I may do a cmd/N to temporarily open a new window (like to go to Google to check on something), but then close that temporary window. I don't like clutter. And sometimes I have multiple tabs open on a browser page, but not often. Usually it's when I click on a link and the app opens it in a new tab. If you're talking about that, it's not what I see on the sidebar.

When I click on Bookmarks at the very top, after things like "Hide Bookmarks" and "Edit Bookmarks," at the bottom is a list of all the bookmark "groups" I see on the sidebar. There's a greater-than-sign (afraid to type the symbol here) to the right of each. If I hover the mouse over it, it shows the bookmarks within that group. So it's under Bookmarks, not workspaces.

The good news is, I think you indirectly solved my problem. Instead of using the sidebar, all I have to do is click on Bookmarks at the top and then hover the mouse over the greater-than-sign to show the bookmarks in that group and then click on the bookmark in that group.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Switch Blayde

The good news is, I think you indirectly solved my problem. Instead of using the sidebar, all I have to do is click on Bookmarks at the top and then hover the mouse over the greater-than-sign to show the bookmarks in that group and then click on the bookmark in that group.

If using the bookmarks menu fixes the behavior for you, that means you were switching workspaces without noticing what's going on, hence the issues.

You don't have to use workspaces, as long as you don't inadvertently switch between them, then Safari behaves as expected.

Replies:   Switch Blayde
Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

If using the bookmarks menu fixes the behavior for you, that means you were switching workspaces

Except I didn't create a workspace. I created bookmark folders (from Add Bookmark Folder) and then put the new bookmark in a specific folder. What I called Groups I guess Safari calls Folders.

I still don't know what a workspace is, but the Apple site says you create it in Mission Control. I never did that. I don't even know what Mission Control is.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@Switch Blayde

Except I didn't create a workspace.

Oops! I was now checking and I was using the wrong name. In Safari's settings under Tahoe, they're called 'Profiles'. And double-checking things, it turned out that I was doubly confused. Heh, not only you!

In Sequoia, Safari is preconfigured with three profiles: Personal, Work, and Private/Anon; you can create more profiles. And on top of it, there are tab groups.

Next to the Sidebar icon in the top of the window, there is a drop-down that allows you to create tab groups and open windows under specific profiles.

Yes, it obviously can be very confusing. It's very powerful, but as usual, power in software can bring too much complexity, which leads to confusion.

doctor_wing_nut ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Linux, Firefox 143.0.4

Why doesn't the new Classic Dark theme apply when actually reading a story? It seems to apply everywhere else. Is that intentional?

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@doctor_wing_nut

Why doesn't the new Classic Dark theme apply when actually reading a story? It seems to apply everywhere else. Is that intentional?

Story display system is completely independent from themes.

That's due to the ability to customize every bit of story display settings:

https://storiesonline.net/sol-secure/user/style.php

taulsk ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1
Mozilla Firefox 115.27.0esr (64-bit)
Modern Dark
Just so you are aware, for me, when I checked Classic Dark, and then Classic, both are exactly the same as Modern Dark and Modern, except for a few color tweaks. There is NO columns separating any of the information such as used to be able to be had, as in nothing in your display sample is there, it is modern and that is it for me. A shame, because I prefer Classic, but need dark, so I deal with Modern Dark.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@taulsk

when I checked Classic Dark, and then Classic, both are exactly the same as Modern Dark and Modern, except for a few color tweaks.

Did you check listings pages, like new stories and updates? or did you only check the home page?

The home page is the same between modern and classic.

Replies:   taulsk
taulsk ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

You are right, I didn't check the author's pages. They are different. The only issue I see is Sage Green highlighting behind Apple Green letters on the story titles that are linked to the story in the Description panels. The same background highlight color as used behind In Progress listing for stories in the Description panels. They pop when hovered over with a mouse, but the green on green is almost impossible for me to read, but that could be my having a slight color blindness issue, or not. The highlight color of Modern Dark is more to my liking, but I can deal with the colors of Classic Dark. Thank you for putting in the work. Even if I am a pain in the ass using an out of date operating system, windows 7, on an out of use life browser, Firefox, since I detest all newer versions of data rape windows.

solitude ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

Iit would be nice if there were a button somewhere that let me copy all my current visual settings to all other WLC sites. (I could then tune as needed if I wanted some subtle difference between the various sites. I could also 'restore' from another site if I messed things up when experimenting.)

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