Forum: Bug Report and Feature Requests

I can only speak for Firefox desktop, but I'm referring to the Title, not the url. This in the top bar of the browser, along with the min/max/close buttons.

for example, this page is "Featue Request for a total chapter number in the chapter title area by Ernest Bywater | Storiesonline Forum - Mozilla Firefox".

That said, I'm not arguing against it - if it doesn't display on some browsers/devices, I agree it would be useful.

ETA: Just switched to full screen mode (which I never use) instead of maximise, and everything except the page content disappeared.
Repeating the Title content into the page body should be easy, the problem would be fitting it into the template neatly.

Looking at that same page again, the first content is the h2 "Chapter 2".
Perhaps the least disruptive option would be to add "(of 3)" to it - "chapter 2 (of 3)".
It all depends on Lazeez' Code Fu of course.

"chapter 2 (of 3)"

...and append a '+' or similar to the no. of chapters for unfinished, maybe 'u' for unfinished and 'i' for incomplete&inactive:

"chapter 2 (of 3)" for completed story
"chapter 2 (of 3+)" for currently posting story
"chapter 2 (of 3i)" for incomplete, inactive story

Not after the chapter number/name. There are chapters that are named 'Chapter xx: Title for the chapter' and those would look awkward adding what you suggested. And there are a few stories that don't have chapter numbers but just a title without a number, 'Day xx', 'Part xx'. The added numbers would really ruin the chapter designation.
There are 1 or 2 lines with 'posted: ...' and 'Updated: ...'. Maybe a third line or left aligned on the 'Posted:' line. And while doing that move those lines just above the chapter number instead of below ;)

That said, I'm not arguing against it - if it doesn't display on some browsers/devices, I agree it would be useful.

ETA: Just switched to full screen mode (which I never use) instead of maximise, and everything except the page content disappeared.
Repeating the Title content into the page body should be easy, the problem would be fitting it into the template neatly.

I use FF on the desktop, and that information is displayed as the tab (I use multiple tabs) title. If the tab is too short, hovering over the tab gives me exactly that information (aka tool-tip), for instance "Human Phoenix by Refusenik: Chapter 21 (Page 3) [22/22]" -- this is from the Title metadata element.

But, it's probably an issue on phones and tablet displays.

As for Keet's comment (about how to format the information), I'd suggest we include it under the Index's story title (i.e. "Singularity (21)").

If I understood Ernest' request correctly he would like to see this not on the index page but on every chapter page. On the index page would add little because you can see the number of chapters in the index table.

You only see a listing of the posted chapters in the index, not the total number of chapters. But as I said, I don't see knowing the total number of chapter that important.

I agree. The number would only make sense if the story is complete or if you are catching up with an ongoing story. It could produce some really weird number too if you take in to account prologues, epilogues, a b c chapters, etc. You could find yourself reading chapter 23 with the numbers 29/54 or something alike. The numbers represent the file number in the string of total files.

ETA: thinking about that it might be more useful to have a number of remaining files/chapters available.

That would only be available if the author provides the necessary information.

No, I meant the number of remaining chapters available. So if you are reading chapter 13 of the 14 available in an ongoing story the remaining number is 1. If you are reading chapter 13 of a completed story with 17 chapters you have 4 more to go. This removes the necessity to know the future total of chapters (files) which is a number seldom known and even if reported by the author still in danger of changing.

I also don't understand how knowing the number of chapters remaining to be posted would be useful to a reader.

That comes closest to what I understood from the request Ernest placed. to quote what Ernest said:

If I open chapter 12 and it lists 13 chapters I'd be more likely to stay in the hot bath a little longer just to finish reading the story right then than to get out and finish it later, which is what I'd do if it was chapter 12 of 24.

Your statement is ambiguous. Ernie is asking to be informed of the total number or chapters in a story and you said that is seldom known. So what is the 'This' that would remove the necessity of knowing the total number of chapters?

Mmm ok, I might have been a little unclear. I assume one datapoint: every story has a total number of chapters. For a completed story that is the total, unchangeable number of chapters. For an ongoing story that is the number of chapters submitted so far, or in other words, the total number of chapters available to the reader. You don't know the end total number of chapters for an ongoing story so there's no way to display that number. I know there are a few authors who reported the end total before all chapters are posted but that is a minority over the total of all ongoing stories.
To clarify further: if Ernest is sitting in his bath tub he wants to know how may chapters are left to read. In his example 12/13 would mean he has 1 chapter left available so he can sit back and read that one chapter. If the total of say 24 chapters that the story will have when finished was reported he would step out of the bath to read the rest at a later time just to find out that there no more then 13 chapters available yet. If he had known that he would have stayed in his bath to read that 13th chapter.
It's about the usefulness of a number. Chapters left available for reading is useful. Knowing how many chapters the story will have when complete might also be useful but not for the example Ernest presented.

What you seem to be missing is that Ernie is asking Lazeez to add a new field for information that will identify the total number of chapters in the story. The example he provided was intended to support the need for the additional field.

Exactly. The "total number of chapters" is however open to interpretation. Because of his example I interpreted that as "total number of chapters available for reading" so he can determine how many chapter are left to read. A partial quote:

... what I suggest is it also shows the total number of chapters in the story - this number need not be a hotlink. Thus when I open a new chapter I know how many chapters are left in a story.

His bath tub example made it clear it's about chapters available for reading, not how many chapters a story will have when completed.
From your response I understand you interpret the requested number as the "total number of chapters when the story is complete". Alas, that number is not available for ongoing stories but the number of chapters already posted is available.
I suggested to use that last number IF this is implemented. It might be a handy number for stories where the author posts 2-3 chapters instead of just 1, especially if you're sitting in the tub ;)

Your 'all current chapters' would help the 'write as you go' authors, but adds an almost-impossible complication to implementing the feature.

Nope , the feature is available now. The problem is that it's only available on a desktop.

However, that's easily solved with an editable field (or simply asking the posting moderator to update the correct chapter count)

Nope, never gonna happen. It should be a calculated number not a static field that holds the number. It's a calculated number now so why change that?

Again, I prefer an optional field for 'total chapters in story', for anyone who's posting a completed story over a short time frame. That way, readers will KNOW the story is completed, and won't have to wait until the story is labeled "Complete" to begin reading.

I agree that knowing the end-total for an ongoing story is a much desired number but apart from incidental cases where an author uploaded a completed story with a posting schedule that number just isn't available.

As for 'extra' chapters (prologue, forward, etc.), those wouldn't be counted (i.e. they're not numbered. It's the same with most printed books, authors/publishers don't number forwards, copyright notices and epilogues.
And adding those chapters to the total count would only make the entire thing impossible to implement for Lazeez. :(

It's not only not impossible it's available now. That is if you're on a desktop and hover your mouse over the window tab in the browser. It displays exactly the numbers that includes all files.

Let me clarify everything for you all.

Thank you. As I suspected the number you want is what is mentioned in the Meta Title and the total number there is the total number of chapters currently available.

@REP
Here's an interesting example of what the Meta Title displays for Roustwriter's Arlene and Jeff when reading chapter 29 of book 2:

Roustwriter: Arlene and Jeff: Chapter 29 [55/649]

What I tried to make clear is that we don't know how many chapters the completed story will be so that number can't be displayed. The number we do know is the total currently posted: 649 "chapters", although chapters is really "posts" or "files that are uploaded" which are listed in the index.
Next week the number will be 650. The number 55 is not a chapter number, it just means file 55 out of a total of 649.
Now both 55 and 649 don't say very much unless you do the math and subtract 55 from 649 to get the remaining number of available files. That's why I suggested to display a single number: the remaining number of files. In short: just a single number to display because Lazeez does the math.
The only thing missing in the Meta Title is that the example chapter 29 is from book 2. That's a section 'problem' which I already addressed in another thread.

I use my desktop to access SOL. I don't have or use a smartphone, notebook, ipad, or other portable device, so I am not familiar with the displays you and Ernie mention.

Aha, the misunderstanding is getting clear.
The display referred to as "Meta Title" is only visible on a desktop. Hover your mouse over the tab of the page in your browser and a tooltip will appear.
Ernest used the bath tub example because he uses a tablet when sitting in the bath and the tooltip is only available on a desktop, not on a tablet or smartphone. He simply wants the number(s) to be available on devices that don't display the tooltip. Because you don't have a mouse on a tablet the numbers must be displayed somewhere else.

Some more information about the title tag:

A tooltip is usually a little yellow box with black text that pops up when hovering over an item on a web page. In this case the tooltip text comes from the html source of the web page, namely the "title" tag which is located in the meta-data section of the html source. That's why it is referred to as "meta title".

If you want to view the source of a web page: prefix the url in the address bar with "view-source:" and you will see the html code of the page. One of the first 5 lines or so will have the 'title' tag. This is on Firefox, I don't use any other browsers but I assume a right click will display a pop-up menu that has an option "View Page Source" on almost every browser.

The title tooltip with the numbers is only available when reading on line from the SOL page. The numbers are lost when you download the story (zip) and then open the story in your browser.

What just happened? Got kicked off site and now home page and forum page are in a different style and font.