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Forum: Bug Report and Feature Requests

Story Editing

markselias11 ๐Ÿšซ

I was curious to know if it was possible to add in a feature to allow authors to edit stories/chapters without having to uploading the entire chapter or story.

An example would be recently I uploaded "Summer's Dance" which was just a short story. I had a mistake where I used the wrong name. Instead of going back through the process of uploading the whole story again, it would have been more convenient to simply edit that one word.

I don't know how much work it is for admins (or if there are more than one) to go through and post each story that's in the queue, but something like this would surely take a lot of work of off of the backend of things. It would also help writers who post something but miss a small error that may be critical to their story (like a wrong name, etc.)

Keet ๐Ÿšซ

@markselias11

I'm not an author but wouldn't you want to edit your source copy first? Then uploading it should be easy.
Editing on the site is not a small job to create if you want to build it secure and reliable. I know, I'm currently building it myself for a project and that only concerns smaller html snippets, not complete chapters.

Replies:   markselias11
markselias11 ๐Ÿšซ

@Keet

You'd absolutely want to change it on the source copy. The idea in my head isn't that you wouldn't change it on the source copy. The idea in my head is that it would save time for the readers to get those changes, and it would also be used for smaller changes like changing a word here or there.

It could also be used for small format changes. Like for instance if I've got something written that I wanted in blockquotes or colored but didn't put it in, or didn't do it right, I could very quickly change that format.

This way the changes could be done immediately rather than waiting for the admin to be able to get to them. It would also free up the admins time to focus on other things, or new submissions.

It may not be feasible, and I don't know how things work on the backend so the admins may not NEED to time freed up. Just a thought.

Replies:   bk69
bk69 ๐Ÿšซ

@markselias11

The overhead in creating the facility to do online editing would be more than it's worth.
As in it would take more of Laz's time to code the editor for you to use than it would for him to post updated corrected chapters for the next five years or more.

Replies:   markselias11
markselias11 ๐Ÿšซ

@bk69

That's the part I wasn't sure about.

awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@markselias11

You're not the first to ask about this but @bk69 is right, Lazeez is not keen to do it. Now if another 100 authors were to stamp their feet and demand the facility, it might be a different matter.

AJ

Replies:   joyR  markselias11
joyR ๐Ÿšซ

@awnlee jawking

Now if another 100 authors were to stamp their feet and demand the facility, it might be a different matter.

I doubt even 1,000 authors bitching and whining would change Lazeez's mind. For good reason.

Replies:   awnlee jawking
awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@joyR

I doubt even 1,000 authors bitching and whining would change Lazeez's mind. For good reason.

Given the number of formats for uploading stories in the first place, it would certainly require a lot of ingenuity. And then there's the issue of moderation - if authors can make changes on the fly, there's nothing to stop a surreptitious conversion of a 14 to a 13.

AJ

markselias11 ๐Ÿšซ

@awnlee jawking

Now if another 100 authors were to stamp their feet and demand the facility, it might be a different matter.

If the coding doesn't make it worth the effort then it's not worth doing. It would be convenient, absolutely, especially for small formatting changes, but it's a matter of how much effort he'd have to put in to make the site do that. Not to mention the time that he'd have to put in to working out any bugs that the code would create with other parts of the site.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@markselias11

The problem with allowing direct editing of the actual text is policing it. It's a headache that I don't need.

Yes, the current system is a little inconvenient, but the result is a secure and predictable site.

Replies:   Grey Wolf
Grey Wolf ๐Ÿšซ

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I'm not really supporting this so much as playing with the idea. There's a headache upside (which may be completely mitigated by your moderation tools, though).

Update replacement text: potentially have to look the whole mess over.

Edit a few words: those words can be flagged, waiting for the moderator's inspection. Post can be embargoed until a moderator looks.

On the other hand, if the update-a-chapter tool guides the reviewer to only the changed words you get the same effect.

It'd be nice - I'd use it - but I can easily see how much work it'd be. I can turn around a repost chapter pretty quickly (duplicate the posting file, fix stuff, post). Unless it's a massive change I'll make it twice in my source document and my posting file, rather than source document->compile->copy to posting file->post.

Replies:   awnlee jawking
awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@Grey Wolf

It'd be nice

It would be great for missing/incorrect words, missing/incorrect punctuation etc. There are times I would have used it for such purposes.

AJ

Replies:   StarFleet Carl
StarFleet Carl ๐Ÿšซ

@awnlee jawking

It would be great for missing/incorrect words, missing/incorrect punctuation etc.

While it would be for that ...

I just had a case of my working copy was correct, but the file copy I uploaded, I'd missed a word. It wasn't that hard to simply replace my file copy and re-upload the missing word. It now replaces the whole chapter online, because of one word. However, the file copy is also the one I use when I'm using Calibre to create my e-book for Bookapy. I'd much rather take the extra time on MY end to make sure everything is right, before putting something up that's NOT right on the customer's end.

Replies:   Keet
Keet ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@StarFleet Carl

I just had a case of my working copy was correct, but the file copy I uploaded, I'd missed a word. It wasn't that hard to simply replace my file copy and re-upload the missing word. It now replaces the whole chapter online, because of one word. However, the file copy is also the one I use when I'm using Calibre to create my e-book for Bookapy. I'd much rather take the extra time on MY end to make sure everything is right, before putting something up that's NOT right on the customer's end.

You're doing it exactly like you should. What maybe some authors do not understand is that from the moment you have your copy ready for upload the rest of the process is mostly automated. On SOL's side the 'process' doesn't care if one word or the whole chapter changed. The computer and SOL's software do the job. I suspect that the only manual job that remains is that Lazeez must verify each upload. But he has to do that whether one word or a whole chapter changed. Thus the existing process is also perfect for changing one word. Actually, the existing process is better because it remains one single type of process to monitor instead of two.

Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@markselias11

Don't forget, the Submission Wizard does formatting. It changes straight quotes to curly quotes. It does something with an ellipsis and spaces (I don't remember what). It converts strings of characters to SOL's standard section break. It uses tags to convert to italics and bold. And so on.

Giving an author the ability to edit the database directly is just asking for trouble.

Yeah, there are times Word formats the data I submit to the Wizard (the docx) so strangely that it confuses the Wizard and it posts the chapter with an error. I would love to be able to change it on the spot rather than send a request to the moderator to change it. But I can live with it.

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