# Writers! Post Your Site Suggestions Here!



## Chase (Apr 14, 2010)

Hello fellow authors and story enthusiasts! My name is Chase (FA: chasevrocket) and I'm here to discuss with you any suggestions, comments or even questions you may have that concern enhancing Fur Affinity for writers and their fans alike!

Think of me as your own personal ear to the rest of the Administration and I'll be sure to check back here regularly to comment and collect. I look forward to anything that you all throw my way that can improve your overall experience here on FA! :3

All positive contributions are greatly appreciated - thanks ahead of time! n_n

List of Feature Suggestions:

1. Gallery Folders
2. Font and Size Control
3. Print Printer-Friendly Document Key
4. More Accepted Formats That Embed/Display (We Dislike Downloading Files!)
5. Story Genres (Categories/Organization/Keywords)
6. Ability to Lump Muti-Chaptered Series into a Group
7. Embedding Needs Proper Formating (Margins)
8. Permissions That Permit Selected Users to Edit Your Own File For Collab Purposes
9. ScottyDM's Code Suggestion: http://forums.furaffinity.net/showpost.php?p=1713252&postcount=16
10. Spellchecking
11. Expand to full PhPbb code and HTML
12. Rating System
13. Embedded System Appears Like a Book With Turnable Pages or Internal Vertical Scrolling
14. Text Editor
15. Preview Hover Window for Submission Information
16. Preview Hover Window for Submission Text Itself
16. Instructions on How to Use All of This When We're Done
17. Wordcount
18. Reading Mode like IRC - User Sets Color Preference
19. "The hover over I'd like to display the following: Author, Title, Chapter Number, Rating, Wordcount, Species, Category, Fandom, Warnings, Summary."
20. Artwork within the Stories.
21. Possible Thumbnails Within Stories That Link to Real FA Submissions


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## Toonces (Apr 14, 2010)

Please allow writers to provide a 100-word preview that will pop up when the submission's avatar is hovered over.


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## benjamin33 (Apr 14, 2010)

I would love for there to be instructions on how to make and post the right file types for FA.

Back when i was a newbie writer, and my paws were sticky, and my ass was virgin tight; I found it most difficult to find out this information. It took me many trys to finally get it right, it was only when i figured out i could use the same story files i used for yiffstar (as it was called at the time) could i get my stories read without having my readers down load them.

So maybe a link in the submit a story section, to a how to post a file guide here on the forums or somewhere else on the site.

Like how to make the right encoding on MS word 07, if i remember right i always used US-ASCII for my stories.

It could help out a lot of writers


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## anthroguy101 (Apr 14, 2010)

We need full HTML and/or BBCode recognition (with the exception of hyperlinks) as well as full recognition for .doc, .docx, .odt, .txt, .html and .rtf.  We also need a text editor similar to the one on SoFurry, Blogger and Wordpress that allows for writing on-the-spot as well as the saving of drafts.  It's also downright annoying how the software glitches display apostrophes and quotes as some sort of stupid question-mark diamond thing.

I like how images can be added to the story.  Seriously people, if you want more views for your work then make it look attractive by giving it a cover.


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## TakeWalker (Apr 14, 2010)

anthroguy101 said:


> We need full HTML and/or BBCode recognition (with the exception of hyperlinks) as well as full recognition for .doc, .docx, .odt, .txt, .html and .rtf.  We also need a text editor similar to the one on SoFurry, Blogger and Wordpress that allows for writing on-the-spot as well as the saving of drafts.  It's also downright annoying how the software glitches display apostrophes and quotes as some sort of stupid question-mark diamond thing.



A text editor wouldn't be bad. As for the punctuation problem, turn off the autoreplace in your word processing software. No one likes smartquotes.

There isn't much beyond window dressings that could really help us, if you ask me. Inline support for .doc, or at least .rtf, is one of the impossibles I recall hearing previously.

Or, you know, force people to watch a writer when they join and read at least one story a week before they can view anything else.


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## felekar (Apr 14, 2010)

TooncesFA said:


> Please allow writers to provide a 100-word preview that will pop up when the submission's avatar is hovered over.



I second something of this sort. The current hover pop up is rather nice, but usually quite underutilized by many. It does show the start of the info panel, but that only goes so far.


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## panzergulo (Apr 15, 2010)

I suggest, Chase, that you read this thread too:

http://forums.furaffinity.net/showthread.php?t=67070

It's long, it went all over the place, but it's worth it. If you're going represent FA's writer community, I think you should be aware about what's going on all in all in the community. And that thread was very able to make people open up a bit and tell what they found problematic/frustrating as a furry fiction writers in general.

But yeah, it's just a suggestion, not an order.


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## Chase (Apr 15, 2010)

panzergulo said:


> I suggest, Chase, that you read this thread too:
> 
> http://forums.furaffinity.net/showthread.php?t=67070
> 
> ...



After I finish up making a clean list of everything, I will definitely do that upon your recommendation. =)


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## Toonces (Apr 15, 2010)

felekar said:


> I second something of this sort. The current hover pop up is rather nice, but usually quite underutilized by many. It does show the start of the info panel, but that only goes so far.



I just want to add that aside from the fact that the info pane only shows up when being hovered over on the front page, most people use the info pane for posting information ABOUT the story, rather than a preview of the story.


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## darkr3x (Apr 15, 2010)

I wish that box would pop up on people's pages


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## Smelge (Apr 15, 2010)

Synopsis.

Wordcount.

And dear god, if I'm going to invest my time into reading a 5000 word story, I don't want to reach word 1798 and find it's suddenly gay porn. Tag it as Gay Erotic Fiction or whatever.


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## kitreshawn (Apr 15, 2010)

Heh, well there are some that are fairly popular requests so I suppose I will list those from the top:

Ability to display additional common file formats beyond plain .txt (.doc, .rtf, .docx, .odt seem to be the most popular suggestions).  Basically a lot of readers seem to be lost if the file has to be downloaded before it can be read.

Some better way to deal with text formatting.  Either parsed directly from the document or making use of HTML or possibly even a formatting control panel thing.  Control over text size, bold, italics, the basics are what seem to be wanted.

Formatting optimization.  Rolling up a huge number of suggestions into this one, but basically make it so the stories are less 'painful' to look at on here.  This could be done by standardizing the text display size to a 2-3 hundred characters per line, supporting indenting, having the stories automatically display in some sort of 'page' system so there isn't just a huge stretch of text.  That sort of stuff.

Easier linking together of parts of a series.  Actually this would be just good for everyone in general.


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## Firehazard (Apr 15, 2010)

Put the actual story inside a block with internal vertical scrolling. There's no reason to have to scroll to the middle of the page to get to the comments and stuff. And as long as it's inside a block of its own, some book-style formatting (like using Georgia for the font, black on off-white) wouldn't hurt either.


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## quoting_mungo (Apr 16, 2010)

Firehazard said:


> Put the actual story inside a block with internal vertical scrolling. There's no reason to have to scroll to the middle of the page to get to the comments and stuff. And as long as it's inside a block of its own, some book-style formatting (like using Georgia for the font, black on off-white) wouldn't hurt either.


 
No no no no! Bad idea! I can think of few things that are more annoying for proper reading than internal scrollbars. If getting down to the comments is that big of a hardship, an anchor tag and a link to it would be a much more reading-friendly solution.

More eye-friendly colors is a good idea, though. Not keen on Georgia; text on screen is typically more readable as a sans-serif. A link to a printer-friendly version (serif font, appropriate font size, none of the menu text or comments showing, though proper credits at the head of the story would be a plus) could be an interesting move, however.

What stories _should_ have, is the description _above_ the submission. Or possibly an additional description field which goes above the submission. Otherwise all the description field is good for is footnotes.


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## TakeWalker (Apr 16, 2010)

I'll stop being cynical and actually add the one thing that I think would be worthwhile: more categories.

And I'm talking about the overarching categories. Right now, we've basically got "Poetry" and "Other". What I'd love to see, at the very minimum, would be to divide that "Other" category into "Writing" and "Stories", with the former being for things that don't have plot: character sheets and the like. Having Fiction and Nonfiction categories would be great as well, but that probably is closer to the subcategories which will become obsolete eventually.


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## LanLan (Apr 17, 2010)

I think that a lot can be gathered from the established online archives  such as Fanfiction.net and AO3 (http://archiveofourown.org/) or even  software packs such as eFiction. I read and write a lot of Fanfiction,  and I think it's sad that the furry fandom, while way ahead in visual  arts, is in the virtual bronze age when it comes to story 

So  here is my Wishlist of shinies. I know we won't get everything  (or  possibly any of it. volunteer code time is worth it's weight in golden  cookies and this is a lot since the archive is currently not set up to  handle things other than art well) but here is what I'd like to see   Please take it as it is, a wishlist that represents Lanna's Perfect  World, and not a list of orders or something.

*My Wishlist:*

*General  Display:*
*Reading text on FA*: 
ie no links to  offsite content. This is by  far the biggest reason I don't do more reading on FA. Downloading a file  is extremely inconvenient and, well, it's just not the current internet  standard and I always feel weird downloading a file. I also personally  cannot read PDF files on a screen for more than a few minutes before my  eyes cross.  Sending people to offsite locations means that fewer people  will comment than if the comment box was right there at the end of what  they read.

*HTML Format Tags:* 
I'd like to be able to  use html formatting in my display: Line breaks, bold, itallic,  underline, Horizontal rule, center, etc. If you want to crib off someone  who's already solved this issue, I like how AO3's editing whenI upload  handles it better than FFN, but that's my preference.

*"Reading  Mode": *
Click a button and make the section in which there is  text either White on Black, OR Black on White. Currently the text on  normal FA submissions is fine for comments or reading a few paragraphs,  but the contrast isn't high enough for everyone. The Option to do light  on dark or dark on light OR leave it as normal should appeal to everyone  (Hey! It's a wishlist!)

*Works Management and Presentation  of Info:*
*Chaptered Stories:* 
I want to be able to  create a story and then add chapters. I'd like FA's code to recognize a  new chapter and put it on the new arrivals page and all my watchers'  watchlists. A chapter of the story should link to the first chapter, the  previous chapter and the next chapter. At both the top and the bottom  of the page. Possibly you could do what Fanfiction.net does and have  each chapter be able to link to any with a dropdown and a "goto" button.  Either way, we currently have to hand-code these things and if someone  forgets, you may lose a reader.

*At-a-Glance Display*:
The  hover over I'd like to display the following: Author, Title, Chapter  Number, Rating, Wordcount, Species, Category, Fandom, Warnings, Summary.  This is the salient info I want when I am browsing. if I am intrigued  (or in a worksafe location in the case of smuttyness) I can choose to  read it.

*Story Info Header:*
At the top of a new work  I'd like the following displayed: Author, Title, Rating, Warnings,  Species tags/list, Category Tags/list, Fandom (if Applicable) Wordcount,  Summary, quick Links to other chapters if they exist, Author's notes.  Then the full text of the piece.

Warnings: By this I mean  is there Vore? Smut? Violence? Rape? anything that could "trigger" or  stuff people may find objectionable...or desired!
Alternatively a  system like AO3 might work (chose not to warn for anything, or warn for a  set of 3-4 big things people typically don't like having sprung on them  by surprise)
Category: Gen (story is primarily not a  romance), M/F, F/F, M/M, and because this is furry fandom, Herm/Herm,  Herm/F, Herm/M. and "Other"
Fandom: Ie is this Starfox? Sonic?  Pokemon? or None. Field could be optional or default to none.
Rating:  G, PG, PG-13, R, Nc-17 or something like that. Doesn't have to be the  US system, but some kind of system that lets me know "Does this Link  Contain Smut or excessive violence?" Heck, is it "Worksafe" or "Not  Worksafe" would even be okay. Just let a person know what they're in for  up front.

*Uploading:
*Support for .txt, .rtf, .doc,  .docx, .html, open office and, well, all the "common" file types people  may write in.
*
Editing text:*
I'd like a basic text  editor with html and regular text views. I'd LOVE it if, when I switched  between, it didn't obliterate any html I may have done. FFN is bad for  this. eFiction's editor is better and AO3s is the tops. I want to  preview and go back for edits or move ahead to post the work. If you  could find a way to strip out "smart quotes" and other M$ shenanigans, I  would love you all forever.


*Process:*
I want  to upload my file. That done I'd like to have everything there for me  to fiddle with and fill out. I set the header info (ratings, warnings,  species tags, category, etc) then I can write my Authors notes, and then  there is the editable/reviewable text for the whole of the piece. Once  that is done I would like to preview it. If I want more edits, I'd like  to go back to the editing screen with all my previous fields still  filled. If it is how I want it to look, then I would like to hit the  Submit button and be done 

if I am adding a new chapter I wish  to be able to tick a ticky box as I upload. Then either there is a  dropdown of my works, or I upload it and the list of my stories are on  the next page. I can then add the chapter to the work. I'd like the  ability to inherit the values from the initial chapter line by line.  Sometimes a chapter is not worksafe for example. An "Edit" button on any  chapter of the story should take me to a screen where I can choose the  various chapters to edit or the header info, OR I have the ability to  upload a new chapter to this story.

*Series and shared things:*
I  would like to be able to mark something as belonging to a series of  works. It would be super cool if these "series" could be open, moderated  or closed. All works in a series could be displayed with their basic  Hover Info.

*Super crazy thing Lanna would LOVE but probably  won't happen:*
Because we're mostly a visual group, Art in our  works. Clicking on the art would take you to the FA page of the work  and crosspromote the artist of the piece. Art works that are about or  depict scenes in a work hosted on FA could have a link to that story as  well.

I know I mention Ao3 a lot in this, but they're the tip of  the spear as  it comes to written works archiving  as they've taken the lessons  learned elsewhere and tried to use them or one-up. They're not perfect  but they make it *super* easy to  post a work. (they fall on maintenance and stats, which is where FFN  and eFiction are better)

I do a LOT of writing, just not here.  There are lessons already learned and software already in place to crib  from, but given FA's current set up I have no idea or expectation that  any of my wishes could happen easily or soon.  Really not ordering you  guys around or anything, but these are Shiny things that I would love  to have.


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## Chase (Apr 19, 2010)

I believe everyone is accounted for here and on the other page I was perusing. If I missed something important - tell me!

Keep the great ideas coming!


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## Alexis (Apr 20, 2010)

You could keep the current format support and just add .odt since OpenOffice is free.

I have to admit that adding viewer to embed the submission onto the submissions page as opposed to having a huge dump (heh) would be a little nicer-looking.

And add my vote to 'More writing categories' too


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## Sovhiel (Apr 20, 2010)

I definitely think the option for genre variety through more categories is the most important out of all these suggestions. Right now, our best option is to sort our stories through the closest fetish, since those sections are the most browsed, but I think that says something scary about the perceptions of furry writing: that it can only be fetish-centered. Sure, there's porn on this site, but some of the most serious writers here do clean work. Having more genre options would give serious authors more of a chance to access our audience.

Also, I agree that the text glitch is probably one of the most annoying things about writing for FA. Fixing it by writing in notepad is just a bummer.

Most of these other suggestions we can apply ourselves, really. Better, more accessible descriptions in the submission info section (word count, 100-word preview, etc), custom art on the submission file to make it stand out, makeshift tags in the title section to group it with other stories. We just have to work a little harder to get noticed. An official function for all these things would just be gravy. Collaborating would probably be easier on something widespread and heavily tested like Google docs than on an FA function anyway.


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## hara-surya (Apr 22, 2010)

HTML, it's the _only_ actual Internet standard file format for things like this according to the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium, the people who define Internet standards).

Also, inline display of PDF. It don't want to have to create a dozen versions of a story's file to make people happy. It's a hassle and overly time consuming. I combine my docx files into a single, large PDF file.

HTML is _the_ Internet standard according to the W3C. PDF is the _de facto_ ebook standard. Fully support them.

Otherwise please read Please Don't Send me Microsoft Word Documents to understand why suggesting DOC, DOCX, ODT, RTF and other word processing files are a horrible idea for transmitting data online.

Then again, what do I know, I'm only an journalism informatician how would I know about the exact thing I'm going to school for...


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## Ponderer (May 8, 2010)

I wouldn't mind a page tally for viewers, as well as a story length filter to accompany it.  "Browse for short stories, 1-4 pages"  etc.

"Preference" filters.  This is actually something I was thinking for all submissions.  These filters would be selected with your profile and dictate what you see on the front page.

"I want to see fantasy, I don't want to see horror" etc.

Bookmarking for text files might be a bit of overkill, but I'd like to  suggest it still.  Being able to mark someplace in a text file  submission so that when you go to that file, it automatically brings you  to that point again.

Suggestions I agree with or would ammend:
I would second .odt compatibility!

This is already spoken to with #4, but failing that I would like the ability to have web-ready reading as well as file download reading.  I.E. upload a .txt file and a .doc file, so that users can read from the web or download, at their leisure.

As per #7, recognition of tab indentation for text files.

This may already be spoken to with #6, but an optional navigation bar at the top of submissions that allows easy linking to other personal gallery/scrap submissions might be nice.

Iffy on:
Once I had submitted a large (thirty page) section of story, and had it bumped off by another user who submitted three half page works back to back.  It might be nice if a user could not submit to the front page while one of their submissions are already there.  That way it gives other authors an equal chance at exposure.

A way for other users to tag your submission so that you can send it back to the front page for further exposure in a months time.  Though the idea is that users who love a story can help you get exposure for it outside of the favorite system, I'm not sure it i necessary.  Still, it could be a useful addition if it isn't disruptive.

Pardon if this is unclear, I came about this thread while I was tired, but hopefully some of what I've said may be useful!


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## foxystallion (May 14, 2010)

Why not allow a file or set of files to be recognized by FA's database system as both a Story and Art if there are one or more pictures accompanying the text? Is this dichotomy really necessary?

Currently, I have to submit the picture as art and load the story under it as Artist's Comments. If there is more than one illustration for the story, I have to load each picture and story segment separately and connect them with hyperlinks that the reader/viewer can click on.

This process does get the job done, but when there are a dozen pictures in one story, it seems clumsy.

Illustrated story books are very popular IRL, and I think that they would be a popular alternative to text only stories on FA.

Here is a simple example of how I have to do it now.
An IRL day in the life of a furry rancher:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1016393/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1016401/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1016415/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1016421/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1016426/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1016429/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1016432/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1016437/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1016453/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1016458/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1016464/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1016468/

Wouldn't it be nice if it could be all together like an illustrated story?


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## Ponderer (May 18, 2010)

Another thing I just thought of.  Submission preview, or at the very least a clear indicator of when you have filled up the mouse-over preview section.  I like to create previews, but I never know when it's not enough or too much.  Roundabouts 350 characters is good to know, but having a clear indicator, such as "20 characters remain until the preview window is full" might be useful.

Hotlinking sound and pictures.  The ability to provide an image url might be useful (though restricting it to furaffinity url's may prevent abuse).  And the ability to link to sound or music may be useful too.  I understand most visually impaired members will have a reader on hand, but having a real voice reading can be much more enjoyable than a robotic voice that has no understanding of the inflections involved.  That, and being able to click a link and have background music play could also be a useful thing for some writers!


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## shockwave77598 (Jun 2, 2010)

I just gave up on posting my stories here long ago.  If you guys get it working, someone please pull my tail.


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## foxystallion (Jun 2, 2010)

Ponderer said:


> Another thing I just thought of.  Submission preview, or at the very least a clear indicator of when you have filled up the mouse-over preview section.  I like to create previews, but I never know when it's not enough or too much.  Roundabouts 350 characters is good to know, but having a clear indicator, such as "20 characters remain until the preview window is full" might be useful.
> 
> Hotlinking sound and pictures.  The ability to provide an image url might be useful (though restricting it to furaffinity url's may prevent abuse).  And the ability to link to sound or music may be useful too.  I understand most visually impaired members will have a reader on hand, but having a real voice reading can be much more enjoyable than a robotic voice that has no understanding of the inflections involved.  That, and being able to click a link and have background music play could also be a useful thing for some writers!




I sure do like your ideas.  I would have loved to have a viewer/reader been able to hear the music to "Git Along Little Dogie" while seeing the above A Day In The Life Of A Furry Rancher series of pictures and true story.


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## Poetigress (Jun 14, 2010)

Chase, any updates on whether (and when) any of these suggestions might be implemented?


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## foxystallion (Jun 14, 2010)

Chase said:


> I believe everyone is accounted for here and on the other page I was perusing. If I missed something important - tell me!
> 
> Keep the great ideas coming!


 
I wanted to thank you for noticing my request for pictures within stories.  Since I've seen YouTube pictures within Journals, this should be readily doable.  Ideally, there should be some way to embed a picture that has already been uploaded to FA as art. Illustrated storybooks are very popular IRL.  Thank you!


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## yiffytimesnews (Jun 16, 2010)

Forum skins, I would honestly like to change the way the forum looks or at least have the option to do so.


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## foxystallion (Jun 16, 2010)

yiffytimesnews said:


> Forum skins, I would honestly like to change the way the forum looks or at least have the option to do so.


 
Same here!  A dark gray background would be so much less glaring when viewed in a darkened room at night. I use the space monkey scheme on FA.


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## Aeturnus (Jun 16, 2010)

Having our own set of genres would be nice. Sorry, I don't want to label my stuff as just 'furry.' I would rather label it as drama, although I guess furry could be considered as drama..


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## Wolfshy (Jun 28, 2010)

I really hope a lot, if not ALL of the suggested things here will be added, for honestly, I think the options and methods you can post stories on FA, is sub poor x.x I love the site~ but pleeeassee update this aspect so we got some more choice~ I am currently using word doc... Very few bothers to read those, and to move that ext into txt, requires me to submit it, and then deal with the hundreds of diamond questionmarks x.x a preview thing would be much wanted there~ but yeah, the things I would love the most would be

A nice looking post, as mentioned like a book you can turn the pages on, with a whiteish background and nice writing to choose.
Preview ability
grouping chapters together in a better way than URLing them in the box below~

and a lot more things really x.x I hope some admins watches this post at least.


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## Chase (Jul 20, 2010)

Don't worry folks - still here and still working on these with the other Administrators! :3


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## Beankyu (Jul 20, 2010)

I think that it will be fine in that way.


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## Kittyoffandomdoom (Jul 25, 2010)

Personally I feel that this as long as all the items on this list are added into the updated new writing submission system, it would be as close to perfect as you can get.


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## Xadera (Aug 3, 2010)

Oh hey, I'm a writer and this thread wants some opinions from me! Don't mind if I do =D

The biggest problem I do seem to have is people not wanting to download the file to read the stories, as others have mentioned. However, I don't like SoFurry's method either. I like the formatting of my rtfs and I'd like to keep it. But I also understand that displaying rtfs and stuff directly to the site like txts is going to require more work than it's worth. I would suggest a "Read" button (because "Download" confuses people), that could drop down an in-scrolling box that loads the document in the browser automatically, with an option to full-screen the box. But I like my indenting, I like my simple italicizing and bolding without needing tags, and I like many other formatting qualities of my downloadable documents. If I had a choice between keeping the current download option vs losing all those formatting qualities (like SoFurry does), I'd rather keep the former.

The second thing is the thumbnail quality. I try to make some pretty fancy thumbnails sometimes to make my stories more appealing, it's the closest thing we have to cover art. But then when uploaded, it becomes horribly pixelated and a fuzzy mess (correct size, correct format, but I think the automatic check for resizing and stuff converts the file through formats that degrade the quality, I think)  Not very good for advertising my stories.

Folders or whatever to lump stories together would be great. Currently I'm using links to specific FA searches to do this, which works well, but is kind of a nuisance. And for connecting stories/images together (First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter, etc), an embedded link tag works fine for me so I see no problem there. I'd be more worried about a system that does that for us being restrictive and a pain to organize if you load things in an unusual order than I would having to do the extra work of manually embedding links.

The current keyword system works fine for letting people know what's going on in my story, but like others have said, having the fetishes/genres/whatever showing up in the mouseover would be great. Preselected genres and stuff, like M/F and the like, never work for me, though, because there's usually so much else happening in the story that simple keywords like that wouldn't apply well. Just being able to do the same thing as keywords would be nicer. While I occasionally like browsing SoFurry by the pre-determined keywords, because so many people post there, I can just as easily search up keywords here with much more control over my search (SoFurry can be such a pain...). And if people didn't attach keywords to their story, then that's for the best as I probably wouldn't want to read their stories anyways.

Page numbers and word counts are kinda unnecessary, but they could be helpful to readers (I already state the page count when I submit). Spellchecking might be some extra, unneeded work as well, since people should be writing these stories up in an actual word processor rather than directly to the site to begin with. I'm not sure if a rating system would be useful, because a lot of people have very bad tastes when it comes to rating... (such as rating based on how much they fapped to your story rather than how well the story was written and organized, etc.).

That's all I can think of for now ^^


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## Bir (Sep 17, 2010)

Can Furaffinity accept paypal for donations yet? I'd like to be able to give a percentage of my tail money via Paypal, cuz ya know, if I didn't have FA I wouldn't be selling as many. : /


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## quoting_mungo (Sep 17, 2010)

Bir said:


> Can Furaffinity accept paypal for donations yet? I'd like to be able to give a percentage of my tail money via Paypal, cuz ya know, if I didn't have FA I wouldn't be selling as many. : /



Since FA hosts adult content, it cannot, per PayPal's TOS, accept donations via PayPal.


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## anthroguy101 (Oct 30, 2010)

Are any of these going to be rolled into the "new" interface?  I'm waiting to see if any of the changes will effect writers.


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## Grandpriest (Nov 26, 2010)

I would like to read something that isn't covered in question marks, which were not supposed to be there in the final product.
Reading this is quite annoying:
?I saw him yesterday? and he was as happy as I?ve ever seen him??


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## DragonTalon (Nov 26, 2010)

Grandpriest said:


> I would like to read something that isn't covered in question marks, which were not supposed to be there in the final product.
> Reading this is quite annoying:
> ?I saw him yesterday? and he was as happy as I?ve ever seen him??


 
Thats not really FA's fault.  What you are seeing is the result of text in UTF-8 format or something similar, and FA is just expecting standard ASCII text.  If the stories are converted to straight ASCII first, those characters will not show up.


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## DragonTalon (Nov 26, 2010)

So, here are my votes.  In order of importance.  (Galleries are on their way so not going to mention them in my list.)

1. BBCODE for stories.  PLEASE let me put italics and bold and chapter headings into my story without making people download it.

2. Font size BIGGER.  Could this be an option that readers could set in there preferences?  If not, just bump the size up a bit.  It's TOO SMALL.

3. Let me upload a picture AND a thumbnail so I can have nice cover art for my stories.

4. A link to the story info and start of comments at the top would be nice.

Overall, FA doesn't have a BAD story interface.  A few tweaks would make it a very good site for stories.  I just want my bold and italics!  Ohh, maybe links for illustrations.  Built in links and thumbnails to link to other submissions?  Ooops, feature creep!  *gone*


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## quoting_mungo (Nov 27, 2010)

DragonTalon said:


> 1. BBCODE for stories. PLEASE let me put italics and bold and chapter headings into my story without making people download it.


It's your lucky day. BBcode is already supported in .txt format stories, at least for bold and italics (not tested anything else myself). It' s just not documented.


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## â™¥Mirandaâ™¥ (Jan 28, 2011)

If I might interject with a suggestion of my own (And I know it's not necessarily in my place as a new member, but bear with me):

I'd like to see some minor changes to the AUP, regarding writing. The rules dictated seem to gear more towards visual pieces, with nothing specific to textual art. As a result of this, there's problems that arise within the writing portion of the site that are text specific, being uncatered to by the visual-leaning rule-set.

Firstly, a set of guidelines as to what an acceptable story is. Yugi-oh card deck-builds are not stories, and neither are "Character bios". I've seen multiple of both of these, and I'm wondering why these are posted for the world to see, instead of as a journal entry, where only people who -cared- about that kind of stuff would see it.

Secondly, some rules dictating serial works. This site loves them, and that's something I can understand. The point of writing a serial is to post a chapter, and then receive feedback so that when you write the next chapter, you have a stronger idea of what people like, and what you need to improve on. That said, there is NO point to submitting 6 parts to the same serial at the same time. All this does is push everyone else off the front page. I suggest that the AUP be updated to allow some downtime between two works of the same serial being published.

They aren't -big- problems I've seen, but I've seen them frequently enough that I think they deserve mention in a suggestion thread. I was pretty annoyed the other day when I got pushed off the front page by 2 yugi-oh card builds and 6 parts to a serial.


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## RavenReverend (Jan 28, 2011)

A system to select what parts of an artists' submissions you want to recieve. For example: 

Artist A watches Artist B but is not interested in reading Artist B's constant barrage of journals but would love to see scraps, gallery submissions, text submissions, music submissions etc. 

It would save people like me a crapton of  -Watches


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## ohtar (Feb 4, 2011)

I fully agree with gallery folders. I was actually on my way to suggest it when i noticed someone had beaten me to it lol
my gallery is getting cluttered with icon commissions and plushies that I would love to separate into their own little sub galleries but at the moment the only option I have for that is a secondary account


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## aapur (Feb 4, 2011)

i dont know if this have been suggested, but the text posting system should be updated from only having file uploading, to having a system like they have on DA. this will remove the errors with " and - turning into ï¿½
that problem is quite annoying, as it have destroyed nearly all my written works


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## quoting_mungo (Feb 4, 2011)

aapur said:


> i dont know if this have been suggested, but the text posting system should be updated from only having file uploading, to having a system like they have on DA. this will remove the errors with " and - turning into ï¿½
> that problem is quite annoying, as it have destroyed nearly all my written works


" and - do not turn into question marks in the current system. Curly/"smart" quotes and "special" dashes (like the emdash) do. 

The current system is far from ideal, true, but it's not quite THAT bad.


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## aapur (Feb 4, 2011)

quoting_mungo said:


> " and - do not turn into question marks in the current system. Curly/"smart" quotes and "special" dashes (like the emdash) do.
> 
> The current system is far from ideal, true, but it's not quite THAT bad.


 
yeah. thats true. it might just need some updates instead. one involving the .doc compability


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## Mewtwolover (Feb 18, 2011)

DragonTalon said:


> 2. Font size BIGGER.  Could this be an option that readers could set in there preferences?  If not, just bump the size up a bit.  It's TOO SMALL.


IMO that's pretty unneeded option. Just use your browser's zoom function, it should work. Just press CTRL and + in order to increase the text size.


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## DragonTalon (Feb 18, 2011)

Mewtwolover said:


> IMO that's pretty unneeded option. Just use your browser's zoom function, it should work. Just press CTRL and + in order to increase the text size.


 
I have to disagree.  For starters, not everyone uses the same browser.  And while yes it's easy to figure out how to do that, there are a *LOT* of people who are not computer savvy and don't know, or don't want to have to play around with browser settings.

I could write some Javascript code in 10 minutes that could be put into the story template to give on screen buttons to resize the text.  The template could be modified in 60 seconds to crank up the text size by default.   Of all the ideas for improvements, it seems like a pretty easy one that would make a lot of people happy.


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## sunandshadow (Feb 18, 2011)

I'm still boggled that there's nowhere in the search function to indicate that you want to only search stories, only search music, etc.


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## DragonTalon (Feb 18, 2011)

sunandshadow said:


> I'm still boggled that there's nowhere in the search function to indicate that you want to only search stories, only search music, etc.


 
Click the "Advanced" button.  Lots of stuff in there, including being able to search only for stories.


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## sunandshadow (Feb 18, 2011)

DragonTalon said:


> Click the "Advanced" button.  Lots of stuff in there, including being able to search only for stories.


 Oh.  Heh. *blush*


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## Mewtwolover (Mar 4, 2011)

DragonTalon said:


> For starters, not everyone uses the same browser.  And while yes it's easy to figure out how to do that, there are a *LOT* of people who are not computer savvy and don't know, or don't want to have to play around with browser settings.


I agree with you, that's good point.
Btw, Ctrl and + works in all common browsers since it's a standard key combination for zoom function.


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## reian (May 17, 2011)

As I have brought up in places before...the whole I'm submitting a story to scraps, but it is showing up on the front page and in searches needs to be fixed


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## aapur (Jun 13, 2011)

i figured that you wont get question marks if you paste the story into Notepad, and saves it as a .txt file with the UTF-8 File Coding. Both Unicode and ANSI gives some, or many


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## Viewtube865 (Nov 27, 2011)

For the love of God, can we get a submission blocker? Or something in which, when you block a user, you never have to see their art ever again? EVER? Please? There's so many images from the same people on FA that I really wish I could unsee, and now ever time I search "fox" in the search bar I get spammed with un-seeable images. Please?


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## tonybill (Dec 9, 2011)

I am new at this site. I found this site very interesting and informative. I like it.


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## Hypnobob (Apr 4, 2012)

I don't know if anyone's suggested this yet, but a search bar for the favorites/submissions area would be nice.


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## PheagleAdler (Apr 4, 2012)

Hypnobob said:


> I don't know if anyone's suggested this yet, but a search bar for the favorites/submissions area would be nice.



doesn't really have anything to do with the writing...but I like the idea. Also, change the favorites so when you go to remove deleted submissions from your faves the darn thing doesn't keep resetting to page 1! that can get irritating.


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## Hypnobob (Apr 21, 2012)

I second that, it does get annoying after a while.


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## DragonTalon (May 6, 2012)

So I have played around with the story posting interfaces for quite a few sites over the years.  FurAffinity of course, but also SoFurry 1 and 2 and YiffStar before that.  DeviantArt, Hentai Foundry, Inkbunny, FurRag.

Going to keep this short.  I posted earlier, but it's been a while and thought I'd recap.  

The biggest, and only MUST HAVE is the stories here need to be readable.   FA's styles are AWFUL for reading.  Dark grey text on a light grey background?  Augh.  The only thing worse is the other stylesheet, light grey text on dark grey background.  For walls of text you need BLACK text on WHITE background and it needs to be big enough to be comfortable.  That shouldn't be too much work, really.  Change the colors and font.  That's ALL it would take.  Doesn't even need to be the whole page, just that box with the text of the story in it.

For me, this isn't something that would be nice to have, but essential.  Like I said, I post my stories all over, but FA is my home.  It's the only place that has all my chapters up to date.  I post here first, and other sites when I get around to it.  Eventually.   I have notes on all of the above mentioned sites PLEADING with me to post there because they can't read the stories here due to the formatting.  So a bump in the hopes to get this simple change closer to the top.  

Now, what I DON'T think FA needs is some fancy paginated lets-make-it-look-like-a-real-book thing with it's own scroll bars and page controls and all that.   It's tons of work and a scrollable window in a scrollable window is almost always a bad idea.

My 2nd priority would be fixing story icons, or better yet, let us upload full sized cover art.  You can do that NOW actually but it's clunky and you can't edit it later.  Did it by accident once.  Other suggestions I already posted, but the font size and colors really, that's my only serious complaint.  But it's a big one!  

Some CSS formatting ideas for stories.

text-align: justify;

This makes novel style text MUCH more readable.  Especially if you narrow the page width a bit to make it more like a book page.  Really makes it start to look like a book and not a web page.  Other ideas are using...

text-indent: 3em;
margin-top: 0.0em;
margin-bottom: 0.0em;

For nice looking paragraphs... but this gets tricky as it requires some extra formatting and care to make paragraph double breaks where needed.  Probably would need to expand the BB code or whatever you use to convert text to html.  Care needs to be taken for security of course. Anyway, hope that helps a bit.


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## Sylvan (Sep 12, 2012)

Y'know what could be really fun?  Having a section on FurAffinity for Interactive, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure stories.  Like Writing.com or CYOC.net, it could be a fun waystation for furry writers to cut loose with some improvisational creations. Now, granted, these tend to turn into erotica or porn pretty quickly, but it could be broken down by genre such that stories could be marked as "No Erotic Situations" or "Macro Stuff Only" or even "Fantasy Adventure Only".

Thoughts?

Yours,
Sylvan Scott


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## rabbitdude (Jul 22, 2013)

How about the ability to read the story and download it in various formats, such as .mobi/KF8 for Kindle, .ePub for Nook and other e-readers, as well as having .txt, .doc, .pdf and other formats like that?  There really isn't much of an excuse not to offer this (Smashwords has this ability as well).


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## mariesmith (Mar 5, 2014)

Keep these great ideas coming!


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## Ironsoup (Jul 22, 2014)

Basically, just do everything SoFurry does. That's it, really.


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## lolcox (Jul 31, 2014)

May as well breathe some life into this thread.

Readability improvements are sorely needed.
The two styles offered make reading stories torturous here. Tiny, sans-serifed lettering on poor color combinations makes me pass on reading things on this site.
Consider redoing the text area that's presented to readers when a story is uploaded.

Either allow Markdown, Textile, BBCode, or even a rich text field that we can paste in, so that we're not _denied_ the *tools of our trade*. 
It's uneven that writers have to either upload in PDF to retain formatting (decent text sizes and font selections), or sacrifice all appearances in a trade-off for being able to be viewed in the browser with the same convenience as a visual artist.

Yes, your competition largely has better reading facilities than you (Weasyl is the exception: ugh, passing everything to google docs by default is not acceptable)

Offer ePub support. Please. Knowing that someone likes my work so much that they downloaded it and put it on their device is a grand ego stroke, much like saving someone's art and using it as a phone wallpaper.

I probably have other gripes/suggestions, but I need to go be responsible now.


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## Pinky (Oct 10, 2014)

Maybe there could be fiction ratings instead of G,M and A ratings?


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## Avilore (Jan 11, 2015)

Please, please please please allow for folders. Without folders, writing and structuring can get really messy, instead of staying neat and organized, _especially if you intend to delve deeper into the story you're currently writing.

_


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## jessebb (Mar 16, 2015)

How about we stick with something simple and encode FA's current limited display functionality on text based submissions to correctly display characters such as these; Ã¼ Ã¨ Ã« ÃŸ and the such! 8)


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