 |
|
|
|
Michael
( author )
( series )
Supreme Commander & Tyrant for Life
That sounds like work.
|
Hello Guild Members!
TWG 5.0 is HERE!
You may have noticed the countdown clock on the home page for the last three months and wondered what the heck that was about.
Weeeell. I had given myself a six month deadline to rebuild many of the tools here at TWG with the mission to revitalized and reinvigorate this community.
Beginning today I will be rolling out updated pieces to the TWG Master Control Program, starting with invisible, behind the scenes changes that will make the larger more amazing features possible, but without requiring everything be built from scratch.
The amazing truth is that while the TWG4.5 system is now over 10 years old, the majority of it simply works, and the database schema has held up pretty well!
The switch over for today is a new Login! Whoo-hoo!
(crickets)
Yes, I know a new Login is not exciting, but the new login gives us a new session based back end that lets us do some very cool things.
Watch this space for updates. I am already hard at work on an entirely new web based story editor that will allow Authors to post their stories directly into the Archive! No more emailing your stories to Einstein and hoping he isn't swamped with work! Hooray! ;-) While we'll continue to favor a moderated system, this will obviously, and dramatically, allow more stories to be posted more often.
Of course, we will continue to accept Off Site submissions!
After that, the sky is the limit and we do have a Refit Road Map that will be posted soon!
[Note: This message was edited by Michael. 03/26/2012 13:31]
[Note: This message was edited by Michael. 03/26/2012 13:32]
[Note: This message was edited by Michael. 05/01/2012 02:44]
|
|
|
Michael
( author )
( series )
Supreme Commander & Tyrant for Life
That sounds like work.
|
Steady progress in the new Archive Tool & Story Editor! I've got most of the heavy lifting done. I'll be testing the tool by cleaning up old classics for the new format. I hope to have it ready for all members in about 2 weeks.
We're using CKEditor as the basis for the wysiwyg web editor and everything is looking good. Once the basic story posting process is done I'll add story threading and tagging. Authors will be able to easily cross link their own stories, and those links will appear automatically at the top and bottom of each threaded story. Readers won't have to guess or check back to know what to read next, or previously if they came in on the most recent story!
I am very excited about these long coming updates !
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michael
( author )
( series )
Supreme Commander & Tyrant for Life
That sounds like work.
|
The New Archive Tool and Story Editor is done and we are getting very satisfying results as we post old favorites into the new database for testing.
We have also created the new presentation layer, a fancy way of saying the script that will show the stories when you click on the links.
Instead of the old go.cgi script, when a story is available in the database a new story.cgi script link is given instead.
All of the On Site stories have been converted to the new system, so you can click through and see how they look! Please feel free to post feed back!
We're tracking one or two glitches with the wysiwyg editor, and will be test posting new and old stories through the week. We hope to have the new tools available to everyone by mid next week.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michael
( author )
( series )
Supreme Commander & Tyrant for Life
That sounds like work.
|
We've used the new Archive and Story Editor to archive several new stories that will be posted over the next few weeks! We're very excited about the new Editor! We even built in an "instant preview" so you can see how the archive entry will look _as you make changes_! ;-)
We're posting new and old stories for testing and continue to be on track to launch the new tools for all members next week! How weird will that be?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michael
( author )
( series )
Supreme Commander & Tyrant for Life
That sounds like work.
|
The New Archive Tool and Story Editor is released!
I spent all day building the new Archive Results List, so the basic admin is similar, but it will look slightly different.
One new addition is the Future list, where you can peek to see if you have stories that have been "futured" for posting to the TWG and TF homepage. This is a short term hold over from the current system. I'll be updating TF and TWG with new scheduling routines.
You can login, create new stories, edit old stories, turn off, turn on and even view the Click Stats for each story!
Please understand, Authors can now post their WHOLE story straight into the TWG Archive. You don't need to send your submissions by email anymore!
I know this seems so silly, but we're really excited to be bring you new tool and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Please post feed back and bug reports in the Features & Bug Reports forum!
Post Feedback and Trouble
[Note: This message was edited by Michael. 05/01/2012 01:32]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michael
( author )
( series )
Supreme Commander & Tyrant for Life
That sounds like work.
|
The TWG and TF homepages are undergoing a significant change. After today forward they will no longer be clones of each other.
Moving forward TrekFiction.com will show case stories chosen from the archive, a mixed selection of old and new, moderated by the TWG Staff, on a chronological basis. New submissions will receive priority, but old stories will be published as we convert them into the new database format. Basically, TF will continue on as TWG has been posting works for 15 years.
The big change is the TWG home page, not only will it not mirror the TF homepage, but it will be driven by a completely separate criteria. Starting right away, the TWG system will pull all the click data that we have been collecting for stories posted on and off site. (We have 4 years worth of click data.)
The TWG homepage will feature the highest clicked stories from a rolling 7 day bucket. Each morning the buckets will be checked again, and storied that received more clicks in the past 7 days will bounce up and down the front page.
Since we're collecting data from TF and TWG we hope that new stories will pop onto the TWG homepage a few days after they appear on TF, while popular stories linger for a couple weeks.
In a week or so, we plan to add another criteria for the TWG homepage, that of voting for your favorite stories. Authors will have the option of participating, and authors who choose not to participate will still benefit from promotion and exposure on TF (which gets 3 times the visitors of TWG these days ;-) )
Authors will not be allowed to vote for their own stories! And naturally we'll be tightening the registration system to avoid mischief.
I have also fine tuned the Old Releases section on the TF homepage to favor stories that have seen less attention in the past six months. I have always loved the idea behind Old Releases, and hope this gets sunshine on some oldies, but goodies.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Only fools pay retail.
#141 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
|
|
|
Established March 1997, Trek Writer's Guild is a forum/index website for aspiring authors writing fan fiction in the Star Trek universe. This website is a collaboration between the many TWG/SotF authors and Mediaboy Productions. All stories are original and copyrighted by the respective authors under United States law, as well as every other country that matters. (Including Canada) All graphics are original and copyrighted, either separately or collaborativly, by Mediaboy Productions and/or others as specified. The stories and graphics on this site may not be copied, reprinted, or reposted without express and written permission of the original creators. Trek Writer's Guild is in no way affiliated with Paramount Pictures Inc. Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, their respective characters, settings, and stories are property and copyright of Paramount Pictures Inc. These properties are used in good faith by the authors of Trek Writer's Guild, to further the human adventure through positive storytelling.