Lazeez's Corner

Blog moved

2008-01-02T12:08:00.000-05:00

I've moved my blog to:http://storiesonline.org/blog/

Poll for the Clitorides Awards

2007-12-13T15:48:00.000-05:00

As I work on the moderation end of the Clitorides Awards site, I've become aware of something. Many of the nominated stories are no-sex stories. As in not a bit of sex in them.The clitorides awards were created to promote the erotica writing community; even the name 'clitorides' is a reminder of that.So my question to the community is: Should no-sex stories be eligible for the awards?

New Clitorides Awards Site

2007-12-02T19:48:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone,Back on February 15th, 2007, Souvie posted the following in message on Usenet in the ASSD group (alt.sex.stories.d) id Message-ID: :> I will not be running the awards next year, someone else has taken them over. I'm sure everyone'll find out eventually. In the meantime, it's been fun. :)> I'm going to email Kenny and see if he wants me

Story Delivery Changes

2007-09-13T20:21:00.000-04:00

I've implemented some important changes in the story delivery mechanism today. The new system has the ability to deliver long stories or long chapters in multiple pages.Explanation:Storiesonline is a busy site. Very busy site. In order to keep the site running smoothly and responding as fast as possible to readers' requests, the reply time for those requests must be kept short. The servers have

Looking for a story

2007-09-02T11:13:00.000-04:00

Looking for a story that is supposed to be on storiesonline, but of course, can't remember the author or the title:The main character is hired or rents a house. That night he and the house move back in time. The next night he goes back to the present. The owner who lives nearby comes by and tells him that this happens and sometimes the person living in the house doesn’t come back. The owner’s

Storiesonline is down (updated)

2007-04-24T11:51:00.000-04:00

8:00 PM EDT: Finally! The site is back online.6:20 PM EDT: Still downUpdateI just received an update on the issue. The story has changed. Now they're saying that a truck hit some pole in town and brought down the fibre optic cable. For some reason the data centre's redundant connection didn't transfer to the other lines, and no explanation why.I've been now told that it may be till 10:00 pm at

Scoring Changes Implementation Follow Up

2006-12-30T13:14:00.000-05:00

It's been ten days since the implementation of the new voting system, so I thought I would keep everybody up-to-date with how things are shaping up.First thing to report is that voting is up. The number of basic votes cast per day added to the number of TPA votes cast per day is about 30% higher than the previous week's number of basic votes cast. So it seems that many people were not using the

Scoring System Changes Implemented

2006-12-20T21:19:00.000-05:00

Well, it's done.Today, I implemented the display changes to show the new system in action.You can read the previous entries in this blog to see how these changes came about.First change is the voting forms. The old form has been redesigned with the new look and the wording has changed. It's very close to the temporary change that I implemented at the beginning of December, but with one major

Expanded Voting Form: Wording and Value distibution

2006-12-14T18:21:00.000-05:00

I'm working on implementing the new optional expanded voting form referenced in my previous blog entry Final Decisions. I need some feedback about the wording of the voting form.The form will have three separate criteria for the reader to select values for and I want it to be clear enough about the meaning of each. So for each criteria, I need a short, concise sentence that goes under each option

Weekly Download Counter Change

2006-12-10T15:18:00.000-05:00

I've made an important change to the site today. Tonight will be the last night that weekly counters are all reset to zero. From now on the system will keep track of the last seven days individually for each story.So, the weekly counters will now reflect a story's downloads in the last seven days regardless of which day you view the listings.Previously, the site kept track of weekly downloads

Final Decisions

2006-12-08T14:29:00.000-05:00

I want to thank everybody that commented and contributed to the discussions in the three previous blog entries, and who made suggestions. It has been educational.I've made up my mind on how to proceed next with regards to the voting system.While I don't like to lose any authors or readers, the current state of the scoring system is pitiful, and if left as it currently is, then it will only get

Derailed

2006-12-06T11:40:00.001-05:00

Well, it has been an interesting experience to say the least.If you haven't read my two most recent entries about changes to the scoring system on the site, you should read them.The gist of this blog entry is to tell you that ALL changes to the scoring system have been canceled and reverted.A recap of what happened.For the last couple of years, story scores on the site have been edging up higher

Scoring Changes Follow Up

2006-12-02T13:49:00.000-05:00

I canceled the planned changes. Too many authors asked for the removal of their stories from the site. Sorry for all the trouble.This is a follow up to my previous blog entry about the changes to the scoring system. If you haven't read that one, please check it to see what this whole thing is about.This follow up is to address as many of the comments that have been received so far as possible.A

Scoring System Changes

2006-12-01T18:14:00.000-05:00

Since implementing the scoring system on the site in 1999, it has been the only controversial part of the whole site. Many users found it useful, some didn't trust it and some ignored it.To authors it's even more troublesome. Many authors expect the score to tell them how they did in their writing, they wanted it to reflect the effort that they put into the story regardless of the story's content

Recent Site Changes

2006-11-07T16:14:00.000-05:00

I made few changes to the site in the past few days. I thought I'd talk about them a bit.The first two changes are in the way the voting mechanism and the feedback mechanism work at the end of stories. I've added some JavaScripts to make the forms submit to the site and return feedback without having to reload the whole page.The reason for the change is to make a better user interface. Previously

New Submission Wizard Features

2006-08-19T20:16:00.000-04:00

Today, Saturday, August 19th, 2006, marks the deployment of a new version of the site's submission wizard. It's not a complete re-write but a significant one nonetheless.New features:Shortcuts:Designed for authors with multiple similar postings. For example if you need to post several chapters of a novel, separately, instead of clicking the wizard, then selecting a pen name (if applicable), then

Email Feedback System: A minor, but important change

2006-02-17T15:45:00.000-05:00

I've made a small change to the email feedback system that all authors should be aware of.From now on, all non-anonymous email messages coming from the site's feedback system will be coming from 'feedback'at'storiesonline.net' with their 'Reply to:' field set to the real email address submitted by the feedback sender.The net result of this change is that less feedback messages will have the

Library Usage Examples and Tips

2006-01-04T17:02:00.000-05:00

Lately, I've been getting many requests for certain features for the library system, even though those features already exist in the Library, like update dates and a way to track serial stories.So in order to address those requests, I've created a page that shows a sample uses of the Library system on the site.I linked the new page from the various help pages on the site.The page can be found

Story Classification

2005-11-03T15:11:00.000-05:00

I have a problem. Or should I say, I'm dissatisfied with something. Story classification.Currently, the site uses codes to classify stories, but this method has significant shortcomings in my view. It does not distinguish between main themes or story types from minor activities.I want to create an additional classification system that focuses only on main story types or genres, for example:

New story reviewing system

2005-10-14T21:15:00.000-04:00

Well, the new reviewing system is mostly finished.I revamped the review display page completely and made it accessible to everybody. The old reviewing system has been integrated with the site. No more need for a separate log in page and different ID. Reviewing is easier than ever for those with reviewer accounts.A new reviewers section has been added to the site and it's onlyaccessible for those

New Feedback Email System

2005-09-28T13:51:00.000-04:00

To encourage readers to send feedback to authors, storiesonline provides an easy to use form at the end of every story and an email contact link in every author's page as well as a feedback link at the end of every blog entry.In order to encourage those who are reluctant to disclose their email address to still send feedback, the mailing system provided allows for anonymous messages.The system

More beta stuff and site accessibility

2005-04-25T14:06:00.000-04:00

This was a frustrating weekend.Inexplicably, still, some people are unable to access the site. The servers are online as usual. The DNS entries for the site are configured correctly. So why some Comcast, then Earthlink and now MSN users are unable to access the site? I don't know, and can't figure it out yet. Most of the problem areas were cleared yesterday about 1 pm - as evidenced by a

The site's new layout

2005-04-21T11:46:00.000-04:00

I've been receiving quite a bit of comments and reports about the site's new layout currently available in the beta area of the site. Some favourable, some not.The most common negative common so far is that there is nothing wrong with the current layout, so no need to change, and don't fix what isn't broken.Maybe from a reader's point of view, who's been using the site for a while and used to the

Biting more than you can chew, without realizing it!

2005-01-11T13:26:00.000-05:00

As many of you who've read the previous entries in this blog know, I'm working on a new reviewing system for the site. I have the feature set ready and have already started with the implementation. However, I've hit few snags. Let me tell you a bit about my way of developing features. I don't work in a conventional manner. I learned programing on my own, as in no formal training, and over time

Reader Feedback 101

2004-11-15T13:26:00.000-05:00

Some authors on the site often beg for reader feedback, and some others contacted me and complained that the site's feedback system is not working for them, or is broken. I took it upon myself to test various issues with the feedback system. The biggest thing that I've noticed is that authors explicitly asking for feedback or complaining that the system does not work, do not answer their fan

New Review System and Other Notes

2004-11-05T13:10:00.000-05:00

I read all the comments on the previous post. One important issue that most of those expressing their opinions keep forgetting: the voting system should serve reader goals as well as author goal. While authors view story scores as a kind of feedback - which it is, an author should not forget that the score should also help readers decide what to read and what not to read. I know it's hard to

Scoring System

2004-10-30T15:04:00.000-04:00

I knew that as soon as I create this Blog, that the issue of scoring on the site will be brought up into the discussion of every article that I ever post. So, I thought I would address the issue with my first actual article. I hope, whether you're an author, or a reader, you'll read this article with an open mind and a bit of understanding. I've dealt with the subject for the longest time,

New Spot Online

2004-10-27T13:36:00.000-04:00

As you can see, I have a new blog online. I know it sounds and looks a little strange for somebody with a site like storiesonline to have a blog on another service. I have good reasons to have this little blog here. I don't want to add more load onto the site's line, it's already loaded enough.What I will be posting here may or may not have anything to do with going ons on the site.I don't feel