Mod Announcements

[phantisma.livejournal.com]

So we've had two weeks of the new schedule and new comment tree. I realize that this will be a bit of an adjustment for folks, which is why I chose to host for the first two weeks.

As you know, we also put out a call for new mods to handle a few jobs. We got two new victims volunteers.

camshaft22 will be taking over the job of managing our staff of code monkeys. She will be working with havenward to transition the job. Once that transition has taken place, we will be talking about what changes, if any, need to be made to how we handle things.

havemy_heart will have the ever fun job of checking the comm to make sure that the daily post has gone up. The deadline is 9am pacific time, for those who don't know. havemy_heart will be responsible for checking and notifying the guest host if the post isn't up...and ultimately for pinch hitting if the need arises.

I want to take a minute to thank the mods who have been with us for so long, and in particular, havenward who took on the unenviable tasks of finding us a layout that would fit my finicky tastes and implementing it, along with establishing our archives and managing the ever-revolving staff of code monkeys for so very long.

Feel free to leave comments here to any or all of the mods, as well as to talk about your reaction to the changes we've made. Good? Bad? Insane? Let us know.

Comments

[xenoamorist.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all your hard work! At first I didn't like the new comment tree, but now I find it incredibly convenient, as I can just skip to the fandoms that I'm familiar with. I just wish there were a way to expand an entire thread without opening it in a new tab; you can expand individual comments, but afaik (unless I missed it), you can't expand an entire thread.

[zippitgood.livejournal.com]

I like the new format the times I've glanced through the prompt posts.

Would it be possible to bold and make the font size for the categories be larger? Maybe even fill that first comment? It'd make the categories easier to spot amid all the replies and fills.

[sexycazzy.livejournal.com]

I quite like the way the threads are laid out - makes it easier to browse and go to the categorises I like to read in the most.

Although I would like to see them stand out, as it's easy to miss so perhaps make them bigger/bold or add a small banner to each thread?

[enemytosleep]

Agreed that it's a bit hard to find each category, but once you're there, it's very nice. Also, I'm not sure if my newbness at Delicious is showing or what, but I can't seem to find where all the anime/manga prompts are living when I search the lonely prompts.

[obsessed-psyco.livejournal.com]

Firstly, Thank you so much to you all for all your hard work. It is much appreciated I can assure you.

I like the new format. It makes it easier for me to find prompts I am able to fill and ones I would like to read! ^-^

Thank you once again!

[enmuse.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU ALL FOR THIS AMAZING COMM. I am in awe of your dedication and greatly appreciate everyone who helps keep this place going. I hope the new system is easier for folks, I like how it's going so far.

[crearealidad.livejournal.com]

I do think you guys do a great job, but I have to say, as someone who doesn't really know any of the fandoms which get their own thread, I find the comment tree very frustrating, especially since I can't unfold whole comment threads without putting them on a new tab.

I guess overall I find that rather than stumbling across something inspiring, it just feels a more like digging to find fandoms I know. I hate complaining since I do still love this community, especially since I don't even know what to offer as an alternative/improvement, but I'm really still not coming around to the new system.

[colonel-bastard.livejournal.com]

As somehow who is similarly frustrated by the comment tree system, I just want to add my second to this, for the same reasons. Digging for prompts is a pain. I miss the loose, spontaneous feeling of the old freestyle prompting.

[blue-sunflowers.livejournal.com]

I`m kinda forced to agree. However, my biggest problem with the trees is that they now making opening up the comments in mobile web (on my phone) hella hard since it now has to open so many "trees" instead of just single comments (ie, instead of only pulling up the first 10 comments per page, it now does the first 10 comments + the comments attached to them). But I`m sure most people here open the pages from regular computers, so this problem probably only affects a few people.

[qfemale.livejournal.com]

+1

[thisbluespirit]

I've not taken part much before, but was hoping to now - but with the comment tree, I end up not even looking at the daily posts, because all I can see at a glance is the headers, whereas previously I really enjoyed reading through all the prompts to see if one bit, and occasionally leaving a prompt (without worrying about which header I should leave it under).

But it should be what people who actually use the comms most think - and I can see it takes some work, so thanks for all those who do that!

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

The comment tree was a little "Whoops, wait a minute..."-inducing at first, but now I like it: makes it easier to find the fandoms/genres I tend to fic, and that way I don't have to wade through dozens of prompts for :: Insert fandom I don't know except the title:: to get to what I'm looking for.

[rattyjol.livejournal.com]

I like the new schedule, but the comment trees are a bit . . . It took me a while to get used to them, and they're all right, I suppose, but things would be easier if there were a way to expand whole threads at once. Also, in the old system if I came back a few hours later all I had to to to check for new prompts was go to the last page and scroll down, whereas now I have to remember the time I was last here and then go through all the threads one by one to see if anything new has been posted. It is nice to have everything all on one page, though, so pros and cons, yeah?

[colonel-bastard.livejournal.com]

Adding my seconds to this--- I miss being able to skip straight to the newest prompts at the end. I also miss being able to just scroll through any and all prompts, rather than going and expanding them one by one.

[peaceformizu.livejournal.com]

I like the new schedule.

I have mixed feelings about the comment trees. It is really hard going back to the post to figure out which comments are new. Expanding them is tedious, especially since I often view this from my iphone. It does sort out what fandoms I have no interest in.

[jordannamorgan]

When I go to ANY of the Delicious links in the Lonely Prompt Day post, all I get is "commentfic has no links with the tags: bundle:Lonely: Fantasy" (or whatever the category in question is). No prompts whatsoever, anywhere. I'm very new around here, so maybe I'm doing something wrong, but encountering this void-ness isn't exactly encouraging me to participate.

Also, while I can see the value of having category threads in the prompts, I'm... well, not impressed by having to scroll past individual threads for "popular" current fandoms. What's the threshold for what's popular, and when it's less popular, are you going to stop giving it a thread of its own? The vast majority of my fandoms are older, and usually fairly small and obscure--so for me, all the individual threads for things that happen to be "hot" with other people at the moment are just... eh.

[loveinadoorway.livejournal.com]

I'm having the same issue with Delicious - am I doing something wrong, do I need to register or what might cause this? I'm very frustrated, as I LOVE to go through the Lonelies and fill one here and there!!!!

Plus, I think the category names aren't all 100% okay. It should be RPF, not RPS (unless you REALLY only want slash there) and it should be SciFi & Fantasy (as you list Merlin & other stuff in the examples, it's not only SciFi in there).
Plus I would like a category for prompts that leave fandom and pairing to the author (my favourite, the any/any posts). I think these get a little list when lumped into miscellaneous.
Otherwise, I'm liking the new system.

[blue-sunflowers.livejournal.com]

When you get to that initial Delicious page, just click on one of the tag links on the right. That will bring up the prompts.

[havenward.livejournal.com]

Ex-Code Monkey Queen here: Sorry about the problems with Delicious. When they changed hands, it's caused all sorts of problems with our archive. I had tried to work with Delicious to straighten things out, but what they've sent me hasn't worked. We're working to try to find other avenues.

For now, if you go to the Delicious page itself for the comm, you should be able to navigate the tags.

[nevcolleil.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all y'all do. This comm is a great idea and has given me a lot of inspiration in the past. I have to say though, I think the comment tree system looks better on paper than it actually functions. It's tedious looking for new prompts, especially as I usually access the site on my phone. Whereas reading through prompts used to be like browsing at the book store - sometimes I'd find something I wasn't necessarily looking for and be surprised by the fact that I suddenly wanted it - now it feels like research. And I feel like prompting for lesser known fandoms is a waste of time because if people are only looking in the categories that they prefer they'll never see my prompts even in passing.

Then there's the fact that everybody categorizes differently... For example, I've been putting Chuck prompts under Comedy. But I've seen others put Chuck prompts under Cops and Robbers. Both options are correct and I think a lot of prompts are like that and could fall under several categories, so I have to wonder if all the work is worth the trouble. The prompts are already categorized much more effectively at Delicious, and I just feel a lot less motivated to prompt the way things are set up now (much less host!)

/rant-y comments :p

[blue-sunflowers.livejournal.com]

Thank you all for your hard work! My only other suggestion would be to move the reruns to Saturday. That way it doesn`t interrupt the guest host`s prompting flow, and still leaves the weekend basically used for catch up.

[argentum-ls.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I have to join those commentators who are expressing frustration with the comment tree. I *wanted* to like it. I think it's a great idea. It just seems to be self-defeating. Where before, finding prompts was an adventure--there was something very Christmas-y morning about scrolling through the list and seeing what jumped out--now it's tedious. There's so much clicking and scrolling and reloading and backtracking and trying to remember where things were, trying to guess if a reply is a prompt or a fill, trying to guess where prompts might even be located.

Every prompt I've ever filled here was in a fandom I did not come here to write; several were in fandoms I've never written before. But I saw the prompt by accident and had to take it. That was fun! Every fill I've read here and thoroughly enjoyed was in a fandom I would have chosen to skip over had I been able (and now I am). That was fun! The tree eliminates both those serendipities. The fun is gone.

I can see the tree being useful for those people involved in a major, currently popular fandom who only want to read in that fandom. The tree helps those fandoms for which there's guaranteed to be activity. For the rest of us, it's just more proof of our secondary status, and it just makes it even more likely that there won't be activity since only those who are already looking for our prompts will find them, and most people aren't.

[lionessvalenti.livejournal.com]

All of this. I'm having a harder time getting excited about comment_fic since the comment trees. It's sort of frustrating. :(

[lah-mrh.livejournal.com]

I really like the "re-run day" - getting people interested in older prompts. I think that was a really neat idea.

On the other hand, I have to agree with what other people have said about the comment trees. I know they're supposed to make everything easier, but in practice they have the opposite effect, at least for me. Apart from maybe Supernatural there aren't a lot of fandoms with enough prompts to make separating them out worthwhile, and the "Any fandom" prompts are currently mixed in with the "Miscellaneous fandom" prompts, which makes them harder to find.

And I miss the randomness of how it was before - scrolling through comments and coming across prompts for fandoms I don't normally read/write for. I'd prefer to go back to how it was before, especially since this way means more work for whoever is putting up the posts as well.

[indraleigh.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your work in refining of the community and I very much appreciate it.

The only tweak I would enjoy seeing is allowing comment on lonely comment day so people could comment saying look what i filled! On previous lonely comment contest weekends where commenting of fills was allowed I enjoyed going through the comments and reading what had been filled.

[campylobacter.livejournal.com]

I LOVE the comment tree system -- it's made me more interested in leaving prompts & filling them now that I don't have to slog through a bunch of prompts for fandoms I'm not interested in. I've been too busy to click past more than the 1st page of comments looking for my fandoms.

Now that it's a pain in the neck to find fandom prompts on Delicious, the comment tree returns some semblance of organization to the comm.

I suggest typing the fandom header in the Subject line in order to make it boldface & easier for collapsed-thread browsing.