Bug reports and feature requests.

[TammiKeymaster]

Hey all. Our tech guy is currently moving another author’s whole site, dozens of courses, and long-running (like a decade or more) forum from one platform to another so we’re gonna have to limp along for this first week with some primitive conditions. IT’S OUTHOUSE TIME, GUYS.

However, any of you who have taken previous classes with me know that almost any amount of primitive forum formatting and missing avatars is still worth it if we get good, usable course software — which we have. 💕

Improvements will start Monday, but so does class, and we can’t wait for avatars. So we’ll just do our thing and let James work around us. My first order of business is word count widgets and user avatars, because I am very good at setting priorities. 😂

Drop any requests or complaints here (please be kind). I’ll read your replies and add to the list in this post. I’ll even start the complaining.

– word count widgets
– user avatars? 😭
– ability to “uncomplete” completed course sections
– forum profiles are 404
– WSIWYG forum post formatting
– general forum formatting (colors and style) — dark mode would be great!

Handled:
– forum font needs to be embiggened A LOT

Mostly handled
– the bread crumb to this forum is two subdirectories longer than it should be (no one but me (and James) will care about this)

I might be able to sort out the last two (maybe even the profiles issue), but not until I’ve got everything ready to go for Monday, so we’ll see if James beats me to it. In the meanwhile, sorry for the squinting! Please introduce yourself in the other topic if you haven’t already! I can’t wait to write stories with all of you!

• This topic was modified 1 year ago by Tammi.
• This topic was modified 1 year ago by Tammi.
• This topic was modified 1 year ago by Tammi.
• This topic was modified 1 year ago by Tammi.
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[Jobie BaldwinParticipant]

I have practically no experience of forums but still think I can contribute by explaining WHY I have no experience…

I don’t go on forums because they overwhelm me. My brain sees the excruciatingly long list of topics and threads, all visible with lots of text in hard to read fonts, and it shuts down.

It would be really helpful if there could be main folders (like no more than 10) with overarching topics), broken down into sub topics. This would be particularly helpful for genre specific threads.

That might help ease the panic I feel when I gird my loins and enter the forums 😉.

[TammiKeymaster]

I have a meeting with Stacey this morning, so we’ll chat about this! I suspect, given the extra nesting up there in the breadcrumb trail, that there’s room to break things down further.

[Jobie BaldwinParticipant]

Sounds fab. Your hard work is much appreciated 🤗

[Trisha MessmerParticipant]

Edited: you can disregard my idiocy. *face palm* I didn’t see the “complete and continue” at the top of the screen. I should have recognized that as it’s similar to the way Mark Dawson has his set up.
Is there any thing we need to click or mark that shows we’ve completed something? I haven’t gone all the way through the orientation but I watched the first video and am getting ready to watch the webinar replay. Will the progress bar be updated once I complete the whole section rather than each lesson? Thinking back to the old course format where we had to click “Mark as complete.” I know this is a weird thing to be anal about. 😀 But seriously, sometimes I don’t remember why I walked into a room much less if I’ve completed a lesson.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Trisha Messmer.

[TammiKeymaster]

This time around, I specifically chose software that doesn’t make you Mark as Complete. 😂 I have PTSD from the number of refunds I had to give people who literally could not figure out how to progress through a course. So you should be able to go around all Wille Nelson (my grandfather’s malapropism for “willy-nilly”) and look at anything you like, as long as it’s not in a future lesson.

Now, if you’re anything like me, having bars that aren’t full will drive you mad and you will ABSOLUTELY be Completing everything. LOL

[Trisha MessmerParticipant]

Yep, that’s me. I need to see that validation that I’ve completed something! It was on me for not looking closely at the screen (or I think I was in some other view where I didn’t see that. *she makes the lame excuse*). But I can’t imagine asking for a refund because you can’t figure something out–I mean all you have to do is ask, right? I used to be a software trainer and I told people, the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.

[TammiKeymaster]

Yeah, I did not love the old software, but I didn’t think it was THAT bad. 🥴

[Kristy MalloryParticipant]

Hi! Can I please get my screen name changed from Kristine Thompson (my legal name) to my pen name Kristy Mallory? I can’t find a way to do it myself.

Thanks!

[StaceyKeymaster]

Hi Kristy – I went ahead and updated that for you. We’re working on getting everyone access to their profiles (without being able to see the rest of the backend and WordPress dashboard!).

[Kristy MalloryParticipant]

Thank you so much!

[Anne RenwickParticipant]

I too wish to change my screen name. I’m registered under my legal one and it should be my pen name Anne Renwick.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Anne Renwick.

[TammiKeymaster]

Got you, Anne!

I’m really sorry to all you pen name folks — I really respect the importance of a pen name (or I wouldn’t have so many, haha) so I’m annoyed that the display names aren’t behaving as they should. I’ll get that sorted ASAP so the next batch of folks doesn’t have to deal with it.

[Katje van LoonParticipant]

Bug Report:

The download for the Making Room worksheet in the Orientation section of the course does not work. I get a page that says the following:

Login

Unauthorized for: /mp-files/worksheet-making-room.pdf/

You are unauthorized to view this page.

I am already logged in on the site. Using Firefox on a Mac, OSX 10.13.6.

I took a screenshot of the error page as well. Also tried doing the link without the end backslash on it, but that gave me the same error page.

[TammiKeymaster]

I had set the permissions wrong, but it should work now!

[Katje van LoonParticipant]

It did! Thank you! 🙂

[TammiKeymaster]

Okay, I embiggened the font some, so that ought to get us by till James can come along and do things properly!

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Tammi.

[Stephanie FlintParticipant]

I agree that having main topics and subfolders can be really helpful for splitting categories. Pinned topics from admins so that we know which ones to pay attention to first.

In regards to breaking it down, maybe an option for genre groups/sub-groups? Might help make it easier to connect with other authors in our genre. 🙂

Maybe making the contrast a little smoother (the all white is going “Ah!” to my eyes.) could be good. Optional dark mode, maybe?

Maybe on the calendar and forums, make note of what time zone the times are set? Not sure if it adjusts automatically, but could be helpful. (Especially when Daylight Savings Time kicks in).

Looking forward to the course! 😀

[TammiKeymaster]

Colors will be a CSS thing, so I will leave that to James — I know how to change CSS but I don’t know how to find the places I’m supposed to change in code this … voluminous. LOL I’m genuinely surprised there aren’t just, like … dropdowns and color pickers for this. It’s 2022. I’ll add that to the list for James!

The calendar should show in your time zone provided Google can determine where you’re logging in from (or you’re logged into a Google/Gmail account when you view it). The Wednesday office hours are 1 pm EST — if you’re in another time zone and seeing the equivalent of whatever that is in your time zone, it’s working! (Anyone else, please weigh in on whether it’s working for you as well.)

As for forum time, I’m seeing your post at 7:34, which jibes with when I got the notification. Are you seeing an accurate time there?

I’m PRETTY sure we can have an infinitely nested folder system, but Stacey set it up, so I’ll have to poke around and make sure I understand how it works under the hood. I was all about php-based bulletin-board style forums back in the oughts, so I should be able to figure it out pretty quickly.

[Stephanie FlintParticipant]

I’ve done some very basic website formatting, but nothing like a forum (except ones where, like you said, they had color pickers and selection boxes). So I imagine something like this would take a lot more time and tinkering to get right.

Good to know the time zone is based on Google. And I do see 1 pm for Wednesday (I’m also on EST). So I’m guessing it’s working right, then.

[TammiKeymaster]

Well, it’s working for us; only God knows how well it’s working for anyone not in EST. But we will find out, that’s for sure!

I’ve never run a course without one major tech glitch and at least one really annoying issue that doesn’t break things but just makes them ugly or too complicated or something, so I am VERY go-with-the-flow. Or maybe I’m just extra Zen because I know James is going to swoop in and save us all shortly!

[Stephanie FlintParticipant]

Makes sense to expect that there will be a tech issue somewhere.

Other feature requests:

For the course – A way to unmark a course section as completed.
I kind of might have gotten a bit impatient when checking one section as complete, and accidentally marked the next section a little early. Not a big deal on this one, since I went ahead and read through it, too. But I can easily see accidentally doing that again.

For the forums – maybe the list of formatting options. Bold/Italics, emojis, etc. Doesn’t need to be a first priority function, but could be nice down the line. 🙂

Side note: I just noticed that the calendar shows the kickoff party at 8pm, but the week one lessons say they’ll become available at 7pm ET during the kickoff party. Wasn’t sure if that was intentional or not.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Stephanie Flint.

[TammiKeymaster]

Yeah, my ability to remember html tags on the fly doesn’t extend much beyond bold and italics. I have that on the list above (WYSIWYG = what you see is what you get, i.e. buttons that format text as you’re replying) and I’ll make sure it’s done sooner rather than later. The formatting here is NOT working for me LOL!

I’ll ask Stacey to look for a way to unmark sections. You can go back to them at any time, of course, but I assume you’d like the visual reminder that you haven’t completed a section? (Which is entirely fair. Have you taken the Clifton Strengths assessment?)

[Stephanie FlintParticipant]

A few HTML tags have been ingrained into my memory, but anything beyond link creation, basic image tags, and paragraph breaks, I’d have to look up. So I totally get that. 🙂

And yeah, I was thinking along the lines of having the visual reminder of completing a session. Not high on the list in terms of priority, but could be handy.

On a similar topic… the forum being able to distinguish “unread” versus “read” topics has been handy on the forums I’ve used in the past.

I haven’t taken the Clifton Strengths assessment at this point, though I’ve thought about trying to take the free one that’s supposed to be similar. (I know they’re a bit different, though I wondered if it might be a way to get similar information as a starting point).

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Stephanie Flint. Reason: fixed typo

[TammiKeymaster]

I know Stacey took that one, and as I recall it was largely similar to the official one she took after she started working with me!

[Stephanie FlintParticipant]

Good to know. I went ahead and took the High5 strengths test last night. 🙂

It was definitely interesting. There were a couple details that didn’t quite line up (I don’t think), but some of them definitely made sense. I kind of want to think about them more and see if there’s any way I might be able to apply them intentionally.

I ended up with:

1. Philomath
Your objective is to learn new things.

2. Strategist
Your objective is to see the big picture

3. Problem Solver
Your objective is to solve problems

4. Storyteller
You are a born storyteller and your goal is to communicate a message.

5. Self-Believer
Your objective is to radiate confidence.

I don’t know how close they line up with Clifton Strengths, but I imagine they’ll still be useful.

[Loraine BowmanParticipant]

I’d love to see “topic” folders as well. More specifically one with “Questions.”

For example, I have a question re: The Recipe

Just going to drop it here:

What does it mean when the recipe calls for “no walk-ons?”

Lori Bowman

[TammiKeymaster]

Would it work if there were a topic for each week and you could drop questions about the content for that week there?

[Loraine BowmanParticipant]

Yes! That would work. 🙂
Lori B

[MoiraParticipant]

Super bizarre – I’ve tried to add an open zoom room link to the pop-in sessions and it doesn’t come up, but my other messages show. Will try one more time without the full Zoom message to see if I can get it to show.

(EDIT – Yes, in answer to my question. Anything that looks like a link gets zapped or hidden maybe prior to approval. So I just stripped the link language from the addresses.)

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Moira.

[TammiKeymaster]

Oh wow, that’s annoying! I’m sure it’s a permissions setting, so I’ll hunt it down.

[MoiraParticipant]

So now that my email has been changed, I can only access the forum. When I try to click on the Feb 2022 link it says I don’t have access. Could we try a reset and start over? I’ll check both my email addresses for a reply.
Thank you!
My screen name is showing up as moregard which is the first part of my email.
Maybe there is something going on there. I think maybe I have 2 accounts.
I’d like to think that it’s because I’m special, but I think mostly it’s because I’m so very wrong….
[This is Moira BTW]

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Moira.
• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Moira.

[TammiKeymaster]

I actually didn’t change it yet! LOL I was waiting to hear back from you.

For reasons I don’t understand yet, anyone who has a site membership can post here (fortunately it’s not linked anywhere). I’m gonna go transfer all your info over now, and get you sorted with the right posting name etc!

[Jodie CarterParticipant]

Hi guys, since i get really bad headaches from light mode i found an extension/add on for firefox that turns the website to darkmode. https://mybrowseraddon.com/dark-mode.html
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/dark-mode-webextension/?utm_source=addons.mozilla.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=search
it works a treat and i found it easier to focus for longer. Thought someone might find it helpful.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Jodie Carter.

[Stephanie FlintParticipant]

A minor feature request, definitely not high on the list of things to be done…

Is there a way to edit our word count entries?

This one wasn’t a big deal, I accidentally put April instead of March for one of the entries. But it got me to thinking that being able to make an adjustment might be helpful if we accidentally put too many words in at some point.

(I don’t know if maybe we could put in a negative entry to counterbalance, if that happened?)

Anyway, doesn’t need to be high on the list, but it might be helpful in the long run. 🙂

[Stephanie FlintParticipant]

Possible Feature Request:

Maybe a dedicated Feedback section on the forum? I was thinking that might be a good spot to include feedback requests for in-progress covers or critique swaps on reader magnets?

I wasn’t sure what you already had planned, but thought I’d ask. 🙂

[TammiKeymaster]

This is fantastic, THANK YOU.

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