Quote by RejectReality
Quote by BrookellSo now I have to go outside Lush to do a function that I used to be able to do within Lush. It's a workaround, but not a very elegant or intuitive one. The ability to sort is another function I miss.
I am in IT and have done much new development. The number one rule about implementing a new version of something was never take away functionality. Even changing how it works, you always left the ability to do it the older way at least for a few releases. It let's you ease users into new things. So many functions are gone or changed to the point of being less capable. The few new things (time zone elimination in forums and the My Comments) are nice, but have we lost more than gained. I haven't posted since the new site went up. I haven't been interested in posting -- which for any of you who know me understand that's weird. I haven't stopped writing, just not been posting.
Believe me, I know. I also get that this was on an impossible timetable, though. I'm just as frustrated as you are with the loss of functionality, and finding patience difficult despite knowing there was a hard end date when whatever was ready had to go up.
I'm not writing, but that's me. Part of it is because Lush is my preferred venue for short stuff, and there's no drive to start those with the current state of things. I have at least half a dozen 5-50k word stories in progress, but I haven't been feeling them. Part of my recovery process in these slumps is to write quickies, but with that drive gone...
The effort vs. reward calculation isn't balancing for me right now. The truncated exposure window for new stories, the loss of the popular lists that were a major driver of reads for me, and the inability to see my own statistics in full severely tips the scales. The loss of forum signature functionality sucks the life out of me as well. I enjoyed crafting my banners, and there's no point in doing so as things stand.
If I finish anything ( and if the submission process doesn't prove to be another barrier ) I'll post it, but that's unlikely right now.
Hugs you Brooke, I feel your pain. And you, RR. I've lost the will to publish stories too. I've 2 new chapters written but it seems pointless to put them on the front page for their 15 minutes of fame before being consigned to obscurity. No one gets a message that I have published so unless they glance at the front page in the brief time ti's there, they won't know.
I managed to write a micro today to try out the new submission process and see what happens but I feel like someone has gone into my room and thrown everything about and torn pages from my books. Everything has been turned upside down. The multipart stories that were not made as a series are all stand alone stories with no connection. The series chapters are all in the wrong order. The images I spent ages curating and turning into story covers look terrible and to cap it all, I've hopefully only temporarily lost my Omnium badge because I won't write an story.
I have my fingers crossed these are all temporary and everything will be put back, not quite in the same place but leaving my room looking recognisable. At the minute I can see no improvements in the new site and I'm talking about function because god knows I'm not even looking at the design flaws. Everything sees more awkward and complicated than before. Having my stories spread over 10 pages is annoying. Having my friends spread over 4 pages is irritating. Not being able to hide co-authored stories is annoying. Not receiving emails in my to say I have a new comment etc is annoying. Not receiving the text of the lush message in an email and having to log in to read it is annoying. I used to like not having to log into lush when at work but still be kept up to date. That is all gone.
The loss of data is particularly annoying - the scores, how I cherished those 1 or 2 votes.. I used to like looking at the bar graphs of how the votes were spread. The number of views. I was slowly watching 'In the Library' heading towards Famous story. Now it's all rounded off. The loss of word counts. I liked being told how many words were in a story, not how long it might take me to read it.
I also liked having my stories in a particular order. so I could celebrate or push some stories or hide others.
One final thing, which might be a bug... I submitted a 99 word micro there but the word count on the submission page said it was 156 words. Something is out of whack.
It all published fine and is on the front page but I miss not getting a notifcation that it was published.
