One Week!

The site has been up for a week now. And while traffic has not been as, expansive as one would hope, it is still there. I just want to say "thanks" to everyone who has stumbled past this past week.

I was also wondering if I should step away from the Ficlet's style of stories. Maybe give folks the option to create either a Ficlet or a Drabble, or even just a full-fledge, as many words/characters as they want type of thing.

I don't know, but I do wonder.

That's what UserVoice is for in the end though.

Forget something on the web page

I can admit to being a bit flaky at times, but this takes the cake. While designing the User Interface for TheExpandedUniverse, I wanted to make sure that I had certain functionality always available. These were formulated in my mind as "Things I Had To Make Sure Were There."

• A HOME button - to take users to the start page
• A FIC button - to take users to the browse stories page
• A USERS button - to take users to the browse users page
• A RANDOM button - to send users to a random story

A pretty list, but one that was seriously lacking. After all, TheExpandedUniverse is a site about WRITING, and all my top navigation links were about reading. In fact, it took a user that had been logged in, 3 page views to actually write a story (Click their name to go to the User Dashboard->Click New Fic to go to the New story page->Write the story).

For what was supposedly the primary functionality of the site, that was fairly well hidden; and as all developers should know: if a user can't find functionality easily, it doesn't exist.

All that means, is that I had to go out and toss up another link to the top navigation. Go look at the site now, you'll see it right there as it says "Write."

The Expanded Universe

At the time of this posting, The Expanded Universe is now up and running. What is the Expanded Universe?

It's a fiction site, similar to the now defunct Ficlets.com in that users come to it, and write stories for themselves, and others to read and continue.

That's not to say that it is the same as the old Ficlet's application. First, I've stolen some concepts from the programming site StackOverflow.com in that users now have reputation based not only on how much they post, but also how much other individuals like their stories.

Currently, the Reputation points are awarded in this manner:

• Publish a Story +2
• Story Voted Up + 10
• Story Voted Down -2
• Prequel/Sequel Published To Your Story +1

Further more, as I add in functionality to the site, Reputation will play a prominent role in the capabilities of the site's users. For example, if your Reputation gets high enough, you will be able to send someone's story to draft (for abuses of the Terms of Use, etc).

Enjoy, and happy writing.