Question adds blocking the story list on right hand side

Interesting. I don't even have a test case screen that will produce an overlap like that now. Both side bar ads are responsive sized, so they shouldn't intrude unless you re-size your screen after the page has loaded.

rubberjohn wrote: Since starting to read this thread I've noticed that I, too, am experiencing this effect.

I'm using a laptop with the screen set at 1366 x 768 resolution and while both side-bar adverts are scaling to fit the advert bar across the top does not. At normal (100%) zoom it's not causing a problem but as I find it easier to read the forums at 125% the top advert bar now intrudes over the top of the 'Newest Articles' box. Revert back to 100% ends the problem of course.

As I only up the zoom value when reading the Forums I'm not finding this to be a problem so I include this comment for information only.

John.

Actually, this is a good observation that may be impacting a lot of people. Because the responsive ads base their size and position in your browser purely on screen resolution and do not take into account changes due to zooming (which may cause the titles in the latest Articles window to take two lines instead of fitting on just one and thus push the bottom of the articles list further down the screen than normal on your screen rez).

Ya, I'd say just use it zoomed in and don't worry about the overlap unless you need to get to what is under it. The point at which it is overlapping should just be the oldest articles on the Latest Articles list. Which is mostly going to be stories that were posted a month ago or more. And you can just as easily get to stories by going to the Stories->Original Timeline or Stories->2nd Gen lists via the menu.

Well, as people continue to complain about this issue... I made a change. Clearly, asking people to either use a normal web browsing screen size or use the menu options to get to the stories is simply too much to ask, so...

The login panel is now on the right and the Latest Articles module is on the left. The top ad will no longer overlap the Latest Articles module preventing small mobile device screens from being able to click on stories that they will read six words at a time. If it does overlap, it is just overlapping your login/out button. Considering most people let their log in time out instead of manually log out at the end of their session; that should cause as little impact as possible.

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: Better then my idea, which was to swap the banner to the bottom of the frame at the top of the screen, that way the add could have grow as far left of right as it liked

Swapping to the bottom of the screen would result in almost the same situation as removing it completely. Ads earn revenue based on visibility/position. An ad at the bottom of the page is far less likely to be seen or clicked and thus, its value for time displayed is lower. Otherwise, I'd use wide but short ad banners as the section breaks for stories and just call it a day. Having a full sized header banner right at the top of the site like this is almost as valuable as the two large side banners in the sidebars IF those banners are on screen during load up of the page. If enough stuff sits above those banners to push them down off the screen during load time, so you have to scroll down to see them, they're worth much less.

Oh, ya... it doesn't sit center there. Well... it sits center relative to the screen... but not center relative to the center section between the side bars. If you get what I mean?

If anyone's ever curious about why I get disgruntled about people demanding fixes to the site or changes that will serve their rare circumstances with particular screen size or anything else... this is a good example. All the posts, in suggestion threads and on comments front page and otherwise... about the advertisements covering up other things. But now that the problem is no longer in anyone's way, if not exactly 'fixed' ... how much appreciation was shown?

Dom clicked the thank you button on the post I made. Arcanist gave me two thumbs up.

So thank you, the two of you.

This isn't just me being grumpy about people not noticing the work done on their behalf in maintaining the site, of course. It's a reflection of ALL the interactions that happen on sites like this. People are often eager to point out problems, to recommend ways for other people to change and improve things, to give ideas and hints of how they wish things could be... but far less willing to acknowledge the work put into those things that have been done, especially if those things aren't done perfectly. Few are willing to offer praise, at all.

And yes, I see that a lot with maintaining the site. But I also see it a lot in looking at the stories... in comments and feedback. In general community participation.

As the recent statistics show, we're over 9 million words in canon stories now. And it wouldn't surprise me to find that over the years, just as much has been written by fan fic authors.

But if you look in feedback threads. About the stories. About the characters. Even in concepts... there is far more written in speculation of what hasn't been written, than in appreciation for what has. By several orders of magnitude. And even if people police themselves well enough to keep most of the really critical or negative stuff from being posted (or we do it for them), that still weighs on the whole process.

Nine million words.

Assuming 100k words for a novel... which is slightly longer than the average contemporary urban fantasy, and a little less than the average epic/high fantasy... we have released 90 novels over the past 12 years. This is, just for reference, nearly equivalent to the released books of the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe. It's difficult to say 'exactly' because there are a number of anthologies of short stories that overlap and novellas made out of animation series episodes, etc.

If I walked into a bookstore (assuming I could find one these days), and put 90 books on the counter for purchase... I'd expect to be walking out of there a lot poorer. At 8-12 dollars per novel, it would cost a grand to buy the full run. Probably over that, in most states with sales tax. That's worth a thank you post... if not every release, every couple to be sure.

We currently have around 500 registered members of the forums even if only about 3 dozen of them actively post... about 2/3 of them are logged in at least once a week. But that's not a great evaluation of our readership. So... let's go to Analytics. On here, I can see that since starting up the new site at the end of Oct; we have see 35,200 unique visitors - about 7500 of whom visit monthly, 4200 of whom visit at least once every 14 days, 2800 of whom are here at least once per week and 900 of whom visit daily. And we fairly consistently are growing in number (on average about 11% per month).

If we assumed that ONLY the people who visit at least once a week have 'bought' and read the entire canon... that's $2.8 million worth of appreciation. Admittedly, that wouldn't be how much the author got paid for the work... but it would be how much we would pay out for all of those 2-weekers to have their own copy of the stories. Can we honestly say that the feedback and appreciation shown to our authors for the past 12 years has reflected 2.8 million dollars worth of contributions?

I think there's always room for another 'thank you' or 'good story' to an author. Even if you would rather have a Jade story. Or you don't think Esoteric would have done that thing. Or you didn't like the style the author was trying out. Is your thank you so valued to you that you've got to limit them or end up overpaying the authors? Seems unlikely once you see just how much has been given with the only expectation in return, some feedback or praise.

Thanks, and I appreciate the thanks that my post has gotten me... but we'll see how that translates into comments/responses for the authors. Because that's where a lot of the praise/appreciation is merited. This crew put out 1.5 million words last year. That's more than a novel per month. That's pretty hard core. With the exception of Star Wars, Star Trek, and one or two other fictional universes... no one else publishes at that pace within a single conceptual environment.

In the ongoing quest to tweak things such that they function on ALL the things... some new changes tonight. This includes a new responsively sized top banner and something that is supposed to make any 'other' table/containers aware of the responsive nature of the layout. In other words... things should wrap/adjust better both with ads AND with tables (which includes the forums). I doubt this solves 'everything' but I'd appreciate feedback from those who do use mobiles. NOTE: due to the general nature of web layouts, a landscape positioning of your device will ALWAYS be better than portrait, so please default to landscape orientation. If you want to look at it in portrait too... that's ok, I guess... but you're more likely to see problems if you do. Also note that if you load the page, THEN change your screen size, the page will load poorly. It gets your display size as its loading and will position and size things based on that. If you change it after loading, that's all on you.

Ya, that can happen.

I think... I'd prefer the sub-menu above the ad, instead of below... but getting closer.

And... there's a tag cloud down in the lower left. Necessary to keep the left sidebar ad and the top one from merging together in small smartphone screens. Seemed like a thing to do since we're talking about getting the tag system in play anyway.

And ya, I like the bars for separation too. And to be honest, I am SOOOO glad to have the login back on the left. I had a good reason to switch them, but I'm glad its fixed so I can put them back.