In the past week or so, I've been trying to work through alternate means of handling some issues of publishing workflow caused by a recent Joomla patch. From what I can tell, they've done something (unintentional or perhaps intentionally to support something I don't know about) that prevents us from doing category changes to articles from the front end editor. This makes it impossible for us to use the "In Progress" "Review" "etc" categories as a tracking process before final publication visibly to the public. Not that such a system is 'required' but it does make it easier for two things: one, it makes it possible for a us to do all of this in the front end instead of giving a lot of authors access to the back end of the site. That's important because it means I don't have to go through a huge vetting process to make sure authors are trusted before giving them access. And second, because it allows almost all of the process to operate without my personal intervention, keeping the maintenance of the site as low impact as possible. 

Obviously, I'll keep working on things... it may be that it'll reverse itself in a Joomla patch because I settle on an alternative method. In the meantime, I've taken a look at the access levels system and made some adjustments based on my current understanding of them, which is far better than when I originally set up the site. Most users won't experience any changes... but authors, both WhatIFeers and canon authors, might experience some restructuring changes... and obviously, at the moment, we won't be using the whole tracking system... to minimize the need for category changes. Continue to create new articles in the appropriate "In Progress" category for that class of story... and then just leave it in "In Progress" until you are ready for it to move to official published status. If you need to prompt people to give you feedback, feel free to PM me or post in the appropriate forum thread which story you want moved and where you want it moved to and I'll get to it as soon as I can... but don't feel you HAVE to move things just because that's what the system demands. We'll get back to using things as intended when we can make it work right.

In the meantime... please let me know if you don't have access to something you think you should. Or if you DO have access to something you think is supposed to be hidden for you. Don't assume its no big deal or leave it as is so you can snoop around... just remember, if you have access to something that you shouldn't, its entirely possible that someone with far less concern for the integrity of the site also has access. And where you might do a little snooping, they might break things permanently. 

Ok... site problems aside... we have some new content lined up today. First from E.E. Nalley, we have the 4th Part of "The Bear, the Bitch, and Everything" ... and then, if that isn't sufficient to satisfy your reading urges for the evening; we also have Part 2 of "Head over Tail" from Morpheus. My Impression of this combination is that it should leave everyone happy for the week. But don't leave us hanging, let the authors know what you think. Comment or join a Feedback discussion in the forums! 

I managed to survive the opening of this musical. I ended my work day filling out my time sheet ... only 112.5 hrs for the two week period of set-up/tech rehearsals and preview week. While my boss is going to have a bit of a fit... its actually about twenty hours fewer than I had expected in planning for the opening. And could have been far worse than that, given how outdated and low end our sound equipment happens to be. The only downside is that my pay is so much lower than industry average for sound engineers, that even overtime rates are below it... But, I got a good night's sleep and while I don't have the day off tomorrow; there isn't a show, so I'll get another night's sleep before having to mix things again. And the run itself shouldn't be too rough, because we're mostly limited by Equity (actor's union) restrictions on number of performances.

Here at the Whateley site, it's another two story Monday. Both of today's stories fall in the original timeline. First, from Elrod, we have Part 5 of the latest Kayda story "There's No Place Like Poe." Elrod has been working closely with E.E. Nalley on this one and has shared the by-line on the piece. The second story is one many people have been eagerly awaiting. Originally released in fan fic format, Morpheus' "Absinthe" has been reworked and is now officially part of the year 2 story.

Enjoy! Comment! Go crazy (if you spend too much time on Absinthe, you may not have a choice)!

So, as anticipated my weekend was long and I still haven't filed my taxes. BUT, two stories are up. One, from E.E. Nalley, is a continuation (Part 3) of an ongoing story "The Bear, The Bitch, and Everything." Just when you think E.E. and Elrod can't push things any further... they get creative. :) The second piece for this evening is from Morpheus. It's the beginning of a new Imp based piece, the fifth in her arc, called "Head over Tail." Part 1 of this new Imp story is also up. Both of tonights offerings can be found in the Original Timeline collection.

Enjoy! Write comments and feedback! Think kindly of me as I work on filing my taxes...

A few little changes on the site this week. The secondary menu is over in the left hand sidebar. That opens up some more options for menu use... so I might be tweaking what buttons are up at the top and which options are at the left. The goal is going to be to be a simpler more intuitive set up options for new and less frequent users. I know changes like that aren't always welcomed by our veteran users who are here all the time, but we need to be easier for new folks to get involved with... or eventually it will only be a handful of veteran readers and the authors. And while we like you veteran readers... we want more hits than that. :P

Speaking of hits... you're definitely going to want to check out today's new content. First off, we've got the long awaited Part 3 of E.E. Nalley and Bek D. Corbin's "Road to Whateley" introducing their 2nd Gen characters with the crazy counterpoint tale to Calmari. For those of you who missed out on the confusion, "Road to Whateley" and "'Calimari'" were the integrated stories designed to introduce the 2nd Generation to the readers. Unfortunately, mid-way into the process of releasing the stories, E.E.'s health issues prevented him from being able to successfully work on his parts of the story and Part 2 and 3 were stalled. They managed to push Part 2 through... but finally, with his rapidly improving health, E.E. has dug in and finished this one to get it off the checklist so he can have more fun working with the very active currently planning and writing that is going on. So here it is: Part 3 of "Road to Whateley" now available in the 2nd Generation Stories collection.

And from Elrod, the continuation of Kayda's story, Part 4 of "There's No Place Like Poe" ... which you can find in the Original Timeline section.

Enjoy! And Please remember to comment!

Had a little bump in the night last night... forums software update made a few little changes that needed to be cleaned up with CSS tweaks. You might see one or two things that don't look right if your browser doesn't automatically update the cached .css files. How do you 'force' that? Well a 'hard' refresh can work, assuming your browser supports the shift+F5 method of clearing the cache for just that site. Clearing your cache completely can also work... but can be a nuissance for other sites you use. This will get you past any odd glitches that result from your browser trying to use old style info with new/altered site code.

For today's new release content, we have some Morpheus and some JG. In the Gen 1 time frame, we have the third (and final) part in Morpheous' "A Little R&R" that wraps up Ribbon and Roulettes' arrivals at WA. And over in Gen 2, a late student arrival integrates a character from JG into the mix "Reinforce: Don't Call Me a Pretty"

Enjoy! Comment! Cause mayhem!

Choose at least 2 of three... :P