Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Torn World is spruced up!

ellenmillion has recently done a major overhaul of the main site for Torn World, our science fantasy shared-world project.  *applause*  Here are some highlights...

The "Start Here" material for new readers now appears near the top of the lefthand sidebar.  (If you have been intrigued by my Torn World posts but haven't visited the site yet, seriously: start on that page.  Otherwise you will probably get lost and I'll have to send Fala to scoop you out of the snow...)  Other menu items have also been reorganized in hopes of making them easier to find.  Links have been checked, made more visible, or updated as necessary. 

You might also enjoy the "Take a Tour" page.  It lists all the story tours available that link stories within a single story arc or ones that have something else in common.  There's a tour for the recently added stories about the great fire of Itadesh.

If you're wondering who all the characters are, you can look them up on the "Characters" page.  Each character has an entry with their description, any illustrations, stories in which they appear, etc.  Characters may be adoptable, owned (the owner will be named), or non-adoptable; that information appears at the top.

Can you think of anything that would make the site more user-friendly, more attractive, or otherwise better?  Feedback is welcome!  We can't do everything at once but we will note requests, discuss possibilities, and do our best.
Tags: fantasy, reading, science fiction, torn world
Subscribe

  • A Little Slice of Terramagne: YardMap

    Sadly the main program is dormant, but the YardMap concept is awesome, and many of its informative articles remain. YardMap was a citizen science…

  • Winterfest in July Bingo Card 7-1-21

    Here is my card for the Winterfest in July Bingo fest. It runs from July 1-30. Celebrate all the holidays and traditions of winter! ( See all my…

  • Bingo

    I have made bingo down the B, G, and O columns of my 6-1-21 card for the Cottoncandy Bingo fest. I also have one extra fill. B1 (caretaking) --…

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    switch
    default userpic

    Your IP address will be recorded 

    When you submit the form an invisible reCAPTCHA check will be performed.
    You must follow the Privacy Policy and Google Terms of use.
    Help
  • 8 comments
eseme

eseme

February 7 2011, 04:56:00 UTC 10 years ago

I love that the Start Here link is right near the top and easy to see! That is so very helpful.

And your earlier post has what is possibly *far too much* feedback from me. I get long-winded, and try to answer every question you ask. Sorry! Please, take all that with a grain of salt. I'm just one person, with one (rather large, sorry!) set of opinions.

I will still advise, in terms of organization, that the term "Take a Tour" did not make me think "Here is information on linked stories." Also, if you are trying to think of ways to organize this type of information, all those supplemental Pern books as well as RPG setting guides are places to look for inspiration. I think the Pern books are well done in general (aside from the wandering sidebar issue which is a problem of print layout, I think) and RPG setting guides are designed to convey this type of info in an easy-to-follow manner. Some are better than others, of course, but they'd be a good place to look for ideas.
ysabetwordsmith

Thoughts

ysabetwordsmith

February 7 2011, 07:00:52 UTC 10 years ago

>>And your earlier post has what is possibly *far too much* feedback from me. I get long-winded, and try to answer every question you ask. Sorry! Please, take all that with a grain of salt. I'm just one person, with one (rather large, sorry!) set of opinions.<<

I am really enjoying your input! No need to apologize. You're not being obnoxious, just pointing out stuff that doesn't work (and often, possible improvements).

>>I will still advise, in terms of organization, that the term "Take a Tour" did not make me think "Here is information on linked stories."<<

I like the idea of switching from just "Tour" to "Story Tour." It maintains the concept of looping through multiple points while specifying what kind of loop it is.
ellenmillion

Re: Thoughts

ellenmillion

February 7 2011, 21:42:36 UTC 10 years ago

Hmm. Changing tour to story tour doesn't quite work, because the tours can be built out of anything - artwork, stories, articles or even membership and other informational pages. I'll keep thinking to see if I can come up with something better...
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Thoughts

ysabetwordsmith

February 7 2011, 22:54:47 UTC 10 years ago

Oh, I didn't realize that the tours could cover different things. (I think a lot of our function pages need a few lines at the top explaining what they are for, and pointing to other things that people might have thought would be on that page but aren't.) Howbout "Content Tour" instead? That would at least make it sound less like straight geography, which is otherwise a likely misinterpretation.
eseme

Re: Thoughts

eseme

February 8 2011, 00:36:31 UTC 10 years ago

Oh good. I tend to get rambly, and did not realize quite how bad it was until after I had posted and saw the wall of text.
ellenmillion

Re: Thoughts

ellenmillion

February 9 2011, 19:51:08 UTC 10 years ago

It was very, very useful - I appreciate it a lot! Throw me a wall of text anytime! :)
eseme

Re: Thoughts

eseme

February 10 2011, 00:16:41 UTC 10 years ago

Good to know! I'm hoping to get the free time to sign up and really explore Torn World this weekend. I will admit that snow unicorns sound so cool!
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Thoughts

ysabetwordsmith

February 10 2011, 08:35:29 UTC 10 years ago

Yay! I hope you let us know what you think of the site and content when you do that.

Yeah, the snow-unicorns are awesome. They helped hook me into the project. They're just so different from the usual. I haven't seen that kind of innovation in monocornal characterization since "The Black Unicorn."