Robert Batten followed The Fairy Stepmother, Inc.
The Fairy Stepmother Inc.
If the world were fair, Evelyn Radcliffe would be a successful businesswoman. Instead, she’s got two dead husbands, two teenage girls obsessed with marrying princes, and not a single fairy godmother in sight.
Robert Batten created a forum thread: Problems with the Comment system
I’m hoping @Elena Stofle and @Thad Woodman will have a look at this :)

The current comment system is a great feature, but it falls over on excerpts with too many comments. Specifically, if there are too many comments too close to each other, the comments seem to get drawn over the top of each other -- hiding the ones underneath. I’ve checked the page source code and the comments are there, just not being displayed.

This is actually a really problem -- I have a couple excerpts in this situation, and I’ve had people tell me they have stopped providing feedback in frustration, as they can’t  see their comments after posting them. It is a problem for the author too, as the email notification sent out when a comment is added doesn’t provide the context for the comment (doesn’t show what they were commenting on) -- the only way to see that is to follow the link to the excerpt, but then that doesn’t work because the comment is hidden under the pile.

Possible  Solution
One possible solution to this is something which I believe could be implemented relatively painlessly through some updates to the Javascript and CSS (for those not in IT just ignore the technobabble)...

Currently, all comments are displayed in full, and take up a lot of spaces, which is part of the reason for this problem. Instead, I would suggest when the pages loads comments are displayed as only an icon / bubble in the margin, identifying the author (and maybe the date of the comment. Hovering the mouse over the icon could display the comment in the tool-tip, and clicking on it could toggle the comment into full display, including the ability to reply to the comment etc. This would enable many comments to stack in the margin and still be accessible.

Other user interactions which would make this experience nicer would be: hovering over highlighted text could emphasize the comments linked to it (e.g. change their border colour). Hovering over comment bubbles could highlight the text commented on (e.g. change the highlight colour).
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Robert Batten liked the forum thread, Interested in your book's Properties page?
That’s actually pretty amazing. Awesome!
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    Robert Batten liked the forum thread, Interested in your book's Properties page?
    You used to be able to access your "Properties" (movie/TV rights, audiobook, foreign language) page through your book’s dashboard, but that link disappeared a few months ago. But the page is still there! Here, look at mine: https://www.inkshares.com/books/fae-child/properties/791b7b

    Each book has a unique code assigned to it. For Fae Child that is the "791b7b" bit at the end. You can find your unique code by clicking on a "popular excerpt" or a review of your book. Or any book, really! Here are the properties pages for Devil’s Call and Filicide, for example: https://www.inkshares.com/books/devil-s-call/properties/be4481 https://www.inkshares.com/books/filicide/properties/da0ea7

    On your page you can edit it - choose which reviews or recommendations you want to show (it picks the top two), and add similar books or movies. Hope this is helpful! Have fun! :D
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      Robert Batten liked the forum thread, Interested in your book's Properties page?
      One intrepid investigator has discovered you don’t even need the code! You can put anything after the properties part of the URL and still see your page. e.g. https://www.inkshares.com/books/fae-child/properties/wow
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        Robert Batten liked the forum thread, Ask Questions about The List 2016 here
        Just when I thought I’d stopped being a crazy competition person... Seriously, I’m so excited, I’m so honored, and like Christopher, I am so IN.
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        People who have liked this comment in the forum thread, Ask Questions about The List 2016 here

          Robert Batten liked the forum thread, Ask Questions about The List 2016 here
          Just got the invite a minute ago! I am excited and I AM IN. I am so definitely IN.
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          People who have liked this comment in the forum thread, Ask Questions about The List 2016 here

            Robert Batten liked the forum thread, Ask Questions about The List 2016 here
            Hi All, We were giving everyone 24 hours to "opt out" and we’ll add you all into the contest tomorrow.   
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              Robert Batten liked an update for Deus Hex Machina

              Greetings Hexers and Machina Riders:

              Do we have some things to talk about!  So much has happened in the last week my head is spinning. Let’s get right to it:

              Extra Life Stream this Evening

              I’ll be streaming Heroes of the Storm tonight for the Extra Life charity over on my Twitch channel, starting at 6 PM CST and running until midnight. Come cheer me on as I main Sylvanas and try to figure out if I can still snipe towers behind enemy gates. It should be fun times.  

              Donate to my Extra Life fund

              If you watch (and even if you can’t) help me get to $100 by donating here. I have already raised $40 for kids in need, so I’m 1/3 of the way there. Woncha help out?

              The List 2016 contest

              This week Inkshares announced which books were selected for their end-of--the-year contest, and Deus Hex Machina is on The List!  It’s a crazy big honor to be among such amazing books and their authors which leads me to my next item on the agenda:

              A ton more Deus Hex Machina stuff is coming

              A new contest means a new campaign, so I’ve been working in the last few days to shape what a second campaign for DHM would look like. Astute readers among you will already notice I’ve updated the book’s Inshares page, refereshed my cover concept, and put up a couple new character bios. In addition I have uploaded the revised first chapter from the 2nd draft -- I think you’ll be happy with the changes. 

              My edit is plugging right along, and won’t stop just because another contest has popped into my life. You don’t stop feeding your kids just because extended family dropped by unannounced. You pull up extra chairs and make more desserts.

              And I plan on more desserts friends. I will try to keep the updates meaningful throughout this contest, but I do have a good amount of fun stuff planned, and I want to share it all with you. 

              My goal for this campaign will be to get to 400 readers. It’s a huge crazy unimaginable number, but I think we can do it. If you’re following the book but haven’t purchased, I’ll be reaching out to you personally in the coming weeks to ask for your order. If you have purchased the book, I’ll be reaching out to you personally to ask for your referral. 

              In exchange for your support of the book I have planned more goodies: live-edits, fan art contests, a contest for the ARG -- yes Qathren YOBIBYTE got the jump on you Sombra. You got nothin’ on a hexer from the future.

              It’s gonna be a fun, weird ride, and I hope you’ll join me. I’ll see you tonight. 

              May the code replicate eternal.

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                Robert Batten liked an update for Sorcery for Beginners

                Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,

                We have passed the halfway point. Only 44 days left in our fundraising campaign. Sorcery for Beginners will definitely be published, but we are still aiming for the FULL editing and marketing package. To get that, we need to keep selling copies.

                And we had a big boost yesterday -- out of thousands of books, Sorcery for Beginners was chosen as one of the Top 35 unpublished projects on Inkshares! It’s called The List, and you can read about it here:

                http://blog.inkshares.com/post/153308043055/the-2016-list

                There we are, right up top! Cue my reaction:

                Basically, the top three pre-sellers on The List by Dec 31 will get a full publishing package. And maybe a solid-gold car, I’m not sure. Either way, it’s pretty awesome.

                So if you haven’t bought a book yet, or you know someone who might like a copy, now is the time. Send the link to friends, keep sharing on Facebook, guilt your family into making a purchase, whatever works. Juliane and I really appreciate your support.

                Thank you all --

                mh


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