Navigation on this website is HORRIBLE

[Zeph]

This website has THE WORST and useless, misleading, etc.,etc., etc., navigation I have seen on any literary website on the internet which I have visited.  It is next to IMPOSSIBLE to find any list of authors or any list of stories or any list of stories by author on this website.  Only by abandoning logic and randomly clicking is it possible to get to a page of stories by a particular author, IF someone has somehow commented on a story in the Forums.  The ILLOGICAL path: https://castleroland.net to Menu Item "Forums" https://castleroland.invisionzone.com; scroll to something called "Story Discussions"  (WTF!!! I don't want to discuss stories; I want to READ them.  I can't read them unless I see a LIST OF STORIES TO READ.  FIRE YOUR IT GUY). If you're lucky, you'll find your author's name with a label "Collection of Stories by 'Author's name'". Ha! There is NO LINK on the collection link advertised.  One can click on the author's name (remember: assuming someone is actually discussing something about the author will his name even be there, in random order at that.  Ever hear of alphabetizing???) which finally will take you to a secret page not otherwise reachable will lists that author's offering on Castle Roland.  Guess what?  The stories on the list have a link all right, but NOT A LINK TO THE STORY but a link to a DISCUSSION of the story.  COPY THIS FOR FUTURE USE, READERS:  Here is the link to the secret list of author's stories on this website.  I cannot recall which crazy random link I used to get it, but here is the URL link with instructions on how to use it:  <https://castleroland.net/author-stories/?auth_id=1∂∂> where you replace the ∂∂ with two digit numbers, e.g.  "21" .  This will take you to AN author...not necessarily to the author you want, but if you just want to find a story...any story...to read on the gawd-forsaken website, this is a way to do it.  Whoever designed this website is clueless about website design. Moron is too kind a description.  There are some wonderful stories on this website.  I do not recall a few years back the navigation to be so fucked up (I'm sorry, but that is the only appropriate high English expletive which accurately conveys the seriousness of the problem here), but it certainly is royally (pun allusion intended) fucked up now.

[Art West]

Dear Zeph,  A good place to store books or stories is in a library. On the home page are four white words at the very top of the page. One of those is LIBRARY. One click on that word opens a whole list of categories for you to click on, including Stories By Author. One click on that line and a list of all authors alphabetically arranged arranged will open. One click on a name reveals all stories posted by that author.  If you do not know an author's name you have the ability to search by what type or genre of story it is. Quite frankly this is one of the most all inclusive search menus on a story site I have come across. I hope you take the time to explore the site, it really is a well set up site. Art

[maggiefan]

I have some sympathy with Zeph's comment, although not with the tone in which it was expressed.

I originally bookmarked https://castleroland.invisionzone.com, and I cannot see any link from that page to the https://castleroland.net homepage. So from that original bookmark it always seemed very illogical and hard to navigate. Maybe it's just a question of browser (I use Safari), but a prominent link to the actual homepage on the invisionzone.com page would be very helpful. (is there such a link? I've searched everywhere and I can't see one?) After figuring it out, of course, I just bookmarked the https://castleroland.net page instead, and problem solved. 

[Art West]

Hi, I just tried entering the forum the way maggiefan had done in the past and what I ended up on is the Forum page which has, right under the large Castle Roland logo, in smaller white type, a link to Castle Roland stories, which brings you to the home page. Now there might be a difference in the type of browser, or server you are using, but this seems to me, having used a variety of servers and browsers over many years, that some folks are afraid to click on all the available links to explore just what IS available on the site. I have tried them, and although I do not understand all of them, or have an interest in them,I have found some that are very helpful to me, and without crashing my computer !! (living on an island there are enough other reasons for our electronic devises to crash, as it did this morning, without any disastrous results). Please try this again and see if it works for you, and thanks for finding a more direct way of contacting the site on your own, have you ever read any of my stories? Happy Holidays, Art

[Al Norris]

Sorry for being late to address this issue... holidays and all that, take a toll on my time!

However you get to the forums, here at Invisionzone, there is a sub-forum called "Castle Library Updates" (visible from the landing page here). If anyone bothered to click on that forum, you would see all of the update threads. Click on the latest thread (always at the top of the sub-forum), and you will see the stories and chapters, each with it's own link.

As far as other links to the story site, look right below the Castle logo. See that clickable link called "Castle Roland Stories"?? Care to guess where it leads?

On the story site itself, if you move your mouse cursor to the "Library" link (at the very top of the landing page), drop down menu will appear. You can either click on the word "Library" or move down to the "Updates" selection. Clicking on the updates selection, you will be presented with the last seven or eight updates.The most recent, always at the top of that page. Of course, down towards the bottom of the landing page, is the slide-bar that shows which stories are being updated. No, it doesn't take you to the most recent chapter. It does take you to the synopsis page for that story. We actually expect you, the reader, to know which chapter you want to read.

As already mentioned, clicking on the Library selection you will find several choices:

Stories By Author
Stories By Universe
Stories By Title
Stories By Genre
Castle Roland Special Events

Each of those choices will present you with different screens and options.

As a final way to see and go to the story that you might be following, there is our twice weekly Newsletter. The links in the Newsletter will take you to the synopsis page of the story. You may subscribe to the Newsletter by going to the story site and navigating to the "About" menu (again, at the top of the landing page). The drop-down menu there will take you to the subscription page.

As for the diatribe posted by the OP (he is obviously ticked-off and hasn't been back to see or answer any of these followup posts)... all I can say is, "There are none so blind as those who will not see."

[Talo Segura]

It is always difficult to look at the site as a person arriving new and discovering it for the first time. There are some possible issues around this, in particular should someone (as appears to be described here) arrive at the FORUM looking to read stories.

The menu option CASTLE ROLAND STORIES at the top of the page might be overlooked as you dive into a search for authors and stories on the Forum. As you scroll down and arrive at STORY DISCUSSION you're thinking, "I've found It!" You continue looking at the list of authors which clearly says: AUTHOR NAME - a collection of stories by Author Name. You click an author. You discover it is not A COLLECTION OF STORIES. 

You are so far into the Forum now you are completely lost, hence the frustration that is strong enough that you rant out your feelings in a forum post about the site navigation. When you look at it that way, it is understandable and not without foundation.

The issue then is this: how to make STORIES as an option to click and get a list of authors and their stories more easy to see, more prominent. Whilst considering this you need to be aware the castleroland.net landing page does not work for mobile devices. At least not easily and not for Android. Remember more than half the people viewing the site are on mobile devices. 

What doesn't work? The links to books, clicking covers or Read More don't work. You would need to do a long press which brings up a list of options, including open in new tab, click that option to open the book in a new tab. Not very obvious. Remember please, the days of someone sitting in front of a desktop computer using a mouse to navigate are rapidly disappearing into history. People don't do that anymore. They have touch screens and mobile phones.

Getting back to the Forum issue. Perhaps CASTLE ROLAND STORIES is not an obvious link or not prominent enough for someone finding themselves in the Forum looking for stories, as happened here. Perhaps LIBRARY has no great meaning for everyone (I hear you cringe, but let's try to imagine how many younger people have ever heard of a library). A simple solution would be READ STORIES or simply STORIES. It's less refined, but so is education these days!

If you enter gayauthors.org on the home page, firstly the tab says GAY AUTHORS - GAY STORIES, then the menu lists HOME FORUM STORIES AUTHORS  No doubt about where to click for stories.

If you enter IOMFATS.org on the home page, the tab says TEENAGE GAY ROMANTIC LOVE... The menu, top and side bar lists HOME - ABOUT DONATING - STORY SHELF  Story shelf seems to point to where to go to read stories (about gay teens).

If you enter Castle Roland on the home page, the tab says CASTLE ROLAND STORY S... the menu lists HOME - LIBRARY - FORUMS - ABOUT.  

I know you will think it ridiculous, but the word STORIES does not appear so some people won't find them, they won't click LIBRARY, they don't care what the site is ABOUT, so they click FORUM and get lost.

Some suggestions:

1. change the tab to CR GAY STORIES
2. change LIBRARY to STORIES
3. change in the Forum - A collection of stories in the stories discussion to A discussion of author stories, perhaps with a link to the authors home page READ STORIES HERE
4. address the home page castleroland.net issue for mobile devices

I hope my analysis helps, it is not a criticism, but at the same time one should never dismiss what one's readers say, and try to take note and make changes.

 

[maggiefan]

On 12/21/2019 at 5:34 AM, Art West said:

Hi, I just tried entering the forum the way maggiefan had done in the past and what I ended up on is the Forum page which has, right under the large Castle Roland logo, in smaller white type, a link to Castle Roland stories, which brings you to the home page. Now there might be a difference in the type of browser, or server you are using, but this seems to me, having used a variety of servers and browsers over many years, that some folks are afraid to click on all the available links to explore just what IS available on the site. I have tried them, and although I do not understand all of them, or have an interest in them,I have found some that are very helpful to me, and without crashing my computer !! (living on an island there are enough other reasons for our electronic devises to crash, as it did this morning, without any disastrous results). Please try this again and see if it works for you, and thanks for finding a more direct way of contacting the site on your own, have you ever read any of my stories? Happy Holidays, Art

Thanks so much for this.

My first reaction was that this is NOT what I see, but I then experimented to try to find out why, and I now know the answer. The problem was that I don't open browser windows at full width, only about two-thirds screen width, (as I want/need to multitask and keep an eye on eg email, skype, (even work, sometimes!) even while I have the window open). And if the browser window is reduced in width, those links don't appear. Stretch the window a bit wider and they appear as if by magic. So they were there all along, but I couldn't see them, and now I can see them if I remember to do it, so problem solved. Thanks for persevering with me! I wonder if other people have been put off for the same reason.

And yes Art I have read some of your stories -- I really enjoyed Jason and hope there will be a continuation. You write really well. I was impressed also to see the number of page views; I hadn't realized there were so many people viewing this.

thanks again!

[Art West]

Thanks maggifan, I do appreciate that. Please know that my suggestion was not meant as a criticism, and I applaud you for experimenting on your own to resolve the issue. As far as Talo's comments go I sometimes do sometimes agree with him, but I don't know just what Libraries are like where he lives, that the younger generations do not use them, or according to him, even know what they are. Even here in our small city we have a very diversified library, everything from gaming and craft projects for the younger set, to historical research for the serious writer. Current and past DVDs, physical books, author talks, and even toddler story times. They are gathering places, not just reading rooms. And yes, a sequel to Jason's Story is now in editing and hopefully ready for a late January posting here. In California there are even reading story times with Drags doing the readings to the younger groups, just to get an early start on diversity (I turned down an invitation to start doing this here, but did agree to be the first internet author to speak to aspiring authors and die hard readers at a literary seminar next year). Thanks to everyone who contributed to this stream, from emails I've received it has helped at least a dozen more readers to navigate through the site and Al's explanations have to be credited for that. Art

[roger0002]

While I may not be the sharpest tack in the box, I started reading the stories on Caste Roland.net many, many years ago.  I saw a link, and followed it and bookmarked that page.  On that page was another link, to the forums here.  I bookmarked that link.  Guess I'm just too stupid to not read the actual text on a web site instead of just looking around for design flaws.  

Castle Roland in the past was based on a template that most of the story websites I read back then were also based on, so in effect, they were identical.  Eventually, someone actually decided to exercise independent thought and created a distinctly different theme and layout for this site, making it easier (for me, at least) to get to the stories that I read the most often, without having to scroll through a huge list of stories that have not sparked my interest.  A few of the other sites did likewise, and made my reading experiences more about reading the material rather than searching for it.  

Probably the best thing about both the main CR site and this forum is that there is an actual list of what updates are available so an individual can see if the stories he follows have been updated or not.  Also, if you actually tag the stories you read, and get on the notification list here, you will get an email telling you when your favorite tale has something new added.  

In a nutshell, it really ain't that darned difficult to maneuver around the CR world.

Just giving two cents worth for the offered penny for my thoughts.