New Website Feedback
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Just a request to the developers of the new site and to JNC itself.
It would be best to prioritize the reader rather than anything else right now since the main function of the website is to read prepubs.
It would be good to have the reader up within the week so people would start using the beta site more than the current one. Of course I'm not expecting the reader to be completely done within the week. I'm more hoping of a beta reader that is slightly better than the current one.Just a simple one for now that deals with the top 2 problems of the current reader.
- The Dark Mode only darkens the web page and not the reader itself.
- The reader does not fully utilize the space of the whole page. Even if you turn on the Double Page Display it's still not fully utilizing the whole web page.
At the minimum at least fix the Dark Mode so that we could say that we have a new beta reader which is slightly better than the current one.
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@BartzBB I'd rather they take the time to overhaul the reader completely rather that apply a few bandaids. In addition to your points, I'd also like more font/spacing/margin options, for example. In the meantime, Mercury Reader (Chrome/Firefox) or Safari's built-in reader view work well enough for me on desktop.
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@Nosgoroth
I agree with you that band-aid solutions aren't good. But currently the beta site is useless without a reader. Even just the bare minimum improvements would do so long as they place a beta reader so users can then properly use the beta and give more feed backs. -
@BartzBB you seem to think that throwing in a proper reader would make it usable, some people happily reading stuff on it, developers getting feedback from actual usage, win-win, etc.
tl:dr: No, they do not need to prioritize getting more testers on board now.
My view on it is very different:
- People don't report that much (at least looking at forums. Maybe support@ gets extensive reports hourly).
- Some parts have long-ass words, mostly screams (like "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa", but over 1 line long) that don't wrap and flow to the next page instead of next line. This was brought app on forums few years ago, with Sam certainly seeing it and me commenting on what exactly happens and how to fix it. People only re-report it
like once a year(maybe they don't, cant find more recent threads now, which is even worse because the bug is still there) and surely more encounter that. Incidentally, it can be fixed without any side-effects just by adding a simple CSS rule. - Another example is this thread. The bug's been around for years and I'm pretty sure it affects pretty much any user without lightning fast internet, best seen on the bakarina example linked (correct me if I'm wrong on any user part) but looking at forums you would think it's just a one-off thing (see chocolatkey's response despite being here for at least 1.5 years). Some may've stopped reporting things after years of things net getting fixed and the plan is to stop doing not getting fixed part but you still won't get a lot of people rush to volunteer beta-testing just because of you told them that somewhere on Discord.
- Right now you can see repeated report of app pretty much not working in dark mode and eating up lines near images. One core function almost not working, and some of content being silently left out. This is how broken things have to be to get things reported properly. And if you need public testing to notice core features being totally broken or site looking like this (3 screenshots in a spoiler below) on a browser with 10% market share and/or smaller screen you need to rethink your approach on development.
- Some parts have long-ass words, mostly screams (like "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa", but over 1 line long) that don't wrap and flow to the next page instead of next line. This was brought app on forums few years ago, with Sam certainly seeing it and me commenting on what exactly happens and how to fix it. People only re-report it
- This is not a beta site, despite what title and domain name says *. Beta is supposed to have close to full functionality and maybe some (or a lot of) bugs. Aside from major issues reported above (follow mostly not working, good portion of old timers not being able to access the user page etc) it completely lacks some of functionality (like parts being listed on the volume page) and overall it just doesn't work for the purpose of opening site and reading new part of your favorite/most hated novel thingy without going to calendar and scrolling all the way down because month is ending already (for all those 0 people who here who want my subjective opinion on how it's supposed to be: https://streamable.com/xyokg5, plus push notifs, some people like those).
Right now asking people to report all bugs (and also check this whole thread to make sure you aren't repeating) is like dumping some MTL garbage and asking someone to edit (I mean, some WN TL's do that but JNC was supposed to be about getting quality product, not suffering through subpar delivery. Maybe not the right comparison because you can't polish an MTL while this site may be different and react native app apparently wasn't.)
I do hope that this thread was more about giving a preview to curious people and maybe some testing later, not about serious testing now.
No one's really stopping you from testing the hell out of it and making whatever suggestions you want but don't be surprised if you're in a very small minority.
Personally, I planned to mostly stick to shitposting from the start.
* If some JNC developer does think it is beta in the current state I'm gonna excuse myself from those threads here for a while. (Admitedly, I would likely call it beta.j-novel.club without thinking, but preview., nightly., new. or .dev might be better).
- People don't report that much (at least looking at forums. Maybe support@ gets extensive reports hourly).
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@_08 said in Beta Website Feedback:
Some parts have long-ass words, mostly screams (like "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa", but over 1 line long) that don't wrap and flow to the next page instead of next line. This was brought app on forums few years ago, with Sam certainly seeing it and me commenting on what exactly happens and how to fix it. People only re-report it like once a year and surely more encounter that. Incidentally, it can be fixed without any side-effects just by adding a simple CSS rule.
Assuming the software supports it, the simplest fix is simply to separate every letter using zero-width breaking spaces, thus forcibly adding word-wrap beakpoints.
The CSS rule can be finicky.
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@piisfun said in Beta Website Feedback:
The CSS rule can be finicky.
[citation needed]
The way I see it, you just addword-wrap: break-word;globally to the reader and long words just start wrapping while short words just stay the same (yes, I did try it in the reader).Your "simple fix" requires instructing all the editors about some weird quirk of site and having them actually catch that each time (while keeping in mind possibility of small screens and large fonts).
edit: Even if it is "finicky" someone should've said that instead of making me feel like I'm reporting straight to /dev/null. And either way, it's irrelevant to the point about people not reporting actual bugs and seeing little response if they do.
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It would be nice if there were a way to go from your library to the page for a book series (e.g. so that you can buy another book in the series). Right now, it seems like the only way to get to the book series' page is to go to the "Titles" page and look for it there rather than being able to get to it from your library.
BTW, the fact that the download link in the library stays highlighted after you've downloaded the book is rather nice, since it's easier to keep track of which book you downloaded last if you're downloading multiple in a row.
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It's nice to see there is a flag for titles that are on "hiatus", but... right now on pages for the affected titles there is absolutely no mention of this.
Like for example: https://beta.j-novel.club/titles/novel/there-was-no-secret-evil-fighting-organization-srsly-so-i-made-one-myself
This page still happily mentions "More volumes to come in the future!" at the bottom, while realistically this will never happen (afaik the series was cancelled by the Japanese publisher).
A message like "This series is on hiatus (beyond our control). We don't know if there will be more volumes in the future, unfortunately." would be better I think.
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It would be helpful if when you go to the User and go to the Library if you click on something it brings you to that page about the book
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@GHDpro There's the same problem with Ao Oni but it's even more certain that that series won't be continued since JNC were the one who decided not to license further.
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@chocolatkey said in Beta Website Feedback:
@Drone205 In-app purchases will most likely never be a thing due to the Apple/Google tax
Could that be circumvented by not having the option to purchase credits, but still being able to spend existing credits on an account? With no money changing hands, it should just be exempt.
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@EmpactWB I think that might not pass Apple's review process. You wouldn't even be able to direct users to the website to buy credits.
Something like adding books to a wishlist should be fine, though.
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I'm on Firefox if it helps deal with whatever issue is keeping me from trying out the beta version of the user page.
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@Aruseus493 said in Beta Website Feedback:
if it helps
If you wanted to help it would be better to try other browsers than mislead them like that. Like I kinda said earlier, it's N̸̋̾͊̏̏̓̏̏ͨ̆̓͊̓͗̉ͦ̇̈̓̌̅͊̉̄̃̎̈̈̍̉̾͒̍̊̅̾ͦ͊̐̈͒ͪͥͥ͌͒ͪ̂ͧ̏̄ͩ̂̊͆̃́ͥ͐͑̎͋̾̿ͯ͛̑ͬͬ̅̔̒̉̓̔ͣ̃͑̐͂̆ͤ̾ͬͨ͛͊͑̏ͩ͂͂͒̔͋͛ͥ͛̓̽ͪͪ̒͌̈́ͥͨ̿͋̂̚͜҉҉̨̡̢̧̛̛̛̀͘̕͘͘̕͘͟͜͟͟͟͝͠͡͏̷̨L̸̵̶̶̡̢̢̨̛͐̒̾ͪ̓̿ͧ̉̃ͤ̆ͮͪ̂͆̂ͭͥ͋͒̊͛͒ͩ̍ͧ̀̓ͯ̌ͬ̏̐̈́͑̂͒͂͊̒ͩͧ̽̍ͪͩ̈ͥ̐͂ͦͧͦͣͫ̌͆̊ͣ͐ͮ̾̒̔̐̓̽̾͐̏̎̓̊̾̊̾͗̂͋̑̆̈̄́̚̚̕͢͢͢͢͢͠͝͡͏̷̷̴̡̧̛̛̀̀̀̕͝͞͠͏̷̷̴̶̧̨̡̨̧̛́̀̕͘͜͟͟͟͠͡͝͡͞͝҉̴̸̷̴̶̴̶̧̢̨̢̡̡̨̡̨̛̀̕̕͘̕̕͘͢͜͟͟͜͜͠͞҉̕͞҉+̴̈́ͨͭ͂͗̅ͯ̔̉̈́ͯ̓ͯ́ͮ͐̐̈́͗̏͛̃ͧ̋́ͯ̏ͦͦ̓ͣͩ̒͛ͨͭ̔̅̌̇ͨ̍̄͊͒̓ͫ̃͋̏̽̉̍̉ͣͩ́̿͐̓̑̔̿ͭ̿͋̓̍̎̽̎̉ͩ̑̉͌͊̆̏ͩ͂͆ͤ̑ͮ̑̌̀̚͏̵̶̵̵̸̧̢̡̛̛́͢͟͜͢͡͠͏̴̶̷̷̨̢̧̢̛̛̀̀̕͡͡͠͏̵̶̷̴̶̷̢̛́͘͘͡͏̶̴́͡͏̨͠͞͏̵̷̸̸̨̢̧̧̨̢́̀̀͘̕͘͘͟͢͢͞͞͝͝͠͠ in your library, not some browser shenanigans.
@Nosgoroth said in Beta Website Feedback:
Something like adding books to a wishlist should be fine, though.
Probably still depends on phrasing and app reviewer. Should be safer to avoid that on initial release anyway.
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@Nosgoroth You can use Audible credits in-app without incurring the wrath of Apple, so there is precedent.
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@LegitPancake Hmmm. I wonder if it being Amazon has something to do with it, though.
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@_08 said in Beta Website Feedback:
May I ask what that is? If you don't know what I mean, look at this screenshot of your post;
I've always thought it was some decoration users here sometimes used when posting, but going by the layout of your post I'm seriously starting to doubt that.
It doesn't untangle if you copypaste it to google search, nor if you paste it google translate. What the heck is that? -
@Korppi Good old Zalgo! You can find a technical explanation here, but essentially it's unicode control character stuff.
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@Kalessin I mostly disagree with this. I like this feature a lot, mostly because I pre-order a lot. So it might just be a case where it doesn't add value to your use case but does add value for other users that take advantage of an option you chose to not use (pre-ordering). I do agree though that there should be a way to make the notification disappear after seeing it, like maybe once expanding on that series it can go away.
@Daiz two questions:
I'm primarily using the site on mobile. When I go to a series there is a legend that says subscription in green but it isn't clear what this does. Is this for prepubs or for following a series or what does this represent?The other question is on the beta account page, next to my name it says Regular. Is this a membership tier to differentiate from premium? I'm a premium member so I wasn't sure what regular means here or if it is just not configured yet to show the real membership tier?
To echo what a few other people said, it would be nice to be able to link to a series from the library directly by clicking the name or something. I'll give more comprehensive feedback this week though. I do really really like the direction things seem to be going with the site from what I can see and has been described as part of the roadmap. I think it is a great improvement and I'm excited to see how it develops!
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Its would be better for J-Novel to have Reading list Feature
