A-Z of AwesomeDude.com

[gwilym.pocock]

Available here: http://gwilympocock.github.io/awesome_dude_az

Also here: https://github.com/gwilympocock/awesome_dude_az/blob/gh-pages/index.html

And here: http://www.mediafire.com/view/9sbpppg015vr1ed/listings.html

[Lugnutz]

Hopefully he adopts it. Would be a plus here.

[gwilym.pocock]

It was built using a collection of bots I built from scratch. I also had to go through and correct things like titles and making sure the right link is used. It took about four hours, not including the time it took to write the bots.

[Gee Whillickers]

Nice idea. I like it.

[Graeme]

Is this supposed to be a complete listing of all stories? If so, it's incomplete because I have a lot more stories than those listed. It's got all my novels plus my 'Drawn From Life' items, but it's missing all of my short stories.

It's a nice idea, but the work required to collate and check it, and then to maintain it, may be too much. If the maintenance issue can be sorted out, though, I think it'll be great!

[gwilym.pocock]

The maintenance isn't much harder than adding links to the home page.

It may have missed your stories if they are saved like this:

graeme/short-stories/story.htm

Edit: yes that is the case. It requires me to manually fix this by telling it that short-stories is a collection, not a novel. Should only take 5 minutes.

[gwilym.pocock]

This will never be included on AwesomeDude.com as "We had considered including such an index in the past but decided against it for a number of reasons." He didn't specify the reasons. I guess it is maintenance.

I will be hosting this here: http://gwilympocock.github.io/awesome_dude_az

There is no guarantee it will be kept updated and correct.

(Graeme: your stories are fixed).

[Lugnutz]

Time to stop concidering and start doing. This is quite the list. Would be a plus here.

[DesDownunder]

I guess my stories aren't listed because they are hosted on Codey's World. At least I'm shown under the AwesomDude Authors listing. It's all good.

[Lugnutz]

Thanks for busting your ass doing this. I'm wondering what the reasons are for not having this...

[dude]

This will never be included on AwesomeDude.com as "We had considered including such an index in the past but decided against it for a number of reasons." He didn't specify the reasons. I guess it is maintenance.

OK, since Gwilym brought it up here in the Forums after I told him I didn’t like his doing effectively ‘an end run’ around site management to reach readers and authors directly., we’ll bring this all out here in the open.

My reply to his email containing the list and modifications to the AwesomeDude Home Page was as follows:

“Gwilym,

While I recognize that you are skilled at coding, there is more to running a popular site than you imagine.

I ask that you please cease and desist from harassing John and me about making over the AwesomeDude site.

Also, I don't appreciate your posts about A-Z indexes in the Forums. We had considered including such an index in the past but decided against it for a number of reasons.

I suggest that if you want to set up and manage a literature site for the LGBT Community you are welcome to do so.

Thanks,

Mike “

That was the entire text of my reply to Gwilym’s email to me. I will not post his original email to me as it would be a violation of privacy standards we all observe. Suffice it to say, he supplied zipped code with which we were to overwrite files in our root directory, something that would leave aghast those of you who know about websites and security.

If I must enumerate reasons we did not implement an A-Z listing of stories they would include:

• Time required to compile and more importantly constantly update the list.
• Many of our authors post at our associated site Codeysworld and are linked to there. Des’ stories, Colin’s and Codey’s own stories are examples.
• We already have a site search facility exclusive to AwesomeDude provided by Google.
• We are not a huge site like the Nifty Archives. All our authors are easily accessible from our Home Page. That has always been part of my own design philosophy and is maintained and supported by our Design Editor, AlienSon.
• We have never had a popular outpouring of requests for such a list. Most of our readers appreciate the time ane effort that goes into the presentation of AwesomeDude and our frequent posting schedule. Everyome knows we post on Wednesdays and Saturdays and few people ask for a mailing list. Even fewer have asked for an A-Z index.

While well meaning and quite sharp with coding, Gwilym –sorry to say- is apparently not particularly endowed with people skills and his blunt communications to both John and to me have, frankly, left us cold. I doubt that he has ever read a fraction of the stories at AwesomeDude but spends hours organizing them into a list. It’s hard –in reading his communications- to figure out where he is coming from. This is not a personal attack, just an observation.

Gwilym, if you still want an A-Z index and are willing to commit the next ten years or more to updating and maintaining it and make sure it includes even stories linked from Codeysworld.com and other select sites, I’ll be glad to provide a folder for it and put a button link to it on the AD Home Page.

Mike

[DesDownunder]

As usual Mike displays his desire to try to please everyone. You can't ask more than that.

[Lugnutz]

No complaints here. It also gives us a place to play and hawk our ideas.