Welcome to Raythe Reign 4.0!
Some of you have actually been with us since the site started in December 2010. In terms of sites, that was Raythe Reign 1.0, and it was ugly! Slow to load! Crashed constantly! And when it first came out, I had only 5 stories on there with 25 chapters total (which is considered a SHORT STORY now not the site lol). Oh, and we had 3, yes, count them, 3 Members. Two of them were pity memberships, and only ONE was a legit Member, who is STILL on the site today. It was this one Member that gave me any hope that I could make a go of this.
So where are we today?
This is the fourth iteration of the site and we're thousands of Members later! This is the most beautiful (I think so anyways) and the most user-friendly (we incorporated as many of your ideas as we could) of all the sites. I encourage you to explore the site. Look at everything. Click on every link. Check out every nook and cranny. If something doesn't work, please let us know.
Some ideas for where to start:
The Library - We really took to heart how difficult it was to see everything that there is on the site. Now, you can see stories organized neatly by genre, if you like, or by alpha.
The Reading Guides - Want to know where to start reading? Want to know which story is in which universe, let alone which one to read first. Find everything here from sequels to short stories to manga!
The Gallery - We heard you about wanting to be able to go to one place and look at all the art. Now the art will still be on the story pages, too, but this is one place to easily see everything from every story.
FAQS - Now I know that this doesn't sound like an interesting place to check out. But the FAQ is your friend. You want to know something about the site, billing, stories, people who work here? You find it in the FAQs! So do check that out. Plus it is a really cool widget.
We're not done with upgrading the site. Things that we hope to do are to (1) add a Dark Version of the site, and (2) ability to purchase prints of the art from the website itself. More to come!
Comments
I just looked at the new site and I am awed!!! This is really good, easy to use and everything is so easy to access. I didn't realize how many stories are on here until I looked at the library. Wow!!! I LOVE the Gallery. All that lovely artwork by story ..... yum. I know this wasn't easy to put together, but your hard work paid off. I am very, very pleased. Great job!!! All of you deserve pats on the back.
A few people have found it. We are soft-launching tonight (got to get that email out) and official launch is noon on February 17, 2019. I am so glad you are enjoying it. Thank you so much for the kudos. I'm especially thrilled about the fact that the library was so useful for you. It's been a bugbear forever! So there you go!
It looks beautiful!!! I didn't realize it's been that long. I remember when I was excited for new installments of Birth Rite. To this day people stop me to ask about my Ghost New Tokyo tattoo. I love the new look.
I was actually just thinking about you the other day when I was working on the site and your tattoo. You gave me a picture of it but it didn't make it onto the site. But it was such a cool tattoo.
I just noticed that there are no pictures in the gallery for Dragons Reign??
Also are comments going to list our names or our non de plumes? But more importantly new site looks great and I will continue to poke about when it's not 3 in the morning!
You were correct! I didn't have it posted. Here it is: https://raythereign.com/index.php/gallery/event/gallery/Dragon's%20Reign
Aieeee, it's showing your real names... I put in a question to Jeremy about that.
That's fixed now! Jeremy is a god!
I wish the IT folk at my work were as good....
What was awesome about this was that Jeremy was like I need to go to bed. I'm okay. He's like I'll continue looking for a solution tomorrow. I said, yeah sounds good. Five minutes pass, he says I think I have something. Another five minutes passed, I fixed it! I ask: what happened about going to bed? He says, in five minutes ...
I found (and enabled) the hidden option to use usernames instead of real names.
Doing a test here.
This is so pretty!!!!! I've been exploring the gallery and I'm so pleasantly surprised by all of the new pictures! They are so gorgeous!!! I'm so excited for what's to come!
I went through 10 years of emails, and every folder I had only to find more art that I hadn't posted from over the years. I was so annoyed at myself. I know that some of the art isn't up (some of the fan art) because the gallery plugin is being annoying. We're still ironing things out.
You have done such a fantastic job on the new, user friendly site. The Reading Guide is my favorite part! I struggled to know where to start or go next when I joined a few months ago. I have navigated those waters pretty well, but now I know exactly what to read next. I just finished The Sanctuary and now get to follow the Nomad's story!
I have loved the stories from the start and look forward to what comes next.
Keep up the GREAT! work! I hope you can give up your corner office soon for a cat filled day of writing.
The Reading Guides were Sylvia Frost's idea. She is the designer for the site. So most everything you see she designed. She's the one that took all the typography too and made it fantastic. She created those pages and coded them with some little help from Jeremy. They are clickable in laptop and mobile view to take you to any of the stories on those. They're not only beautiful, but functional.
Love the new site. Navigation is much easier. I just joined this year and I have enjoyed all that I have read so far immensely. Can't wait to read more.
Our key job, other than to make it beautiful was to make it functional and, most especially that we make it so people can see everything we have and also find out where to go next!
Everything looks wonderful.
Not sure if anyone has noticed but when scrolling through the library the story description for Elven King's Blade is the same one as what is shown for Dragon's Reign.
Otherwise, things are working great. I'm loving the new site.
Oh, I love you eagle-eyed members. That's fixed! Thank you!