Random Fic Button

[Merlin_Helz]

I often want to read something, but have no idea what I want to read.

If there were someway to set up a link that would make a completely random story come up. It would encourage people to read outside what they usually read.

Also, if it were at all possible, have a random fiction button for each category. Eg. A random romance story, or a random Dark/Angst fiction. That way if you knew what you wanted to read, but didn't know what specific story to pick, you wouldn't have to spend ages decided.

Just a random idea. :p

[house-elves anonymous]

Hmmm...Sounds good to me!:D *Looks pleadingly towards the Mods*

[OliveOil_Med]

I like the idea of a random-fic button too. There are so many great stories out on the site, but they get buried under the sheer mass of how many are coming in now.

This would give people a great oppurtunity to read some old gems.

[JCCollier]

I like this idea also, but don't know if it is possible to add. If it can't be done, could we then at least update the 'Featured' box more often, say once a week? I click on these, but after the same ones are there for two months it kind of loses the point. If a mod could highlight some 'buried gems' on a more frequent basis, it could work almost as well if a 'random fic' could not be implemented.

[James Jameson]

I agree.... I'd really like to see some fics unburied and advertised on the site...

I'm all for it!:)

[Kcharles]

I think that you should be able to set your perfrances too, if possible if this is implented. Something simple, like "Only ratings 1-5th years and no suicide warnings." Other than that, I'm all for it.

[Marauder by Midnight]

"Random Story" is a feature that I can easily tack onto the front page of the site. However, this might take a bit of time since we'd have to contact skinmakers and ask them to make a button that says "Random Story" or something of the sort. In this case, to get a new random story, one would need to press the Refresh button.

Limiting the ratings on random stories is an excellent feature but one that will require a little more time and recoding, and I don't have a lot of free time to do that sort of thing anytime in the near future :/

[A.H.]

Well, if the link automatically takes you to the first chapter of the random story, then I'd say that there would be a need to be able to set your preference. However, if it takes you to the preliminary page (where it shows the rating, summary, chapters, etc) then you could just refresh, as Beth says, and keep looking until you find one that's at the rating you want.

Maybe y'all could do it that way until your schedule frees up?

Arianna

[butter_beer_drinker]

I like the random button too or what if in the recommend a fic section we add, recommened an older story, somthing from the first 2 years that the site was open or something along those lines.

[James Jameson]

I really like that idea.
Some of the really old *and non-abandoned* fics could get a new light!

ppwweeeeeezzeeeee modlys??? :D

[Merlin_Helz]

You could always put it under like the search button.

You know when you go into the advanced settings of search, how you can pick ratings, length ect. Maybe next to the dialogue box there could be another button "I'm feeling lucky!" or "Random Fic"

[Marauder by Midnight]

I'm currently working on the random fic option, but it will take a little while to code into the site.

As for the Recommend an Older Story thread in the Fiction Junction, I will happily set that up. However, I'd like to remind you that the Suggestions forum is for suggestions to be incorporated into the site in general. For other suggestions that only affect one or two forums/categories, please PM individual moderators :)

[indigo_mouse]

I was going to suggest this too - good thing I looked through the threads!

I still would really love the "Recommended Stories" to be updated more often. Not sure it there is an automated way to do that - perhaps a "Recommended" flag the moderators could set, and then the same functionality for the "Random" botton could be reused for "Recommended"? I don't code PHP but it seems like that would be reasonable. . . .