Question: So, we got all the changes no one asked for... did anyone think of an easy DM system? I really am uneasy when I want to send anyone a private message and have to check twice if I checked "private" ^^" I'd trade all of the new layout for a good DM system...
Just make sure to give the tapas team some thanks; for such a harsh response they are working really hard.
....lol XD Okay, the way this works, we'll wake up some day and have one XD Yay for surprises, although I don't need any more in the near future ^^"
All changes are with trouble. And yes we should give the dev a break. Because they are not in charge of what had hit us all.
But the issue is more ”why” and that question we can’t get a full answer at. And that strange ”why” had caused a downgrade in Tapas functions and navigations.
Why did we downgrade? With no to little warning and without no beta test. Tapas was good at communicating about Covers but missed out THIS?
WHY THE RUSH?
i have that blank stare again 
I keep reading this but dont have a clue as to the reference as i have never been on smackjeeves or know the history to what happened? would be grateful if someone filled in the blanks for the peeps such as i
I've never been on that site either, so every time I hear 'Smack Jeeves' I keep thinking it's an off-colour PG Wodehouse novel!
I'm sure many persons could explain it better than I do, but basically, SJ got purchased by a bigger company, announced it well in advance, but also announced the site would remain faithfull to its principles and features; then proceeded to implement drastic changes that removed all the special features and the site identity. Also made the navigation terrible and removed most ways of communication between artists and between artists and readers. There was a massive exode of creators.
Here is more details: https://forums.tapas.io/t/what-are-your-opinions-on-the-smackjeeves-changes/389295
pretty much Smackjeeves turned into Shitty Tapas ripoff and all their big name creators left in retaliation................. here its the same but replace shitty Tapas ripoff to Shitty Webtoon ripoff
So I have taken time to breathe a little bit and really think about the changes. It helps that there were updates today that made the reading experience a bit better.
So looking at the site on desktop with fresh eyes, I want to suggest a few things:
Bring back the infinite scrolling through pages. I liked that. It felt naturally reading through the series without needed to click anywhere. A lot of sites that host Web Novels (which my stories happen to be) have the infinite down scrolling too, with a slight pose once at the end of the chapter to look through comments, see ads, etc. I think it would be awesome if that came back. Please.
Banner customization.
Not much more to add, other then again "Yes, please". A banner that is above the top navigation at least, would be very cool. I would have to remake my banner, but customization is fun! it gives creator their own space and let's readers see a bit of the 'personality' of the story.
The Pop-up Nav: I don't think that the pop-up nav is a bad idea. I just think the automation of is not user friendly. If there was an arrow or button on the nav bars to slide them in and out at will? That would be better. Also, along with this more obedient pop-up nav, I suggest a permanent little slide squatty (and yellow with black text) bar that would stay on the screen and show not only a button to bring back the footer and header...but also a 'Subscribe' or 'Bookmark' icon. That way it's always on screen.
And if the current reader is also the Creator of the novel, then including a 'Edit' option on the sidebar or on the pop-up nav would be just...kisses fingers wonderful. 
...just some thoughts.
...So I'm a Code Monkey who does software that is not necessarily facing the external client, but has a user base of professionals who do consistent operations on the software. Essentially, I make stuff for the 'creators' equivalent of my workplace.
Since my industry is not gaming, or webhosting, or retail, etc, I may completely be off base here, but generally before deployment but after development, there is a UAT or User Acceptance Testing period. This allows for the user of the particular software to make sure they can do their job with minimal interruption.
If we were to change this towards the gaming side of programming, there were several ways to go about applying the same UAT to the masses without impacting them heavily. A lot of software and gaming folks have different mirror servers running their 'new version' and send notification to users to go check it out.
If they want a more discerning eye and the mirror server is significantly smaller than the main production server (typically the case), they can send out a form for their users to apply to be beta testers.
If they don't have a lot of servers but the change is mostly layout changes (like html, css, etc), then they could have a switch coded that would flip the layout but still retain communication to the same database/services cloud/backend.
At the very least, if there is a crunch, then an explicit notification to readers and creators detailing a good deal of the major changes coming to the site from both a reader and creator perspective should be sent.
Again, I don't work at Tapas, I don't work in this industry. I just think that a whole lot of heartache, a whole lot of stress, and a lot of the negativity could have been mitigated. I brought this up before, but DeviantArt did a recent update and allowed for the option for the users to test the new 'Eclipse' but go back to the old layout.
They had multiple announcements.
They had forms ready for feedback once the new site went live (again, with an option to use the old layout).
They had multiple journals publishing things, including what they were working before they went live.
I know tapas is a smaller team. I get that. However, at least a thread for the changes? A screenshot? Something?!
That would've been okay.
And if they have to tell the other devs to roll back changes...oh well that sucks, but that also is not new. If they can bring back the old site, then have a mirror url for the new one so we can see how things progress, with minimal impact to our current workflow, a trust would be built between us, the users, and the dev team.
In the end, it doesn't matter how much work has already been put in. If the users, the clients are not happy, it's not successful and something has to change.
...Sorry, I made a long rant, I apologize. I don't know the lifecycle of development of tapas. I'm overall happy that they are gathering feedback, but there were a lot of ways to handle this update and the way that it happened was going to blow up.
I will add this to say that...I don't blame the Devs.
They are the ones who will have to put in the time, the hours into fixing this. They are not responsible for what happened to Tapas, nor for the blatant missteps in the deployment process.
I firmly lay this on the feet of the powers that be ABOVE the developers.
Mismanagement, as usual, is to blame.
sigh...I just hope that things will stabilize soon and our voices, and the voices of the devs, I'm sure, can be heard.
Yes, it was important to remind that.
I feel bad for any employee who did not want that, but have their hands tied.
The way we all complain may be very disheartening to some.
So, yes, I hold no grudges against whoever had to be part of that mess against their initial intentions.
Yeah after my rant, I started to feel bad cause...man I can empathize. I really can.
But damn, this was just...not a good look and while I can empathize, Dev to Dev, a lot of readers and creators can't.
Nor should they.
There is a service to provide and that service has been changed so drastically. I won't say that it has been brought down. However, there was disruption that was not disclosed and will not be disclosed at this time. I don't blame the forums at all for being angry. I am disappointed too.
Being someone who works in retail this is one of the major reasons why I prefer to just have someone at the top to send my complaints to, too often are they saturated with numbers and graphs and not attached to the actual people who are their employees and their costomers-
So many times I’ve had to see people get outraged that their favorite food on the menu not longer exists for the employees to only be able to say “sorry this is how it is” until people start enough of a riot over it that the company has to apologize and give them back their menu.
Well that was one big wall of text 
Jokes aside, though, I agree with most of what you said here.
I believe beta testers are a thing, around here on Tapas. However, I'm not sure how they work and I don't know if they were asked to review this update before it went live. I doubt it, else we wouldn't have to deal with so many bugs.
You're right it's essential to run some tests before the big dive. As others suggested, this sounds quite rushed - which makes me think tight deadlines were a deal-breaker at some point, during the enterprise, for whatever reason.
Agreed. From what I could gather, Tapas has always been quite good at communicating with users, so this sudden lack of information makes little sense. Then again, it might be deadline-induced. I think they realized it when a bunch of people complained about it and launched a feedback campaign in order to deal with the matter. It's not ideal at all, especially since it triggered some great panic along the way, but you gotta give them that, at least.
Deviantart is tossing journals and forms all across the website, but doesn't listen to its users Easy to brag about being open to some feedback when most of the input they got on Eclipse (and before) has been ignored because prompted by little accounts who had little power in the community. But sure, looks real good on paper.
I admit they do have a button to switch back to the old site, that's true. However, I believe this button is solely here because some features demand it: groups or forums, for example, aren't available in Eclipse mode and they don't want to straight up delete these parts, I guess.
Yep, agreed. Reddit did that too, having a button to switch back to the old site. But then again, it might be because all pages and features aren't yet handled by the new design. Here, everything seems implemented, so why bother with a "go back" button? You see what I mean? I agree this would be better, but they might not feel the need.
In the end, I don't think it's the dev's fault either. We could go with "capitalism bad, prompting people to follow trends... Bad!" but I don't think it's so simple either. It might be a mistake on the head's part, or they were bought, or head changed, or whatever else. They won't let us know why they can't roll back - for good or bad reasons.
Does it matter? I don't think so. We don't need their reasons to judge the website's quality. We don't like it? Let's move out. They improve it? Let's stay. Simple as that. You don't need holy reasons to judge a product's quality, ultimately. ...Which is why my eyes are locked on their future handling of the update. 
Look at me tossing my own wall of text your way, now. >.>
WALL OF TEXT VS WALL OF TEXT MORTAL KOMBAT!!!!!!
FIGHT!!
J/k. I'm such a 90s kid...
I definitely think this was rushed. The more I think about, the more I see the response to our feedback, this definitely feels like a decision from the top.
...Sorry, sorry, I'll take off the tinfoil hat now.
Oh yeah I totally give them that and honestly, even from looking at the main Tapas site, I can see usability returning bit by bit already. They are listening and working hard. It doesn't change the fact that so much could be mitigated earlier. This is reactionary unfortunately.
You have a point there. I will add that DeviantArt had A LOT of issues that would not be fixed via a layout. Those issues are not as forefront with Eclipse (from what I can see) but I agree that people were mad and leaving DA WAY before the Eclipse and that may have been the straw. Yet, they gave notice still.
Tapas, a site that does not have the same issues and had a usable, well-received UI on Mobile and On Web, suddenly changed drastically with little notice. If things had gone the DA route, I feel that the user base, or at least the forums, would've reacted more calmly.
Well it's not that there is missing functionality, but that the workflow, and location of the functionality has drastically changed. That's a big adjustment. It's not as easily accessible, especially for the creators. It's jarring and when it first deployed there were several bugs that required fixing and freaked the novelist (which I am a part of) out because they came out of nowhere.
Maybe a rollback is a bit much...but I still think it's not a bad idea to do it now while it's still in a buggy, transitional state. Though maybe not now...but turn back the clock and yesterday would've been good. I dunno.
Fair enough. I can moan about what should've been done, but hindsight is 20/20, and I'm not behind the scenes. I think so many people are wondering on the what should've been done because no one except for the staff know the why.
That does bother me. We may not need the reason, but it does change perspective when we know what it is.
Granted, the tapas folks are improving things and fixing things. So I'll see what happens. I'm still here
Oh I forgot to add this to my response in the form, but I have a BIG problem with the support button. It's so hidden away now, I barely even notice its there, and now I don't really feel like supporting. Many times, the reason why I support is because I see the big black button and I'm like "Oh maybe I should just randomly toss some inks there." Now it's hiding in a tiny menu on the bottom, RIGHT NEXT TO THE UNSUBSCRIBE BUTTON! This is crazy. I don't want to remember that I can unsub someone right when I'm about to support. 
Yep, I know what you mean.
I pretty much drilled into Michaelson, venting my frustration at the ever shrinking visibility of non-premium comics.
His answer was not fully satisfying and did not address what I see as the core of the issue, but it's not his fault. Decisions are made way above him and he's expected to make a cake out of cow droppings.
