New Site Design and Some Changes

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Written by Kodi Wolf at 7:07 PM

Happy Leap Day!

It's also the 24th anniversary of when I launched my site way back in 2000. I have now had this website for half my life (I turned 48 on February 11).

So, I guess it's fitting that I'm previewing the site's new mobile-friendly design today.

I've finally transferred just about everything to the new site design as well as created most of the new stuff (info pages, etc.).

If you're on the old site (W.O.L.F. Sector - Worlds of Lesbian Fiction) and would like to check it out, go to https://www.kodiwolf.com/fiction/. But I'm also posting this to the new site, so if you're reading it at kodiwolf.com/fiction/news/, then congratulations, you're already here. :)

All the chapters that were available on the old site are now on the new site and are protected by my old membership software, so logging in on either site will work for both.

Logging in is still buggy in that it will redirect you to a page that says it's not working, but if you go back, you'll be logged in and able to access the content available for whatever membership you have.

I've also noticed it can 'time out,' so if you don't log out, it can end up changing back to showing the 'Login' link, but you'll still be logged in and able to access protected areas. But if you log in again, it will go back to saying 'Hi, username,' and you can logout properly after that. (I have no idea if it was doing that before, but I just noticed it while working on the new pages.)

I'm still working on updating the login page (it's buried in the software code and exceedingly complicated, but I'll figure it out eventually), so the form still looks like it's on the old site. It also redirects to the old site upon logging out, but I think I know how to fix that. I just haven't done it yet, since I wanted to warn you guys about the changes before implementing them, so it's not a scary surprise.

The same goes for the Site Membership and Story Membership signup pages. I thought I made notes about where that stuff was in the software, but apparently I didn't (or if I did, I just can't find them now).

One of the other changes I've made is extending the free chapters for some of my stories.

A Bondage Primer now goes through Day 20 instead of Day 14. I've also broken it up into separate books to make it clearer that it's not just a single excessively long novel.

I've posted the first 8 chapters of the revised version of Lights of Life, since it will eventually replace the original version and I want to be upfront with potential new readers about those changes. (Note: Those chapters have not caught up to what's currently posted, so I can't recommend where to jump in on the old version to continue the story, sorry.)

Prisoner of War now offers the first 2 chapters for free instead of only 1.

And I've posted the first 10 chapters of the revised version of The Vampire Hunter, since just like Lights, it will eventually replace the original version. (Note: Those chapters are not a 1-to-1 replacement for the original chapters. To continue the story once you've finished the revised chapters, go to Chapter 3 of the original version. Some of the new characters I introduced in the revised version will be missing and some stuff is going to repeat because I moved later scenes to appear earlier, but hopefully it won't be too jarring.)

I'm still working on the ebook (epub) files (and debating on whether to continue to offer the pdf and mobi formats or not, let me know if you have a preference), since I need to update the links to point to the new URLs. I will also be offering ebook excerpt downloads of the free chapters. But the Extras pages (where that stuff is offered for each of the stories) are still under construction while I slowly work my way through compiling all those files.

Beyond that, I think I'm just about ready to make the new site 'live' and have it replace the old one, though I'll be leaving the old one up and intact for the time being.

Let me know what you think of the changes and if you have any suggestions for improvements.

Oh, and though I've tested this on my Kindle 7, 8, and 10, and my android smart phone (all old models from at least a few years ago), I don't browse the web on any of those devices, meaning I'm not a 'power user' when it comes to mobile. If my design has something that's generally irritating to the usual mobile user, please let me know.

Or if you have any questions or problems with the site, I'll do my best to help.

Happy reading. :)