A friend and I were just discussing about this since last night and as usual, I just need to have a say in this. (Friend will pop out somewhere or not, you guess who.) HAHA. If you are unaware what the title means or what I'm blabbing about, please head over here.

I read all the suggestions in the comments section. Some I approve of. Some I go: 0_0 "what?" And some: >.> "seriously?" 

Just a reminder or tip before you make a suggestion, aside from reading what others have written, ask yourself this:

IS THIS FEATURE NECESSARY?

Adding a feature costs time, effort, money, space, bandwidth... not to mention, it would add to the many features we already have which need to be maintained. (And you know very well how most react when the site undergoes maintenance.)

Is it practical?

Will everyone use it?

Will it make the site better?

Is it worth spending time, effort and resources on?

Is it for the benefit of everyone?

Of course, boss has the last say but it would be nice if the suggestions we make have merit.

I just don't want another layout makeover if we go past the allotted bandwidth once again for something so trivial; I can't imagine how small the icons in the header would be. 

I am satisfied with the site as it is but since they asked, well... here we go.

I have enumerated what I want for this site in this post before and I am happy that numbah six became a feature. I have yet to drop my own list in the suggestions masterpost  but like I said, some did come up with pretty neat suggestions.

I like the story rating suggestion of my friend conchobar (just keep it simple) and bookmark a blog post (this!). Perhaps they could take a look at A03 or fanfiction.net to improve our search filter but this would only work if we tag our stories properly (which reminds me how messed up the tag section is).

The Layout Marketplace also needs cleaning up, a lot still don't use the contentid tags and it defeats the purpose of uploading a layout in the marketplace. I know that this means more work for the team but just a suggestion, assign people to monitor a new feature if it's an added section like Discussion and Layout Marketplace right from the start in the future. That way, the server won't be storing unnecessary data because they would delete the unnecessary posts immediately and not wait for them to pile up.

We don't host images or videos, because it eats up bandwidth and it requires space. Besides there are a lot of other sites to upload your images like photobucket, imgur, tumblr, minus, imageshack, tinypic, etc. 

I also noticed that a lot are not satisfied with the feature system. Let's be reminded that the featured stories are based on upvotes from users. Not the site. The users. AFF is no longer just for fanfics. We must appreciate the effort and creativity the designers put into their posters and layouts. They deserve to be featured. I don't mind seeing them in the front page as it is now, but just to have some organization, a separate section for featured graphic/layout shops would be nice. Though, the homepage would then be crowded, don't you think? o.o We have the advertised story, daily random story, the three featured fics (perhaps reduce this to one-two once the separate section for graphics/layouts are added). Whew.

But I don't think a featured story per group is necessary. That's just...too much I guess. We would have multiple featured sections if that happens. 

Some also suggested staff picks. I can imagine the number of story advertisements in their walls, esp AFFHelper's. Please refrain from advertising in their wall. They might miss an important report because of your ad. So yeah, unless we make a rule that pm-ing or wallposting them with story ads disqualifies them for the feature, I don't think this is a good idea. Their walls are flooded as it is. Also, if you can't accept the preferences (featured stories) of the majority of users now, are you sure you'd be able to accept or respect the team's fic suggestions? Not to mention, this would be added work for them. 

If you want a section to suggest fics other than your own, place them in your about me/personal message sections just like what a friend did. 

A lot suggested for an app. We do have AFF mobile. But an app could be a replacement for AFF mobile, though I have no probs with mobile atm. 

Another favorite is the upvote notif. I don't notice mine but it seems like a lot want to know that a story received an upvote. I am for it but I also don't mind being surprised seeing an upvote in a story once I update it.

Chapter ratings is also in my list. We rate a chapter but I'm afraid this would only discourage readers from dropping comments but then again nobody comments, so a rating would be nice, just to give the author an idea how well a chapter is received, but then what if nobody gives a rating, just like they cannot be bothered, the way they cannot be bothered with comments? o.o HAHA. I am conflicted with this  >_< So complicated. Gosh.

I would stop here because what I really, really want is for AFF to be organized. AHAHA. Like if I want to read a fic, I go to the STORY SECTION. I want a layout, graphic or review, I go to the SHOP SECTION. Contests in the CONTESTS SECTION. Non-stories go to OTHERS or MISCELLANEOUS. But this could simply be done using tags. Use the story, shop, contest and others/miscellaneous tag. HAHA. I can't believe the time would come we would have to use the 'story' tag. I. CAN'T. >_<

I should really end this here.

END.

-Keeper

(Cool text editor btw. And I see that the word and character counters are back. Woot!)