And what will you do when you're published, and the book cover needs an author photo? Ten swans? Eleven swans?

This is my favourite comment of, virtually, all time: 'When' I am published. Not if, but when. 

And in answer, I think I may go for the happy swan at the top. The swan that is soaring into the sky. 

 

I used to like having the number of hits shown, but this is where the 'like' buttons come in useful. In fact I've now realised they are better. A couple of days ago I posted a thread in IC. I looked in occasionally but before anyone commented, because the number of hits no longer showed, I couldn't tell if anyone had even read it. Then I remembered to check the like buttons, and lo and behold, several had been clicked. So then I knew who had read it and I also had a flavour of what people thought of the post. Later, I guess when they had more time, members posted written comments. So given the choice between 'hits' and 'likes', I'm sold on likes. 

So given the choice between 'hits' and 'likes', I'm sold on likes

Is it an either-or choice? If it is, I didn't realise.
 
But I'll go for hits. That tells you how many are opening the post, whether or not they do anything. Maybe I'm out on-a-limb here, but when I start a thread I want to know if it's of interest to others. A 'hit' comparison with other threads gives me that.
 
Okay, I'm not sold on 'likes'. It has a touch of popularity contest, IMO.   

I'll help you be popular, Alan. 

Can you help me too, Sharley?  My therapist says I should seek validation at all times because I'm so insecure (although I have a sneaking feeling that he says that so I'll keep paying for more sessions).

I'll help you be popular, Alan.

Good grief. I'll be a heart-warming, thinking, helping, popular genius before you know it.

Er, maybe not.

This may seem like a trivial thing, but I thought it's better to mention it:

In the IC group I posted: at 00:36 on 20 January 2014. (This is copied / pasted directly from the info at the top of the post). 
And yet, the page listing shows the date of latest activity on that thread as 19th January.

Okay, I said it was nothing much. But it's possibly indicative of a greater problem with the site's timekeeping.   

Can the Group titles be smaller ? A bit tedious having to scroll down a page to see what's in the Group. 

 
Edited by NMott at 19:41:00 on 20 January 2014

Had a glitch this evening when composing a crit and the page froze. This is the second time it's happened this week. I'm using Chrome on a Mac and the CPU usage was at over 100% for the whole time the page was frozen. I could still move the mouse but nothing else was responding, My husband suggested I kill it and start again, but I didn't want to lose the crit so waited several mins until it unfroze. My husband thinks it might be a bit of rogue Java script on the page.

btw, the red line is back.

Now there are 3 red lines across the page. They only appear when you're writing a reply.

Text in Bold doesn't work on my Mac in Chrome, but I can see it on my i phone in Safari.

I'm finding a problem with the quote facility on the iPhone . When I quote a section of text I can't get out of the quote box to write below it - the red line isn't appearing or it appears once then disappears. The only way round it is to add a load of carridge returns before pasting in the text and clicking quote. 

David? If you are still reading this the red lines are still right here- but though I begged and pleaded for 'spell chucker'  but it keeps freezing -I have just lost a crit I have spent all evening on for a bloke in IC. Is there no way the editor(?) will save what is written? I can see I am not the only person loosing work- and comments are work- and crits as well as postings! I can't bare wasting time it is the one thing we never get back! Any spelling errors in this will have to be tolerated as I am too grumpy to try it again! MC

The spell checker is really clunky to use. I'll stick with the built in one on the laptop.

Yes agree Naomi- but if things are there I like them to work. Not sure where you would 'get ' a spell checker from for a start but where ever it came from- I might send this one back! For a start it can't spell lambing which in my line of work is quite funny.  I do normally write things out first but as the machine is in the shed tonight for sheep records it is not so easy keep it safe from harm and my normal system is out. Never mind no one has died.