Story Monitor?

well this isnt exactly what your asking for but im gonna say about it anyway efiction already has a contact member whenever a  favourite story is added which emails a member whenever a story they have placed on their favourites list is updated by the author (in case you didnt know about this option)

so really if all the sites you visit use efiction you could join the sites and set each of the stories that you want to keep informed about updates onto your favourite list on each site

I guess it would be possible to write a program for that person but I for one wouldnt consider it even as I'd do what i've suggested instead

anyway hope that helps

Would it be possible to write a program or script that can check multiple eFiction sites for story updates at once?

For specific story updates, or just to list all story updates. If it's for all updates, you can use the RSS feeds from the sites.

http://storymonitor.sourceforge.net/ as an extension for FF. Unfortunetaly, it works less and less, because the extension hasn't been updated in two years. It doesn't work with 3.* eFiction and it doesn't work with ff.net either after they've changed their story links:(

http://storymonitor.sourceforge.net/ as an extension for FF. Unfortunetaly, it works less and less, because the extension hasn't been updated in two years. It doesn't work with 3.* eFiction and it doesn't work with ff.net either after they've changed their story links:(

I hadn't tested it on efiction 3 sites... but the ff extension still works for me, but i had to go in and edit the .rdf file in it so it would work with later versions of Firefox. But I wasn't having any trouble with ff.net stuff. Maybe someone would write the author of that extension and see if they are even still working on it.

It's open source, under Mozilla Public License. Even if the original author doesn't want to update it, I'm sure someone else could. I took a look at the code, but I'm no good with javascript so I wouldn't know where to start, or I'd do it myself. I really wish I had known about this extension before now...

The story monitor Firefox extension is one of my old abandoned projects. Somehow updating it has never got to the top of the todo pile. Given that it works through screen scraping, it is something that is going to need constant maintenance and is never going to be 100% reliable. Also it annoyed a few authors as it artificially inflates the hit counts on stories when it checks for updates. If its use became wide spread it could also hit site owners with bandwidth consumption as it repeatedly downloads the same chapter (although there is a time delay that reduces the frequency of checks the longer the period a fic has not been updated)

Since I last updated it, I've taken over coding the "Twisting the Hellmouth" Buffy crossover archive, and while at that site implemented a much better server-side notifications system. I believe Tammy was/is working on a fictracker module for efiction that does the similarthing.

I think the only way to make a program like storymonitor work reliably over a long time period would be to get functionality embedded into efiction and other archives to provide a web service to retireve information about whether fics have been updated. Something like:

1. The site includes a tag in the HTML head of the view chapter page such as <link rel="storyupdates" href=""/webservice.php"/>"

2. The extension uses this header to store the updates URL for the story

3. When checking for updates, the extension finds all stories that have the same updates URL and posts it a list of story numbers in a single request. Then the site responds with the details of those stories such as number of chapters, date it was updated etc., probably in an XML output format - maybe even an augmented RSS feed.

That would:

a) dramatically reduce the bandwidth used as it check many stories in one go and doesn't download additional unneeded HTML
b) remove the need for screen scraping meaning changes to the archive software or skins wouldn't break it
c) and stop it affecting chapter hit counts.

However, it would only be of use if site owners installed it, and I think the only way to get that to happen on bulk would be if it were part of the standard efiction distribution. If such an idea were to be included the base product it would make sense to provide a generic story information webservice rather than tailoring it specifically to support one firefox extension.

I have thought about a webservice for eFiction updates, but it's down the list of todo's.

I hadn't tested it on efiction 3 sites... but the ff extension still works for me, but i had to go in and edit the .rdf file in it so it would work with later versions of Firefox. But I wasn't having any trouble with ff.net stuff. Maybe someone would write the author of that extension and see if they are even still working on it.

I had some stories from my own archive in my update list, but since I upgraded to 3.0, it doesn't work with Story Monitor anymore. ff.net works *somewhat*, it updates new chapters, but you go in again and click "Monitor Story" it says that there is no new chapter aka. the site doesn't support Story Monitor. I would guess it's the story URLs ff.net seemed fit to implement (for whatever reason).

I've always liked the Story Monitor idea, because you have all your updates in one place. I get easily miffed at all the emails flooding my inbox from various archives when stories have been updated.

The idea of a story monitor is great, and I found a website that works well for many sites, most Harry Potter related. It's a great help when the reading list is large, as it allows you to keep track of the chapters you've already read.

Unfortunately the guy that created the program hasn't gotten to add any eFiction story tracking yet, but if you want to take a look and see if someone gets any ideas here is the link.

http://www.favoritestracker.org/

If there are more people requesting he add eFiction sites maybe he will dedicate more time to programming them.

Mhm, great idea! Especially the community thought behind it (the public lists are a good source for anyone looking for a story).

Make no sense for me to use it, unfortunately, since I read mostly LOTR and RPS and it doesn't seem like any of those sites are supported. I hope he'll implement eFiction, most fansites run on it anyway.

I'll bookmark it anyway and see whether any changes are made in the future. Thanks for the link!

Michelle, I'm pretty sure http://www.favoritestracker.org/ is multi fandom. It's just that more people post HP fics than others. So it would be in your best interest to post LoTR fics. 🙂

Here's the LoTR category:
http://favoritestracker.org:8080/allFavorites.php?category=4

It is multifandom, but only the archives listed on the website are supported. Most of them are HP (except for ff.net and Ficwad). I've mailed the admin about it and he has a whole list of other archives he wants to implement at some point. So I guess the site will open up more in the foreseeable future.

I am the author of the Favorites Tracker, and I would just like to second everything that jrabbit said.  It sounds like the Favorites Tracker works in much the same way as Story Monitor, and it does require a lot of maintenance.

I've tried to implement my own version of what he described by adding a "Favorites Tracker" user to various sites and using the favorites list on that account as a way to download information about multiple stories at once, but that is getting harder and harder as sites are starting to require image validation to log in.

I've also thought about writing an efiction extension.  The problem is getting sites owners to install it.

I used to use Story Monitor all the time! I was so upset when it never got updated because since I updated to the newest version of FF, I lost the old links and can't figure out how to get them back.