onemoreryan
says:
I ran into the whole thumbnail size thing too, after making a couple Storybirds with kids over the weekend. I can definitely see how it's a tricky balance between keeping it simple and making it easy to see the art.
I noticed the issue while we were making a Storybird based on an artist with a LOT of pictures available. Like Paul McDougall (http://storybird.com/PaulMcDougall/) or Pascal Campion (http://storybird.com/pascal-campion/). And while I *love* the way thumbnails are scattered along the sides of the Storymaker tool, with 50+ pics, you end up with many stacked on top of one another (especially on a 15" Macbook screen). So it can be pretty hard to find the specific one you're looking for.
Anyway, here's an idea that may or may not be helpful, but at least it tries to keep it simple ... ;)
-- From the "Start a Storybird" button, instead of launching straight into the Storymaker tool, provide a "Pick some art to start with" page. Display ALL the small thumbnails here, and let the user click on the ones they already know they want to use. (Maybe they toggle-highlight in place, maybe they jQuery their way over into a sidebar bucket, I don't know.) But from here you hit "Go," and the pics you've pre-selected are the ones that get scattered along the sides of the pages in Storymaker.
-- For the art that you *didn't* pick to start with, you still might want access to it as your story develops. So maybe there's a "Picture Drawer" inside the Storymaker tool, which works similar to the Applications stack in the Mac Leopard dock. The drawer might have a little stack of thumbnails in it, and when you click, they fan out into a gallery. Then you click a picture to add it to the main sideboard of Storymaker, where it's available for your pages.
No idea if this is feasible, but I think offering some sort of initial filter like this doesn't detract TOO much from the wonderful simplicity that's in place. And it might help simplify the process of actually building your story, since you wouldn't have to flip through so many pics you aren't using. Anyway, I just thought I'd throw this out there.
...and we're not talking about cheap chocolate either. (BTW, we'll consider a peach cobbler for Tara Lazar.)
Having the ability to branch a story would be really nice. Let the reader pick between various choices. Would really open up possibilities.
Having a link that someone could use to embed a storybird on their blog would be very cool.
@triptych: Agree re embeds. That's coming in v0.2 Love the branching comment! One of our devs is totally into branching and we think we can do it easily enough within Storymaker using drag and drop hotspots. Very "choose your own adventure."
Ha! Mark, did you know I made a peach cobbler on Wednesday? But I gave it away to our new neighbors!
Not sure if there is the ability to make a Storybird using multiple artists' work instead of just one artist's collection. Still playing around so I may have missed that option.
Ah, I see you can start a Storybird using artwork with a specific theme across all artists. Nice. But I have a bug with "Themes." I click on a term and nothing happens.
@taralazar: "Themes" is actually a bridge between v0.1 and the next release. It's meant to pull themes from across ALL artists, but we've disabled it along with "visual typing" until we have more art in the database. We'll probably just remove themes for now since it's causing more confusion than anything.
BTW, peach pie is sounding really good about now!
First of all: this rocks. Simply beautiful! A few quick questions: I went through the artists (all amazing) and hearted a few things (I love that I can do this).. and I expected to find a gallery of my favorite art under "You" - where do these show up? And, can you re-order pages in the book editor or is this disabled at the moment?
p.s. Do you have to live out East to get the chocolate? :)
@idrawpixels: we'll be creating a personal queue for hearted items in v0.2. We wanted to squeeze the basic feature into this release simply to give people an alternate way to comment. As for re-ordering pages in Storymaker—sigh. We had that working in several pre-release versions but it became wonky just before this trial so we disabled it. It'll be here soon though.
And no—chocolates are for anywhere! And Chocolate Arts has us on account, so we're always ready to ship to the West Coast ;)
Hello, Storybird.
Only a couple small notes from me so far for an otherwise smooth, pleasing well-designed site. Congratulations.
• The last three pages in "At Bedtime: Kaye" displayed 1/3 of their pages entirely off screen, to the left. (I'm running Firefox 3.0.13 on a Mac.)
And as I browsed through the Storybird list, I'd like to be dumped back into the list where I left off, rather than be brought back to page 1 of the stories, if possible. In other words, if I'm reading "At Bedtime: Kaye" on page 3 of the stories and then when done click that I'd like to read more stories, I'm brought back to page 1 of the list. I'd prefer picking up where I left off, especially as the story list grows to hundreds of pages.
I'm sure you'll add keyword searches at that point as well, so a visitor could come and browse for stories on common child issues by subjects and topics, such as, "family leaving on vacation", "first day of school", "seeing a doctor", etc.
I'd like to offer my expanding ideas that I have for Storybird later as I get more familiar with what you've been busy creating here.
@nobledesign: great feedback.
-That is one annoying bug. We're tracking it, but haven't solved it quite yet. Soon. (I saw one of the developers with some Raid earlier.)
-The simplest fix for that is to hit "back" rather than Read, which is meant to take you to the Read main page. That said, when we introduce search in v0.3 you'll have a subset from your search that you can pan through without getting dumped back into a generalized view.
BTW, we'll soon be adding a quick filter to the general stream of SBs: Recent and Active. The "Active" tab will let you see those SBs that have a lot of conversation happening around them. Eventually, when the system grows enough, we'll add the final filter: Notable. That's a far more complex algorithm and it's super secret...
-Yes, please do come back and tell us what you like or don't like, or features that you want to see. We have a definite view of where we're going, but we rely on everyone to get the general feel of the road.
This is something special, and I think you have a hit on your hands here folks. This is a gift to your audience and hopefully a gift to you. I cannot wait to watch your rise.
Couple interactive/flow nits...
+ after I finish a story and get a "what's next" menu (very helpful btw) i want to be able to heart or comment on what i just read but there's no direct way to do that, i have to hunt and peck my way back to that screen.
+ I wish i cold leave notes/caveats on my storybird in progress, for instance i used someone elses lyric in my story
+ i wish the thumbnails (in create mode) were a tad more self evident, i have to size them up to remember what they look like which can break the creative flow.
+ i wish the pages (in creation mode) became icons themselves
+ i wish i could reorder pages (it wants to work but they never lock into place)
+ MUSIC!!!
+ love the presentation mode
+ how dark can we get? should we assume kids will read what we create?
+ i am hooked, let me know when i can invite others in
Ok, i just read through some comments and played around a bit more (why dont i do this BEFORE i open my mouth?) and some of my questions were answered.
btw, my storybird "ever since" i just presented to my 5-year-old as her belated birthday card, she loved it! she wants me to change the name to "Indi's story".
Hi aGiantGirl - great comments, I especially love that your daughter wanted it as a birthday card -- I constantly think now, whether it's a party invitation or similar, 'could I do this with a Storybird?'.
However, first things first, and some of the items you mention are definitely on our list: Making it easier to heart/comment when you're done reading a Storybird, re-ordering pages, pages as icons are all on the list most definitely. We're also going to look at enlarging or 'previewing' the thumbnails, I've received a couple of similar comments.
Both music and notes and other types of interactivity are ideas we've considered for future versions most definitely. I'll let Mark answer your last couple of questions, but thanks again for the fantastic and detailed input :)
@aGiantGirl: we're not sure how to use music. Somewhere around release v0.5 we're adding voice (probably a premium feature), and we know people will use that to insert music. But a feature to specifically deal with music we're still kicking around/scratching heads.
re dark: if it's kept private, as dark as you want. If you share it publicly, as long as the age range is accurate and it conforms to community guidelines—go for it. Your friends and followers will keep you honest. Besides, some of the best kid's stories have shadowy undertones. Life is often dark. Stories should reflect that.
re invites: you can invite anyone you'd like as of now. We'll be dropping the privacy wall sometime next week, so just ask them to use the chirpchirp code in the meantime.
...and a happy birthday to Indi from all of us at Storybird.
Hi Mark. This was really fun. Great idea. I encountered a few problems (maybe because I use IE?). I attempted to edit my story but the edits didn't take even thought I'd saved them. Manipulating the text is a bit difficult. Backspace and delete don't always work. It would be neat to be able to choose fonts and text size and place the text wherever you want anywhere on the page (and to be able to move the illustrations around, resize them, etc.). I wonder if Storybird could one day include sounds or narration? Just a thought. Having the ability to choose illustrations from various artists for the same story would be interesting. Could you add a feature where users could search for themes instead of browsing lists? I've asked the Girl to try this out and she will later today. The old Man will try it out later today, too. Thanks for inviting us to try out Storybird.
@laughwme: great feedback. Some answers/thoughts:
-editing and backspace ARE a bit buggy. We're working on those.
-fonts and text size manipulation are unlikely. We stripped out lots of page layout functionality because it tends to paralyze people and leave them frustrated, rather than staying focused on the story and enjoying themselves. That said, we are thinking of a "pro" version of SB later down the road that would provide more controls. Tricky issue.
-resizing illustrations. Absolutely. You're currently working with "panel" art, which is fixed in size. We'll have "pieces" soon (vector art) which you'll be able to scale and move.
-narration: Definately. It'll be a paid feature though (Storybird will be ad free, so we'll be making money from printing and premium features)
-various artists in the same story: our original prototype included this. It's called "visual typing" and surfaces images from various artists as you write. We'll be re-introducing that once the image database is bigger. Right now, you can go to "Create" and choose Option B, Themes. Clicking a theme will take you to an art page with a link in the top right corner: Start a SB with art tagged "xx" That gets you into a story with various artists.
-we'll also be introducing an "image library" within Storymaker that lets you search and use images immediately within your story.
Hope this helps. Looking forward to stories from the old man and the girl!
Looks like you've got a missing or misnamed template variable in the <title> tag on members' Storybird pages. I.e.:
http://storybird.com/members/onemoreryan/
The title shows up as "Storybird - 's Storybirds"
@onemoreryan: nice find. Added to bug list.
Great product.
Will you be layering in social networking functionality at any time?
Also, something like Aviary or YouTube, will these become embeddable in any future releases?
While we're @ it, had you considered utilizing Aviary (http://aviary.com/) to "lift" your product features? Contacted them? They provide excellent tools for online image editing, and I'm betting there would be some sort of appreciable arrangement that helped both of you: greater marketing for them, tools for you.
You two would be a perfect fit.
Thanks Ryan, I think something got changed around on that page and the title tag got missed.
@arxpoetica - Yes, social networking functionality and embeddable Storybirds are coming soon (hopefully very soon). Aviary is new to me, thanks for the pointer.
@arxpoetica @adam: I'm in love with Aviary's tools and think they're ideal for artists as an alternative to Adobe. But I doubt we'd see them here. A HUGE part of our design focus is stripping out everything but the essentials in making stories. As soon as you start giving hi-fidelity controls to people, they focus on everything BUT the story.
That said, Storymaker will get richer and richer. Our challenge is to also make it simpler and simpler.
Hi there,
I clicked on, "Clear Thumbnails" and they all wiped away -- but I couldn't figure out how to get them back...
I'm a 5th grade teacher and would LOVE to use Storybird with my students! Do you recommend one account and let all of them sign in on that ... or an account for each student?
Also, I am new at this ... but would you say the way the students would come up with a story is that they would look at the pictures first and create a story around the pictures that are available? Is there another way... or is the point for them to get creative by looking at cool art and make stories spur of the moment? I just tried making my own Storybird, and my first frustration was that I started coming up with a story about one of the characters in a few of the pictures ... but very quickly there were no more pictures with that particular character in them. So, then I had to revise my story ... very interesting process. I've never written this way, so please forgive me if I sound lame-o! lol
Anyway, I think this is possibly the coolest thing I have found all year -- thank you for such a gorgeous, user friendly, and kid friendly site! Brilliant!
@fantastic5th: thanks for the great comments.
"Clear thumbnails" is one feature that's part of a bigger set of tools within Storymaker, some of which didn't make it in this release. The key one is "visual typing" which allows you to start with a blank page, start writing, and images appear based on your keywords. "Clear Thumbnails" was designed to help with the growing mess of thumbnails that might occur. But without visual typing, Clear Thumbnails is quasi-pointless ;) If you use it now, the best thing to do is just start a new Storybird.
Visual typing speaks to your larger question about different ways to make stories. The easiest way, and thus the one we released with, is using a set from one artist: it provides some visual consistency and some themes that run though their work. And you're right: it forces a puzzle-solving approach to storytelling rather than an uninhibited narrative. Visual typing, which we'll turn on when there's enough images in the database, solves this to a degree since you just write and the images appear to suit your story.
We'll also be enabling image uploads soon so folks can upload their own art or photos: that provides a way to tell very particular and personal stories. Later, we'll be including voice so members can narrate their Storybirds. That too will change the nature of how you tell stories.
As for one account versus all students having one: for now, each student should have one. It's really the simplest way to deal with using the service. Interestingly, while we had always planned on teacher/student features, they were much farther down the line (given our constraints). But it's incredible how within two days after release v0.1 students and teachers have found us. We'll be rethinking our approach now ;)
That was fun!
I'd like to use this with my students, too. I think first we'll play it as a story game, with each child selecting the image for his / her partner in turn, instead of just choosing their own picture to write about. Ought to be fun!
I'm using Firefox as my browser. I noticed some issues with spacing. I had to go back twice and separate two words that kept getting written as one long word. Also, since I was writing in rhyme, I wanted my text to divide based on rhyme and rhythm, not necessarily after the punctuation ended the sentence. (Did that make sense? I want "Roses are red, / violets are blue,/" But I'm getting, "Roses are red, violets / are blue,/")
I'd LOVE to see a teacher account with a few student accounts under it, since our students don't have school e-mails to make their own. (I'm guessing we can't make multiple log-ins for the same e-mail right now.) Class log-ins would be a cool premium feature--I use something similar with VoiceThread.
@scheherazade: fun is good!
We're working on the writing quirks. We've managed to squash a few bugs, but we are seeing intermittent hiccups that continue to evade us. Part of it is due to a feature called "visual typing" that we haven't turned on yet. Visual typing searches the database for keywords and surfaces art based on what you're writing. It's a complex interaction system that, in trying to make simple, introduces the flakiness you describe. We'll get there.
Teacher accounts look inevitable given the huge response we've had from teachers and students since our release on Friday. We'll have lots to say about that in the weeks and months ahead.
Thanks, Mark, for your quick response! You guys are with it!!! I can't belive you just released Storybird three days ago ... Wooo, I can't wait to share this with the staff! I am soooo excited about using Storybird in the classroom -- oh the possibilities!
Thanks! :O)
Hi Mark,
This is brilliant! So far it's been fairly easy to upload art. I tried to create a storybird using my own art, but my tags are not showing up in the storymaker. Also, I haven't seen any of my images in the artwork. I keep hitting reload again and again...nothing.
I would love to be able to embed a storybird into a page on my website. Also, when collaborating, is there a way to write a story without words (just images) so that another writer can supply the text from beginning to end?
This is way better than a toaster!!!
Susan (Laborastory)
Hey Lizzie,
Thanks for the exclamation marks. We like those. (Well, when they're attached to good stuff ;)
The reason your fun characters aren't showing up in the system is because the shop hasn't been approved yet. Also, you landed smack in the middle of our new activation process which now has a 15-images minimum to submit a shop, along with a new interface (you were using the old one). I'll ping you by email and we'll finish up the process offline.
Embeds. Coming in a couple of weeks.
Toasters: yes. This is way better than toasters. I can only hope that @gwenamon agrees, since your toaster offer passed to her and she's been waiting for a banana colored model for a couple of months now.
I learned about you on twitter yesterday and have already spread the word to followers, friends, family and colleagues. You guys rock! Let me also vote for teacher accounts (I'm a school librarian) What a sense of accomplishment a struggling student could have completing his/her own book. Also--Did you say you are planning on selling print editions of storybird books? Grandparents would love to have a hard copy of a book they wrote or was made for them. Just a few ideas to enhance an already great idea.
First of all, brilliant concept, design and idea. I was just floored when I saw what you had done. So simple for students to get right in and enjoy the process of writing. Thank you. I teach Grade 2/3 in B.C. Canada and can't wait to get them working on this. My wife and I made one today of an Animal Alphabet. I sent it to one of my students from last year and am starting one now to send her to collaborate on to try out that function.
Just a minor things. First of all, I would love to be able to change the name of the author. My wife and I wrote the alphabet book but my user name was the one that appeared.
Thank you again. This site is awesome. The visual typing thing . . . genius!
Ian
Beautiful, beautiful!
Everything is working fine. The students are enjoying the images but they all have commented that it takes too long to look at the images. The laptop screen that they use renders the thumbnail images so small that it is difficult for them to find what they are looking for. We discussed what would work for them and they thought that if there was someway to zoom the thumbnails to see the image briefly it would be very helpful.
Year 5 students
Great site.
I also would like to see teacher controlled accounts. If there is a more social aspect to this teachers would need the control to turn this off and keep their students within a certain group, especially in primary.
Looking forward to your updates and using this more with my students!
Thanks for all the kind words folks. Deeply appreciated.
Re teacher accounts: we're already rethinking our feature roadmap to build some basic features.
@allie701: printing is a core aspect of the service. Not only will we have softcover and hardcover options, but low cost PDFs for "baby birds" (small size, lo-res SBs) and high-end premium hardcovers.
@ihancock: we're working on a small tweak that allows you to change the name of the author within Storymaker. That way, covers can have whatever author names you like. However, the linkable name at the top of the Storybird will, for now, remain as the account-holders user name. We need that in order to provide cross-linking throughout the site and trace SBs back to the account holder.
@reddoor: thumbnail size is tricky. Make the thumbnails too big and you don't get enough inventory on the screen. Provide a roll-over preview and a cluster of thumbnails will start flashing a dozen previews as you mouse over them. And a one-click "hold-down to preview" gets confused with drag-and-drop behavior. Oy. For now, dragging the thumbnails to the canvas and seeing them full size has been the most practical and favored approach. But we're working on it. It will get more sophisticated.
@rhinoab: good point about social aspects and kids. In the same way we've stripped out everything but the core tools to make a Storybird, we've also stripped back the amount of information that's presented about people and the ways they can interact on the site. For instance, profiles don't disclose anything about you other than the stories you make. There's no instant messaging within Storymaker for collaborators. Turn switching is via email, so it has to go to known accounts. And so on. When we do build our teacher features, we'll keep that philosophy in mind. Simple. Fun. Safe.
Just browsing and learning about Storybird. For starters: If it is my story, I'd like the option of uploading my own images. And -- the craft of writing often involves rewrite-proofing....so for me I am having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to edit a page! Would like the dashboard to have more features. Thanks, though, for this creative experience.
Hi
Just another point. I am hearing lots of talk about adding more and more features. Please continue to keep it simple!!! I think it will appeal to a broader audience (especially the elementary crowd) if you don't shove in more and more features, in particular, editing features.
Thanks
Ian
@tuscon_cowgirl: Thanks for stopping by and kicking the tires. Uploading your own images is on the way in release v0.3. And, if I'm understanding your comment about rewrites, remember that you can edit a SB even after it's published, just like a blog post. You'll find "Edit Story" under "More about this Storybird" on the Storybird page.
@ian: lol. No worries. All of us are Apple descendants, Google observers, Twitter-lovers, and 37 Signals fanboys. Storybird will always be simple. Our view is that all tools should be simple. How people use them is what should be complex.
Hi, I notice on firefox 3.5 that every time I switch pages in the storybird editor it removes line breaks. Is that intended? It makes it hard to separate lines if you want to make small paragraphs or couplets. I am really enjoying this site, and look forwards to seeing it develop.
I love this site. But I can't get my first little Storybird off the ground though. It's only 4 pages and won't save or crashes out. Might be my Mac, my browser is Safari. Any thoughts?
@davemarc: that's a bug we just removed. Yay!
@megapixel: a good chunk of our members are using Mac/Safari and haven't reported any crashes. If it keeps happening, trace your actions and send us a note: support [at] storybird [dot] com Include the title of the Storybird as well.
Thanks both for the kind words about Storybird :)
Hi Mark,
My son just published a storybird, but pages 3 and 4 are not loading when we try to read it.
Please let me know how to proceed.
Thanks,
Susan (from Laborastory)
I created a 7 page book this morning and it couldn't be saved. Storybird kept telling me it was saving but the progress meter was empty and never moved. I tried a number of times to save it but to no avail. I finally had to close the page on the browser thereby losing the complete book!
I am on an Imac with Snow Leopard (10.6)
Similar to esb123, I just published my first Storybird (15 pages) and nothing after page 7 will load when reading the published book fullscreen. Same results in Firefox 3.5 & IE 8.
@eb123 @kentompkins @draculajones: we made an update to Storymaker and Storyplayer last night. We suspect your issues may be occurring as a result. The team is looking at the matter now. We'll update here as soon as we believe it's fixed.
Thanks for the details guys. Much appreciated.
i'm trying to create a storybird but cant get past adobe upgrade!
Cornelia
This is amazing - I can't wait to see what's next.
@eb123 @kentompkins @draculajones: can you email us the names of the Storybirds you had troubles with? Email to: support [at] storybird [dot] com
@hoogland: Can you tell us what browser and operating system you're using? We haven't had any bugs related to Flash upgrades as of yet. Email to: support [at] storybird [dot] com
@markaltosaar: Thanks! Us too.
Folks, the issue that @eb123 @kentompkins @draculajones described seems to have occurred because Storymaker can handle empty pages while Storyplayer can't. We'll tweak some code and run some tests and should have it fixed by tonight. Until then, try to avoid empty pages in your Storybirds!
Loving your little gem of an application! I can only hope some of my illustrator friends find it as intriguing! (Heck, I may even try my hand at an illustration or eight....) Looks like you're working on a lot of the suggestions I had. The one that kind of goes along with "Upload your own images" is integration with Flickr Creative Commons image search.
I could see, for example, people wanting to pull in pictures of dogs, or cats, or other animals to make an animal story and Flickr is a resource just full of pictures that people make available for just this kid of use.
I ran into the whole thumbnail size thing too, after making a couple Storybirds with kids over the weekend. I can definitely see how it's a tricky balance between keeping it simple and making it easy to see the art.
I noticed the issue while we were making a Storybird based on an artist with a LOT of pictures available. Like Paul McDougall (http://storybird.com/PaulMcDougall/) or Pascal Campion (http://storybird.com/pascal-campion/). And while I *love* the way thumbnails are scattered along the sides of the Storymaker tool, with 50+ pics, you end up with many stacked on top of one another (especially on a 15" Macbook screen). So it can be pretty hard to find the specific one you're looking for.
Anyway, here's an idea that may or may not be helpful, but at least it tries to keep it simple ... ;)
-- From the "Start a Storybird" button, instead of launching straight into the Storymaker tool, provide a "Pick some art to start with" page. Display ALL the small thumbnails here, and let the user click on the ones they already know they want to use. (Maybe they toggle-highlight in place, maybe they jQuery their way over into a sidebar bucket, I don't know.) But from here you hit "Go," and the pics you've pre-selected are the ones that get scattered along the sides of the pages in Storymaker.
-- For the art that you *didn't* pick to start with, you still might want access to it as your story develops. So maybe there's a "Picture Drawer" inside the Storymaker tool, which works similar to the Applications stack in the Mac Leopard dock. The drawer might have a little stack of thumbnails in it, and when you click, they fan out into a gallery. Then you click a picture to add it to the main sideboard of Storymaker, where it's available for your pages.
No idea if this is feasible, but I think offering some sort of initial filter like this doesn't detract TOO much from the wonderful simplicity that's in place. And it might help simplify the process of actually building your story, since you wouldn't have to flip through so many pics you aren't using. Anyway, I just thought I'd throw this out there.
This functionality looks quite promising. I'd like to see:
* Clearer images in full screen mode - on my computer, they look blurred at that size.
* Animation as an option. I could see a pricing structure for pieces, panels, animations, and products.
* A way to ask for a commission or suggest a character or scene to the illustrator.
* Definitely need a way to re-order pages as I am building a Storybird.
* Rhyming dictionary for people trying to write verse - there are a few around that could be linked to.
* Voice will be important, as Ripple is allowing. http://www.ripplereader.com/index.php. I'd also like to add sound clips and sound effects to pieces, in order to make parts of the story interactive if the reader clicks on something. Think of it as an online pop-up book.
* I think adults might use these more as e-cards than stories because they want to express a sentiment or feeling more than a story arc. Writing a compelling story is harder than it looks.
* Kids, on the other hand, will probably get it and use it more creatively, and teachers/librarians could create these Storybirds to supplement lessons. I'd like an easy way to create a Storybird on vowels or spelling using characters, then then connect the end of the story with printed books on these concepts.
* Must be phone-friendly.
I've been collaborating with my grandson, ESB123. I wrote page one, sent it to him,He added a few pages and sent it back. When I returned the storybook to him, everything had disappeared except my initial page. Help!
I love Storybird! What an amazing, wonderful concept. Thanks for sharing it.
@daisymae: it's quite possible he clicked "Start over" or deleted several pages in between your turns (collaborators can go in and make changes at any time, even if it's the other person's turn).
I'd suggest starting a new SB and mention to him not to make changes when it's your turn. That way you can tell if there's actually a bug occurring or it's just a slip of the finger ;)
And many thanks for the kind words about SB. We built it for folks just like you.
Fixed: the issue that @eb123 @kentompkins @draculajones described occurred because Storyplayer, the engine that plays published SBs, was hiccuping over empty pages. The issue has been resolved and we haven't seen it re-occur. Thanks for your help in uncovering it.
I wish I had 48 hours a day so I could spend more time on this site with my children. Kudos! p.s. Many of the stories are worthy of being published. Amazing!
@thejbru: thanks for the love! As for CC image search, we’re installing personal image uploads in v0.2 that will enable you to import photos from your Flickr or Facebook accounts. But we’re holding off on CC searches in general until we get a feel for how people use their own images.
@onemoreryan: we’re planning on “sets” for v0.3 that will let everyone (artists included) group images into theme packs. That will help the majority of the time with “thumbnail glut.” Plus, we’ve got some nifty thumbnail ideas that will make everything less clumpy. I like your idea about pre-select—we’ll explore that. And, as for images within Storymaker, v0.2 (maybe v0.3) will have a tab called “Image library” that will let you work with items you’ve previously imported, or, as you say, drop thumbnails you’re currently using into the grid. It’ll also feature direct image search without having to leave the app. Given your great input and your lovely Storybirds, I think this might be our first chocolate award. Ping me with your addy and we’ll send you and the family a little Vosge love: mark [at] storybird.com. Tara, if you’re reading this, we’re still tracking down a peach-pie delivery company ;)
@kate_barsotti: Great feedback. Some answers/thoughts:
-image resolution will improve from release to release
-animation is distant, if not unlikely. It introduces far too much complexity and works against our goal of “focus on the story.” Plus, there are great animation tools already available. That said, Kaye (our creative director) has been interested in “onion skinning,” a phrase she uses to describe simple animation effects that can be included by artists as Easter eggs.
-commissioned art: we think this is viable.
-rhyming dictionary: now added to our “let’s explore list”
-voice is planned in a future release. It’s a big focus of ours.
-agree about sentiment/greeting card. One of our elevator pitches is “read like books, play like games, or send like greetings.”
-phone friendly: absolutely. Various stages of an iPhone app are on the drawing table.
@acuteinvasion: first, awesome username. And second: merci! That’s really sweet feedback. We are currently texting the powers that be about elongating the day to 48 hours. We’ll let you know how that goes.
Hi - I've recently signed up. Great job. Excellent concept. I'm an educator of children it the early years (6-7 year olds) and was wondering if you are planning an 'educators' package? I'd love to have a group of my students working on this simultaneously as part of my literacy groups; 5-6 children at the same time. Do you allow multiple logins? As with so many of these great web 2.0 technologies, they require an email account, which limits the potential that these sites provide...
Hi @lschoff: given the big hug we've received from teachers in over 100 countries in just four days of being live—absolutely. Our short-term plan is to create a simple teacher account that can be linked to student accounts and don't require email. We'll have news on that when it's available. Thanks for the kind words, too.
my confirmation link resulted in a 404
Papa: Sorry about the confusion. Your account has been activated, so you must have hit the confirmation link already. You only need to click on it the first time, after that you can just log in normally. You're probably logged in now, but if not, you can just log in and use the site normally.
Hi guys,
I love this site! However when I was "hearting" Miss K's stories, I got a broken link twice.
Fran, we were updating our server around that time. Try again and let us know if that occurs.
Didn't read through all 60+ comments, so sorry if someone has already mentioned this bug. I'm using firefox 3.5.3 and the site works great normally but if I have the site loaded into more than one tab (ie have multiple tabs open with different storybirds I intend to read) then when I mouse over the storyboard cover I it wont let me read it. It doesn't even flip up the bottom right hand corner and say read (or whatever it says.... I can't open a new tab to check!) Would be nice to have this bug fixed.
whataboutki: Thanks for the report, you're right, I'm seeing the same thing in Firefox. Hopefully we can track that one down and fix it soon.
In the meantime, you can refresh the page in the tab and it should let you read the story (if the flipped up corner that says "open" is there, you can click to read it). I know it isn't a great solution, but at least you can read what's in your tabs while we get this fixed.
Hey everyone at Storybirds! Just wanted to let you know that I am still a huge fan and user of the site. The love, fascination and use just never dies and I am absolutely amazed at what you guys are doing and continue to do. I am a teacher of grade 2/3 and I have, for the last week since sharing this site with my class, had kids writing stories and asking me to collaborate. My one girl, Emily, who wrote My Funny Friends (Which Mark hearted!) was amazed and so happy to see that her bok has been read 38 times and had a special comment from Mark on it! She was amazed when I told her that one of the owners and builders of the site had sent her a message. One of my grade 2!!! students has just been loving the site and using it to create her own book. I have finally had to tell her that we need to find a way to end the story because I think she could go on and on!!!! :)
Thank you for encouraging the creativity and love of writing in children.
Ian
Ian. Possibly the only reply to your comment and the kids is: you guys rock.
Thanks for the kind words and the love. We plan to make Storybird even better as we go along, and hope you'll be there with us.
Hello,
I love your service and would love to recommend you on our new community site for grandparents in the UK called www.gloriousgrandchildren.co.uk. If you are interested, please let us know by emailing info@gloriousgrandchildren.co.uk. Kind regards, Petra
Glorious, we'll connect via email. But, yes! We love the idea of grandparents learning more about Storybird. It's built for them and their kids ;)
Is the visual typing thing off right now? I am just wondering as I am not seeing images added as I type.
Thanks
Ian
Ian: yes, we turned it off as we work on a few connected features. Visual typing will return, bigger and stronger, in a week or two.
But we had closed off (we thought) all the access points to start a SB with an empty screen. Is that what you're experiencing? Or did you have art and VT simply wasn't producing more?
Thanks Mark,
Yes I had started a SB with art and it just wasn't popping up anymore art as I typed. Thanks for letting me know.
Ian
Search button would be nice, so I don't have to keep looking for a specific topic.
Love this. Great job. How much will printing be?
Patricia: we have several browse functions coming up, and search will hit around release v0.3. As for printing, we're studying several options that look something like this:
-PDFs: $1-$2
-Softcover: $10-$15
-Hardcover: $20-$25
-Premium: $35-$45
We're also planning some other great format, like minibooks and sequential stories (you mail someone one story panel at a time). We'll figure those out as we go.
Thanks for the kind words. And let us know how you end up using Storybird in your life. We love that stuff.
I am reviewing your site for an assignment in my master's course on Internet Tools. I teach 2nd grade and would love to use this site with my students. Are there any plans to make this site "teacher/student" friendly in the near future? Needing individual email accounts doesn't work well for educators wanting to use this site with their students. It looks like a really exciting project that you've got underway!
KDV: Absolutely. In fact, while we had planned for teacher accounts much further down our development pipeline, we've actually pushed some basic school functions to the top of our list—with no emails required for students being the priority.
We'll be updating our feature set progress on the blog, Twitter, and via email. Stay tuned.
Mark,
Just wanted to send you another thank you for all your hard work. I just had the daughter of a friend over and I showed her your site. she was so involved within seconds. She published her story and within minutes you had already posted a comment. She was so happy. Thank you for taking such time to personally involve yourself with each story and taking the time to post comments on them. It is so exciting for the kids to see.
2 Questions:
1) Where is your company based out of?
2) Will you be letting everyone know when the visual typing comes back on line and will it automatically gather pictures on stories that have been completed already? I'm asking as I have a book that is almost ready to be published but I would like to gather other pictures for it as there are not enough of the pictures to really make it work. I might have more to select from if the visual typing is able to go back and pick out the words from text that is already done.
Thanks again. You all are awesome!!
Ian
Hey Ian, that's a great story. Be sure to tell her thanks for using Storybird ;)
Regarding visual typing: yes, we'll tell everyone. And yes, as you mouse over the words on your page, the keywords can be clicked to find new art. Also, by v0.3, we'll have search installed within Storymaker. That'll make finding images even easier.
Regarding our location: we're a distributed company with half the team in the US and the other half in Canada (New York, San Diego, Vancouver, and Toronto.) In other words, we're a a mutt (or the bird equivalent).
Cheers.
why dont you put two CATOGORIES ONE IS FOR NEW BOOKS AND ANOTHER IS POPULAR.
I love this site! I'm a 3rd grade teacher and I'm wondering if there is a way that I can have students log into my account and write their stories and have their names show up as the author?
Thanks!
@archit: thanks for the suggestion. We'll be updating the Read page as we grow with several ways to browse and categorize books. What you're seeing is just a basic approach for v0.1. BTW, if you click on "Active," you'll see the stories that have the most conversation building around them.
@MsSturzen: thank you. We love it too! We'll be creating a teacher's account soon that will let your students all log in without emails—but be able to have their own dashboard and name on their stories. As for separate names on the covers, in the short term we'll be adding the ability to change a name within Covermaker. The Storybird will still be linked to the main account in this case, but you can use any name for what appears on the book cover and inside.
I would love to allow for my students to use this program in class, where they all could have their own accounts and be able to save. The only way for them to do this now is to have me sign in under my name on 24 computers and that could cause some havoc if they all login under me at the same time. I love this program and use it at least 2 times a week for our writing time. Let me know if there is any way that an educator account might be created for multiple logins for a class (or class sign in). I was watching my students use it today and they had wonderful stories started, but they couldn't save since they don't have an account. Thanks for an awesome product!!
@atkauffman: Thanks for the kind words and spreading the Storybird love. Teacher/student accounts are on the way. In the meanwhile, one of the easiest ways to manage the issue is to set up a teacher account AND a class account. That way the students can save to the class account in order to retrieve/share/comment on work.
I absolutely love the idea of this site but I can't see any of the artwork whether I log in or not. Why is this?
@creator: when you say "artwork," do you mean "open a Storybird/read a Storybird?" If that's the case, you may not have upgraded your Flash player. Email us with details about your issue and we'll help you through it: support [at] storybird [dot] com
And thanks for the kind words as your lead-in!
I work in special education/assistive technology. Will love exploring this with students with special needs(assist with writing as well as interacitng with peers in a fun way)! I would love it even more if there was a "reader" that would read the books. Maybe click a button and the text could be read to them.
Cool!
Have investigated why I can't see the art work. It is because the county have filtered it out due to where it is stored. Will ask them to look and consider unfiltering but no schools in this part of the UK will be able to access your site.
@npeters: completely agree. For special needs and early readers, being able to click and hear the words is ideal. We have it in our roadmap, but it's more likely to appear in v0.6-v.07.
@creator: thanks for the tip. You can tell them we're pretty standard, though: we host on Media Temple and storage comes via Amazon's cloud services.
oh my gosh chocolate i want some
btw i love this website and it's purpose my tech teacher makes my entire school use it and alot of entries are from their students
@swagganerd: if you want your chance at chocolate, you need to come up with great ideas for features that we haven't thought of or fixes that make the site easier for people to use.
BTW, thanks for the kind words about the site! We've heard from dozens of teachers and hundreds of students that it's becoming very popular in classrooms. We're going to make it easier for students and teachers to use it in the weeks ahead. Anything you'd like to see?
It would be nice if you could change the order of pages by clicking and dragging - or swapping. Actyually, just to change the page order woudl be good.
if you type ONE (in caps & without quotation marks) that word and the following text is deleted automatically!
dangerousduckling: page reordering is coming very soon, we're just working out the last couple of kinks. I tried typing ONE and nothing got deleted when I did it. Was anything else happening when you saw the text deleted? Are you still having this problem?
hi mark i want to know whay did you delete my story college
@zaira281997: we didn't delete the story: we returned it to you because it contained inappropriate material for the Storybird community. If you make the necessary changes, we'll happily consider it again. And, if you have more questions on how to make those changes, email us and we'll help you through the process: support [at] storybird [dot] com.
Great idea guys!
Here are a couple of suggestions:
1. why cannot I have an input box to search for a tag? The whole "reload" option looks like is returning tags in a totally random list.
2. Instead of starting a story with a "tag", maybe I should be able to provide a comma delimited (or whatever other standards) list of tags and therefore select pictures from various artists (ultimately a story goes beyond just one tag).
3. I would like to search for a story by name (or, even better, by tags from the art used).
Thanks,
Gelu
Hi Gelu,
Thanks for the kind words. As for your three questions, there are two answers:
1. Soon we'll turn on "visual typing" inside Storymaker which matches words in your story to art tags and surfaces those images on the sideboard. It's like automatic search and enables you to then choose the images or artists you'd like to see more of. Visual typing is built and working—we're just waiting for sufficient artwork and tags to turn it on.
2. Outside of Storymaker, we'll have site-wide search in release v0.3. That will enable you to search for specific Storybirds, artists, tags, authors, etc.
It's all coming! But baby steps...
Something totally weird happened while I was using the Storymaker. I clicked on the "Save and Close" button and the story was still in progress. There were 19 pages so far. I read other people's stories, and then I went back to my story, only to discover my latest work was not saved! Is this a bug and is there a fix for it? Now I have to go back and rewrite it from what I may remember, which is toally frustrating!
Thanks for any help,
Alexander (age 10)
P.S. The browser I'm using is IE8, running on a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop.
Hi thegnome,
I'm really sorry to hear that your work wasn't saved :(. We have had a few bugs that have popped up in saving. I agree, it's very frustrating, we're doing our best to fix these issues as they arise. Telling us about it helps, so thank you for bringing this up. A couple of questions:
1) What's the title of the Storybird where you had this problem?
2) About how many pages were lost? Hopefully it wasn't all 19.
Feel free to either respond here or send an email to support [at] storybird [dot] com, whichever method is easier for you.
My Storybird was titled "Journey to the Centre of the Mind, Pt. 2".
Unfortunately, I lost approximately 17 pages, but my mom encouraged me to try to remember what I wrote, so I'm working on it right now!
Thanks for your reply. I hope you can find the source of the problem because Storybird is awesome!
P.S. When will we be able to upload our own pictures?
thegnome: Thank you for the extra info. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to recover your lost pages. I apologize again for the trouble this has caused you, we'll continue to look for the source of the problem. I hope you do rewrite the story, I'd like to read it :).
Uploading your own pictures is something that's coming, but we don't know when just yet.
Thanks for the kind words!
I noticed that the problem only happened in IE8, and not in Google Chrome.
Yes, I already did rewrite the story today. The same glitch happened when I posted it in IE8. This time, I took screenshots of my story in case the Storybird system decides to delete it again. I noticed that this glitch hasn't happened so far in Google Chrome. I'm also going to try posting in Mozilla Firefox.
Thanks for answering me!
im trying to create one but it just shows pictures when you get to the page
Please help me! Im new here.
How do i create a story?!
@Tahu1: have you watched our demo? It explains how to use Storybird:
http://storybird.com/tour/
If you still have trouble after watching it, let us know. You can post here, or email us directly: support [at] storybird [dot] com
I tried to launch the tour and it is not running for me. Please advise if it is me or dont I have the right viwer.
Regards, New storybird chirper
@markelittlefield: you'll need the current Flash plugin to view the demo (and use Storymaker, our story engine). Just Google "Adobe Flash" and download their most recent plugin and you'll be good to go. (And, if you're still experiencing hiccups, email us: support [at] storybird [dot] com
Great Site!
Hello. Just found your site and love it so far! I will be using it with my preschool class so we can create a book together. I'm wondering if there is a way to search the tags? For example, if I want to do a story about 'animals' but that tag doesn't pop up right away, do I just have to keep reloading and reloading and reloading until it happens to pop up? If you don't have one yet,I would suggest adding a search feature. Thanks!
As I'm reading the above comments, another thought occurred to me. As a teacher of younger chidren, I would love to be able to create repetitive text books, that have very similar art, but maybe with one or two things different on each page. For example, one page might say, "The monster ate the green pepper." Then, "The monster ate the red pepper." would be the next page. Could the artists do some artwork in this fashion, with one character changing slightly, or doing different things (first the boy jumps, then the same boy will run, then swing, etc.). I'm not sure what kind of agreement you have with the artists so I don't know if this is possible or not?
@Curtiskiddoes: thx for the kind words. Regarding search, we'll be releasing that in v0.3. You'll be able to search for tags, art, people, and Storybirds. However, in v0.2 we'll be lighting up "visual typing," which triggers art based on your story's keywords. It's essentially a search feature that's perpetually looking for images to match your story. That will help you a bit.
As for various poses or instances of artwork, that's an evolutionary aspect as artists discover what kind of narrative art members are looking for and experiment. But we're certainly thinking about character poses and multiple views in how we design Storymaker to behave and offer up options as people craft their story.
For some reason, when I am creating a Storybird, the text I type in disappears--is there a character limit--like 30?
@marierush: yes. Each art size variation (panoramic, square, etc) creates a different character count per page. If your text is longer than that, it disappears. We're working on a few things that will both alert you when you've gone over and give you other layout options with the same image. But for now, the best thing to do is toggle between fullscreen and edit mode within Storymaker to see how the text behaves. And, remember that you can edit your story after it's published in the event that see text clipping after the fact.
How can you find a friend's story if they haven't written it in awhile?
@elamac: for now, it'll be tough. In future releases we'll have Following so you can follow/find your friends/contacts easily. Search will help too. Both of those are coming in v0.2-v0.3.
I'm trying to save my page two to my unpublished story, but every time i log in, the page is gone and it wasn't saved. The first page saved fine. I click on "save and close" before exiting the story. The same thing happens when my collaborator tries to save the second page. Am i doing something wrong? Please help.
@elamac: in addition, if you do find a friend's Storybird that you like and think you'll want quick access to it later, you can also 'add it to your reading list'.
@coltman: no, you're not doing anything wrong. There are occasional network hiccups (similar to those that make you lose an email or a website not accept a comment) that cause Storymaker to not save. It's rare, but when it happens the best thing you can do is start over.
We're working on a sensor that detects the network interruption and gives you an immediate message that your SB will not save. That way you can cut and paste what you do have and transfer it to a new shell.
Over time, we'll get even better at reducing the incident and managing it. For now, chock it up as a growing pain. (That is to say: thanks for your patience as we grow.)
Help! I'm logged in as myself (at a different computer than I created the Storybird at). The story I created shows up on my screen as published/private but when I click on it to view, it says it's private and that I can't see it.
Coltman: I'll second what Mark said, you're not doing anything wrong, and we've been battling some hiccups that are causing issues with saving for a few users. I'm sorry it has affected you. If you try again and it still doesn't save, can you send us an email to support [at] storybird [dot] com with the text you're trying to save on the second page? It's possible there's something more going on since you said your collaborator had trouble saving too.
klalexander: That definitely shouldn't be happening. Do you mean you see the story on your dashboard (the page you get when you click "You" on the top of the page), and when you click it you get a page that just says the Storybird is private? If you're still having this problem, can you send an email with the title of the Storybird you're having trouble with to support [at] storybird [dot] com?
I would like to be able to write a story in Chinese.
@luoji: we can't, at this time, moderate and thus approve Storybirds for the PUBLIC library/timeline that are written in languages other than English. We’ll be expanding internationally soon and add specific language support as we do. In the meantime, Storybirds in other languages can still be published in your PRIVATE library and shared with your friends and family.
Mark, how do we add more than one partner to collaborate on a story?
ed422: for now, you can't. Two at a time. We'll be expanding it to multiple authors in the future though. It's slowly moving up the ranks as a requested feature.
mark,whenever i publish a story it says that it is not published and it says private! Whats going on?
@Tahu1: you have a couple of Storybirds that you wanted to share in the public library that have been returned to you because they contain content that does not meet our community guidelines (see link in footer). You need to fix the problems before we can accept it in the public library or you have to keep it private.
You should be receiving emails notifying you when a Storybird has been "returned."
@Mark you are obssesed with peach pie hey do you love lemon pie?
i mean cobbler
@skittles10101010: ha. No. I'm obsessed with chocolate. The peach cobbler is for children's book author Tara Lazar, who is a friend of Storybird.
I think it would be fun to have a traveling story in my class from student to student, each adding a page. However, once I invite one person, I cannot invite another.
Also, the curser, when correcting misspellings and such, keeps jumping around the page.
how will i fix it?! Im just a kid!
@cmoffitt: we'll be adding multiple collaborators (more than 2) in a future version. As for the jiggy cursor, that'll get better with each release too ;)
@Tahu1: Do you know that you can edit a Storybird once it's' been published? Just click "Edit Story" on the Storybird page and you can jump back in, make the necessary changes, and re-publish your story.
great site overall, really enjoyed the experience. funny thing tho - i set my stories to be public but none of them appeared on my profile.
also, it'll be nice if we could search out authors.
@nyx: Thx. Storybirds that are marked public go into a moderation queue and, until approved, remain in a private space. Yours were approved this AM and now appear on your public profile. Search arrives in v0.3: you'll be able to search for authors, artists, art, and Storybirds.
Just played for the first time and really enjoyed it - impressive collection of art work and artists! On my personal wishlist - the ability to drag the pages to rearrange them. On my teacher wishlist - a way to set up a classroom account so that my students can use this resource without having to provide email addresses. Any chance that that is in the works?
Thanks for a wonderful resource!
@suemiller: Thx for the kind words. Page reordering is in the final stages. We hope to have that out shortly. Class accounts are also in the pipeline: big request from teachers around the world.
there doesn't seam to be a search engine or filter for language or age?
@annemarry: search is coming in v0.3: you'll be able to search (and filter) for authors, artists, art, and Storybirds. As for age filters, we'll be updating the Read page in the next few weeks to let you find stories by age. And languages will come in a bit. We're just figuring out how to create a volunteer corps to help moderate non-English stories that are shared publicly.
we should upgrade storybird. I think storybird should have a search botton so you could find the stories you want to read faster instead of looking for it in multiples of pages.They also should brake up stories into a catogories like one catogory could be about princesses stories and a next one could be aliens stories so people could find stuff better and make stuff eaiser and faster
if you can add i would like to put objects in the picture
@Tamoythestar: You're absolutely right. Thankfully, search is coming in release v0.3 and we'll be upgrading the "Read" page throughout all releases of Storybird. Remember—we're only 5 weeks old! We've got to walk before we run.
@chicabee: layering images is also something we're working on. It won't be released for a while...but it's coming.
We have downloaded adobe flash 3 times and it is still saying we have to do this again! This is the same thing done for all of the other computers. I don't know why it will not work on this one particular computer.
I've spent a few days of on and off time with Storybird and I LOVE this idea. I am trying to map out ways for my fifth graders to take advantage of this site to build some excitement and focus to our writing lessons and author's purpose! The students have spied on me playing with Storybird and want to know when we can get started! Great stuff! I agree with Tara Lazar and think it would be really cool to be able to use multiple artists' work. The artists are awesome but being limited to just one kind of limits the writing of the students. Again, I think this is going to be awesome! Can't wait to get started!
Hi gaffney3, what web browser are you using? Can you tell me what it says your player version is on this page: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/155/tn_15507.html
It sounds like you're trying to use Storybird on several computers and some of them work but one doesn't, is that right?
a direct link or embed option would be awesome!!!
were is my story i clicked read but my story is not there.
@minhed237: embeds roll out in the next few days.
@lilyl10: were you able to find your story? If not—what's the name of the SB? We'll see if we can find it for you.
Hi Mark. I <3 your site, as does my 5-year-old! Outstanding concept--beautiful art!
The only suggestion I have--if you could manage it somehow--would be to have the artists do multiple images of the same character(s). That way, it would be much easier to create a narrative thread. For example, my daughter wrote a story about a wolf, but since there's just one picture of a wolf, every time she wanted to refer back to him, she had to insert the exact same picture. I think it would be much more interesting if there were several images of the wolf (or even the wolf and another character--or ina different setting), so that she could develop the story more--I think multiple images would encourage children to think more deeply about their narratives.
@amberlie: Thanks! And you're right about multiple poses. A couple of things will improve this over time. One is that artists, as they study how Storybird and its community operate, will develop characters specifically for this environment. The other is that our tools will evolve to enable you to a) manage multiple character poses easily and/or b) use one image in multiple ways to give the appearance of change (ie. moving from a wide shot to a close up). Either way, we're focused on this issue too and plan to nudge it along as we grow.
Maybe others have said this already, but it would be cool if you could choose your images then reorder your pages afterward. I love the artwork!
I'm an elementary school librarian - are the images on this site consistently PG?
@DMcAndrews: page reordering is coming up in our next release (possibly sooner). Stay tuned. And yes—everything on Storybird (from art to stories to comments) is moderated for a PG rating.
Great site!! I work as a librarian and I can't wait to share this. I was hoping there might be a way to create a "favorite artists" list instead of just "hearting" one image at a time. Thanks for the work you guys have done!!
Where are the sharing and embedding links to use with my public, published story please, just cannot see them. I can see the links when I click on someone elses public, published story.
Please point me in the right direction as would like to embed a story for others to see.
@mattiebyrd: Thanks for saying the nice stuff. We'll have "favorites" in a future release. That creates a collection of art or SBs that you heart. We'll also be adding "following" so you can follow the work of an artist or member/author.
@tricias: are you able to see the embed link now? It's possible that your SB was still in the moderation queue waiting for approval. Until it's approved, the sharing or embed links do not appear.
You are all wonderful people! I am soooooooooooo excited about the embeds!!!! Where do I send the chocolate????
Ian
Mark, thanks for the reassurance, and yes now that I look again there are the links to embedding etc. and I've added it to Wordpress successfully.. hope that's OK. Sorry I was so ahead of myself.. patience not my thing
Great that you are moderating stories. You seem to have put a lot of effort into reassuring parents and families as well as schools about your intentions for children's safety.
I hope for your sakes the moderating is automatic becuase whent he site takes off you will be getting an awful lot of published stories :-)
I agree with many others before me that keeping it simple is the key, some family members may not have the lots of ocnfidence in using digital technologies
Beautiful interface. Great product. I'm using this with my elementary classes (some of them forgetful), and when they request a password reset, the link provided in the email loads a page with the "Change Password" button, but a blank space above where the two text boxes should load, leaving them without the ability to change their pw, and effectively barring them from the site.
Hi mrjarbenne, I think what's happening is that the link is getting cut off in your email. Is it possible it's wrapping to two lines and when you click it, it isn't going to the whole URL?
Try copy-pasting the full link into your browser. If it still isn't working, let us know (either here or support [at] storybird [dot] com).
(Either way, thank you for pointing this out, I've updated the reset page to give a (hopefull) more helpful message in this case.)
@ihancock: love it! But I'm not sure how wise it is to offer us chocolate. We're a bit addicted to the stuff and you may find us sleeping on your doorstep, begging for more ;)
@tricias: we are currently training a couple of our cats to moderate—but it is not going well. One of them refuses to approve anything about "humans" and the other keeps chasing her tail. We're beginning to explore other possibilities...
Automatic spell check would be great. Also the ability to move pages into different order.
It doesn't seem intuitive with the image drag and drop. I created a bunch of pages and wanted to drop image into it then go back and write my text. I would drag image down to row at bottom and it would get stuck behind the pages. Couldn't figure out an easy way to retrieve image.
Love that I found you guys, my kids are having a ball.
@TheWrightKids: page reordering is coming up in a couple of weeks, along with several enhancements to Storymaker including pictorial page thumbnails.
As for dropping the images onto the the thumbnails (as opposed to the large canvas/white sheet)—we toyed with that idea and dropped it since, in the new version, each thumbnail can have multiple layout options that you wouldn't know about if you dropped them on the thumbnails. But we're holding onto the idea.
Glad that the kids are enjoying Storybird!
well maybe we could like wright a novel so that for kids or adults would like like to wright more and make it a place were everyone can read a book because i know i would like to show you all one of my books.
Why cant I embed my Storybird ??
/Allan from Denmark
@allanramsby: it appears that your SBs are in a language other than English, which means we are unable to moderate them at this time, which means they can't be published into the PUBLIC library (they can be used in your PRIVATE library). Storybirds that are not public don't have sharing tools, and that's the (likely) reason you're not able to embed. We'll be adding other languages as we grow, and we are interested in hearing from volunteer moderators who can help us accelerate the process.
A lot of potential with this website. However, I felt quite frustrated using the interface. The words were so small when trying to read what I had written. Plus, choosing the pictures was a pain. Finally, I finished my story, publlished it, then went to make some edits. They are not showing up in my published story. Does this mean I have to go and start over again? Hope you can make some changes as it's something I'd like to use throughout my teaching years.
Hey @ethanhewitt: thanks for the feedback. Let's go through it:
-surprised by the words being small. What size resolution are you using? We haven't heard that one yet in our usability tests.
-small thumbnails ARE a pain. We're releasing an update to Storymaker with a double-click option that expands the artwork for a quick view. You'll love it.
-regarding saving: did you ever get a message in Storymaker that it was having a hard time saving your work? We installed a sensor to deliver a message if network hiccups made it unlikely that Storymaker could save an edit. That said, you should NOT have to go and remake anything. Chances are that putting a few hours distance from your session (like whacking a tv for a better signal) will do the job.
-we're constantly working to make the experience simple, rugged, and fun. But we're only a few weeks old. We've got lots of work to do.
You can reply here, or feel free to ping us by email: support [at] storybird [dot] com
Hey Mark, thanks for the swift response. I'm editing my books but the changes are not showing up when I open the book. It shows the edits in the pages section. Also, when I go back to edit the story, I've lost all the previous edits. The font is so small when trying to type the words in the box on the page. I am using IE, probably the problem with all this but it's all I've got at this school. No Macs here :(
Hey Ethan, just emailed you. A bit easier to sort this through :)
I love this site. I'm a Technology Integrator in an urban elementary school. I love that it is so simple to get students started with Storybird.
Please don't add too many features. The simplicity of the interface keeps them writing. They focus on the details of the words instead of getting lost focusing on the details of the way the words look by editing font sizes, changing text colors, etc...
My only wish: It would be nice if teachers could register and be in control of approving student accounts. Many of our parents do not have e-mail accounts or easy access to Internet.
I'm grateful for this wonderful site! Thanks.
I would like to see the embedded code be available so that I can share them without having people revert to this site. Also, As a teacher, I don't have access to everyone's email addresses. They usually log on to the school site to view student work.
It would also be great if you could use multiple images on a page. Or, if you could even create your own images that you could upload into the books.
@benasulim Hi! The embeds are available for putting your stories into blogs, websites etc. Check out the Storybird blog and this article in particular to see how and where to find the embed codes for your stories.
http://blog.storybird.com/2009/10/embeds-are-live/
Ian
Lovely idea and a super site! I haven't trawled through all the comments yet - so I may be repeating someone else but are there plans for a search box? I'd love to be able to type in 'dog' or 'cat' etc and have a selection of the beautiful illustrations (you have soooo many to go through!!! Thank you though for allowing some adults to be children again....and children to be children!
@missgreer: we're working on teacher accounts that will enable you to have one master account and the students to log in with just a UN/PW. After that, we'll get an early form of "Groups" going so you can bring the student work together and focus the comments in one space (plus, we're working on "Comment options," which means you'll be able to have moderated or no comments in addition to the current setup). And yes—Storybird may get more powerful, but we'll always keep it simple. We've designed it that way from the start.
@benasulim: as the very handy and generous Ian pointed out, embed codes are available above the Storybird cover. However, you'll only find them there AFTER a SB is approved for the public library. Private SBs are not shareable via embeds or social networks.
@Agatha: Thanks! Site-wide search is coming in vo.3, and before that we'll have visual typing turned on in Storymaker. VT surfaces images based on your story keywords. It's essentially predictive search, but without filtering features.
great site well done
@pinsite: thanks! hope to see more of your stories.
Ok. I am trying to get started with Storybird. It looks really good but I can't seem to get going. I was going to watch the demo but I can't get it to play on my computer. I have tried in IE and in Firefox. I can usually pick up these programs pretty quickly if I see it once. This one is giving me trouble because I can't see a tutorial or anything. Any idea why the tour/demo will not play? The screen is just a blank white screen.
@thenley: Hi! Maybe check to see if your flash is updated. I know that if I don't have an updated version of flash installed, I have the same issues. You can get a current version of flash at
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
The current version is 10.0.32.18. Hope that helps.
Ian
I saw this story bird in a news channel and signed in immediately! great product folks!
Welcome Cheeky! Look forward to your stories and feedback.
Hey mark!Whenever i want to make a story without pictures some book is there that i never written before!?????
Hey
So glad this was featured on BBC's CLICK Tech Programme... What an excellent find.
So far no bugs but with such a simple and beautiful interface there isn't much that could go wrong.
Just keep going in the right direction...
More artists
More features: Music, more than one picture on a page, ability to digitally "SIGN" our work. You get the gist.
I can't wait to be able to order in a printed and possibly bound version on my work just don't price it out of the sky.
The ability to heart artists.
Its a brilliant site and will definitely recommend it to my friends and family.
I hope storybird goes miles.
Houston, I have a problem. The Storybird my students and I worked very hard to finish and that I publically published this morning is NOT the FINAL version. It's the first one we were working on. I want to present FINAL version to my students tomorrow. Can you please help? The final version is no longer in MY STORYBIRDS, either????
My students and I would also like very much to print copies of our work. We would also like the ability to put more than one picture on a page. Sound would be terrifice. Any chance of getting a printed copy of Many Children by November 10th, our Cultural Night?
Hi there strietelmeierr - sorry to hear you're having problems. Can you email us the names of the Storybird you had trouble with and any other details that might help us figure it out? Email to: support [at] storybird [dot] com.
Regarding printing, our service will not be launched in time (sorry!) and we are definitely also working on the ability to put more than one picture on a page :)
jophster, thanks for all your kind words :) we were thrilled to be featured on the BBC. What do you mean by 'digitally sign our work'? Sounds interesting, just not sure what you mean.
Tahu1, if you haven't already, email us at: support [at] storybird [dot] com and please provide us with the name of the rogue Storybird.
The MIA Storybird is called Many Children and my students and I were working on it for a couple of weeks. I finalized last night and posted that story along with a couple others that published in their final version. The final copy of Many Children had around 20 pages. I published last night around 9:30 at the same time as Another World by ELLs at Jackson Elementary and Why Is that Mouse Rolling a Donut, a bedtime story by my son.
Maybe Tahu1 got my final Many Children Storybird?
Fabulous! Can't wait to use this with my class too. All the things I'd like to change like have a search facility and upload my own photos/images have already been said. I'd like to be able to change the font and size, as I seemed to write too much for the page and perhaps a spell check would be useful too! Keep up the good work!
Problem solved: @strietelmeierr's book restored. Yay!
Thanks @emmabarker! You'll be happy to know that a new upgrade to Storymaker will allow multiple sizes to the same image. So instead of one fixed size (for instance, panoramic) the image can have multiple locations/sizes—leaving more or less room for text. Re: spellcheck. It'll come in a later release and probably be optional (many people are using SB to focus on spelling and don't want to give kids have this feature ;)
I think that it would be good to have a final spellcheck option just before publishing but not have a "word" type underline feature as I think that writing these stories is helping my children recognize their own spelling mistakes. Is there likely to be a book printing option in time for Xmas as I would love to be able to give out books that my children make as presents.
Also regarding book pricing. It would be lovely if they were cheap enough to buy them regularly. as I'm sure that like me many parents would like to buy all of the books that their child has worked on!
Also just reading back through the other comments I see you mention prices in US Dollars. Will there be a UK postage option for the printed books? I really hope so! Also Paypal as a payment method would be great!
One more thing... It would be great if it was possible to see the age of the author it would really help when leaving comments to know if a 5 yr old wrote it or an adult!
I'm having my high school students use Storybird as a vocabulary activity. Unfortunately, it's not saving all of the pages they write. What can we do? This is a great vocabulary tool for all ages. Thanks!
@jvdemeritte As you are writing your stories, do you see the save time in the top right hand of the Storycreator showing you a recent time? It is supposed to be saving every few seconds (though I don't know the exact time lapse between auto saves) and will show you the most recent time the pages were saved. If it is not saving every once and awhile automatically, there might be another issue. Also, you might want to instruct/remind all your students to make sure to hit the save button and then choose the "Save and close" under the "menu" button. I know with my own students that they very often forget to save their work and will just close the whole internet browser window which will definitely result in lost pages. However, you are probably doing that already. I know I sometimes forget to tell my students that and it results in lost work. I think that it's great that you are using it as a vocabulary tool with your High School students. What a great way to have fun and learn even with older students!
@Purplesteffi: re spelling: agree, nothing obvious. We're thinking it'll be an on/off function too, so teachers or parents can disable it for certain occasions. Re printing: we're hoping to have something in place for the holidays. Same thing for UK shipments; it's definitely part of the plan. Regarding the author age: unlikely, since we don't want to expose any more details about members than their stories. Our view is that the story generally suggests an age/maturity of the author and that comments should follow suit.
I've tried a few more times and the save function seems somewhat broken. Sometimes it'll save the page I've just worked on and at other times it doesn't.
Hey Ethan, just sent a reply to your email. Team's looking into it.
I haven't read but a few of the comments - will do that soon - but LOVE your delightful art and the intutive, easy creation process. Glad to see that you are thinking of allowing uploads of personal art - although right now I am using this with young children and like the "safe" art work you have.
I love this site and so did my son. However, it was really frustrating to be unable to select stories based on target age, length, or in some way type re seriously a story or someone simply trying to figure out what they can do with the create area. Some of those type tend to just whither on the screen and confound my son and I. Personally, I think you should have something similar to youtube to determine most viewed, most libraried(coinage of term?), most loved, and such, but all targeted at this site's potential viewers-kids and parents. You will develop sort of star artists, but also writers as well. I'd love to see those most popular stories then be re-worked with the artist, with greater depth and more panels so the author can develop it more and more. Braiding/branching would be really cool as well, but before that navigation through this beyond the many pages of recent storybirds has to be resolved.
@maogli Hi! I think that the search features and sorting features have been mentioned in previous posts as being part of future upgrades as some of the other kinks are sorted out. I believe that if you look in earlier posts Mark has mentioned that they are working on a better filtering system for later versions. As this is only still in Beta, we may have to wait a little bit as other issues with higher priority are worked out. I agree though that it would be great to find a way to sort and find some of the great books that are being written by the community! I think the idea of popular stories being re-worked as comments come in would be great particularly in the education system with students getting feedback on their writing and finding ways to improve their stories.
@suep1223: Thanks for the kind words. To be clear on artwork: it will always be family friendly, whether it's issued by "dispensing artists" or uploaded by members into personal stories and shared publicly. Anything that's inappropriate is not accepted.
@maogli: as Ian noted...it's a matter of time. We're just 8 weeks old and have a feature roadmap that's quite extensive. But worry not—the READ section is an entire universe unto itself and will mature dramatically with each new release. Coming up soon: find (notable) stories by age and themes, along with an author spotlight. (PS. You're right about star artists AND star authors. We're already seeing some great work from kids, teens, and adults.) And down the road: search, extensive filtering, visual book search, mobile/iPhone books, following...lots of great ways to search, browse, follow, and serendipitously find great stories that fit your family or students.
This is simple and cool UI, CONGRATS!
Prakashan
http://www.toondoo.com
This is a pretty cool website......................................
but how do I put art on here?
@iross Uploading your own art for your stories will be a part of future releases. However, if you are an artist looking for a way to get involved in Storybird, check out the artist info/faq section located at:
http://storybird.com/artists
How long after we send a story to publish will it take for it to show up on the Recent Storybirds page?
We love this !
it was really great when i did the first story but with the one i'm trying to do now it's not saving properly and everytime i go back to it it's deleted like 10 pages... it might be something with my computer but i'm not sure- it's so frustrating because when it works it's brilliant!
Why don't you put a button where you can print the story? I'm trying to print it out but it's not working.
@figmalix: Printing will be a paid option available later on. In one of the earlier posts, Mark mentioned some of the pricing options that will be available later on:
"As for printing, we're studying several options that look something like this:
-PDFs: $1-$2
-Softcover: $10-$15
-Hardcover: $20-$25
-Premium: $35-$45
We're also planning some other great format, like minibooks and sequential stories (you mail someone one story panel at a time). We'll figure those out as we go."
I'm not sure that will be an option to print as a regular document as if you were printing a web page or word document. Hope that helps.
Mark, So many thanks, in eight languages, to you and Adam and your staff for finding my story in time for Monday's class. We all loved presenting to our friends. Ditto on the being able to buy, buy to print, at teacher/parent prices all the books my students and son work on as well as many others. Also ditto on the spell check and different sizes for images and more than one picture per page. Ditto too, unfortunately, on losing supposedly saved pages. Sometime it save as edited and sometimes not??? Lastly, KEEP UP THE INCREDIBLE WORK!
@slhbc: it takes anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on volume of Storybirds in the moderation queue.
@strietelmeierr: thanks for the kind words. We're adding your dittos to the vote tally ;)
I am just starting to use it and I love it, is a great tool to keep in touch in a fun way. I totally agree with your "to do" list.
@CeliaMorris: I'm sorry you're having trouble saving, there are still a few bugs in the system that we're trying to flush out. Is there a particular story that's giving you trouble? If so, what's the name of the story? Did you get a message within Storymaker about having trouble saving your work?
I downloaded the flash plugin for firefox and IE but I still can't play the flash videos in your site. What should I do?
@rezaxboy: let us know if you're able to view this video: http://bit.ly/28Gm2k
Mark, is it just me or after I've publically published a story and then go into edit the story, the changes do not save. Last week I had a problem and this week's story is giving me fits this morning. It saves that the changes are saving and I read a save story with the changes and then I go to bed and when I wake up, story reverts back to no changes. Can you or Adam help me understand what I'm not understanding. My students and I do a lot of rewriting and rewriting and editing and peer editing on paper and then they give me their work and I compile and put into stories. I usually do this after my son goes to bed late night grading papers and posting storybird words. It's quite exhausting to wake up and find all that work not saved. After last week's epsidose,this morning when I found an unsave storybird, I checked to make sure the papers I graded still had grades on them this morning..??? They did but Storybird saves did not.....??? The students and I are loving this and it's part of our daily writing but teacher can't take the late nate changes not saving.
@strietelmeierr: I just sent you an email, so we can figure out what's going on here.
Adam, My little one woke up with a fever yesterday. Couldn't get back to you. I'll email you now as changes are still not saving.
can i search somehow for my friend's work?
@Kprox12: not yet. Search is coming in the next couple of releases, but until then, you'll need to ask your friend to email you the URL or her book.
good to hear that your making a search because it took me 20 minutes just to get back to the monsters section in art i had to just keep pressing reload
raven12: we've got a great search prototype right now. Not too long... (and, until then, let's just use the word "serendipity" for how people find things ;)
CAN WE HAVE A SEARCH BOX??????
@brittanyforte: I believe that if you read the last couple of comments you will see that a search function is in the works and will be available in the next versions of Storybird.
Help, I have a story that's published that I'd like to embed on my website. However, there is not an embed option. It only allows me to email it to a friend. What do I need to do?
@shermanssuperstars: Storybirds that are publicly shared are moderated. During the time they're in the moderation queue, you don't have social sharing or embed features available. That said, all of your SBs have been approved, so if you recheck the page, you'll find the tools you're looking for.
I'm frustrated! It's not saving my changes! When I go back to work on my storybird, something happens and my work is lost!
My problem is if we can make our pictures or get from internet?
I love this!! I have created one for staff development with my elementary teachers. I want to add it to my website, but can't find an embed code. Please help.
Thanks,
Kelli Erwin
Instructional Specialist
Pasadena ISD
My students and I are writing storybirds as biographies of important people in our lives. Unfortunately, some of them have had problems with the site.
Can you make changes after a storybird has been published?
Is there a way to use more than one artist's work?
Some of my students are having problems with saving. They save the work, but when they continue, the work they saved is gone.
Overall it has been a positive experience for them.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Diggs
Hall High School
English
Little Rock, AR
@Oakheart: The ability to use your own pictures is coming as a later feature. I am not sure about the use of images from the internet as there might be a copyright issue but I think somewhere in this list Mark mentioned the possibility of using images from your own flickr account (though now I can't find the mention. Mark might have to elaborate/verify this)
@kgreenerwin: Hi! I love the idea of using these as staff development. I am going to be doing the same myself early next year as we are exploring the use of blogs as a staff and how things can be added to them to create a more dynamic use of blogs. You may not be seeing the embedding feature yet as every story is moderated before becoming available to the public to ensure that this site continues to be a safe community for all ages. Once your story is out of the moderation queue, you will see the embed feature above your published story. Just click on that link and you will get some choices for embedding.
@jenniferdiggs: Hi! You can absolutely make changes after you have published your story. Just click on the published story you want to edit. On the right hand side you will see a section titled "About This Story". Towards the bottom of that area, you will see a link in blue titled "Edit Story". Click on that link and it will take you to the Storymaker where you can then make changes, add, delete etc.
Currently, there is no way to use different artists at the same time. However, Mark et al. have been working on a feature called "Visual Typing". Visual Typing scans for keywords as you type your story. As you type in certain keywords, the Visual Typing feature will search for art that has been tagged with those keywords and bring the art up onto the Storymaker display for you to use. It is a really cool feature. It was up for a bit but was taken down while the Storybird team works out some kinks. When they have it up and running it will draw on a wider range of artists to bring you artwork that coincides with your topic.
As for the saving, the storybird team may need to deal with that on a story by story basis.
@jenniferdiggs: some of those Storybirds may have been returned as not viable for the PUBLIC library because they contain identifying information about the author or the subject. You can have students edit those portions out, or mark them as private.
Yes, you can edit Storybirds as many times as you'd like—just like a blog post. Simply click on the "Edit this story" link underneath "More about this Storybird" in the bottom right corner of the Storybird page.
For now, you can use multiple artists by choosing a theme (Option B in "Create") and using the link in the top right corner to "Start a Storybird with art tagged xx" That will launch Storymaker with all art tagged by that theme, irrespective of artist. That said, we'll be releasing Visual Typing shortly, which surfaces art as you write based on matching your keywords to the art tags in the database. It's quite magical and fun.
As for saving, some members have mentioned an inability to save previous work, a bug that we have not been able to replicate yet. Given how much Storymaker saves information as you use it, and given a member's occasional hiccup with their Internet connection, this blip is bound to happen and create a "ghost in the machine." The best advice we've heard from members who shook it off was shutting down, trying the next day, or switching browsers. We're working on this one...
Glad to hear the kids are enjoying it. If you encounter any further hiccups, you can always email us: support [at] storybird [dot] com
Ian: lol. Sorry, for some reason I hadn't seen your response to Jennifer. Thanks for keeping me covered ;) @jenniferdiggs: here at Storybird, you get two answers for the price of one. And from handsome men, no less ;)
please add a search engine/bar to storybird. without it, it takes me about a DAY to look for a single theme. i consider that a waste of time and would love to see a search bar when i look for themes.
@mark: And thanks to you for reminding about the Option B in "Create" which I had forgotten about as a way to use multiple artists. :)
my friend and i have tried to collaborate a story and everytime it is my turn and i do some work on it, and it will not save my work. I also think that you should have like a search bar where people can search other users and their storybirds
I think that there should be a search bar so a person can find a story easily comparing to have to flip though at least 10 pages. I also think that a person should be able to choose their own colours for story and a person should also be able to choose pictures from more than one artist that way, a person has more variety.
@prettyone2011 @jellybeanlvr: we'll be adding search in the next release: you'll be able to search for members, Storybirds, art, and artists.
make it easy to make it public
@famerbrown: what did you find hard about making Storybirds public?
There is no Theme button when I'm trying to create a story. I can only use the thumbnail images first supplied.
Also, a Search option for themes would be great.
@LibertyTales: Choosing themes is a great way to get a variety of images/ideas around a particular keyword. At the beginning, when you are just starting to create a story, you will be asked if you would like to start a story using a particular artist style (Option A) or start a story based on a particular theme/keyword (Option B). Once you have chosen Option A or B, the Storymaker area will appear with images based on the option you chose. Once you have started your story, you can not then choose "Themes" to get more pictures. You can only use the images that have been supplied for you at that point.
However, the Storybird team have a very neat feature which will be rolled out in a later version. "Visual Typing" will add images to your Storymaker work area as you type using keywords in your story to search for images tagged with those keywords. Thus, as you type, more images will be added according to the themes or keywords you are typing into your story. I can't wait for this feature. I myself have a story that I am holding onto until this feature goes live.
why dont we write like chapter books
@eliza101: I think the great thing about Storybird is that it can be whatever you want it to be . . . if you use just a little creativity. So, while Storybird may not be set up for writing a novel length chapter book per say, I think there are still infinite possibilities for writing a chapter book along the lines of Frog and Toad, Nate the Great, etc.
CAN WE SEARCH STORY BIRDS THERES SO MANY
Can you put a alphabetizing button or something?
when will you add a search button?
@lainey @figmalix @maplegears: search is coming soon.
Today is 11/16 at 2:02 EST. The demo won't run. :( I'm looking forward to seeing this in action.
@biddinn: are you running a current version of Flash? If so, are you able to view any videos from Vimeo.com? (They host our videos.) If no, is it possible your're behind a firewall that blocks the Vimeo domain?
Will it soon be possible to have more than one artist on one of our storybirds?
I know many artists dont want their work mixed with others, but if this can be done if the artist "agrees" to have their art mixed with anothers.
This way, we can have a more impactive and memorable story for everyone to enjoy.
Great job guys.
@Dessiato: For now, you can use multiple artists by choosing a theme (Option B in "Create") and using the link in the top right corner to "Start a Storybird with art tagged xx" That will launch Storymaker with all art tagged by that theme, irrespective of artist. That said, we'll be releasing Visual Typing shortly, which surfaces art as you write based on matching your keywords to the art tags in the database. It's quite magical and fun and accomplishes what you're looking for.
Thank you very much. I didn't notice that.
Hi Mark!
It will be nice if the writers could leave a short profile about who they are, like the artists have been able to. =)
As a mother, a writer/scriptwriter, educator and a part-time graphic artist myself, I really am falling deeply in love with Storybird. My husband has been so bemused by my little booklets, and my son loves them. I found out about Storybird through a local magazine (I am a Singaporean fyi) and once I hopped on to your website, it's been such a ride! ^.^
Can't wait for Visual Typing! Such exciting news... =D
Please put the newest stories first when we click to explore the latest storybirds? That will be nice. I wondered why it's always the same old storybirds when I click to explore, and I realised that it is always the oldest storybirds that pop up first.
Me and medthatred were working on a story I made but unfortunately I deleted the 1st page (before I invited him) but the book still has a cover and both of us can't make new pages or delete the book please help us!
@hungribunni: thanks for all the kind words—and your great words bundled up in stories. Looking forward to many more ;) As for profile info—tricky. Unlike Flickr or Vimeo, a good chunk of our members are kids and enabling profile information is too risky. However, we will be adding some nifty features to let members further personalize their experience (shareable reading lists, profile page configurations, etc) and "imply" their persona to the world.
@kaelenwee: we're redesigning the Read page over the next month and adding search; it'll be much easier to find things specifically and much more enjoyable to discover things serendipitously. Stay tuned.
@tom_da_budjito: have @medthatred "Opt out" of the Storybird via the Details page. After that, you'll be able to delete the book and start over. Ping us if you still have trouble: support [at] storybird [dot] com
@mark: Thank you for your encouragement, many pages it will fuel. As it is I think I've written 2 more Storybirds that are new. As a mother, I totally understand what you mean about kids. Security in today's society is very, very key indeed. There are afterall always wolves pretending to be dressed as sheep. =p
I just want to say, storybird is an exellent website.
A simple request where is the print option? Can I print straight to paper at any stage?
@lhusarek: Right now there is no way to print out your stories. At some point in the future, the ability to print out your story creation will be available as a paid option with different formats available. However, you can embed your stories in websites or blogs by clicking on the "embed & badges" option above your published stories.
Well....I think that maybe either more choice of illustrations or people could import their own illustrations.
Great fun!
Is there a way to shuffle the order of the story pages?
Also, maybe don't hide this comment box way down at the bottom of the page.
How about an 'image stringer'. Some way of recommending what your next frame could be based on slider settings of 'others have used' or 'by theme' or 'the artist recommends' or 'same characters' etc.
@rockchick: our library of images will continue to grow as new artist join and existing artists continue to release new work. When we started 8 weeks ago, we had five artists. Today we almost 20 artists. This will continue. As for uploading your own images/art, that function comes next year.
@harnden: thanks! Page re-ordering comes in a week or two, along with a new dock and a few other features inside Storymaker. As for an "image stringer," we'll be adding "art interactions" that make it easy to find alternate poses or images.
@Franglish5: Sorry to hear that you are having problems with Flash. Even though you may already have flashplayer on your computer, Adobe often updates it with fixes to bug issues and general usability. This requires people like you and me to also have to update from time to time to get the newest version. While an old version of flash will work for awhile, eventually you will have to update or your flash will just stop working as that version of Flash is no longer acceptable/outdated.
On other occasions, if I am having issues with flash, I just update and re-install anyway to see if that is the actual issue. If updating/re-installing flash does not solve the issue, then I know I have another problem I have to deal with. So, long story short, I would go ahead and update flash and see if you just needed a newer version or to see if there may be another conflict going on that needs to be addressed. Hope that helps!
Ian
Thank you so much it is fixed. On another note...I am trying to make a storybird but after I have started I am not able to add any more pictures to my thumbnails grouping. Am I missing something, or is that feature not imbedded yet?
BTW: I love this and my Professor showed it to us for an Educational Psych class. I plan on using this in my classroom, so please send an "Ataboy" to the creator!
@Franglish5: Glad to hear the Flash problem is solved. When you are first setting up your Storybird, you will be given an option to choose pictures by artist or by theme. If you choose pictures by artist, you will only get the work of that particular artist. The theme option gives more variety. However, with both options, once you have started your Storybird and are in the Storymaker, you can not add more pictures. You can just use the ones you have been given. Having said that, in one of the future versions of the site, the Storybird team will be enabling a feature called "Visual Typing". Visual typing is a very cool feature that will add more pictures as you type your story. The Storymaker will pick out keywords from the text you are writing and cross-reference those keywords with the image tags it has stored. If there are matches, the Storymaker will automatically add those pictures to your Storymaker image area. It is a really neat feature and one that I am looking forward to!
Ian
It says that my storybird is published on my page, but if you click on my name under my other storybird, it does not show up. Can you fix this?
@Lizard1212: Mark may have to answer this one but could it be that it has not been through the moderation process yet and that is why it is not showing when you click your name on your other Storybird? Maybe check again later and see if the same thing still happens.
@Lizard1212: As Ian suspected, your Storybird was still in the approval queue; until it's ok'd, it won't show up in the public timeline or your public profile. It should be there now.
@Franglish5: Let us know how Storybird fares in your classroom!
I know this is probably silly. But I guess you can't print out the stories?
@tinaliong: No question is silly! Printing Storybirds will become an option in later versions with a few different types of printing you can purchase being made available including hard covers, soft covers, etc.
Having said that (re: "no question is silly"), any plans for fashionable Storybird t-shirts? :)
Ian
Tshirts! Yes. In the new year. After we launch printing... ;)
My daughter wrote 11 pages of a story which were saved. She then wrote a further 9 pages and despite saving it, lost the 9 pages. I have tried saving on her story but it wont save any more than the eleven pages she had done before. Please can you help.
@chocolate: can you email us the name of the Storybird? We're support [at] storybird [dot] com. We'll see what's going on. PS. LOVE your username!
Hi. As chocolate says, I've been having the same problem with the two storybirds I've written. I've had to click out a lot, because it just said 'saving...' for ages. Then, when I got back in, it had saved the pages. I've also had the problem where when it said 'Last saved at (00:00)' it hasn't actually saved at all. In my last storybird, with 24 pages, I had to click out about 5 times.
Also, I dont know if you can search for storybirds, but it isn't entirely obvious if you can. If there isn't an option to search, I think it would be a good idea to include that.
@martie: some members have mentioned an inability to save previous work as you mention, a bug that we have not been able to replicate yet. Given how much Storymaker saves information as you use it, and given a member's occasional hiccup with their Internet connection, this blip is bound to happen and create a "ghost in the machine." The best advice we've heard from members who shook it off was shutting down, trying the next day, or switching browsers. We're working on this one...
Re search: we launch search in a couple of weeks. You'll be able to search and filter for Storybirds, art, shops, and members. We've been playing with the prototype and it's coming together beautifully.
I really enjoy this space and think it has a tremendous amount of potential! Here is my "wish list" of things that would make my time at Storybird much more useful:
1) The ability to simply WRITE a story and have artists attach themselves to the prose--why not? As the writers have been inspired by the visual, could not an artist create pieces inspired by the written word?
2) The ability to build a personal library of my favorite art pieces--possibly mixing and matching different art portfolios in a single story.
3) Basic image editing functionality (crop, zoom, multiple images on a single page, etc.)
4) Custom layout templates (either allow us to create them or offer a wider variety of placement, etc).
5) Basic text tools: Spell check, Thesaurus, Word Count, etc.
Of course, I'm sure others have requested similar and I apologize for any repeat suggestions. I'm also not unhappy with this offering at all—a little muse landed on my shoulder this evening and actually got me to write something.
Thanks Storybird!
-n
Like the tags but there should be a search function for themes and Storybirds. If it is there it is not obvious enough for me to find.
AD
@Nobula @amold: thanks for the kind words. And welcome. Some answers:
1. The most literal response to this is Visual Typing, which we'll roll out shortly. VT allows you to simply write and we surface art that matches your keywords. It's quite magical and a lot of fun. As for artists creating new work, I think we'll see some response to trends. For instance, Chichiboulie added new tween girl characters once she saw stories forming around a smaller cast of her characters.
2. We'll be enabling "add to image library" next year. That way you can add any image you stumble upon to your library and retreive it within Storymaker. And vice versa: if you find some art in Storymaker, you can save it to the library and retrieve it for other stories.
3 & 4: We have a new feature launching in a couple of weeks that enables any image to have various layouts—rather than the one they occupy now. So you'll be able to choose from full screen, panoramic, half-page, and portrait for all the art. It's auto-cropping built-in.
5. We'll add spell check and a few other similar features next year, but make those optional settings since many parents and teachers don't want any language intervention.
6. Search: yes! Coming shortly. Just testing the prototype now.
FYI, I'm presenting this web 2.0 application to a room full of aspiring teachers at Temple University; i think this is a great tool to use inside the classroom starting at first grade, all the way through middle school! Great!
Just started playing around with your program and really like it. I teach Spanish and I cannot get accents to work in the text. Do you think you could support different characters? Thanks.
@lesliedart: Mark might have to speak more to this but I believe that at this time non-english characters are not being support for the time-being due in part to issues with moderation of stories in other languages. However, the Storybird team is planning in later versions to provide support and the ability to use foreign languages for stories. However, I think that is going to be much later down the road. If you are interested in maybe helping out with moderating or providing support for spanish language storybirds, maybe contact the Storybird team and let them know that you are interested in helping out once they get to that point in development.
Ian
@tuc25568: Sounds like a great class! I would be interested (as well as maybe other teachers here) to know what ideas you develop as to how to integrate Storybirds into the classroom particularly at the Grade 1 level. Maybe we can get Mark and the Storybird team to start a new thread for teachers to share ideas at the different grade levels on neat ways to bring this awesome and powerful tool into the classroom, i.e ways to teach students to use the site (introducing it, helping students to navigate it, etc), cross-curriculum links, etc.
Ian
@tuc2556: thanks! We're seeing students from K-12, even college and university. Shift in usage, of course. Early language skills up to advanced writing.
@lesliedart: Storymaker (our core story engine) does support various language characters, but it's your browser that makes the difference. Safari DOES support special characters inside of Flash while Firefox does NOT.
As for non-English stories: you're free to make Storybirds in languages other than English, but you'll only be able to use them in your PRIVATE library (and share via email; embeds are not available for private Storybirds). We don't currently accept non-English stories into the PUBLIC library because we can't moderate them and therefore can't verify their content to our members. However, we are looking into creating a volunteer team next year to help moderate Spanish, Portuguese, German, and French SBs.
@Ian: a new thread for teachers might be a good idea...
you should make more artwork to choose from, and also, it would be great to be able to make a storybird out of 2 or more themes/artists
@BaBa: Storybird is growing everyday and more artists and images are being added. As the site continues to grow and more users are attracted to the wonderful possibilities, I think we will also see a growth in the number of artists who want to be attached to the site and see it as a way that they can showcase their work in rich and diverse ways. So tell everyone you know about the site! Artists are also responding to trends in the usage of their images. For example, if artists are seeing alot of use from a certain type of image, they may be more likely to add more images featuring that style, character, etc.
In response to the second part, the Storybird team is working on "Visual Typing". Once activated, "visual typing" will go through your stories and select keywords that match the keywords attached to images in the system. Once matched, the system will add them to your collection to use. As you are typing, images will appear that match the words you are typing. It is really quite magical and allows for use of images from a broader range of collections.
Ian
Dear StoryBird,
I just have a question. Can there be a search box, for search within the site of Storybird? I mean it would a whole lot easier to search stuff around here.
Oh and also... how long is the Art shop thingy?-'Cause... I have a Storybird due on the 2nd of December and all I got done are the drawings. It's not enough time.-My partner hasn't done anything yet. I can't wait that much longer.
Sincerely, Soapy
Hey there.
Love this and will be introducing it to the teachers in Lincolnshire. Small bug though, it doen't seem to update when I save an edited story. Thanks
Andy
@SoapyW: Search is coming very soon. The Storybird team is just doing some testing of the search system and will announce when it is ready. As for the "Art shop thingy" ... Can you be a little bit more specific? Are you talking about having art approved as an artist?
Ian
We used storybird this morning. My kids love it but we have to have accents on many of our words. Thanks.
@dve: glad to hear you're liking it. Storymaker (our core story engine) does support various language characters, but it's your browser that makes the difference. Safari DOES support special characters inside of Flash while Firefox does NOT.
@Ian: Yeah, by the approved to be an artist. I need to get this done as soon as possible. I only have one day to finish.
SoapyW
how do you upload pictures from storybird ?
@SoapyW: Mark will have to answer your question as to the approval process for artists.
@iridescentpurple: At this point, users do not have the ability to upload pictures to or from Storybird. I believe that in later versions, the Storybird Maker will allow you upload photos to use but I do not know as to when that will be. For now, you can only use the images supplied by the artists though I shouldn't say only because there are hundreds of wonderful and beautiful images that have been created and are continuously being made by incredible artists!
@soapyw @ iridescentpurple Personal uploads will be available next year, most likely in the spring.
First - this is an amazing product. The teachers that I work with love using it with their students. The one bug that we found was that if they make a mistake - then try to edit a published story - the revision does not show up in the story, it only appears in the preview. Are we doing something wrong? Thanks! Keep up the awesome work!
@dmileham: thx for the kind words. Great to hear your feedback. Now, I need to ask about your bug. This is what I *think* you're saying: 1) you make a Storybird, publish it, and generate a Storybird page (the place where you can make comments, heart, share, etc). 2) You use the "Edit Story" link, go back into Storymaker (which I think you're calling "preview") to make the changes and then Save & Close. 3) Back on your Storybird page, you open up the story but the changes you made in Storymaker don't show. The book is the way it was back in step #1. In other words, your edits aren't sticking. Is that correct?
If that's not accurate, let me know.
If that IS accurate: some members have mentioned an inability to save previous work as you mention, a bug that we have not been able to replicate yet. Given how much Storymaker saves information as you use it, and given a member's occasional hiccup with their Internet connection, this blip creates a "ghost in the machine." The best advice we've heard from members who shook it off was shutting down, trying the next day, or switching browsers. (We're working on this one...)
this is an amazing website and i want to know one thing. when is the next vol. coming out
This is awesome! I'd love to see a "search" for artwork added. I'm looking for a gingerbread man, and that would make it so much easier!
This is great, Mark. Thanks for sharing your talent with the world. I would like to see a way to look at the thumbnails and "stash" the ones I want. Then clear the rest off of the work space.
@michaelr9a: We're constantly releasing updates to the site. We have some good stuff that we're exciting about releasing throughout the month of December.
@jppsstech11: Search in a couple of different forms is coming soon. Along with a traditional search (which is currently slated for January), we'll soon be turning on Visual Typing which will let you find gingerbread man art from right within Storymaker.
@jppsstech05: A thumbnail "stash" is something we've discussed. It's a good idea and I think it's something we'll add at some point.
Hello. I used a little bit, I think is beautiful! But I'm a spanish speaker and I have some problems with any letters to write like: Ñ ñ á é í ó ú, this letters are very used by spanish writers and we need it.
@marcia73: Thanks for the kind words! Storymaker (our core story engine) does support various language characters, but it's your browser that makes the difference. Safari DOES support special characters inside of Flash while Firefox does NOT.
Dear Mark and all at Storybird,
I woke up this morning to find I was a 'featured' writer here on Storybird. I am so amazed and touched. It has been such a wonderful thing to do and, as there are so many beautiful and talented artists to work with, it is always a joy.
Thankyou to everyone for their encouragement and kind words...and I am also glad that so many of you have hugged their cats a little bit closer because of 'A lesson in love'!.xxx
@justme: Easy choice. You rock.
i ove making storys and some day i whant to be a famous writer ! i love story bird!!!!!!!!
Hi Storybird, I have a questions. Why are some of the words in my story highlighting? It gets a little annoying. I'm sure that it's not an editing issue, because it keeps highlighting simple four-letter words.
@tarabear2340: thx! But don't focus on being a famous writer. Focus on being a good writer ;)
@gabbygoo: nice catch. We updated Storymaker with the fancy dock and forget to hide Visual Typing, which is coming soon. Those blue links will soon trigger artwork when you click them. We'll be turning off the blue highlight shortly.
I have added pages to my storybird and then saved but they are not there when I go back to work on my storybird again. This has happened a few times in the past hour. Help, please.
@estev: some members have mentioned an inability to save previous work as you mention, a bug that we have not been able to replicate yet. Given how much Storymaker saves information as you use it, and given a member's occasional hiccup with their Internet connection, this blip creates a "ghost in the machine." The best advice we've heard from members who shook it off was shutting down, trying the next day, or switching browsers. (We're working on this one...)
I am trying to introduce your software to my teachers. But just since yesterday, your site now says I need the latest flashplayer which adobe says I already have. I have uninstalled and re-installed. Your site seems to be the only one complaining about my flashplayer. Could this be a big? Any suggestions?
@tmitchellcms: we're not aware of any current bugs with Flash Player installation. Have you tried accessing Storybird through another browser with similar results?
@Mark: At my parent conferences, I had a parent tell me that they had had the same issue with their flash despite having just upgraded as well. They said they had just upgraded a couple of days a go and had done it a couple of times. not sure that is helpful without details on their browser and such.
Ian
Hi, love the site. Had great fun making my first storybird "Meet the Blobleys" from the great art available here. I notice some people seem to be having a problem with requiring a Flash update, even though just done that. I had the same problem, but then I'm running IE 6, perhaps this is the reason? I tried it in Firefox 3.0.10 and it was fine.
I found out about this site from the BBC Click website. Looking forward to the next version, but agree with keeping the simplicity.
One thing I did notice, you might want to correct is the Terms of Service (does anybody else ever read these?). The very last line is in French (a translation of the last line?)
Also in your Artist FAQ is a little typo: concetp instead of concept (and yes I like chocolate too!)
Haven't found an easy way to delete a StoryBird yet.
Any idea of when the ecommerce side will be working?
Keep up the good work!
@ian @ayreguitar: We'll check re IE6 when asking about future Flash upgrade bugs. That said, the whole web is a miserable place to be with IE6 ;)
@ayreguitar: Thanks for the kind words—and typo catches. Re deleting: we didn't want to make it too easy given shared family computers et al. You'll find "Delete this Storybird" at the bottom of the Details page (the one where you tagged the story and set its privacy, etc). When it's unpublished, the Details link is on your dashboard. After it's published, you'll find the "Edit Details" link on the bottom right corner of the Storybird page.
Commerce—notably, printing—will come onstream next Feb/March. We'll have PDF, softcover, and hardcover versions available.
PS: @ayreguitar: if you're going through the hassles of switching browsers, reading our terms of service, catching typos in our artist FAQ, and still staying upbeat—you deserve some chocolate love. Ping us with your address and a box of molten cocoa is yours to devour. We're info [at] storybird [dot] com
why dont we make it into age group for book when finding one to read.
I created an account and a storybook using storyboard a couple of days ago - but afterwards, I can't log in and can't even view my published work :( hope the bugs can be fixed..
@Stephanietanzil: your account is activated and looks normal. Why weren't you able to log in?
My students love the site.
I emailed one of the stories to someone but then couldn't open it. They don't have to login to storybird???
Can we embed the stories in a blog or wiki? What is the difference between a "published" and "public" story.
Thanks.
@dve: Glad to hear they're loving the site. Tell them we say thanks.
-You don't have to be logged into SB to read stories. But you do need Flash.
-You can embed any PUBLIC Storybird. You'll find the link above the cover of your book.
-Published means it's done and "published," like a blog post. Public or Private are the settings you apply to a Published Storybird. Public means anyone can see it (and you can embed them). Private means only those you share it with can see it.
-Like a blog post, you can always edit your Storybirds after they've been published to fix errors, update them, etc. Use the Edit Details link in the bottom right corner of the Storybird page.
Cheers.
i install the flash player and it says that i did not and it make me do it again and again!!!!!
I'm a Dutch teacher and think the program is really nice for our English lessons, but when I create new pages, Í save them, but the next time i open the book, they're gone.
What do I do wrong??
@malia3000: Which browser are you using? There are some reports that Internet Explorer 6 might be a problem. Maybe try upgrading to the latest version of whichever browser you are using and trying to update flash again.
I love this site
My avatar cant change!
@ellis: I see a girl in your avatar. Is that the one you wanted? Or are you trying to change it to something else? If you want to change it to something else, go here:
http://storybird.com/accounts/settings/avatar/
...and upload a new picture.
If you're still having trouble, email us at support [at] storybird [dot] com
@moonandchi: thanks! we love it too.
I have a simple suggestion- I <3 reading stories but I'd love to have a button that comes up at the end so I can easily close the window after I'm done reading without having to press esc.
I haven't read all the comments here, so forgive me if I'm repeating. Is it possible for me to make a Storybird using my own illustrations?
@brittanymorgan: agreed. We have some changes coming to the reader in the new year that will resolve that. We'll also be introducing a feature for reading lists that lets you queue up several SBs (of your choosing) and read them all in the player without having to close/find/open/etc.
@dawnschreiner: we'll be introducing personal uploads next year as part of the premium service.
I just want to thank you for a really great website. I teach in an international school and have introduced storybird to the students, they absolutely love it! They are so motivated to write and are delighted by the feedback they can give and receive about their storybirds. It is also a great way to communicate with friends and family in other places they have lived. Thanks so much:) What a brilliant idea!
@jenbird23: Thanks! It's great to hear that kind of feedback. Tell the kids we say hi!
I was going to ask about using more than one artist, but I'm sure that's addressed somewhere here. So all I'll say is - this is amazing. Just a brilliant idea, very well-executed, that has the perfect mix of structure and freedom. As a former teacher I can speak to the need we all have for structure to be creative. Many people associate creativity with absolute freedom, but our minds are like children playing and we need those jungle gyms to get us started. I hope that wherever Storybird goes it never loses it's vision of providing a specifically structured place for people to tell stories.
Just well done all round.
jbuss says: I have a student who would like to use a picture of fireworks in their storybird story. Do you have any pictures that could be used?
@thesundaybest: we'll be turning on Visual Typing in January. That triggers artwork based on your keywords and works across the artist range. As for structure vs freedom: we're big believers in constraint-based design and focusing people on the act of storytelling. Everything we do revolves around stripping away the noise. Well, that and making things shiny.
@jbuss: currently, the only images available in Storybird are those provided by the artist shops. To our knowledge, none currently have fireworks (when we launch search in January you'll be able to look for specific artwork). Next year, though, we'll be adding "personal uploads" so members can import their own images when required.
hi
umm well i recon story bird is great
great!
There are afew bugs I would like to report:
. When i click 'open' on a storybird it says i need adobe flash player when I already have it
.it looked like my avatar wasnt updating
and those are my reported bugs.
@Iceypole7: One of the things I always try first is making sure that I am updated to the most recent version of browser, flash or whatever ever it may be. For your flash issues, there have been reports that there could be a problem with IE6 and using flash on the site. As well, you can also update your flash even if you already have. Adobe is always updating flash and a lot of times, just updating to the most recent version can help with these types of issues. When you go to the Flash site, it should either begin to upgrade your flash or tell you that you have the most recent version. You could also find the physical file of Flash on your computer and check in the properties to see if you have the most recent version.
Not sure about the avatar. Someone else was having a problem with that as well but I have never experienced that issue. I don't know if the other issue was resolved or not.
Hope that helps,
Ian
Please advise how to use with a class of 12 year olds re: privacy. I can't let them use their e-mails (our district won't allow that). Can they use my e-mail for every one of them? Can I create a class e-mail that they then all use? Can I create a 'class account' that they can then all log into (they do all have a sign in number for our computer log ins and could use those)...Thank you.
@mslaneeus: contact us at info [at] storybird [dot] com and we'll give you some details on how to manage your situation in the short term. (We'll be rolling out teacher/class accounts in 2010.)
WOW THIS STORYBIRD ISN'T WELL KNOWN BUT GRATE ALL THE MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am really excited about storybird, but I ran into a rather annoying bug. I was typing in text to a page and it kept getting erased as the page would refresh or save. I eventually had to delete the page and could not continue to create the story. Let me know if this is just me or if it is a known bug. I tried it on Chrome and Firefox on OS X 10.5.8
Thanks for creating this great tool. I can't wait to recommend it to many other people.
Hi bhwilkoff – thanks for your kind words. It is a known bug that we're working on. I'll check in with Adam and some of the folks here and let them know about your post. Thanks!
Can (or is there a way) to search for tags. Something like a box that you can type the tag you want to see. You could do the same kind of thing to find artwork and storybirds. I love storybird. I hope that it goes further.
Lizard1212
Hi Lizard121– Searching for tags (and a lot more) is on it's way – we're working on it now, and hoping to launch it in January. You'll be able to search (and filter) for authors, artists, art, and Storybirds.
Hi bhwilkoff, this might be the known bug Kaye mentioned (we're working on that one right now), but the way you're describing it sounds slightly different.
Do you mean the text was disappearing while you're within Storymaker (editing the story)? So you'd switch pages within the story, and when you come back the text is gone? Or were you exiting out of Storymaker and when you go back in the text is gone?
Can you email us at support [at] storybird [dot] com with some details? The title of the story would also be helpful (or, if it doesn't have a title yet, the URL you're on when editing the story). Thanks!
Thank you Kaye.
my son lost the efforts of his last save, it reverted back to an earlier stopping point.
I think the same thing might have happened to my daughter yesterday but I originally thought she accidentally erased new text that we put on 6 or 7 pages. Now I think it might be the same glich.
@tsmotivator: we're going to email you directly about this.
The same thing happened to me exept that it deletes my story entirly
Hello my name is Lydia and i reciently wrote a book on story bird that had lots of feedback and I was wondereing if you could make it possible for me to purchase my own book and recieve it in the post published as i am very proud of my book thanks Lydia xx
Hi Lydia (fabgigglygirl) – congratulations on the book and the feedback! Printing will definitely be a core part of Storybird. We're working out all the logistics now and hope to launch it in early spring. We can't wait either!
Hi Lizard1212 – we're trying to track that one down as well and are interested in the details and may be able to get it back for you. Can you email us at support [at] storybird [dot] com with some details such as the title of the story and when you were working on it?
Hi all. I'm not answering a question or posting a bug. Just wanted to say how amazing you've all made this joint (I'm talking to you—the members—not Storybird staff, since I'm one of 'em). It's buzzing with great stories, smart people, and a sense of possibility. I always smile when I'm here, often laugh, and occasionally cry. It's such a great community. You. Guys. Rock.
@Mark Encouragement, humour, willingness to help and be there for people and great ideas that are simple but have a far reaching impact; those are the things that I think make this such a great place to be and hang out. That is what you and the storybird team do to help foster and encourage that community. I am always excited to check out what is happening and be a part of that community. Thank you. You. Guys. Rock. Too!
Ian
You have no search option. This is the major bug of this site.
@lebadusu: Search is coming soon. The Storybird team is working hard to get it up and working so that it is an effective search tool. One of the earlier comments from the Storybird team says that it is coming for January and that "you'll be able to search (and filter) for authors, artists, art, and Storybirds".
Ian
HELP! The save and close feature does not appear to working. It looks like it saved (returns you to the home page)- but the save isn't there.
I'm working with a class of 6th graders and I fear that their stories will be lost!
Please help- while I have used this before and things worked well- now I am unable to save anything! It looks like it is saving, but nothing happens!
The site is wonderful- but I having trouble saving things- sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I saw the post above- are you guys having a system issue?
@foland @bsdesantis: please email us: support [at] storybird [dot] com and tell us:
-the usernames affected (if more than one)
-the titles of the Storybirds affected
-what browser and operating system you're using
Also, do you have multiple people using the same username/account?
Thx! We're working on this.
Story bird is my favourite site
Hi everyone, I think we've finally fixed the saving issue that some people were having. It appears it was an issue that affected Internet Explorer only. If you have your browser open, please close and reopen it before trying to edit again, just to make sure you get the latest version of the site.
If anyone has this saving issue again, please let us know. Thanks for all of your patience and help in getting to the heart of this issue.
...and please write to Microsoft and ask them to make better browsers. KThxBye
Hi
Today I can't open any story to read it. After clicking on a story, I get a message to download a Flash update, even though I've already downloaded it. Also, if I want to create a story, I just get a black screen after clicking on Start a Storyboard with this artwork.
@scsRoom19: this was a small hiccup from solving the big bug yesterday. It should be gone by the time you read this. If not, can you tell us what OS/browser you're using?
Hi Mark
Yes, all fixed today. Thanks!
can i embed a storybird into our classroom blog?
@scsRoom19: yay!
@MrsC: yes. Look above the covers of the book and you'll see an embed link. (This doesn't show up automatically, however, since public Storybirds are moderated. During their time in the queue, social sharing and embeds are turned off).
Question - I noticed a Typo in my story after I published it. I went back and fixed the typo, hitting save again. It didn't update to the published version. Any ideas?
@jbrogley: can you look/try again and let us know what happens?
I am a grandparent of one of your young (8 year old) subscribers/authors. After viewing some of the icons and other material that you've made available for these youngsters to use in their stories, I believe your strategy/criteria for young minds to be creative leaves a whole lot to be desired. I'm not sure yet what your agenda is, but I'm sure there is an agenda in there, too subtle for me, yet, but I'll continue to research until there is something concrete for me to pursue. In the meantime, I strongly suggest you review your methodology for this site and be aware that you are being investigated.
Sincerely, ambergerc's grandfather Scott Chester
@scott: thanks for you comment and raising your concern. When you do identify what specifically bothers you about Storybird, please feel free to write it here or contact us directly at support [at] storybird [dot] com. Also, you may find this section for parents useful in understanding more about us and how we manage and moderate the site for kids: http://storybird.com/parents
I don't think Mermaid and baby art is suitable...
Check it again
Mermaid and baby by Victoria usova
Hello! It would be really interesting to implement a "search" option, since it would allow us users to search specific tags and stories quickly.
If there is one already, I'm sorry, but I can't seem to find it anywhere :)
@storyempress: we'll consider that flagged. Thx.
@miquelangelfuentes: search is on its way. It's scheduled for a January/early Feb release. Working out the kinks of the prototype and, as always, trying to simplify it. Thx!
The site needs a search feature
The site needs a search feature
@kjp1996: As Mark stated above, search is scheduled for a January/early Feb release. We're all looking forward to it!
Ian
I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I've created an account, and tried to create a storybird, on a Mac, using both Safari and Firefox, made several pages with art and text, and every time I try to Save, Publish, or Invite, it pops up a message such as "There's no story to save. Hint: add some images or write some words." I just don't get it?!
Sometimes when I click on my Storybird to read it, it goes to a screen that tells me I need to update my Flash. I just HAD updated, and had no trouble seeing it yesterday... but just in case, I updated Flash again....
Now, sometimes it goes to that Flash screen, and sometimes it shows me the Storybird.
@BeccaTG: were you able to eventually save? If so, is there a title for the Storybird? Let us know and we'll take a look.
@mkohlerfr: what OS and browser are you using?
I was going to say no, but I just now tried to start again, and my story from yesterday popped up! Now I was able to Invite, so maybe all is well. I added a title, A Passion for Snow. Not sure what the issue was. Maybe needed to close a open again to reset or something. Thanks for the response.
@BeccaTG: network connectivity can momentarily drop and create odd activity w/browsers. It's possible that Storymaker experienced a blip and needed to be shut down and restarted. Glad it worked. We'll pass along the title to our dev team for forensics in case the issue was deeper. And, if anything else pops up, feel free to email us at support [at] storybird [dot] com. Cheers.
Great idea, thanks for your work!
And apologies if my suggestion is a repeat... I don't have time to read the 394 comments above mine!
I would love it if we could pull in illustrations by tag, rather than just being able to pull from one collection.
Alternative layouts and the opportunity to upload your own work will be great additions to a premium version.
@butwait: No worries about repeat comments. Re: illustration by tag. Working on that. Alternative layouts: not in the near future: SBs are optimized for transmedia: desktop, iPod, iPad, projectors, and print; we're quite focused on a very specific size. (Unless you mean art and the ability to crop it differently. Auto-cropping is something we've just implemented.) Personal uploads: absolutely. A premium feature coming by spring/summer.
it was just so gr8
Just wondering if you are able to search the published storybirds through genre, eg. mystery, fairytale etc. This would benefit classroom teaching greatly. Also students would then be able to critique other work and improve their own. (tags seems to mainly take you to art)
@Cozzie: Searching will be a feature that will be rolled out very soon. We should see something late January/Early February. The Storybird team is just working out the kinks on the search prototype. If it is anything like their other features, the wait will be most definitely worth it!
I'm not sure if anyone posted this bug yet but when I try to type in "<" or ">", they disappear when creating a story. I'm testing Storybird out so that soon enough I will teach my algebra students to use it for creative writing in math. Thanks! I love this site!
@shoebe144: That is a very interesting idea for using Storybird as a creative tool in Math. Can you tell us more about how you are using it in Math? I would be very interested in knowing more as I am sure others would be!
Thanks
ian
How do you become the featured author?
@mysecret1959: thx! And thank your parents too!
@shoebe144: we'll look into it. Thanks for the tip.
@lizard1212: featured authors are chosen by Storybird editors.
everything is good and stuff but what i find frustrating is that i cant upload my own photos for the story bird...
i want to put some pictures of my own but there is no option that lets me!
please fix this problem ASAP
@Jeneane: Uploading your own images is on our To-Do list. It is right at the top, too, so rest assured that it is a priority.
Hi everyone, I'm Ferinhator. I'm pleading you to read some of my stories! In my district, I have won 1st place in two writing district competitions and I've been writing stories since I was very small. I bet you there would be many people who would enjoy my stories, but they just haven't heard of them! I am asking a very simple question, how can you get to the front page, or in other words, how do you get your story to be noticed?
Question one:
I would like to ask if you could look up stories by title. If you can't, I would greatly appreciate it if you could update this.
Question two:
How can you get your storybird to be noticed?
@Ferinhator: In the next little while, the storybird team will be rolling out some search features that will help with the finding of stories within the, what is becoming, vast database of stories being published. There are other ways to get your stories noticed including sending the link to your story to your friends and asking them to pass it on. If you have a blog, wiki or website you can embed your stories there. You can also share through facebook, stumbleupon, or twitter.
If you go to the "Read" page, you will see several sections that also help to highlight new or popular books. In the "New" section, every new storybird that has been published gets highlighted in this section. Once word starts to get out about your stories, people will start to comment or "heart" or stories. As your story gathers more and more comments, it will rise in the popular area of the "Read" page. If the story is exceptional in its concept and story, the storybird editors may select it as a featured selection. So there are many ways for storybirds to be noticed and there are more coming including search capabilities. There are also many features coming down the road. This is only version 0.1 and the Storybird team continues to add more capabilities and features.
Hope that helps with your questions
Ian
@ferinhator: let me clarify a few things about getting featured.
First, you have to write great stories (interesting characters with a compelling plot). That's the best way to get noticed.
Second, the stories have to be well written and free of (most) spelling and grammar errors. Proofread your work. It helps.
Now, to be included in Featured (the big stories at the top of Read), your Storybirds have to be great. No exceptions. People want to read the best of Storybird and that's where they find it.
To be included in New & Noted, your stories have to be good (although some of the N&N are great). We use N&N to showcase up and coming writers, younger writers who have done something exceptional for their age, and stuff that's random and hits our editors on a good day. You yourself have been included there—congratulations. That puts you in the top 15% of all Storybirds.
Finally, all Storybirds have various placements in the Recent | Active | Popular stream. They're just sorted differently.
One thing to keep in mind, as Ian noted above, is that getting activity around your Storybird will move it up the ranks in the Active stream. We scour that page in case we've missed something during our initial reviews and occasionally plunk it in N&N.
Hope this helps you understand how it all works.
@Mark: Thanks for clarifying that Mark. I will remember those points for future reference. Do we have that info in the F.A.Q?
@ian: Not yet. We're too busy to add to the FAQ. Or too lazy.
Is version 2.0 available?
Sorry for asking more questions but, If you have your own website, can I place some of my storybirds on to it?
Question two:
Is it possible for us to draw or upload our own pictures?
Question 3, this is for mark,:
When you replied to my bug, you said that I have been included in the N&N, but how do I find my stories, or in other words, how do I find exactly where the N&N section is? Oh, and, I'm 11 years of age, so it would be an honor if you checked out some of my new stories!
Sorry if someone already commented on this, but one thing I would like to see changed: when I say to my kids, pick a piece of art that you like, they pick a piece and we click on it to start a new story. Instead of that piece of art getting inserted into the first page of our story, we get all the artwork from that artist and have to dig for the piece of art that inspired us in the first place. Sometimes it's not easy to find. Can't you just automatically insert that first piece of art that inspires you?
@llichtman: Not Yet.
@Ferinhator: The ability to upload your own pictures or drawing is not available as an option yet/ According to the Storybird team, it is high on the priority list.
To answer your other question, you can get to the N&N section by clicking on the "Read" link at the top of your page. Finding you specific stories from there is a little more difficult. You'll just have to click through the pages until you find it.
@MollydeA: Just my thoughts here. I actually enjoy the process of combing through the pictures as it makes me aware as to what is there to use. I would maybe focus on the fact that it is the style of work the artist is portraying when writing your stories rather than the actual one specific piece of art. I like the style of the artist and therefore will probably be able to use their work as a starting place for my story rather than focusing on the one piece. One piece, while maybe inspiring, will be hard to build into a whole story when you have to then add a number of different pictures to finish the story. Again, just my thoughts.
@MollydeA: That's a good idea, I like it. I'll take a look at making that happen. It might take a bit to slot it into our limited development time, but I think it makes sense.
i cant publish story birds
Hi. I cannot figure out where the embed/share option is. I have published and made public the story. Can it be embedded somewhere else?
Thanks
@Joshua10172: how come you can't publish them? What's happening?
@dve: embeds are found above the cover of all public Storybirds. However, they only appear once the book has been approved in the moderation queue. Take a look again and you'll probably see it.
I have a question:
Can you use several different illustrators' art for one story? And if you can, how do you?
@Ferinhator: in Create, choose option B—Themes. Once you chosen a theme, it'll take you to an art page with various artists. Use the link in the top-right corner: "Start a Storybird with art tagged x" That will launch all those various images into Storymaker.
Is verison 2.0 avalible?
@lizard1212: After Search is added in a couple of weeks, we'll have hit v0.2. It's incremental. We add features until we decide we've hit the next level/version.
The help video you have shows that we can choose themes while creating the story but I couldn't find any such tab, which was very restricting. Isn't it possible to simply mark images we like when we are browsing, and have them added on to the story whiteboard when creating?
I don't know whether this will give me an option to be notified of response so let me also suggest using one of those websites which handle your comments for you. (I don't remember the name, but Magcloud uses one)
@ayumiao: good catch! The themes tab was an old piece of functionality related to a new feature we've been playing with called Visual Typing. VT draws images out of the database that match your keywords and surfaces them on your sideboard as you write. It's like persistent search. It'll roll out soon-ish. We will also add a personal image library so you can add anything you see in the artist shops to it. That's mid-year. As for comment systems, it's unlikely that we'd use Disqus (which we love) simply because of the kids who visit the site. Disqus is too distributed a system to be safe for them.
I'm really enjoying storybird. However I'd love it if you made a search box for tags, because I can't find the right tag by just clicking reload. Thank you loads!
Teach a tech enrichment class. Using Storybird as a project, however, two times in this week when students opened their stories, nothing but the pics were there. No title page, or other pages? Everything they had worked on was gone.
@Dolphinnecl: search is underway right now. Few weeks and our prototype should be ready.
@garmentor: that's a new one we hadn't heard. What OS and browser are you using? And are the kids it happened to signed into the same account or each have unique accounts?
YOU NEED A SEARCH BAR!! ASAP my teach is going to grade us and we need to have our project searched up (ya know )
so if at all possible maybe in like the next 5 minutes if u could pop one on there it would be greatly appreciated
THNX
@galvan: why not just send your teacher the link to your Storybird?
BTW, search is coming out in a few weeks.
We are a group of First Grade teachere here and will use and promote your website with our collegues and students. We would like to suggest a few things. They are as follows:
Spell Check
Classroom account to have kids create and share with out using an email address. They could use the teacher's email address to share stories in partner writing.
Preselect Art work to limit the choices
pictures so they are not hidden
levels of difficulty (a younger kid would have fewer choices)
@ngabel:
-spellcheck is on it's way in a few weeks
-same with class accounts
-pre-select art is on the drawing board; few months off
-thumbnail organizing/batches/rippling is something we're playing with right now
-level of difficulty is intriguing!
Thanks for the thoughts.
Thank you ^_^
how do you delete a story
@Kushal_akhter: to delete a story, click "Edit Details" on the Storybird page (you'll find the link at the botom-right side under "More about this Storybird.") At the bottom of the details page, you'll see a link "Delete this Storybird."
Happy Valentine's Day Storybird! I Heart Storybird!!
Ian
Happy Valentine's Day Ian! Storybird hearts you too!
I wish you could SEARCH themes/art...
@halpey1: It's coming soon. I have seen screenshots of the search bar and I think it will be awesome!
Ian
Is there a way that you can send a message who leaves a comment on your story, or if not, how do you reply to the comment?
@Ferinhator: The only way I know of to reply to someones comment at this point is to leave your own reply after their comment. Another option is to click on their name (which is linked to their storybird area) and leave a comment on one of their stories.
Ian
I have a question:
Could you make stories with more than one person?
@Ferinhator: Absolutely! That is one of the great features about Storybird. Once you have a story going and have done some work on it, simply click on the "Menu" button and choose the "Invite Someone" choice. When you click on that you will be taken to a new screen where you will be asked to supply the Name and email address of the person you want to collaborate with. You can also add a little message which will be sent in the body of the email along with the link. When the other person gets the email, they can simply click on the link to be taken to the Storybird you have started. You can continue going back and forth with the collaboration, until both of you feel it is ready to be published.
Ian
@Mark: Love the ability to change the author name and the ability to move pages around. It is working really well for me. Now, just waiting for the visual typing to come back!!!
Ian
Is there going to be a time where you can print out your stories? Please advise.
Kate
I'd like that to Kate!
@sieg @lemonpie: yes. Printing comes online in spring. You'll be able to buy PDFs, softcover, and hardcover versions of your stories (and they look AWESOME).
@ian: yay! Glad you like 'em. More to come (maybe even visual typing ;)
I have a question:
Does it cost anything to have your own 'Shop'?
I really enjoy the pictures that are placed in Storybird because they involve every subject you can think of.
I have one question though,
Can you use multiple illustrators on one Storybird?
@Ferinhator: it doesn't cost artists to have a shop. However, owning a shop is by "invitation only" from Storybird. We only accept top narrative artists into the roster.
@bct1994: yes. Go to Create>Option B: Themes. Choose a theme. On the art page of the theme, click "Start a Storybird w/art tagged x" in the top right corner.
Later, we'll have other ways you can combine artists.
My students just started using Storybird today and they love it! We incorporate math concepts into the storytelling, such as having characters try to solve a word problem together. They also have to use math vocabulary to explain their thinking.
I love how my students can just email their work and I can provide instant feedback by posting a comment.
I also introduced this site for a technology class I'm taking for a master's degree in the arts and we came up with lots of different ideas for teaching any subject or level. Thank you Storybird!
Not sure if anyone posted this question, but will there be an option in the future for character symbols such as exponents, absolute value signs, etc...? I tried typing in "<" and ">" and they are still disappearing (from my earlier "report a bug" post)...
@shoebe144: thanks for the kind words. Makes us proud. Regarding symbols: most work, and the greater than/less than symbols will eventually be available. They were initially coded out of Storymaker because of a bug. But they'll be back...
I have a question:
How do you become a featured author?
I really want to become one!
Hey mark!
I love this website! I love the stories! I love everything about this website! The only reason why I goo on the computer is to go on this!
@ mark, thanks for the help/advice and stories you make! and also comments!
@ kaye, thanks for the advice/comments you left on my quizzes!
(sorry for over reacting.) Anyways, since it's the time to give up something (lint), there is one thing I will not give up, going on the computer and going on this website
Thanks for all the advice,comments, and help!
yes this is so good ]
i am only four and i love it
this took me 1 hour to right this
Liam
@Ferinhator: featured authors are chosen by Storybird editors. We typically look for work that has a strong voice, a unique style, great grammar, and is fun to read.
Thanks for all the kind words about the site and the community. It's people like you that make it great and give it the awesome vibe it has.
@liam5sm: thanks! And thanks for the hard work. Trust us—it pays off. Writing makes you totally cool and wicked smart.
Mark,
I have been thinking of inprovements for this website and I think maybe, on every of your stories, you could have individual comments, like one column with comments for one story and more for the next and the next.
Sarah
Hey Sarah. Do you mean comments for a group of stories? Like if I visit your profile I could add comments about all your books?
Yeah, that's it!
Sarah: ok. Noted. Good thinking.
Mark
This is a sensational website - would it be possible to have a search box, so that people can find by artist and by author?
Lizzie x
Hi, what should be available to StoryBird is a print preview. Because my class loves it, and so do I, but we want to make it available to print. Thanks!
Hi lizziechase, thank you for the kind words. Search is coming very very soon now. We're just putting the finishing touches on it (a bit of straw here, a twig there).
@57758: Options to print will be available in the Spring according to the Storybird team. At that time there will be options to buy PDFs, softcover, and hardcover versions of your stories. I'm not sure but there may also be a few other options as well in regards to your finished products.
Wow! I have just discovered this little gem and I am spreading the word very quickly because I love it! I love the selection of artwork and the simplicity of the site - for children it is instant and it really raises self esteem. I am really looking forward to having the print option too. I am a school teacher (primary) and would like some tips and suggestions for children in a class logging in and creating a collaborative story together? When the printing option arrives - will you be able to save it before printing? Does save always mean that it is uploaded?If there is anything you have in mind that you would like a school to try, I would be more than willing to offer help and support for you?
Wonderful!
Peccato che scrivendo in italiano non ci sia il codice embed!!! Non è possibile stampare?
I am a teacher of Italian primary school. My students love this site
I write in Italian and there is no embed code ...
You can print the pages?
Tanks!
I have a question:
Can you be of any age to become a featured author?
P.S.
@mark, thanks for the comments on my quiz!
@mark, have YOU ever been a featured author? Your stories are great! Yours and kayes are at the top of my list of storybirds!
P.S.S.
Sorry, well I wanted to ask...
What is and how do you get into the 'featured storybirds' catagory?
@france: I am not sure what you mean by embed. Do you mean the embed code for putting Storybirds into a blog or webpage? If that is the case, when you have finished your story and click "Publish this Storybird", your story is then sent to be moderated. After it has gone through the moderation process, you will then see the embed code link above your story when you go to view your story.
However, if you are talking about language support, Storybird does support various language characters, but it's your browser that makes the difference. Safari DOES support special characters inside of Flash while Firefox does NOT.
As for printing, you can not print stories at this point. Later on in the Spring, there will be options to buy PDFs, softcover, and hardcover versions of your stories.
@Ferinhator: Yes. Age is NOT a restriction for featured author. However, mature writers tend to be better writers and thus get featured more.
PS1: your welcome
PS2: I have not been a featured author yet. I have no plans to be, either. But thanks for the compliment.
PS3: Featured Storybirds are the best of New and Notable. We have featured younger authors there, so you might find one of your SBs there one day. Just make sure—in addition to a great story—that your grammar/punctuation/spelling are rock solid.
And now my own PS. You're awesome. You ask great questions, write great books, and are a super contributor to the community. Really love seeing you around the place!
@Altheteacher: the illustrious Ian has a gi-normous response to your question which should be coming up shortly. Just wanted to say thanks for the kind words.
@Altheteacher: At this point, the only way I believe to get a class working on a collaborative story is for the students to have separate email accounts. If you all try to use the same email account, you will likely have problems with saving, etc. What I have done is set up a class gmail account. With that gmail account, I can then set up separate email accounts attached to that. That way students have a email account that is attached to the class account. For example, if my class email has bobsclass@gmail.com, students would have gmail accounts like bobsclass+1@gmail.com, etc. The nice thing with this is that any email a student sends automatically gets sent to you as well as the main owner of the address. You get to see all activity and make sure students are using the addresses appropriately. However, gmail does state in the Terms of Service that users must be 13 years of age or older which might be a concern for you.
Having said all that, I know that the Storybird team are working on educational accounts where students will not have to have email accounts to use the service.
Ian
@Altheteacher: Here are some other options if you don't want the worry of class email accounts:
1.If you have access to a computer in the class, have students take turns using Storybird as a centre activity or activity when their main work is done.
2. Use Storybird with a projector and create class Storybirds on any topic. One of the users here used Storybirds to illustrate Math problems and solutions.
3. Challenge your students to do Storybirds at home and send them to you or another student whose parents have given permission for the sharing of their email address.
4. If you really wanted to and had the time, you could set up separate Storybird accounts for each of your students which they could use. You would also have to make sure you copy down the name and password for each student! or simply create a few accounts and have students assigned to those accounts. For example, for 25 kids set up 5 Storybird accounts and have 5 students per account. Those groups could work together on stories. Alternatively, you could have a storywriting club. With those 5 accounts, have 1 person per account work on stories at recess, extra time, language arts, computer time, afterschool, or other times. Students could be rotated and even if they don't get to finish their story on that turn, it will be saved for them as a draft in the Storybird account for the next turn. The next students simply start a new story in that same account or build it into a collaborative adventure with the next person continuing the story where the last person left off!
Hope those ideas made sense.
Not sure about your next question. My response would be that all your stories are saved in your storybird account regardless of whether you are printing it or not. Your storybirds are saved automatically as you are working on it as drafts as well as when you leave your story, through the "save and close" menu button. Hope that helps.
How do u do embed
@mark
I think you should really become a featured author! I've read all of your stories, and all of them are on my reading list! My favorite is Sam and Max and When Freddy went Missing.
And P.S. to your P.S.:
Thanks! That really means a lot coming from you, you know, the MASTER at storytelling.
P.S.S.
I wrote a new story called 'The Lonely River', true story, and I would love to have you read it! Keep on Storytelling!
@liamh: the embed code for public Storybirds is found above their cover.
@Ferinhator: You're too kind. I'll be sure to check out The Lonely River.
@mark, I noticed the search bar! Great job! But what exactly can you search up?
@Ferinhator: you can search for Storybirds, members, artist shops, and art. Use the pull down menu on the search bar to switch "focus," or use the links above the search box on the search results page. You'll also notice you can filter your search results. For instance, you can search for Storybirds tagged "princess," but then filter them by popularity, relevancy, title, etc. Same with art: search for art tagged "love" and you can filter by most used art, least used, most recently added, etc. Very powerful.
Hope you like it.
@mark, I used it and it is awesome! Great Work!
I like the added Search Bar :)
@Ferinhater - Just saw your compliment above, thanks!
@Lizard - agree, the search bar is a great addition – much requested!
@kaye, no problem! Love Your stories!
Hey Storybird! First of all, I think Storybird is one of the best websites ever! :D It introduces a completely new way of writing stories, one of which is very enjoyable. The idea is so creative, unusual, different and exciting, and allows people to express their feelings through writing.
Thank you so much for adding the search bar, that's exactly what we needed! Now I am able to search people or Storybirds whenever I need to! Awesome!
I'm pretty sure you're thinking about this already, but a printing feature would be great. It would be good if you could print your own stories, but not other people's, just to be safe.
Thanks so so much for creating Storybird! I've become obsessed! LOL!
how do we get a picture next to our screen name when we post a comment ex.
@bern21 If you want to add a picture next to your name, you can upload an avatar. Click on your username at the top-right of the screen. There you will see your account preferences, where you can choose a new avatar.
@mark
on my quiz ,'The Lonely River', you asked ,' What type of feedback are you looking for?' What exactly does that mean? Sorry, I had to ask.
@mark
I guess the feedback that I'm talking about is grammar etc. AND I would also like you to read it. And also, I'm making this story with someone else, but if it got into the New & Noted or something like that, would it say my name or both of our names? And,(sorry), can you make a story with more than two people?
P.S.
(sorry)! I am using Firefox and there seems to be a problem. Since I've learned how to use more than one illustrators artwork I've been using that choice for all my storybirds. But today and yesterday, theres been a problem. I click on themes, click a theme, and start a storybird. Sometimes, I need other pictures than the ones from that theme, so I type in (for example: love) and nothing appears on the screen. No pics that were tagged 'love' and it was doing the same for other words too! And whenever I press 'Save and Quit' it saves it, but whenever I try to go into that story again, there are no pictures that are there. I don't know if this is just my computer having an error or something else. Can you help me please? I didn't read the other 488 bugs so I don't know if this has already occured, but I really have some good ideas for storybirds but I can't make them without the art that I want!
P.S.
When will we be able to print our storybirds?
And also, how often do you change the featured storybirds and the featured authors?
@ferinhator: it's not your browser or a bug. What you were experiencing is something we call Visual Typing. It's a feature we initially had and turned off while we worked on other things. However, we didn't turn it fully off (which was why you were able to do what you describe) and it ended up causing some nasty issues. So, for now, it's off off.
Printing comes online in May. We just selected our international print supplier and start the R&D and onboarding process.
We change the featured author every Monday and featured Storybirds every 2-4 days.
@mark
When do you think the Visual Typing will be back on?
We love this site. However a problem occurs on Linux/Firefox when typing Swedish characters. For example the letter å, immediately gets transformed to Ã¥, which is the raw UTF-8 encoding when seen as Cp1252/Latin1. Changing the browsers default encoding has no effect.
Love the site and enjoy the artwork very much. 2 queries:
cannot often get the multi artist tag search to work. (in fact only got it to work once)! Also, am now getting a download Flash prompt - I've got the latest version of Flash and now I keep getting this page, so can't see Storybirds that have been published.
@BHarper What OS/browser? Have you tried using the other browser (IE or Firefox, the opposite of what you used) and does it work with that?
Also, what page are you going to for multi-artist tagged artworks? Can you create a Storybird from http://storybird.com/tags/sky/artwork/.
@Kieko Unicode support is a sore spot right now. We're looking to fix it in the coming future, but for now we either strip it or perform oddball transformations, just like what you described. That's a priority to fix soon, I promise. (Our logs also show that you are in good company in trying to get Unicode characters with UTF-8 encoding in your Storybirds.)
I have to use IE at work (school). Will try with Firefox at home. It did work though last week! (sporadically). Will try the link you've suggested and let you know. Thanks for getting back to me so quickly
The route you suggested worked fine with IE, and Flash problem solved: just had to wait till 'open' appears on cover instead of trying to rush in!! Thanks!
Ahh! I need to make storybirds! But I can't do it without that thing (I think it's called Visual Typing) that you type the words (only when you choose the themes) and pictures that are tagged that appear. When do you think it will come back on? Storybird is all I do after school!
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@Ferinhator: visual typing's future is uncertain, so I'm not sure. However, we're working on search inside of Storymaker, which will be a more specific and powerful way to find and add images to your stories—across artist portfolios. Look for that in a month or two.
@Joshua10172: if this thread is putting you to sleep, go make an exciting story!
I *love* how easy this site is to use with my students. Is there any way I can print their stories when they're published?
In 1-2 months?! Will this new search thing be so cool so that I'll forget the 1-2 months? The reason why I ask is because Stroybird is all I do after school, I have great ideas, AND I'm stuck with just making music. Storybird is magnifico (magnificent, sorry, I'm trying to learn Italian). 1-2 is worth the wait if this new thing will be better than the visual typing.
OK look. you don't let us write stories with the words blood, or die, but you guys have pictures with zombies with theirhands broken and blood!
@jvasilyadi: Thanks! Printing is on the way and due in May. You'll be able to buy PDF, softcover, and hardcover versions of your stories.
@Ferinhator: We'll do our best to keep you happy. Can't have you getting bored. Congrats on learning Italian—it's a beautiful language.
@ardumisa: there are some images that suggest dark issues. But it's what you do with them as a writer that counts. If you've had a Storybird returned due to your word choices, rethink your approach. You'll be a better writer for it. And, remember—you can always keep your work private if you disagree with our views.
storybird is so cool because you can have illastrations and make whatever book you want whenever and wherever you want. Happily, it's on a computer, and I am on computers a lot!!!
I love storybird! I found out about it in school when we were making stories then we were gonna publish them on storybird! Me and my friend in real life shes on here to! (Her name is hotcheese1 check out her stories!)
@dolphinluvr98 @Taylorswift122: Thanks! It's a growing community and people with your enthusiasm make it stronger and grow faster. Look forward to more of your stories, comments, and insights.
I'd like to be able to import my own photos and I would like to be able to mix the photos but besides that storybird is fantastic!
@ClarieAdema: thanks! Personal uploads are coming in a couple months. As for mixing art, we'll be adding search to Storymaker in a bit. Until then, you can mix it up by going to Create>Option B/Themes. Choose a theme, and then click "Start a Storybird w/art tagged x" That will launch all the images from that theme into Storymaker.
I recently got an email telling me to change the title of my story "Young and Silly" as the original title was deemed inappropriate. I completely understand this, however I was unaware that the language I had used was inappropriate- Maybe a list could be posted on the homepage, showing what language is unacceptable for StoryBird. Oh, and I was wondering if the next version of StoryBird will have a "Dynamic Pictures" mode.
Thanks!!
By the way, is there a minimum age for users on StoryBird?
@Ashlain: good point. The community guidelines spell most of this out, but they're not forefront when you start using Storybird. We plan to tweak the "starting experience" in general, and I think we'll add "Brush up on the community guidelines" as part of the initial links. As for age, there's no minimum age: we've had 1.5 year olds sitting in their mum's lap banging on the keyboard or pointing to the images and "dictating" words ;) Regarding "dynamic images:" do you mean vector-images that can be combined (like a background with a foreground character?) If so, we had prototyped this in an earlier version and weren't happy. We try to get members to focus on storytelling, and building scenes immediately stops that process and shifts the energy of the experience. We'll continue to develop the idea, but for now it's in the R&D stage.
I love this site you can make stories and read other peoples stories.My friend told me about this site.I just love it!! :)
We should be able to look up books by author.
@audreymouse2: you CAN search for author's by name. Just type it in the search box and choose "people" in the drop-down menu.
My favorite class is writing, this is a great way to get out my feelings whether they are funny or not!
have you read my book the santa how retied. MEGGY10
I would like to Facebook my story from within "You" - could you teach me how to do that?
Hey guys, I'm a new user...I think it's really fun; we used this program in science class for a project.
@kikibear: thanks! Writing is a great way to explore what's going on inside your head and heart.
@meggy10: try sharing your stories with family and friends. That way more people will read it and comment.
@julielake2: use the Facebook icon above the cover of a Storybird to share it with your FB friends. You can't do it from "You."
@CornellGirl: welcome! Look forward to your stories.
My mom is over-protective, but I'm glad writing and showing my expretions is a learning expeariance so I can always come to this website. So glad the teachersfound this website, I have made only 2 stories and neither are published.
I love story bird because it lets me branch out my creativety.
I really like story bird because I love being amaginative
same
dido
I love storybird because I like to write stories.
@kikibear @tomgirl @runsausage @lauren13 @Rose1024: thanks! Really nice of you to say.
This websitte is OK.
I am evil because I make storys that scare the living daylights out of people.
Sniffdog- Oh really? I'd like to see one!
@Sniffdog @Rose1025: Stephen King scares a lot of people, and he's not evil. He's just a dude with a typewriter and an imagination. Either way...bring it on. But be sure to follow our community guidelines.
Hey sniffdog, id love to read one of your stories, and mark, are you like the owner of story bird?
i am a llama
it MIGHT be cool if we could make our own artwork for our storybirds
WOW!! I'm not sure what else I can say!!
The artwork is absolutely wonderful! The kids could be sooooo creative with this!
I'm just new to this site. Wondering if you can choose pics from more than one collection in the same story...
I have to go and play some more!!
Love the product. I actually just did a quick tutorial for my blog readers.
I do have a question (or suggestion).
When I look at other public stories, I can see they have an embed code over the story. However, when I look at my own public stories, all I have is an email shore link. But I can't locate the embed code. Am I missing something?
Hey storymakerdude, i totally agree. And how do you use artwork from multiple artists? I have seen a lot with more than one artist that illustrates them. And what is an embed code and where is it on your stories?
Just want to know, why do you put an @ symbol next to people's user names?Also, I have suggestion, if someone tries to use a person's real name, you should block part of their actual name out. Like this example with my name, Mo***.
@doofdaddy: thanks for the kind words. Social sharing (including embed codes) are turned off while public Storybirds are in the approval queue. If you've made your story public, it may take a few hours before the embed code appears above the cover of your book.
@storymakerdude @soccerrulez: personal uploads for your own images is coming later this year.
@soccerrulez: you can use multiple artists by choosing Option B/Themes in "Create." Then use the link in the top right corner: "Start a Storybird with art tagged x" That launches Storymaker with multiple artists.
We use @ when addressing people because the symbol means "at." It implies that I'm talking "at" a particular person. If you use Twitter, you'll notice how it's part of their system.
Yo!