Feedback wanted: A new web tool for writing, editing & versioning chapters (The Swarm & beyond)

iago zas

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Aug 20, 2026, 11:30:42 AMAug 20

to swarm-authors

Dear writing group,

I hope you're all having a productive and creative week!

I'm writing to you today because I've been working on a side project that I think could be really useful for our group—and I'd love your honest feedback before I invest too much time in the wrong direction.

The idea in a nutshell

I'm building a web-based writing and editing tool designed for our collaborative group project.

The core concept is simple:

You register on the platform using an invitation code (just to keep bots and random visitors out!).
Once inside, you can create a story and start adding chapters.
Every chapter supports versioning—so you can upload V1, get feedback, and later upload V2, V3, etc., while keeping the full history intact.
All members of the group can view everyone's stories (though I'm considering adding a "private/draft" toggle if people feel they'd want to hide works-in-progress until they're ready to share).
The real magic happens in the feedback loop: group members can open any chapter, highlight specific passages, and propose corrections or edits directly on the text. The original author then reviews those suggestions and can incorporate them into the next version.

Why I built it (and why I'm sharing it with you)

I noticed that we often share Word documents, PDFs, or Google Docs links back and forth, and it becomes messy to track who suggested what, which version is the latest, and whether comments have been addressed.

I wanted something that feels more like a shared workshop space—where every chapter lives in one place, feedback is contextual and visible, and the revision history is automatic and transparent.

And yes—while my personal motivation is to use it for The Swarm, I've designed it to be flexible enough for any writing project. So if you'd rather use it for your own solo novel, a different collaboration, you're more than welcome!

What I'd like to know from you

Before I go too deep into development, I'd really value your input. Could you please share your thoughts on these three questions?

Would you use it?
Be brutally honest—if this doesn't solve a problem you actually have, I'd rather know now than later.
What are your "must-haves" (sine qua non)?
What features would make this tool indispensable for you? For example:
- Export to Word/PDF?
- Real-time chat or comment threads?
- Role-based permissions (e.g., admin, editor, reader)?
- A clean dark mode for late-night writing sessions?
- Something else entirely?
What would be "nice to have" but not essential?
Features you'd enjoy but wouldn't miss if they weren't there.
What do you absolutely NOT want?
Is there anything that would put you off using the tool? Overcomplication, a clunky interface, mandatory social features, etc.?

A few extra thoughts on privacy and sharing

One point I'm still on the fence about is the visibility of stories. Right now, everyone in the group can see every story. I personally like this because it fosters inspiration and peer learning—but I also understand that sometimes you want to keep a rough draft to yourself until it's more polished.

If enough of you tell me that a "hide until ready" toggle is important, I'll prioritise it.

What's next?

If there's enough interest, I'll polish the prototype and share a beta link with all of you in the coming weeks. If not, I'll probably keep it as a personal tool and revisit it later.

Either way, I truly value your opinions—you're the exact audience I built this for.

Please reply to this email (or message me directly) with your thoughts, questions, or even just a quick "yes/no" on whether you'd give it a try.

Thank you for reading this far, and happy writing!

Warm regards,

Oma

iago zas

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Aug 20, 2026, 11:39:43 AMAug 20

to swarm-authors

Dear all,

Following up on my previous email, I wanted to give you a visual taste of what I've built so far.

I've attached several screenshots showing the current state of the application – "as-is-now," as I like to call it. Please keep in mind that it's still very much a work in progress: the design is functional rather than beautiful, and there are bound to be rough edges. But I think it's already enough to convey the overall flow and feel.

What you'll see in the attachments

Screenshot	What it shows
1. Login	The entry point – a clean login screen where users authenticate using their invitation code and credentials.
2. Main window view	The dashboard or homepage after logging in. Here you can see the list of all stories (grouped by author), along with basic info like chapter count and last update date.
3. Write chapter	The writing interface itself – a distraction-free editor where you can draft new chapters, add titles, and save versions.
4. Edit chapter	The editing view, where you can modify existing content. This is also where version history will be accessible.
5. Comments	The feedback panel – showing how users can highlight specific passages and leave inline suggestions or corrections for the author.

A few things to note

The UI is currently very basic – I've prioritised functionality over polish, so please forgive the lack of visual flair!
Some features (like the "hide story" toggle, export options, and advanced permissions) are not yet implemented – which is exactly why I need your feedback on priorities.
The screenshots reflect a single-user flow for now, but the backend is already set up to handle multiple users, invitations, and version control.

What I'd love from you

After you've had a look:

Does the interface make sense intuitively? Would you feel comfortable navigating it?
Is anything confusing or missing from the current views?
Based on what you see, does this reinforce or change your initial thoughts about the features you'd want?

Feel free to reply to this email with your comments, or we can discuss it at our next group meet-up / call.

Next steps

If the feedback is generally positive, I'll:

Polish the UI based on your suggestions
Prioritise the most-wanted features
Share a live beta link for hands-on testing

If the feedback points in a different direction, I'll pivot accordingly – no hard feelings!

Thank you so much for taking the time to look at these. I'm genuinely excited to hear what you think.

Looking forward to your impressions!

All the best,

Oma

P.S. – If the screenshots don't come through clearly, let me know and I can share them via a cloud folder instead.

Chapter view-no comments.png

Story creation.png

Account creation.png

Chapter view, comments accepted or denied.png

Chapter view, comments.png

Story list.png

z...@tampaad.net

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Aug 20, 2026, 9:54:25 PMAug 20

to iago zas, swarm-...@googlegroups.com

I'm not ignoring you, I'm just really busy. I can scan new emails but don't have time to think about them.

For the Swarm Cycle, security will be big. We are writing about things that large sections of the world population object to. Religious fanatics can't stand talk about other inhabited worlds, racists don't like how we treated particular ethnic groups, moralists don't like the society depicted, so on and so on and so on. Us writers need to be able to hide behind a pen name that remains secure. It's one of the reasons I maintain a misdirection website specifically for this 'identity'.

-ZM

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Mike Omelanuk

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Aug 21, 2026, 12:10:30 AMAug 21

to iago zas, swarm-authors

Here goes some free form thinking:

* Would I use it? Probably if it became a tool the group likes. In the past, several alternatives to the general have been proposed and pretty much ignored.

* For a long time, Dropbox served as a place for us to store and review our work. Sometimes in progress, sometimes the versions needing proofreading. That began to fail when 2 factor verification was initiated by Dropbox. Simply put - whatever you design HAS to be easy to access and use by members, while protected from anyone or anything else.

* I like your proposal to have a means to preserve an author's work but allow others to suggest whatever. To my knowledge it was never abused. but anyone with access could edit or delete an original document.

* Most of us have a favorite word processor and some would be reluctant to shift away. I still use a version of Word 2000 and see no reason to change. I can and do use LibreOffice if someone asks me to proof something written in that format. Whatever you design would best allow an author to use their favorite tool

* It should not be accessible by any AI. Anyone desiring AI should use it outside this program.

*Anything resembling social media would have me running for the exit.

* Research tools would be nice. SwarmWiki, spelling, etc

* A real plus would be the ability to import stories/documents and remove DRM

Probably more late. Time for bed.

Mike

Kenn Ghannon

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Aug 21, 2026, 12:18:50 AMAug 21

to iago zas, swarm-authors

Hi,

Where were you when I was looking for a tool two years ago?? LOL

I’ve integrated Scrivener into my process and I don’t think I would want to change now; I write a ton of different stories and this has proven adept in doing pretty much everything I want.

That’s just me, though. Personally, I’d be willing to write my Swarm story in Scrivener (once I get back to it; knee deep in editing Runesward Tome 1 for publish on the bookstore) and then upload my ‘finished copy’ into this tool for feedback. I do agree it’s better than the drop box solution we used before since it would be centralized. So, if the group approves… 😃

Now that I’m retired, I find I have a lot of time to work on writing – which is good. I just wish I had this much time 20 years ago; I might have given up the IT/Developer Support gig and gone writer full time (if I could make money with it…).

-Kenn

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Anne Mouse

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Aug 21, 2026, 9:42:19 PMAug 21

to Mike Omelanuk, iago zas, swarm-authors

If you're making a writing tool I suggest that you also take a look at yWriter. If that one functioned a bit better and maybe had the ability to track characters, etc with little to stop the flow of writing it would be a very powerful tool.

I'll second ZM, as my screen name suggests, I prefer to remain as hard to track as possible. Oh I know that google knows exactly who I am and more about me than any corporate or government entity ought... But still I would at least like to maintain the fiction to myself that they don't

Anne AKA Tori T

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iago zas

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Aug 25, 2026, 3:16:06 AMAug 25

to Anne Mouse, Mike Omelanuk, swarm-authors

hi all, quick update on this.

I've deployed the beta version here:https://swarmarchive.com/

If you are interested on trying/checking the platform, let me know on a mail your desired username, and ill forward you a one-time-use code to register ( it will only work with the username you have provided me).

Have a good week! (and sorry for all the mails, i can get intense when im working on a new project)

Best regards,

Omakehell

thinkin...@gmail.com

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Aug 25, 2026, 11:14:06 AMAug 25

to iago zas, Anne Mouse, Mike Omelanuk, swarm-authors

I’ve been using Treepad X Enterprise for decades. It’s a highly flexible database system. It has a custom setup for authors that allows you to create entries for characters, scenes, and load story chapters themselves for support and archiving. It will do file type conversions and even merge chapters into a total story for final publishing. It supports hyperlinks, too. My usual workflow is to write in Word, but in RTF to keep the metadata out, and track scenes and characters in Treepad. If it’s a short story, I’ll have Treepad convert RTF to text for upload to SOL. If it’s a novel, I have it merge chapter files to one big RTF and send it to my editor or move on to final conversion in RTF or Word format for upload to Smashwords ( via DrafttoDigital). That’s the good news. The bad news is that it’s no longer out there. MyInfo offers a group of supposedly good uploads, but Treepad had licensing, so they’ll be trials and MyInfo is providing them so you can convert to MyInfo. I haven’t looked at MyInfo, but one day, Windows will screw Treepad and I’ll be up the creek.

You might want to look at Treepad for inspiration. I can forward you the author database records formats.

Thinker

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iago zas

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Aug 25, 2026, 3:43:30 PMAug 25

to Mike Omelanuk, thinkin...@gmail.com, Anne Mouse, swarm-authors

A small update on this,

I did some research, and the best approach I've seen is the hemmingway application, which I've tried to reverse engineer and slap together something usable.

So far, it checks:

-Spelling

-Style ( passive voice, adverbs, Filler words, Complex words and long sentences on several tiers ( long-ish phrases gets yellow "you might split this phrase' and red 'You REALLY should split this phrase in two or more sentences)

-Markdown preview

-Comments on edit view

I've done several changes as well, this weekend i went full goblin mode caffeine driven, trying to get a stable v1 beta. I think this approaches what i could consider as minimal functionality.

Next on my list to tackle is the integration with the swarm wiki. @tampaAD, i will probably tinker with the page this week trying to connect / query with the wiki, apologies on advance :)

@thinkin...@gmail.com never heard of that piece of software, I will check it out. Merging chapters and generate books it's now on my todo list haha. its a very good idea.

Also, question:

Anyone knows what format accepts SOL? is it formatted in any special way? I've heard you guys several times complaining about the SOL format. anything you guys can share so i can try to make an exporter for that? i think that could be a good addition. ( im not sure if you need to post the stories on another platforms, im open to suggestions here)

Anyway, let me show some screens on how it's working at the moment. I think it's looking better, what do you guys think?

Main view on the Edit chapter:

On mouseover on a misspell or non existent word, it asks if this is wrong or if you want to add it to the dictionary of THAT story.

On mouseover on any highlight, it shows common advice.

Oma

thinkin...@gmail.com

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Aug 25, 2026, 3:55:17 PMAug 25

to iago zas, Mike Omelanuk, Anne Mouse, swarm-authors

I send SOL plain text. It has some ways to do markup, but I don’t mess with it. I think Zen spends a lot of time messing with that.

Thinker

From: iago zas <hiddenq...@gmail.com>
Sent: August 25, 2026 15:43
To: Mike Omelanuk <mome...@gmail.com>; thinkin...@gmail.com; Anne Mouse <annenon...@gmail.com>; swarm-authors <swarm-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Swarm Authors: Feedback wanted: A new web tool for writing, editing & versioning chapters (The Swarm & beyond)

A small update on this,

I did some research, and the best approach I've seen is the hemmingway application, which I've tried to reverse engineer and slap together something usable.

So far, it checks:

-Spelling

-Style ( passive voice, adverbs, Filler words, Complex words and long sentences on several tiers ( long-ish phrases gets yellow "you might split this phrase' and red 'You REALLY should split this phrase in two or more sentences)

-Markdown preview

-Comments on edit view

I've done several changes as well, this weekend i went full goblin mode caffeine driven, trying to get a stable v1 beta. I think this approaches what i could consider as minimal functionality.

Next on my list to tackle is the integration with the swarm wiki. @tampaAD, i will probably tinker with the page this week trying to connect / query with the wiki, apologies on advance :)

@thinkin...@gmail.com never heard of that piece of software, I will check it out. Merging chapters and generate books it's now on my todo list haha. its a very good idea.

Also, question:

Anyone knows what format accepts SOL? is it formatted in any special way? I've heard you guys several times complaining about the SOL format. anything you guys can share so i can try to make an exporter for that? i think that could be a good addition. ( im not sure if you need to post the stories on another platforms, im open to suggestions here)

Anyway, let me show some screens on how it's working at the moment. I think it's looking better, what do you guys think?

Main view on the Edit chapter: