News Reactor

Reactor Site Update: Fixes That Have Been Made, and Fixes Yet to Come

Missing favorites, articles, and comments have returned.

By Chris Lough

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Published on February 12, 2024

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Dear readers, on January 23rd we became 1.) Reactor and 2.) A new website, and in that time, we’ve been working on fixes, features, and the kinds of unexpected heckstorms that tend to occur to newly launched websites (especially ones with 15+ years’ worth of articles and fiction). 

We want to keep you updated on the progress we’ve made on fixes so far. We’ve been monitoring the bug reports you’ve been sending in via our contact form, as well as comments you’ve left on articles here. We’ve been working with other folks, as well, who are scanning and testing for bugs even as you read this. We’re not done with the fixes (not by a long shot), but we are actively listening to your feedback, and we want to thank you for being diligent and patient as we make improvements.

Some updates on what we’ve tackled so far:

1. Un-froze the All Discussions page.
2. Stopped the “accept/reject cookies” pop-up banner showing up incessantly, no matter what you clicked
3. Upped the number of comments that load into an article at first scroll. (This is why you’re getting those three dancing dots once you start scrolling. We’re going to test this again and may cut the number of loading comments back a bit.)
4. Switched comment threads to auto-expand because otherwise it doesn’t look like any comments are in response to each other.
5. STOPPED THE COMMENT TEXT FROM WRA
   PPING LIKE THIS. (As you can see, squashing this bug felt very, very good.)
6. The glorious MALAZAN REREAD OF THE FALLEN index page is now back! We have to manually update these index pages, but The Wheel of Time Reread, the various Star Trek rewatches, The Stormlight Archive, Jo Walton’s classic columns, and various other VERY BIG fantasy rereads are next.
7. Corrected various pagination and link errors.
8. Addressed various issues with the Contact and Newsletter pages.
9. Also, various inconsistencies with Bookmarking.
10. Speaking of Bookmarks, all of your Favorites/Bookmarks from Tor.com are now back in your user account!
11. And speaking of things that are back from the old Tor.com site: Comments from articles in October 2023 and onwards have been restored! (Some comment bubbles may still be showing the numeral 0. Still working on that bug, but the comments themselves are actually there.)
12. We’re still cleaning up a few stragglers, but most of the articles affected by broken “Read More” links should also be fully restored. (If you’re wondering why other fixes took so long, that bug is why.)

What We’re Tackling Next:

1. Ennui
2. RSS feeds.
3. Bringing the Archive page back.
4. Working on the site Search’s accuracy more. Like, a lot more.
5. Fixing that weird video player.
6. Some reclassification of articles so they show up in the appropriate spots. (“Books” is missing a few things, for example. We know why. It just takes a little time to set right.)
7. Lots of clean-up of small things, like images, bad links, incorrect names, dead icons, automated emails, and such.
8. Lots and lots and lots of other small and mind-numbing fixes that are important but not meant to be super apparent.

That’s the short version of it all. If this is your first time seeing that Tor.com has become Reactor, we answer a lot of the basics here. If circumstances permit, we’ll update again after the next wave of improvements. Thank you for sticking with us![end-mark]

The post Reactor Site Update: Fixes That Have Been Made, and Fixes Yet to Come appeared first on Reactor.

If you’re reading this, it means the redesigned and renamed Reactor magazine site (formerly Tor.com) is now live and ready to face the hideous light of judgment for you to use and read. Things have shifted during travel–mostly on purpose–so we’ve assembled a quick guide on how to relocate your favorite writers, columns, and topics.

Note: These directions are for the desktop version of the website, but the icons displayed are the same on the mobile version.

If you just want to report a bug or error, you can use this form.

Creating And Updating Your Account & Favorites

Where do I login or sign up?

Select the circle icon at the top right of the homepage (pictured here). Your username and password are the same as they were on Tor.com. You can also login at the new comment field within any article that has comments open.

How do I favorite/bookmark a writer I like, an article, a column, etc.?

If something can be bookmarked and saved to your user account, it will have a white flag-shaped icon (pictured above). Just click that and it should fill in. If a bookmark symbol is already filled in, that means you already bookmarked it!

Where do I see all my bookmarks?

They’re within your user account page. Click the circle icon on the top right of the homepage or, if you’re already logged in, you can click the bookmark flag on the top right of the homepage to go directly to them.

All my favorites from Tor.com are gone!

These proved harder to liberate from Tor.com than we expected, but they should be back into everyone’s user accounts by February.

Commenting on Reactor

No time to read the article, I must comment!

Jump straight to comments by clicking the word bubble icon at the top of an article (pictured here) or by the article’s published date on the homepage.

How do I comment?

This one is pretty straightforward. You can input your name and email and go through the CAPTCHA or login to your Reactor account to add a new comment.

OH MY GOD I CAN REPLY TO OTHER COMMENTS NOW

Yes! We took a bold step into the year 2009 and changed our comments from a single thread to nested. (For newer users, if you see old comments that start with @# that is how we used to have to reply to other commenters.)

How do I flag an inappropriate comment?

Just select the flag icon in the comment itself. You can also give a comment a thumbs up if you really love it. And if you really want to confuse us, you can do both.

(A quick note that we see that the comment threads aren’t automatically open/expanded and that’s on our bug list.)

I made a comment but it’s not appearing.

Some articles will hold comments until the moderator team can approve them. Tends to happen a lot on the weekends so we can go touch grass.

Alternately, you may have run up against our Moderation Policy.

I made a comment on this older article but now it’s gone!

Comments on Tor.com from October 2023 to January 2024 are proving trickier to import into Reactor. They’ll get here eventually, it’s just going to take a bit.

Where To Find Everything

Where is my favorite reread/rewatch/series?

They’re called “Columns” now and you can get to them through main navigation or through the “Latest Columns” carousel at the top of the homepage.

Right now, only currently active and recently completed Columns appear in the “Columns” page. We’ll be adding more of our completed Columns (rereads/rewatches/themes/etc.) over the course of February. They’re not gone. We just need a bit more time to make them navigable on the new site.

Where is my favorite short story, poem, book excerpt/piece of fiction?

Under the “Fiction” menu in main navigation.

Where is my favorite author/writer?

If you see their byline anywhere on the site, click their name and you’ll be taken to their profile, which contains everything they’ve ever written on Reactor (formerly Tor.com).

Alternately, you can manually find them by typing out “www.reactormag.com/author/firstname-lastname”.

You can also search for them alphabetically in the “Authors” link in the footer of the site.

Where is my favorite topic/interest/subject to read about?

It might be in the “Interests” menu in the main navigation! If not, you can click on the tag when you see it in an article or manually type “www.reactormag.com/tag/space-horse-stories” or whatever it is you’re into. No judgments. Keep it clean.

Where is just ONE PAGE where everything is listed in ONE PLACE in the order it was published, like you used to do?

Just click “Latest” in the main navigation. Or go to the “All Articles” section at the bottom of the homepage.

What is “Books”, or “Movies & TV”, or “Featured Essays”?

It means the articles in those sections are about books, movies & TV, or are feature essays/thinkpieces that the writer worked really hard on and which no longer get pushed off the site after only a day! New sections will appear and disappear as time goes by, depending on how weird we’re feeling that day.

Where’d the RSS feed go?

It will return soon and we will let you know! We love it, too.

Where did your social media accounts go?

Here!

I don’t want to alarm you but some of your short stories and articles are missing their text…??

Yeah that’s a fun new bug that popped up about a week after we went live. It is currently the thing we are chasing with hammers the most. We’ve got a fix just about ready to go.

Random Stuff

Uh, what happened here? Didn’t you used to be Tor.com?

We did! It’s the same people and same fiction and articles, but a new site and a new name. We answer most of everyone’s questions about it here.

Why does your website ask if I’m 13-15 years-old?

It’s an off-putting thing we have been mandated to do by our parent company in order to comply with recent updates to the California Consumer Privacy Act. We’re very sorry about it. Please just click it away and it shouldn’t appear again.

I have an idea for an article.

Head over to our Submissions Guidelines. Reactor is a paying outlet and accepts unsolicited article pitches.

Is the Tordotcom Publishing book imprint and/or Tor Books changing its name?

No!

I FOUND A BUG.

Report it through this form.

The post Welcome to Reactor! Here’s Where Everything Went and How to Use It appeared first on Reactor.

Tor Publishing Group announced today that Tor.com will become Reactor (www.reactormag.com) on January 23, 2024, coinciding with the launch of a completely redesigned website.

Since its founding in 2008, Tor.com has become a leader in coverage of science fiction and fantasy books and popular culture, with over 3 million visits per month. As an online magazine, Tor.com has won countless awards and has been the Locus Award winner for Best Magazine for 7 years running. In addition to its coverage of all things SFF, the site is also home to an award-winning short fiction program, which has published works by Seanan McGuire, E. Lily Yu, N.K. Jemisin, and scores of first-time authors, and which have gone on to win several Hugo Awards, Nebula Awards, and World Fantasy Awards.

The site has been publisher agnostic since its founding, and the new name will reflect its independence from Tor Publishing Group. The short fiction program will continue under the Reactor name, and in addition to the daily commentary on science fiction, fantasy, and related subjects that readers have come to expect, the site will also now cover all aspects of genre, including horror, romance and and more, from a wide range of writers from all corners of the genre world, creating a true pop culture destination. 

Devi Pillai, President and Publisher of Tor Publishing Group, remarked, “I am very excited to introduce Reactor to the world! We have always been the place to come to for science fiction and fantasy—but with a new name, a new design, we are going to have a magazine that will be more of a pop culture hub for people who love genre of all types. We want to expand the audience and the community that Tor.com has built over the past 15 years.”

Chris Lough, Director of Tor.com (Reactor), enthused, “Oh, how we have waited for this day. For the past 15 years we have published discerning yet joyful works of media criticism, along with award-winning short fiction and art. Now, starting in 2024, the look and functionality of our magazine’s website will finally match the maturity of our contributors and the needs of our community.”

Reactor can be found across social media, including Instagram (@reactorSFF), Threads (@reactorSFF), X (@reactormag), BlueSky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine).

Update: We’ve gathered your most frequently asked questions about the change and answered some here.

The post Tor.com To Become Reactor, Debut New Site, On January 23rd appeared first on Reactor.

Why are you rebranding?

“Tor.com” is a very confusing name. Rebranding distinguishes us from Tor Books, Tordotcom Publishing, and even the TOR browser—3 things that we are not! (Although we started at Tor Books and are owned by the Tor Publishing Group, and Tordotcom Publishing emerged from the site in 2015. It’s complicated.) Our site redesign kicked off in late 2022 and eventually prompted a re-look at our name. The stars aligned around “Reactor”.

Why “Reactor”?

It captures some of what we do: react to genre fiction and related pop culture with articles, essays, etc. Reactors are components in spaceships, which ties in with our beloved mascot, Stubby. Having “tor” in the name is a nice bonus. Don’t forget from whence you came!

Is Stubby the Rocket going away?

No. We love Stubby.

Is coverage of science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fic going away?

Absolutely not! SFF literature is still the heart of what we do, and that’s our priority. We’ll just also be open to related subjects of interest, from nonfic to romantasy, pirates to gardening, and so on. For fifteen years, our site has been a place for fans of SFF to gather and discuss old favorites and find new favorites, and that’s not going to change.

What will happen to old articles and links?

All of our 15+ years (!) of short fiction and articles will be on the new site. Old links will forward you to the new link.

What will happen with the short fiction?

Oh, that’s not going anywhere. We’ve got an entire year’s worth of great new stories coming!

Are you using/going to be using AI?

No, and we don’t intend to. All of our articles, fiction, and art are 100% created by humans. This goes for the content and design of our Beacons links page as well. A Reactor employee is making and updating that. (Why Beacon instead of a Linktree? Lots more formatting options in Beacon. That’s all.)

Why are you creating new social media accounts, instead of renaming the old ones?

Social media isn’t always kind to renaming old accounts. We’re excited about a clean slate. You can check out our new accounts here!

When is the change officially happening?

January 23, 2024. Our Tor.com accounts will remain active until then, and while we’ll leave the old accounts up, we’ll be switching to the new ones moving forward from that date.

Will my Tor.com site account/login transfer over?

Yes.

Will Reactor have an RSS feed(s)?

It’s on the list of things we really want, but we might not get to it on the implementation list until a little bit after the new site launches.

Wait! I have a question about _______!

Want to know more? We’re hosting an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit’s r/Fantasy page on January 18. Come over then!

The post Answering Your Questions About Tor.com’s Change to Reactor appeared first on Reactor.