[Meta] Story Hour Index (development)

[el-remmen]

I figured each entry would have links to other self-contained story hours by the same author - but in the case of multiple threads for the same story it would count as ONE story hour.

I really don't want to rank people by views or posts because I don't want to make this into a competition, just a listing - though after this is all going we can think about maybe having a Story Hour of the Month spotlight listing at the top. . .

 

[spyscribe]

Let me begin by saying I think this is a good idea, el-remmen. I will also put my time where my mouth is and volunteer to help get an index on its feet.

I really don't want to rank people by views or posts because I don't want to make this into a competition, just a listing - though after this is all going we can think about maybe having a Story Hour of the Month spotlight listing at the top. . .

I think that's an excellent point, but... and I hesitate as I open this can of worms... there are more than 1,200 threads in the forum. For perspective, of that number, more than 100 have zero replies. Not all of those are story hours, but if the index becomes too large, and isn't searchable, then it becomes less useful as a tool for prospective readers.

So, should there be some criteria for inclusion?

 

[el-remmen]

So, should there be some criteria for inclusion?

Good point.

Any suggestions?

I think right off the bat any story hour that is older than X months with fewer than Y posts by the author should not make the cut.

As for searchable, while that might not be workable, it can be easily made into a few sortable versions (by author or by title) and divided up alphabetically, so you can just jump to the Ms, for example. . .

Oh and thanks spyscribe. . .

 

[spyscribe]

Any suggestions?

Off the top of my head, what if thread inclusion was based on on some percentage of the overall forum?

Such as the index will include all story hours in the top 25% of the forum by thread length (or views) and any others which have been deemed "complete" by the author even if they didn't meet that threshold.

I'm pulling 25% out of thin air here. That's a lot of threads, but if readers can sort by some of the attributes you mentioned up top (genre, character level, frequency of updates) it's not an undoable number. Or indexers can just start from the top and work down until the project becomes unweildly to continue or maintain.

 

[howandwhy99]

Hmmmm...

What about something akin to the 'review' database, but in miniature?
This way each author could potentially login, change details, and even add their own storyhour when starting out. They could even write their own blurb promoting their SH.

I suggest this really to take the workload off the administrators who would otherwise have to rewrite the listing periodically. IME, that rarely works well in practice. This way you just need to browse every so often to see who has let their details lapse. (perhaps a finished thread?)

Plus, databases are the best option when dealing with multiple queries.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I like the reviews database-like idea for it...but wouldn't that throw more work on Michael Morris? Really think we should try to avoid that.

The hardest part is really determining what constitutes being listed in the Index. Do we list EVERYTHING? If not, what do we cut out? The problem with determining by views is that big name writers can have very few updates and a thousands of views...same with posts. Many of the posts in the 'big name' SHs, are not actually updates but instead outside comments.

 

[Capellan]

How about separating things by "active" story hours (anything with an update in the last 4 weeks), "dormant" story hours (anything with an update in the last 4 months) and "closed" story hours (everything else).

I don't think inclusion should be based on thread length or view count, with the possible exception that an SH needs 10 actual updates before it gets listed, so someone isn't having to add every SH that only makes it to 2 updates and dies.

 

[el-remmen]

How about separating things by "active" story hours (anything with an update in the last 4 weeks), "dormant" story hours (anything with an update in the last 4 months) and "closed" story hours (everything else).

Well, that info would be included in each story hour entry anyway, as opposed to separating it all up. Though those categories could work.

I don't think inclusion should be based on thread length or view count, with the possible exception that an SH needs 10 actual updates before it gets listed, so someone isn't having to add every SH that only makes it to 2 updates and dies.

Also, I was n't seeing this as something that would be constantly updated. I was thinking once a twice a year, giving enough time for newer story hours to last long enough to meet whatever criteria we come up with (10 actual updates in whatever time period, or what have you) and for old er story hours to wrap up, spread over to new threads, or die off. . .

 

[Lazybones]

I don't think inclusion should be based on thread length or view count, with the possible exception that an SH needs 10 actual updates before it gets listed, so someone isn't having to add every SH that only makes it to 2 updates and dies.

I agree that there needs to be an arbitrary cut-off in order to keep this manageable. Although using # of updates as the criteria might be abused. I don't know if anyone would submit 10 1-paragraph "updates" to qualify, but I'm a notorious cynic; and some authors (e.g. Sepulchrave) update very rarely but post massively long updates when they do. Word count could work but it would require a bit more work on the part of the collater to judge (e.g. pasting into a Word doc and checking the count). I'd even go higher, and start with those authors (if we're grouping it that way) with >50 total updates/20,000 words to get things started, and then expand it as time permits.

I know if I was starting this project, and I had 200 threads to categorize, I might be more than a bit intimidated.

Or indexers can just start from the top and work down until the project becomes unweildly to continue or maintain.

Something like this to get the ball rolling...

I'd offer my help (I do a lot of this kind of stuff at work), but since Websense blocks ENWorld, I defer to the other capable wordsmiths of the forum.

 

[el-remmen]

Well, I have started on a sample entry, using my own story hour as a test case, seeing what info seems pertinent and how much work each one takes.

Right now I am figuring out my average post frequency. I decided the most current thread (in multi-thread SHs) should be the one that is used (you might have been really eager and frequent in the beginning and slowed down, or vice versa) - but in my case since my most recent thread only just recently started, I decided to use the second to last thread as well.

It is actually quite interesting to see how often I posted, going thru noting down the dates of posts - but then again I love math and statistics and stuff (I'm a geek, go figure!).

One of the categories I came up with is Average Post Length - breaking it up into short, medium and long. I don't know what criteria we will use to define those (probably word count) but I know my own tend to be much longer than say, Piratecat's, and some (like Sagiro) are in the middle.

Anyway, back to counting. . .