Suggestion for workshop forum

[petrel}]

I don't know if it is possible, but is there a way to flag the entries as per genre: poetry, fiction, etc.? It would make it a whole lot easier to sort through.

[Chrispian]

I think it's a good idea. Perhaps we should use a subject flag, like so:

[POETRY] I wrote a poem

[FANTASY] My story about dragons

Something along those lines. I would just create categories for them, but I'd rather keep that area less "fixed" since the point of workshopping is to get the work improved and then remove it.

[Ilan Bouchard]

This doesn't necessarily need to be just in the workshop, nor do I think it has to be a feature. When I post a short story, I just write "(Fantasy)" or whatever in the title. If people just write what it is in the subject bar, there will be far more leeway when someone writes a story that falls into more than one genre.

But if we're having a flag feature, perhaps we can have a word count feature as well? Like:

<150 words
151-500 words
501-1000 words
1000-5000 words
>5000 words

[petrel}]

very true, Chrispian. Flagging in the subject line would work just as well as long as people actually did it. The word count could also be placed there if people want to include it; personally, I'd rather not, since people may decide something is too long and ignore the post. Of course, things should be posted in manageable chunks, any ways, but....

[Ilan Bouchard]

Originally Posted by petrel}

I'd rather not, since people may decide something is too long and ignore the post.

But then if they click on it and see how long it is, they won't read it anyway. This way saves people that time.

[Talia_Brie]

These kind of suggestions come up pretty often, but nothign ever comes of it.

The difference in the workshop forum is that it's a reasonably small community. You can make the suggestion to everyone and it will probably be followed, more often than not.

The other option is to have a staff member monitor the new posts and make the appropriate changes to the subject line. Again, in the workshop forum that might be possible, while in critique and advice and fiction it wouldn't be.

Anything else may result in over-mechanising the new post page. I don't know. It's a good idea, but can it be made to work? We've never managed it before.

[Chrispian]

Originally Posted by Talia_Brie

These kind of suggestions come up pretty often, but nothign ever comes of it.

The difference in the workshop forum is that it's a reasonably small community. You can make the suggestion to everyone and it will probably be followed, more often than not.

The other option is to have a staff member monitor the new posts and make the appropriate changes to the subject line. Again, in the workshop forum that might be possible, while in critique and advice and fiction it wouldn't be.

Anything else may result in over-mechanising the new post page. I don't know. It's a good idea, but can it be made to work? We've never managed it before.

We've never tried it before. We also have implemented hundreds of suggested changes to the site, some are just less important than others. When you have to rely on people to do things manually (in ever aspect of life) you will usually find the system breaks down. However, if enough people do it and the staff helps maintain it, things like this can work. Because the new user who comes along who doesn't know to tag it or a regular member forgets, it'll stand out in the sea of ones already tagged.

I'm not sure how to do it from the technical standpoint as I'm still learning vB, but I imagine adding some optional inputs for genre and word length isn't a new request. There's probably a mod or addon already for just such a thing. I'll see if I can find one. If I can't find one, I'll try to write it and if that does't work, I'll come up with a process that members and staff can use to tag stuff.

[Talia_Brie]

Chris,

My comments weren't meant as a criticism. I'm sorry if they came across that way. It's was just an observation - I thought on php (?) that kind of mechanised tagging was impossible. I'm well aware of how much effort and work you do to keep this site running as well as it does.

[Chrispian]

Originally Posted by Talia_Brie

Chris,

My comments weren't meant as a criticism. I'm sorry if they came across that way. It's was just an observation - I thought on php (?) that kind of mechanised tagging was impossible. I'm well aware of how much effort and work you do to keep this site running as well as it does.

I didn't mean to sound defensive, if I did. I think I took it how you meant it and was just trying to explain what I had in mind to solve this particular problem. Whether by intent or not, comments like the one you made make me think about how things are or should be and that's a good thing. Your observation was find and I appreciate when people take the time to give feedback.

As for the possibility of this kind of tagging with php, it's very, very easy. I may not have mentioned it before, but writing PHP is what I do at my day job. The real question is how easy would it be to do with vBulletin. They have "hooks" in the system that can be used, but I haven't learned where all these hooks are or how to use them yet. I'm sure I can figure it out when I get a couple of hours of down time. One of the advantages of having a programmer as the admin is that we can actually make the changes we dream up. The real problem becomes deciding which ones to implement when we have a stack of them. I need a clone

Feel free to poke at me with a stick anytime, I really don't mind!

[Ilan Bouchard]

I really don't want to sound inane, if I do.

Feel free to poke at me with a stick anytime, I really don't mind!

[Chrispian]

Originally Posted by Ilan Bouchard

I really don't want to sound inane, if I do.

It's always you. Everywhere I turn. Right there, with the stick. I'll remember this!

What were we talking about?