Related thoughts about the two-day posting rule and the Writers’ Archive Page. Any views?

1) I understand and accept the two day rule now after initially being annoyed with it. However, I do think that if we post work to be viewed by a WW group ONLY, it shouldn’t count. When we do this, we aren’t taking up room on the Recently Added board and the rule was only introduced to give everyone a fair chance of having time on there.

2) I’m starting to wonder if the layout of the Archive Page could be changed. It seems to me WW is getting more and more popular - which is great! But it now seems that as there are only 10 slots on the Recently Added bit, work zooms off there and can be missed quite easily. I feel this listing is the most important and should be extended. A fabulous poem was posted yesterday morning, one I think lots of people would enjoy and admire. But by early evening it was off the Recent Additions as so many people posted, and I think it will be missed by many, which is a real shame.

3) Leading on from 2), I would rather the space used for the Random Selection bit and the Most Popular was used for a longer RA Section. I know it’s great to be on the Most Popular, but...in a discussion a while ago the idea of putting ‘hits’ on work was floated - I would much rather just have this so I can get an idea of how many are reading all my stuff. Or, if we wanted to randomly highlight things, why not have a selection of 5-10 Members at random, and then we can check out whole portfolios we may have missed? I still think this would take up less room than the present format and so allow for a longer Recent Additions list.
Or, I would happily do away with the Recent Comments. I do use it, but I don’t really think it’s essential, and again, I would rather the space were used to have a longer RA section.

These are not complaints, just thoughts..and I’m not suggesting the whole page should be given over to Recent Additions, but I think if one or two changes were made, new work would have the focus I think it deserves.

x
tc

Morning TC,
I agree that the 2 day rule is frustrating but, like you, I understand and accept. I also agree that group work wouldn't get in the way of this system.

I think if you look closely, you'll find that the random selection is, in fact, a continuation of the recently added list (it took me a while to work that one out!)

I like your suggestion to replace the most pop with hits. I saw this morning that I am in position 9 since last night but I haven't got any new comments so had I not got into the top ten, I wouldn't have realised people were following my saga!!

Time for breccy
Elspeth

I agree that something should be done to counteract the way things disappear far too quickly from the Recently Added. It would be helpful to have a facility to allow one to either display only poetry, fiction, or non fiction, although as there is less of the latter possibly the last two could be put together. I use the Recent Comments a lot to catch up, so I'd hate to lose those. And I'm perplexed by the Most Popular; I can't help wondering sometimes if people actually read the fiction pieces that top the list or just go there in order to check out the comments - I've noticed that pieces with funny or contentious ones, or with sexy titles tend to climb rapidly to the top of the list. I wouldn't mind losing the Random Selection, and speaking for myself I'd like to be able to find pieces of work by the number of comments they've received, so that I could comment on work that has been overlooked or gained less attention than others.

Yes, Nell - out with the top 10 because being in it isn't useful and doesn't even flatter our egos (see above comment)

Elspeth, we were posting at the same time. This is probably not practical, but it would be helpful if members could tick a box saying that they'd visited to read a piece of work (rather than check out comments etc.), even if they hadn't wanted to comment. Not so different from a hit counter I suppose, but more revealing.

Some good ideas here, tc.

I think the two-day rule is fine but I agree that group work should be exempt.

It concerns me that postings drop out of sight so quickly. Personally I never use the Random Selection list and rarely look at the Most Popular – but I’ve just noticed that Chapter 2 of Paying For The Gallery is up near the top (shameless plug!) so maybe it’s good for a much-needed ego boost. I have no idea how the MP list is rated. If it’s the number of hits then it’s a fairly crude measure. How many times would I have to hit on one of my own postings to get it to the top of the list? If I was sad enough to waste my time doing that… Maybe the MP and RS lists could have their own page?

I also think the ‘Browse author by user name’ and ‘Browse by category’ take up too much space on the screen. Could they not be reduced to two horizontal lines or even moved onto another page to leave more room for the Recently Added and Recent Comments lists. I tend to rely on the RC list to alert me to any comments on my own work and on other posting which I have read and commented on and so have an interest in.

Finally, for all sorts of reasons, I would like to see Poetry, Fiction and Non-fiction have separate RA and Comments lists. As a non-poet, I don’t feel qualified to comment on poems, other than to say that I liked something. But there are times when I enjoy browsing through the poems just for the pleasure of reading them. With fiction, on the other hand, I feel that it’s part of the deal to read and give constructive feedback on as much as I can. As an old hand on the site now, I can recognise most of the poets by username but it must be a bit daunting for new members and, of course, there are some who write both prose and poetry.

Dee


<Added>

While we’re on the subject – what’s wrong with the Archive this morning? Recently Added has scrunched itself into Recent Comments. This has happened a few times lately… maybe it’s a symptom of list overload…

I dont have a problem with the two day rule but agree with most of the rest, in fact I posted similar comments on a previous forum

I cant see the point of adding something today to consign it to the archive either on the same day or later that day by immediately adding another piece of work.You have only ever been able to display one piece of work in the groups which I think is emminently sensible.If you were able to post as much as you liked then all you would do is move the problem to the groups and the more prolific would push the work of the less frequent poster out of site

The most popular is almost a duplication of the facility at the top right hand of the screen where the most popular within genre is available.

The random selection seems to only randomly select recently added work anyway so does appear to be a bit of a waste.

I do still consider that work could be colour coded in some way so a poem would be easily distinguishable from a short story etc. this I think would be especially useful on the recently added board.

As for the top ten as it seems to be based on the total number of responses to a piece of work then if you reply a lot yourself to comments on your work you climb the table more quickly than if you just rely on others responses. I am not really sure it adds any value to the site but can see why it was included.


Whilst we are on the improvement kick perhaps we should also consider the forums

The group forum facility appears not to get used very much nor does the lounge facility would the forums be better dispalyed as the new work etc page is at present that way perhaps the forums would be more likely to be added in the more apporpriate forum.

anyway just a few views to join the others all of which which I am sure Anna David and Richard will consider
have fun folks

david

take care

We are indeed considering these issues and have been for some time. Archive home page shake up is high on our priorities and the consensus that appears to exist here is largely in line with our own thoughts - so that's good...