Timewaster's Guide Archive
General => Suggestions Box => Topic started by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on September 03, 2003, 05:20:30 PM
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Just going to renew my bi-monthly gripe that the AUTHOR byline should really be on the main page of the site, as that is a much more handy piece of info for visitors than the person who posted the article they didn't write.
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Hey, that's one of my favorite gripes.
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I aim to please
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Yeah I'd have to third that gripe. As much as I love wasting time, I'm on a 56k, and I don't like loading a nw page and scrolling to the bottom to see the author.
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Just to be clear on this, I have no intention of making this change. Ever.
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That's because you're a stubborn git, Tage.
See, some of us try to make a livlihood off our creative production, not refusing to be user friendly. People who I speak to want to know what I write, and yes, honestly TWG is one of the references I make. They go to a site, and there's a list of articles on the introductory page, which soemtimes I've written as many as 4 or 5 of. But does it say that? No, it says "posted by Fellfrosch." Which you and I both know means he's the admin who linked it to the front page, but which no casual user has any reason for knowing. The second thing they notice is that a search for my last name doesn't turn up anything. Which again makes them think I'm talking out my arse when I tell them that my work is published on this online zine.
A third reason, frankly, there are some reviewers (not naming anyone) in the past who I've decided to either not read at all or to take with giant bags of salt. It is nice to be able to see this BEFORE I go to the page, esp. when I'm on a dial up connection. Remember that the number of people with regular browsing access to broadband connections is still very small, so I'm not alone in this.
In other words, this isn't a nitpicking thing for me. This is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE for me on this site. It's MUCH more important than a message board with neat doohickeys for tracking characters, or a new site design, and especially more important than a poll. It's a professional issue as well as convenience.
And it REALLY bugs me that you just write it off that way without thinking that it's something even worthy of attention.
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I'd have to agree that it's very useful to see the author on the front page, and not useful at all to know who posted it.
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I'm not saying it wouldn't be useful, I'm saying the mechanics behind it would be extremely complicated. The news posts are in now way tied to the articles. This allows us to make news posts without having to post ariticles, and vice versa.
Unfortunately for me I just thought of a way to do this. I hate when people bring things to my attention and my subconscious starts working on them.
I'm admittedly surprised that the search doesn't include the author. I could have sworn it did. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
EDIT: Search now includes author, and defaults to 100 results instead of 10. Also, the search results show the author of the article.
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Mark another vicotry for the snarky arse.
Of course, to be properly penitent, I should point out that I did remember that Tage had talked about major coding problems with this before. So I was being kind of a jerk. I apologize. I felt bad, and I shouldn't have written the last sentence of my previous post, nor really the first, though that one, at least, was funny.
Anyway, I have also thought up a solution! One that is much less work for Tage and a little more for Fell! This involves no coding: Fell simply identifies the author in the little blurb! By name! He already writes something, so it shouldn't be too hard.
Of course searchable options are nice. Thanks for that. I likes it. (this I say without having used it, since I'm at work, but I definitely likes the concept).
Now, if you are going to implement a code solution to the blurb issue, this is a completely uneccessary but kinda nifty add in. The author's could be a link to either/or both of the following.
a) a search by that author's name for articles (which in my wildest fantasies also have the "bio" as well as the list of articles).
b) the author's forum member record.
Just a cool little brainstorm.Entirely uneccessary. I do like a code solution better than Fell just putting in the name, but whichever we agree upon, I'm happy.
Anyway, Just to repeat, this time I *was* a "snarky arse." And I feel bad about it. So I'll shut up now.
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And it REALLY bugs me that you just write it off that way without thinking that it's something even worthy of attention.
Well most things/people are beneath Tage. He just does the occasional thing to keep the teeming masses content.
And we all know the only person's reviews that you read SE are your own, so I don't know why your so insistent on this.
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well, I am egomaniacal. But not THAT bad.
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You know what I love about Spriggan? His wild, unprovoked personal attacks on anyone and anything, thrown about randomly. It really spices up the boards.
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glad I'm good for something.
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Do you get paid for that?
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nope youre love and affection is enough payment for me.
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Then you really need to look into getting monetary compensation :o
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/me passes Sprig $5 usda
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OK, *that* was so funny I repeated it to a coworker. Which meant I had to explain where it came from. MoD gets a puff point.
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And so one of my insults becomes a impromptu injoke. Nifty.
One of these days im gonna have to hunt down SE and brand that into his forehead. I think i have enough air miles to go to america...
And that would be nice. I read the reviews while keeping in mind what i know about the reviewer, so i like to know who the reviewer is. If its SEs reviews, i know a bit about what he likes in RPGs, so i can use that information to create a "filter" to read his comments through. IIf you get my drift.
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Okay, time for another billiant EUOL suggestion.
We could just have posts on the main page--the ones that Fell writes--have a standarized way of including the author's name. For instance,
"The Star Trek CCG was so awkward it spawned a rulebook bigger than your head. Second Edition fixes the old game's problems like a breath of fresh air" is a blurb on the page right now. Why not just include the author's name at the end.
"The Star Trek CCG was so awkward it spawned a rulebook bigger than your head. Second Edition fixes the old game's problems like a breath of fresh air. Article by Daniel Wells."
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I think I suggested that earlier when I admitted I was being a snarky arse.... It's the easiest way, but it'd also be fun to have it as soemthing with a meta tag...