The Planning Thread for "quality fanfic archive"

[Venia Silente]

xD
I also have a few suggestions for the site.

We need to seperate one-shot stories and chaptered stories, or at that the site mentions if it's a one-shot or not.

Also next to be able to select authors, we also need to give the visitors the chance to select between different genres. So that people can search by author and genre.

I've noted down your suggestions, Merata. I'll work during the weekend creating the database model to host the archive and present a functional categorization and search system by the end of the month. It will be hosted in my personal server (which is not available all 24h, but I'll make sure you can test it) before I get answer from my boss about the long-term hosting.

Right now, the database model I'm preparing allows for the following visitor operations:

• View an index of all stories available.
• Search a story by words in the title.
• Search an author by name.
• View an index of all authors available.
• List all authors who have published in a specified genre/category.
• View an index of all genres available.

It's pretty basic, but once I fill in some details and create the webpage system for the model, I'll give you the access so you can try the site.

PS.: An-chan, can you check with me and send me the code for the test page you created? It would save me entire days of design.

 

[An-chan]

Eheh, ahem.
You know, I can't make websites. Well, I can do some really basic stuff with HTML, but I've forgot most it. That sample page was made with Freewebs's idiot-proof page maker for two reasons: firstly, I wanted to try Freewebs because to me, it seems like it's everywhere nowadays. Secondly, it was an easy way to show people what I meant.
So, I'm really, really, really, really sorry, but I don't have the code for it. Well, unless you can make some use of the source code of the page (I don't precisely know what that is, but that I can get, and probably you can, too), that is. You know, the one you can see from your browser..?

I'm pretty useless, aren't I?

But, that database you're making sounds really good. I'm impressed by that you can do something like that and I'm feeling more useless by the moment :laugh: Sure, I can come up with stuff like "wouldn't it be awesome if there was this and that" but when it comes to actually making "this and that" happen, there's not much I can do. Well, I can make colour schemes we could try out, and I can try and design a logo for us, and I can make some crappy graphics for the site, but I can't make the actual site. All I can do is to tune minor details.

And I can't believe we're working our asses off for a common cause like this! :laugh: We should get to put this on our CV or something. I'm glad we're doing this and yes, I knew how much trouble and work this would be, but I still have this feeling of unrealness.

Man, this is awesome.

 

[Ninja Caterpie]

So true, An-chan. This is awesome.
It hasn't been done so it makes us feel unneededly special. :D

 

[An-chan]

Oh yeah, seeing that innocent smile of your Caterpie there reminds me that I should see your fics, too, and announce they are eligible. Searching should always be started from up close!

---processing---
All right, I checked your one-shot. It now has the official ELIGIBLE-stamp on it. Hmm, I should collect all the collected fics into one post, don't you guys think?

Also, Dark Lakitu, have I mentioned I deeply love Australia? :laugh:

 

[Ninja Caterpie]

What one-shot...? Oh THAT one.
Right.
Ahah, I have an eligible fic...>=)
Anyway, I love Australia too! It's awesome.

-gulp-
Now to venture into the deep, dark, depths of the No-ROM-Hacking-sectioned Serebii.net!

 

[Percy Thrillington]

I've been stalking this thread for a while and I want to offer my services as both a searcher and a reviewer. Do I need to produce links of some sort to be accepted into this project?

 

[An-chan]

Well, umm, you should probably convince us of your reviewing skills :laugh: so if you would come up with a link to a review you've made, that'd do it. But I think I've seen you "in action", and I, for one, have nothing against you participating. More like the opposite! But again, I'll leave the final word to jeffb- er, Post Office Buddy (darn that new nick, it's too hard for me to write!), so after he says yes, I'll add you to the list on the first post. Does that sound fair enough?

A list of fics found this far:
Possession (oneshot) - katiekitten
Loyalty (One-Shot) - Saffire Persian
Chance (Short Story) - Saffire Persian
The Ties that Bind (One-Shot) - Saffire Persian
Dividing the Bones (One-Shot) - Saffire Persian
Just Like The Others (one-shot) - Magmortified
Breaking Out (One-shot) - Dark Lakitu
My Endless Loneliness (One-shot) - Jeffback/Post Office Buddy (note: you guys were pretty busy with those FFC's, huh?)
Ace Sanchez - The TRUE Role Reversal (note: yeah, I know, crappy page)
15 great one-shots by different authors (note: all good, I checked them all!)
25 great stories centered around Pokémon (note: more or less all good)
19 at least fairly good Pokémorph stories

I'll add anything you find/suggest to this list! Also, all the authors are yet to be notified. And, to organize the search a bit: I've gone trough Pokémon Fan Universe, Pokémon Tower, the Seafoam Island, Pokedox Forums, half of the Pokémon section on ffnet (man, was that a pain) and Shamouti Island (thanks, Xanthine!). So, don't go to any of those, all right? Or go as you will, but you'll waste your time. Expecially if it's Pokémon Tower *shivers*

Notice how we only seem to have one-shots? That's because, for some completely illogical reason, people don't finish their longer fics. You know, because we don't want a pageful of unfinished fics that most probably never will be ready, we prefer complete fics. Remember that when you search for material. If it's really good and almost complete, that can be accepted. Or, well, if it's immensily good even as a half a fic and works as such, that can also be accepted, but frankly, I don't believe there's a fic like that in this world. So:
1) Search for complete fics
2) The longer, the better
3) Report everything you've found to me and I'll put it up here. No need for PM's because I keep in touch with this thread often enough.
4) Should I move this list to the first post? What do you think?

The time in Finland is currently 02:58 or 2.58 AM.
An-chan calls this a day and pretends to go to sleep when she actually hangs around for at least half an hour. G'nite.

 

[Ninja Caterpie]

Well...that's...sort of a list, I guess.
Time to search Serebii. I've said that, how many times now?

 

[Astinus]

Just glancing at the list of those authors whose works were chosen:

When it comes time to contact these authors, I can get in contact with Saffire Persian (spelled with two "f's", and hell befall those who misspell it) and katiekitten, since they're good friends of mine, and they don't come here that often.

I'll keep my eyes on this thread to see if any other authors I know are added to the list.

 

[Post Office Buddy]

I looked into Pe2k, and have tried contacting a moderator, but I still haven't heard anything. I guess this means that I'll either have to do some independent searching, or I will have to find another mod that can help me. I'll try a few other forums I used to post on back a few years ago, but I won't promise too much good stuff from those ones. I used to hang out only in the game discussion on those forums, and only dabbled in the fanfics. I actually only became interested in fictions around March of this year...

Anyway, thank-you, Astinus, for offering to contact these authors. Your help is greatly appreciated, as always.

Rekhyt, I believe I have seen some of your reviewing, but if you could provide me with a URL of a review, and to your fic if you have written one, then I can be more certain. Unless I see anything stating otherwise in the review/fic you provide me with, then you can consider yourself in.

 

[An-chan]

Who misspelled Saffire Persian? *innocent look*

Thanks, Astinus (and not least for the correction. I feel stupid now :laugh:)! But yeah, we're very grateful of your help. We'll come and poke you when it becomes of current interest to contact them, if that's okay.
It's great that so many people want to participate in this ^-^ It feels even more awesome that way!

 

[Percy Thrillington]

Okay, here is a review I did about a month and a half ago. My post is the fourth in the thread. Seeing as that review's a bit lacking, I've decided to produce a link to this thread. My review for the story can be found here.

And for my stories? Well, my two main ones (Operation Main Frame and The U.A.) are chapter stories and An-chan said in the first post that she didn't want any of those. I have one-shots, but I really don't think they're any good. I quite like my entry for the fan fiction challenge when the prompt was death, but that's about it.

And yes, I do know that there's such thing as a Full Revive, which sort of cancels out the Resurrection Stone.

 

[An-chan]

And for my stories? Well, my two main ones (Operation Main Frame and The U.A.) are chapter stories and An-chan said in the first post that she didn't want any of those.

Eh, uh, what? Did I say something like that?
Because that isn't what I meant, the only thing important is that the fics are complete. I'll go and see that first post to see how I've put my words. I mean, long, chaptered fics for the victory, they just need to be ready. Our archive will suck if we only have one-shots.

I'll go and see all your fics right after I've updated my first post with some stuff. ^-^

 

[Percy Thrillington]

Eh, uh, what? Did I say something like that?
Because that isn't what I meant, the only thing important is that the fics are complete. I'll go and see that first post to see how I've put my words. I mean, long, chaptered fics for the victory, they just need to be ready. Our archive will suck if we only have one-shots.

I'll go and see all your fics right after I've updated my first post with some stuff. ^-^

Oh, that's my bad. I absent-mindedly forgot to mention that you didn't want unfinished chaptered fics, which is what my two can be summed up as quite easily.

 

[Post Office Buddy]

The reason I wanted to see links to fictions you had written was to make sure that you could not only recognize errors in other people's work, but your own as well. I want to make sure that reviewers, when asked by those they critique, can provide evidence that they are fully qualified to review.

 

[Venia Silente]

Working on the Model!

Eheh, ahem.
You know, I can't make websites. Well, I can do some really basic stuff with HTML, but I've forgot most it. That sample page was made with Freewebs's idiot-proof page maker for two reasons: firstly, I wanted to try Freewebs because to me, it seems like it's everywhere nowadays. Secondly, it was an easy way to show people what I meant.
So, I'm really, really, really, really sorry, but I don't have the code for it. Well, unless you can make some use of the source code of the page (I don't precisely know what that is, but that I can get, and probably you can, too), that is. You know, the one you can see from your browser..?

Oh... well... it seems I forgot the part about Freewebs. But, still, it served its purpose. I got the idea about how the website should look (utility-wise) and what basic funtions should the archive focus on. For example, I had not initially thought about chaptered fics. My mistake.

[

But, that database you're making sounds really good. I'm impressed by that you can do something like that and I'm feeling more useless by the moment :laugh: Sure, I can come up with stuff like "wouldn't it be awesome if there was this and that" but when it comes to actually making "this and that" happen, there's not much I can do. Well, I can make colour schemes we could try out, and I can try and design a logo for us, and I can make some crappy graphics for the site, but I can't make the actual site. All I can do is to tune minor details.

Yeah, sounds really good, doesn't it? I guess it comes with the territory :D but anyways, I'll try to report progress so you guys can pop up more ideas about what the archive should be capable of doing. The development goes slow but steady. If I'm really lucky, a workable (beta) site with the ACTUAL capability to upload stories should be ready by January.

For the time being, An-chan, I think it is best if you can take all the graphical design part. If I do it, we'll end with someting like the old 80's terminals. I always sucked at graphic design:embarrass .

I'm pretty useless, aren't I?

NO WAY!

Truly... given what we have managed to do until now, you have been the driving force behind this project. I only hope I can be of real use to this project and finish the model before RL catches on...

And I can't believe we're working our asses off for a common cause like this! :laugh: We should get to put this on our CV or something. I'm glad we're doing this and yes, I knew how much trouble and work this would be, but I still have this feeling of unrealness.

(Emphasis added)​

Yeah... it would be great! Although I don't know what will my friends think when they read in my CV: "developes software for Pokémon fanfic sites"... and it will be even weirder if eventually I end up as an uthor or jury at the site... But, heck, I will not worry about it. There is so much wisdom I have I can't put in my CV because these skills are too dangerous (:paranoid:×86). Still a great idea. Once this is ready we should celebrate and announce to the world how much we have contributed to have actual good quality fics. Oops... looks my ego is tapping on the keyboard again...

No! Ego, stop!

*must restrain ego*!!!!!!

Ha ha ha! Victory shall be ours! Soon the world will realise there are good fanfics about---

Solovino's Scyther uses Blunt Swipe on him...

*Solovino gets dizzied*

No...

*Crawls in the ground, trying to reach keyboard*

Must.... contact... the UN... announce... no... more.... crappy.... fics....

*faints*

 

[An-chan]

Truly... given what we have managed to do until now, you have been the driving force behind this project.

That's not the complete truth. I did invent this whole thing, but I wouldn't have even made this thread unless POB hadn't encouraged be by showing that other people think it's a great idea, too. We don't have only one driving force:
We have, well, me, to edlessly search for the fics (I think I've found quite many already) and spam the thread so it stays active.
Then we have Post Office Buddy to work on the nearly impossible grading scale and have a clear vision on what the reviewers should do.
Then we have solovino to have the know-how on making websites and do awesome things like databases.
Then we have Dark Lakitu, Blue Angel, Rekhyt and Merata and all the other folks to further drive everyone forward by telling they're interested and willing to help, too.
We're all in this together as they say in the worst movie I ever wanted to see the sequel of, the High School Musical. (For some reason, I'm a sucker for movies that suck. I think bad movies made with the actual thought of them being good are almost the best kind of comedy there is...)

I'm going to search for more today and maybe do something else useful as well. Maybe.

solovino, feel free to contact me if you need some guidelines on the graphic desing. For now, you can do something like the sample page or something. (although, the fics probably shouldn't be listed on the menu. Instead, I think they should only be visible in the archive page.) When you get a revive, that is.

 

[Venia Silente]

Uhmmm....

What a nice dream.

After I awoke from my Scyther-induced slumber I decided to work a little more on the database model. I was working on some details like what information does a story convey, how the chapters are separated and how a private message system can be assembled. So I think I can safely say the model is quite advanced already and is at least safe enough to be loaded onto the computer systems. Then I will at least try to create some basic test pages (login, search and the like).

In the meanwhile I'll leave you all with a sample of the model. Maybe you won't understand a thing, but that's why I'm attaching a picture and some explanations about how the model works.

So, here it is: «The Quality Fanfiction Archive Database Model, Mark 1»:
[ASSISTANCE="Database Sample (nicely explained)"]
The model consists of three sections: the site features, the site members, and the site contents (the actual fanfics).
The basic unit of participation is a "Member" or user. Basic information about the user is registered, and an optional "Profile" with contact information or preferences can be attached.
A Member can opt in to become an "Author", that is, a user who publishes stories. In that case the Author can have (at least) a penname or seudonym that can differ from their actual username (for artistic/anonimity/marketing purposes).
A Member can also opt-in to become a "Juror", that is, a user who reviews and rates stories. I' still working on how will Jurors be selected, although the base premise is that of previous works and peer acknowledgement.

The central unit of content is that of a "Story", which is essentially a published (or in-publishing) work by a specific Author. An Author can publish one or more Stories.
A Story has (contains) "Chapters", which are the actual content of the story, fragmented in units of publishing and development. Each chapter can be given an unique name for the system to automatically create a Table of Contents.

Two items I'm still working on are "Genre" and "Tag". A "Genre" is essentially a unique element of qualification for a work; that is, a Story can be linked to only one Genre. For example, "romance", "action", etc. Whereas a "Tag" is a user-defined label attached to stories by their readers, to ease clasification and searching. For example, readers may attach the tag "Shaymin" to all stories where a Shaymin is prominently portrayed, or may attach the tag "deathpool" to stories where a lot of characters die.

I'm still trying to find the adequate method to link tags to stories.

A Judge (or, specifically, a group of them) will review a story and rate it for the site, emitting a "Evaluation Report". Each one of the Juror's reviews will be graded acording to a score (probably jeffback's grading system), and will feature comments about the development, flaws or interesting points. Review scores will be averaged and the resulting number will be stored as the published work's "site score". A Juror can evalute many stories (although with the limitations of the model, they won't be currently able to review the same story twice), and a Story can and will be evaluated by at least one Juror.

Other minor elements I am working for the site are:

• Private Messaging
• Author Profiles (as in self-published information)
• Guilds (Author groups/clans based on common publishing styles such as genre)
• Site Wall (think Facebook's wall, but for full-open conversations)
• Support for chapters as attachments, supporting the HTML and ODT formats as FF.net does because those formats are free, well documented and easy to parse.
• Semiautomatic announcement system: a feature which will allow the site to "publish to itself" regarding site status, downtime, publishing issues and the like.

Timeframe for development of the current model: 14 to 30 days.
ETA for the next model: at least 2 months ( = Jan 2009)
[/ASSISTANCE]

I hope this computer-sciences mumbo jumbo won't get you dizzied. I just wanted to report, since I see all the other people hands on (sp?) the job. And also so that you can have a less abstract model of operations and features to work on with new ideas.

Well... no more mumbo-jumbo. Oh wait... the model screenshot is attached.

Now I'll go away for a while... keep rocking on, people!

 

[An-chan]

There are some things I need to ask now.

Do you have to sign up to read the fics?
How are the authors selected? Meaning, how do you get the status of an author? Which comes first, the fic or the status change?
Do the authors have to manage their author's profiles and fics themselves? I kinda thought that would be our job, to make it easier on them and to make the thing more reliable. You know, when all fics have to be accepted, don't the author's profiles, too? Or, well, I don't know. Maybe it's better not to make us work too much or forever.

The PM system I something I never even thought about. I thougt we'd make an e-mail address where all feedback could be submitted. That PM-thing sure is a lot better idea.... Also, I never thought about guilds. We'll have to see whether that's really a great idea or something nobody will ever use. I imagine it would prove to be very handy, but you never know. Nice thinking, anyway.

Also, I have to ask what a "site wall" is. I've never even been to Facebook, so I don't really know what you're talking about. :laugh:

Man, solovino, you really seem to be a pro...

 

[Post Office Buddy]

A "wall" is kind of like PC's Visitor messages system. People leave comments on the author's "wall" that is viewable by anyone else who views the author's wall. It's an alternative to PMing, and would prove useful if you want to give public acclaim of a fiction.

I think that we should allow anyone to read fictions, but not allow just anyone to comment on them. That would mean nobody could flame an author using a guest account, which would be untracable, but instead would have to create an account before showing appreciation or lack therof of a fiction.

The selection of authors is one question I cannot answer, so I shall leave that one to Solovino. Also, didn't want anyone to think I was dropping out. You can't get rid of me that easily. I've just been busy the past few days. At least I have four days off from work starting Wednesday...