This is Lincos' idea, but he was too lazy to put it into action, so I'm doing it for him.

The Library has now reached such a size that it contains hundreds of fics. For someone looking for a quick way to simply find a really good story, this is slightly cumbersome. What I'm suggesting is that DLP compiles a "Must Read" list: a list containing all the stories that we think are of such a high quality, or have had such a massive impact on the fan fiction community, that they are "Must Reads".

The way that these would be chosen would be for anyone to suggest a fic in this thread, and the story's worthiness would be discussed, before an appointed person, group of people, or moderator, would decide if it would make the Master List.

For inspiration, this thread is helpful: http://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=7813

There can be a master list in this post that moderators can edit the stories into. A good format would be the following:

Story Title - Author - Link to DLP Thread.

If the idea is a success the title of the thread could be changed to simply "DLP Must Read List" and it could be stickied.

~Master List~

Currently Empty.​

 

Nice idea, Taure.

Do you have a target size for the master list? This will help keep down bloat and will allow hard decisions to be made. I'd propose a "Top ten" with another ten or so "honorable mention" fics.

 

One doesn't want it to be too small, because then you could just use the award threads, nor should it be too large lest its whole purpose be counteracted.

I would say it would be as long as it needs to be: so long as there are Must Reads to be added, the List is not finished.

 

Me first!

Bungle in the Jungle, by JBern http://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=1629&highlight=bungle

Love it, love it, love it. Strong, tough, savvy Harry.

 

I'm going to go ahead and veto this, on the sole basis of the above post.

No coffee and early mornings for the lulz .

In all honesty, a decent idea. Although, I doubt you'd find people capable of agreeing on such a list. And in the end, if you had everyone, it'd be what we've already created (the library). Otherwise, if you limit it to people like Vash, he would never allow a jbern story (and if he says he would, he's full of shit) and I doubt ip82's standards would be as picky. Nonjon would view it different, I would definitely view it differently and so on and so forth.

If anyone's qualified to do an impartial compilation, it's bornagainpenguin, who has created .pdf/.zip/.rar. files and is dedicated to things like that.

Otherwise, an idea with too many inherent problems.

 

I'm going to say no to this idea just because nobody will ever agree which fics to put on there; especially when it comes to jbern's works or not as indicated by the above two posts.

It'll turn into that old flame war again.


Edit: Gah, Bio edited his post too fast and said basically what I thought.

 

Maybe there could be a way to rate a story - each reader could assign a point (one point per reader per story) to their favorites and the library could have a function to sort that way?

 

Library is the master list. And there is a rating system.

 

Ah yes. Silly me, thinking people would be able to look past petty grudges and so forth. Oh well.

Yes, but as a Master List it's too big. There's no way to discriminate between the good fics, the great fics and the must reads. All the fics that get into the library have to have either 4 or 5 stars. That's not a great amount of differentiation.

 

I was actually imagining an unlimited running total. We'd be on an honor system (actually, knowing us, maybe each person should only have a few points to use per week) and the rank would be on a simple sum.
Like "The Tens" they have over at Twisting.

 

Perhaps a voting system is in order?

If a series of reputable people vote the story in, it should stand.

Or we could just keep the Library...

 

There is already a list with all stories that are within the library in the for Review section (as sticky)
If it were possible to add the rating from the Library thread there it would already be a big step in the direction of a must read list.

 

There's nothing to say there has to be one unique list. Just start a thread where every member can post his/her own 'must read' list. So if someone has the same taste as Vash, they can follow his list, if they 'click' with nonjon, they can find his and so forth. And maybe the first post can be a compilation of 10 most often mentioned fics, to be updated once a month, for example.

 

That sounds like a more realistic option that doesn't involve huge amounts of programming.

 

It does seem too subjective to me. What I'd consider "must read" others may hate. That's kinda the point of the library system. While some of the 4 and 5 star fics may be must read to you, others won't care for them. And the must read 4 and 5 star fics to others, you may not care for.

Maybe what we want is like how mom and pop video stores have an employee recommends section where each employee picks a half dozen or so "favorite" movies in their own section. "Staff Selections" actually fits here and in my symbolic example.

Having a Staff Selections single thread where each staff member has a top ten maybe could work. Perhaps including a few other frequent DLP regulars as well, but they'd still rely on staff to 'update' their list.

 

How about just sticking the stories in the library rated 5 stars into the Master List?

While nonjon might have a point on the subjectivity, it would work if the list isn't custom-made for everyone since the rating is determined by the general community.

 

I'm leaning towards ip82 and nonjon's way of thinking: A few of the most popular and active people on the site have something like a top five or ten list, with accompanying reasons for their ranking, and links to each.

 

The Library isn't a good standard anyway. Especially many of the older fics in the Library are horrible.

Recently, when I was without Internet for some days I just randomly read stories from the DLP-Archive (don't remember who compiled that) which contains all fics recommended in the library.
It was sickening. There were stories which would get you banned if recommended today.
We should probably clean up the Library, this would be a much better Must-Read-List.

 

Quoted because of lazyness to portray own reasoning.

 

Umm...
[ohpleasepleasepleasedon'tflameme]
How does one determine popularity?