'Trophies' for winning contests; I'd be willing to sprite them like I did the League Badges, if anyone would actually like this.

Personally I think they would be fun - and handy - things to have.

 

Why not make thumbs-up/down anonymous, and do a youtube-style like/dislike rating thing for each post. Same system, but without the names of people on there. Same amount of each per day - say in a single day I can give 5 Likes to different posts, and 5 Dislikes to various others. It would limit bandwagoning to some extent, while keeping the spirit of the thing - that a singular post is exceptionally brilliant/retarded - in play. With thumbs up you can see how many people agree with something... but unless a particularly well-written counter argument appears, not how many people don't.

 

Anonymity is the worst possible direction, IMO. When you remove identity you remove accountability, and that's when the serious trolling begins (see: the old rep system, which allowed anonymous giving of rep). If a person doesn't have the guts to have their name associated with either their like or dislike of a post, then clearly they don't feel that strongly about it.

 

You know what, fuck the thumbs down button. I have been asking for a facepalm button for ages. Much more fun.

 

This.

This was done at one time. Twice. It was called the "reputation system." In the beginning, it was anonymous. It was removed because faggots. Something like a year later, it was brought back, no longer anonymous. It was removed again. Because faggots.

Lesson of DLP: Anonymous or not, none of you can be trusted to be fair, impartial, unbiased, or intelligent about this system. And i don't remember off the top of my head but I'm fairly certain most of us agreed to never bring it back.

Make do with your facepalm smile and move the fuck on.

This idea, I actually approve of. That would be fairly awesome.

Sooooo. Make the Library the WbA... er.. I mean WBA the Libra.. You know. I knew I saw this idea before. D:

EDIT: Link via Jblz in IRC My confusion is now clear.

No. See above post for my reasons.

Three Clicks. Name > View Profile > About Me. Us it. No point pointlessly adding redundant links. Its three clicks, and you can right-click > open in new tab/window, so no use of back button.

 

Then scrap anonymity. I only mentioned it so that aesthetically, we didn't have 'Thumbs Up: name, name, name' then another line of 'thumbs down: name, name, name', because that'd all blur into one. Basically each comment would have +3 or -7 or whatever - if you want to click the number to find out who up-voted and down-voted, sure, why not?, just as long as it isn't some random mash of names.

But meh. Not bothered enough about it to get all up in arms. If it's a no, it's a no.

 

A thumbs down option should definitely NOT be anonymous; trolls are everywhere. And there should be a high minimum number of posts before giving people the thumbs down option, like 50 or 100.

Though I have to say I agree with Nuhuh; a facepalm button would be fun.

 

My thoughts/suggestions:

1) How about, instead of having threads collapse to just chapter updates in WBA, you add a feature where you can see all of a certain user's posts within a specific thread (that's accessible from within the thread)? That would work essentially the same way, but be neat for other threads.

2) This kinda defeats the purpose of the ignore feature, but it would be nice to be able to see individual posts by ignored posters without having to remove them from ignore. Maybe have a link to just that post. It's nice to be able to do that, even if you hate the person and don't want to see their posts most of the time.

3) It would be cool if you could enter your gaming usernames in your profile like you can IM information.

4) I really like the collapsible announcements and ignorable threads ideas that got suggested.

Just my two cents.

EDIT: Oh, one more idea.

5) A "tiny image" function for posting pictures. I've seen it elsewhere, what it does is post a thumbnail of a picture with a resolution (on mouseover) in the corner that, when clicked, expands the image where it is. If clicked anywhere else, it would open the picture in a separate tab.

 

That I was first in reputation should be reason enough to never bring it back.

 

It would defeat the purpose of filtering out comments. We'd still see the sometimes long-ass replies that the OP makes.

 

Your reasons are your reasons, and have nothing to do with me making a suggestion to Raven (which he asked for).

I'm fully aware of how easy it is to get to some newb's profile. I'm also painfully aware of how lazy most people are, and need incentives to get any sort of action. Going by your logic, a big banner asking for donations wouldn't be necessary either, in light of the Donation tab built into the forum.

Ignoring how superfluous an extra link may seem, I thought it was a cool idea. It's a more personal, friendly way to welcome new members, or an outlet for the more acerbic members who would take the time to flame said newb via their profile wall (which can be deleted by the newb if they desire). No one would welcome new members otherwise, I promise you.

Well, I might, if only to save face after talking about it here, but no one else will.

 

I like the WBA as it is. In honesty, the WBA is for the writer, not the reader. As a writer, I want to be able to conveniently refer to comments and have then following my chapter so there's clarity regarding what the reviewer is talking about. It may be annoying for the reader, I suppose, but just about everything of real length in the WBA is posted on FF.net as well, so you can go find it there if you don't want to be interrupted by comments.

 

I keep reading about people wanting to get rid of some of the old fics (or re-review them). What about if there is a new forum/subforum dedicated to older fics that were once in the library but have not aged well. I don't feel we should kick out fics because their ideas are no longer original.

I agree with a minimum post count for the review forum. Way to many noobs just posting their crappy stories and disappearing.

 

You seem to have missed the part where I suggested that we only do this once, as DLP's standards of quality have basically plateaued. If you don't like the idea of a massive one-time dump, then have a thread for making recommendations for fics to be re-reviewed - this can have certain limits, such as how long ago it must have been put into the library, or even limits on members who may either make recommendations or discuss them in the thread. Three months and fifty posts sound good?

In the older sections of the library, more than half the fics have less than ten votes - looking at the last page of the Alternates, for example, a significant amount of fics have only four or five votes.

 

I don't know if this is code-viable, but how about just having it so you can automatically hide all posts on the thread not made by the author? That'll let people who want to read the story read the story, and people who want to look at reviews loo at reviews, and all without having to change threads, which addresses that 'laziness' problem.

 

Something a bit different actually, unless I'm misinterpreting what you mean. Even if the new system used a bunch of PC code, I think the WBA fics should still be kept separate from the PC library (or the DLP Library boards for that matter). WBA isn't where fics go to rest, it's where they go to evolve.

The biggest distinction is that even if you had a system like I suggested, it would still not be accessible to the general public - logged in DLP members only. The authors would still have to upload their completed text to the usual story sites, and someone would still have to make DLP Library threads if they're good stories, etc.

 

This.

I'm in favor of improving the WBA, but if we do so, it should definitely be with the writer in mind, and to encourage constructive criticism (so basically, what N said). A tag system for chapter posts would accomodate readers sufficiently, I think.

Which is why we have the neglected stories list.

We regularly realise that some of the stories in the library don't belong there, and sometimes members go on a clean up crusade (darklordmike circa '09, lol). Personally, I don't think the standards have changed that much in the last couple of years. We should probably put some stories for review on a case by case basis.

Having a post requirement to put stories for review is a good idea. It doesn't need to be high, it doesn't need to be as low as 5 either. I'm more in favor of 10 or 20. The minimum post requirement for the thumbs up button is a lot higher.

Regarding a thumbs down button, while I would personally love to have it at my disposal, I can't see it working out.

 

^

I say integrate it. There'd be a general over all +1 -1 whatever on that post only.

As for the "faggots" issue: I was only here for the very end of the rep system when it was not anonymous.

Thing is with the rep, with sufficient neg rep you can pretty much declare to the rest of the forum that this guy has the label of "idiot" attached to him even when not deserved (i.e. bandwagoning.) However, like the thumbs up its strictly left on the post. It's not brought with the user to other parts of the forum. So one day I make an incredibly dumb post. Get thumbed down massively for it. I shouldn't necessarily have to carry that stigma to another post for the rest of them time here.

tl;dr: Thumbs down/Facepalm button. Work the same way as thumbs up but obviously with the opposite sentiment.

 

I've suggested this before, but reorganize the library into categories that better fit a more matured site:

Review Board: Minor alteration to the title. I don't know, I've just had a general annoyance with the title.
Recycling Bin: Remove the 'the'.
Alternate or Alternates: Consolidate time travel into this category, make use of tags.
General: Consolidate independent into this category because it's a silly category to begin with and because such fics are generally what we like. General should cover what it already does. Make use of tags.
Humor: Drop the forward slash and parody. Make use of tags.
Macabre: Rename and consolidate Dark Arts and horror-themed fics into this category. Make use of tags.
Romance: Make use of tags.​

Remove the Restricted Section. This is a mature site that has now made pornography acceptable in certain threads; just add the stories to their appropriate category regardless of NC-17 rating. Streamline the library and make use of tags. What I mean by that is to categorize stories into one of the 5 main categories and then to rely on a tagging system (that is better than what we have) that helps users sort while in the respective category forum.

Ideally, a thread created in the Review Board would have a drop down menu that allowed you to select one of the five categories, and in addition to that, some other drop down box would become available with further selections. Like in alternates, for instance: alternate parentage, alternate universe, crossover, time travel, etc; in general: canonical, independent; in humor: crack, parody.

I've always viewed the library as a bit of a clusterfuck that looked disorganized. I don't think that has changed although we've considered it numerous times. Think it should be looked into. Would be willing to help.

 

I really agree with Dressed in Black's post, especially the part quoted. If tags were used correctly, and more often, DLP the world would be a better place.

Another idea mentioned, in regards to the old fics that are now outdated, was adding a new category specifically for those dated stories.

Also, new color scheme: do want. Maybe even with a different character. :awesome /me pictures blue having a picture of Luna (or maybe Dumbledore lol), red Voldemort, etc. That's something I've wanted for awhile now.