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Question Linking Stories.

8 years 3 months ago #1 by annachie
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    • I've been re-reading some old stories lately, and it's been very annoying to not have a link to the next part.

    Especially bad when the stories might have been released anything up to a year apart.
    Yes there's a workaround by going back to the stories list and searching, but it's counter intuitive, frustrating, and imo not really good for keeping new readers.
    8 years 3 months ago - 8 years 3 months ago #2 by Phoenix Spiritus
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    • If you want to create posts with all the links to a set of stories, I'll go through and add links to the end of each story to the next story in the sequence.
    Last Edit: 8 years 3 months ago by Phoenix Spiritus.
    8 years 3 months ago #3 by Arcanist Lupus
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    • There are issues involved with putting links at the ends of the stories themselves to other stories. There's a thread around here where Kristen explains the issue better than I could, but I don't have time to find it at the moment.
    "Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy." - Spider Robinson
    8 years 3 months ago #4 by Phoenix Spiritus
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    • The issue is that any future updates to the CMS may break the links.

    The bigger issue is it all has to be done manually after the sequels publish, it can't be done at time of publishing (the sequels haven't been published yet, der!)

    So, it's a manual job, amd Kristin is too busy to do it.
    8 years 3 months ago #5 by Valentine
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    • Adding the links also involves more than just sticking the URL onto the end of the file, there is some coding needed and it would have to be added to every part, as Phoenix said, manually. I believe there between 200 and 300 story parts that would need to be linked.

    There is also the problem if the website ever has to change again, all those links would need to be changed again.

    You do know that the stories list is sortable by Title, Published Date, Author, and Hits.Just click on the word on the page, open the story part in a new tab or page and when you go back to the stories page the other parts should still be on the page. I think they are all using the same base name. I think only Eldritch''s Upheaval and Chou's Five Element stories aren't numbered so you would have to pay attention to reading order.
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    8 years 3 months ago - 8 years 3 months ago #6 by Malady
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    • Perhaps renaming some old stories might help? Like giving Ayla and the Late Trevor James Goodkind a "Ayla 1" in front of it, like how now we have "[Name] [Number]" like "Elle 1"?

    That way, you'd just go to some tag that has all the stories you want, and then you find the story you're looking for? ... Not sure how to go from a story page to its tags though...
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    Last Edit: 8 years 3 months ago by Malady.
    8 years 3 months ago #7 by annachie
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    • Actually, I was thinking, that this being a content management system, there should already be a way of doing it.
    Probably with a variation on a web ring.
    8 years 3 months ago #8 by Sir Lee
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    • My understanding is that this is actually a feature of the CMS to frustrate external direct links -- if you notice excessive leeching, you just run a script and everything gets a new URL. Rather the opposite of permalinks, in fact...
    Don't call me "Shirley." You will surely make me surly.
    8 years 3 months ago #9 by Kristin Darken
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    • Are the ways to give you every possible sortable method you might want. Yes. There are. It can be done in two completely different ways, without even adding other methods with coding.

    One is to add additional fields to every article's meta data that marks it position in some data set. In universe date? Location, etc? This requires 1. the field to be added by the administration and 2. every existing story (and all future ones) have to fill in that data element. The up side? It's a relatively painless job to implement additional data fields. The down side? They're only editable in the administrative back end. We're specifically set up in a way that minimizes use of the admin side of the site for security reasons. The last thing we want to do is add a required element to prepping every story that requires more work in the admin side... because that either means more people logged in there... or its one more task that falls to me to do.

    The other way is for the Tags system to be used. The Tags system is actually pretty robust and could be used for all kinds of sorting and story tracking. Unfortunately, the tag system isn't usable properly from the front end at all. Which means to even get started, someone with admin access has to create a couple hundred tags (or more, depending on how many things you all want tagged) and then someone with editor access has to go into every story on the site and add all the appropriate tags to each one. Most authors have included tags on the stories they've written since the new site was created... but we definitely didn't tag everything right while trying to transfer the old stories over.

    Finally... I've explained numerous times that people can easily create lists, tables, and all sorts of things in an article referencing the stories. Such a thing can perfectly resemble the massive tables that are on the WIKI and that I copied/adapted from there to put on the old site, if you want it to. But like those, they'll have to be manually updated because there is no way for such a thing to update automatically. But despite having explained this more than a dozen times in the past year, only ONE person has taken the time to create such a list... and it is still sitting in the WhatIF Feedback queue.

    I'm guessing because they start it and then realize just how much work it is.
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    8 years 3 months ago - 8 years 3 months ago #10 by eep79
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    • I wold think that one would be able to write a script that automatically updates everything by referencing some kind of table or relative location(in your file structure?) or a tag or list and updating the urls.

    How you would assign the correct link to each story I would not know-maby a number assigned to each story on the Web page- but I would need to know more about how the chapters/stories are handeled/assigned/stored for lack of proper word.

    Edit
    To avoid adding each story manually on he website you could have each story assigned a number when uploaded
    But that would not remove the need of manually connecting the stories togther

    And don't forget about the meta data that sometimes accompanies a file-you could use that to store story spefic linking stuff perhaps


    Edit 2
    You could have some rarely used combination of symbols added to the story by the writers to denote category answer series links so you don't need to add them in by hand
    Ex
    #FEY,GEN1#
    the # for opening and ending and multiple categories separated by a , for instance
    Last Edit: 8 years 3 months ago by eep79. Reason: Left stuff out, new idea
    8 years 3 months ago #11 by elrodw
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    • Two points:

    First, Kristin is administering the site, and simultaneously trying to write Gen 1 and Gen 2 stories. If she says it can't be done easily, then PLEASE let it go. We in the cabal would MUCH rather she write stories!

    B) most stories ARE linked from the Wiki. Granted, it's a step removed, but if, for example, I need to look at a part of an old story like Charge 1, I'll actually look on the wiki and follow its links. It's not a huge burden on me, and since the Wiki is maintained by our loyal fans, if something does break due to a site update, it's very quickly fixed by the wiki maintainers.
    Never give up, Never surrender! Captain Peter Quincy Taggert
    8 years 3 months ago #12 by eep79
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    • Ok I will drop it.
    I also agree that it is not easy to do so based on my programing experience with various forms of lists for working with large amounts of data.
    Also as I was adding my second edit I realized that someone still needs to add the links(I am an idiot sometimes) and to matain them which is no small job in its self. If no one does the upkeep on the tags some times you end up with tags upon tags such as on archive of our own where there are tags just because they can be there.
    8 years 3 months ago #13 by annachie
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    • It's probably something that should be passed into the CMS's own forums. Especially as it would have to be a module to allow for the internal security of the place.

    It just surprises me that the ability to set up web ring type structures isn't already available.
    8 years 3 months ago #14 by Kristin Darken
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    • No one is saying it isn't available. Just that it requires making more people use the admin interface. The way I set up the site minimizes the people who need to log into the admin side of the site... which reduces the teaching curve for those authors who aren't necessarily tech savvy. It also means I have a very limited number of people to monitor for security problems (atm it is just Warren and I who use the admin interface... which means a LOT fewer risks of losing control of the site to hackers. Which is important when you remember that this isn't even a part-time job, let alone a full time admin position.
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    8 years 2 months ago #15 by riking
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    • Finally... I've explained numerous times that people can easily create lists, tables, and all sorts of things in an article referencing the stories. Such a thing can perfectly resemble the massive tables that are on the WIKI and that I copied/adapted from there to put on the old site, if you want it to. But like those, they'll have to be manually updated because there is no way for such a thing to update automatically. But despite having explained this more than a dozen times in the past year, only ONE person has taken the time to create such a list... and it is still sitting in the WhatIF Feedback queue.

    I'm guessing because they start it and then realize just how much work it is.

    Yeah, I have something similar for personal use and I quickly gave up (twice) on categorizing everything. Now I just make changes to the list whenever a new story is released or I want to binge a particular storyline.
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