Question Finding goddam stories

Tags are great. Tracking stories by Protagonist character is a great idea.

Unfortunately, with the way the software is set up and the way I originally built the security to allow authors (both canon and non) to work in the front end instead of a separate administrative site (which means only admin logs into the admin site which makes things far more secure and means I don't have to spend weeks or longer vetting each new applicant who wants to write), the built in tag system was inaccessible to anyone but me and Warren. More recently, I found an extension that allowed me to add an independent tagging system and extra data fields to content... at that time we started tagging everything with three types of info 1. Protagonist name, 2. Point in timeline (Gen 1, Yr 1 Fall.... Gen 2, Yr 3 Fall, etc) and 3. Story Arc... so any story related to GEO, for instance, could be tagged as part of that arc... or anything relating to Wondercute, etc).

The good part is, these tags are usable to search for things. The bad part is, only staff can enter them. Dan, Phoenix and I enter tags when we can... but there are a LOT of stories. You think it sucks trying to find one when you're looking to read something? Try going through every single one and entering all the relevant tag data. So recent stories, added since we started tagging? Yep, most of them are referenced. Older stuff? We'll get to it when we get to it. When I put in the tags system, I also added fields for Protagonist name and for in-universe start dates. You CAN access stories with that info now, in the search engine... but it would be more useful when all the stories have the data. It will be even MORE useful when I eventually have the time to finish developing the calendar system, which will give you two separate ways to look at a calendar... one showing stories on a calendar of the past 14 years when entries where each story was released... and one showing an in-universe timeline with entries on a calendar where each story begins. Ideally, we could break that down even further by using ALL the timestamps that appear in stories (and a Google map using the geological position part of scene heading entries)... but that's a data entry issue (takes time) that can't even start until the code has to exist factor which is a Kristin bottleneck.

You're actually not recommending anything we aren't aware of or that isn't in progress... but you also have to understand that everything takes time to do. And while it is possible to reduce the bottleneck and let more people help accomplish the work, more people accessing systems also makes them more vulnerable. As much as I'd love to populate data systems to make everything easier to use 'overnight' ... the last thing we need to do is open up data entry to the point where someone takes advantage of us and destroys what we have now.