Torn World Forums

I confess, I have been dedicating my time and energy coding features that are mostly for our hard-working contributors. There's plenty left to do in the backend, but our wonderful readers and supporters deserve a bit of this love, too. So, I'd like some input regarding what features you'd like to see on the site!

This is completed!

~Patron Milestones

Contributors will be able to set their supporters-only work available for sponsorship. As a sponsor of a story, you would be listed as a patron, and when the contributor got a certain amount of credits and/or karma towards a piece, it would become public. (Only credits would get you listed as a patron!)

For example, Elizabeth's story "The Shades of Yesterday" is half sponsored. Another 8 credits would make this story available to the public. Right now, the webpage doesn't keep track of that. If I do this coding, there would be a progress bar by the story (1 each for karma and credits), and it would automatically list new patrons and make the piece public when the goal was reached.

A page would show projects with patron milestones outstanding.

This project is somewhat complex and would take a little while to implement, but isn't quite as mind-boggling as some of the options below.

~Project Milestones

Contributors could also accept pledges towards future work. If they were willing to add color to an ink piece, or write a sequel, they could set a milestone for them to reach to make that happen.

Unlike the sponsorship milestones, these milestones would have deadlines.

A contributor would open up a new project, and give it TWO deadlines. The first could be no more than 1 month away, the second 1 month after that.

They would accept credits and karma for that project, but all of those points would be held - not yet granted to the contributor. If they got what they needed by their first deadline, the project would be green-light. If they didn't get to their goal, the project would expire and all of the credits and karma would be returned to the readers who pledged it.

If they got to their goal, they would have until the second deadline to complete the work and turn it in to the canon board.

If they failed to turn in their work, the project would die, and all of the credits and karma would be returned to the readers who pledged it. Deadline extensions can be negotiated on an individual basis. Final projects of this type will be public (no supporters-only option).

For example, I would be willing to paint "Brushing" if I got 50 karma and 15 credits. The page for that piece of artwork would show a progress bar for credits and karma, with the deadline. If the goal was reached, it would show that (though it would still allow more pledges), and show the deadline for the work. This is the deadline for the work to be submitted to the canon board - it may take time for the review and editing process before the final work shows online. If the work has been completed and submitted, the page will show

Projects could be associated with an existing piece (or pieces? Hmm... I'll have to think about that) or be something new and different, in which case, they would show up on the member's profile page.

There would be a page where readers could browse and see open projects, and a 'wish' function would allow readers to propose a project to a contributor. They would accept, reject, or open the project for other contributors to tackle.

This would be a heck of a coding project and it would probably be a good long while before I could make it happen!

Rating System

Readers could rate the stories they read, on a scale. Stories would show their ratings, as well as how many votes contributed to that score.

This wouldn't be terribly challenging to add.

- And, done!

Better Polling System

For things like this, where ranking and more complex polling would be useful. It could be added as a modification to the forum, or added to the site - it would take some research to figure out what's best, and then implement it.

Basic story-sorting tools

Not as complex or as personally selected as the tours (above), these would be sorting options like we have for characters, so you could see lists of northern-only stories, mythology, etc and maybe some additional categories that we don't have yet. This would be a very swift addition.

Language Database

Look up words in English or Torn Tongue, and see their Northern and Southern drift, do a search for names you want to use, and find out meanings of Torn Tongue specific terms.

Ellen, these sound like great ideas!

Unless, of course, our readers hate them.

_________________
Lorna.
There is hardly anything in the world that cannot be solved by the eating of cake.
*flails around*
Owner of: Lenarai, Areluu, Olarali Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ

I'm not super-keen on most rating/recommendation systems... but I think that has a lot to do with how they're usually applied. Recommendations, in particular, are hard to credit because older pieces will always have more than newer ones, giving age an advantage.

A rating system might be more fair. I'll think further about how that could work...

One idea sort of along these lines would be a function like 'tours' at Fantastic Portfolios or Elfwood (does Elfwood still have tours??).

A reader could make a collection of their favorite stories, artwork and even setting articles, and organize them by themes or characters. You could make a collection of 'all-time favorites,' 'Northern myths,' 'Denel's stories' or 'Humor.' Once you were in the tour, the next/previous buttons would take you to the next piece of artwork or story (and tell you which tour you were in the middle of taking, etc.)

It would be pretty complex to code in, but could make browsing a lot more personal and less intimidating.

Speaking of Amazon, what about a wish list ability? I am sure this would tie in with the milestones. Perhaps an ability to type down what you would like to see. Say for instance... Ressa going shopping or Len telling a story. And then someone interested could pick one and ask for sponsorship of it. Kind of like ap erminant Muse Fusion?

_________________
Lorna.
There is hardly anything in the world that cannot be solved by the eating of cake.
*flails around*
Owner of: Lenarai, Areluu, Olarali Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ

I think the "Tours" idea is brilliant.

At the moment there are only six months worth of stories so its not a panic, but we write in all directions in a non linear way plus illustrations. I think as the site grows tours would be a really useful way for readers to follow the story threads

Instead of tours, maybe call them 'virtual anthologies?' Or 'collections?'

You'd get an overview page where you could see a list of everything included, then start through the collection/anthology. A header and footer would remind you that you're in the middle of this collection/anthology, and... hmm.. somehow track which one you'd last viewed in that collection. That way, if you wander off (to comment, for example, or look at a linked setting article), you'd still have a 'view next' button waiting for you on every page so you could hop back onto the plotted path.

A scoring system that shows how many votes would probably work and not be too challenging to code in.

Tags would be very easy, but I wonder if this would be something reader would want to do, or if it should be something that contributors add when they submit a story?

Oo.. a wishlist could be very easy to add as part of the projects milestone idea!

I'll add these to the initial post. Any other ideas before I start a poll?

Poll added!

I've edited the poll to allow 2 choices. We can add 'better poll options' to the next vote.

I picked Fave Watch and the tours, because I tend to get lost on here, and having a tour that leads through the material would be nice. It would be cool to have art and stories inter-connected.

_________________
--Jenny Heidewald--

*tries to think of a witty saying to post*

Our first winner is the favorites/watch feature, and it's about 2/3 of the way coded already! I have reset the poll with two new options - this clears all votes, so please vote again! You get two choices.

Favorites/watching is fully functional! You should receive an email letting you know whenever anyone on your watch list is updated.