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.
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