UPDATE & ACTION REQUIRED, SUNDAY 29 FEB !!

[a_reader2003]

--- In HPFGU-Catalogue at yahoogroups.com, "arrowsmithbt" 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
>> Hells teeth! I realised that it would depend on detail to 
successfully catalogue the posts, but this is more than I expected. 
Difficult to reduce without loss of accuracy though. Ah, well. This 
is what happens when you break the habits of a lifetime and volunteer.


Tell me about it. It has taken me four days hard work to compile this 
list, and I nearly lost the will to live putting the numbers in. 
Wrestling 7-800 stream-of-consciousness topics into usable categories 
was definitely one of the harder tasks I have attempted lately.
 
>> With this many categories and sub-groups it's going to take some to
become familiar and comfortable with the listed topics etc. Progress
is likely to be slow to start with and there are sure to be 
anomalies. If a post turns out to be particularly troublesome, can it 
be put in abeyance and downloaded later while thought and perhaps the 
opinions of the rest of the group are brought to bear? (This shows my 
ignorance of Excel - any news on the possibility of working direct to 
the database yet?)


Yes, this is going to be the only way we can work - discussion and 
referral on difficult cases. Pins in wax effigies of awkward listies 
etc. I should think we could put a word like 'Hold' into the database 
for such cases, and come back to them. On the technical front, an 
email has gone to Paul, and hopefully we will get some puffs of smoke 
in the not too distant future. 
> 
> There's a few small points I'd like to raise, one of which may 
actually save us some work!
> 
> You suggest that posts referring to the teenaged Tom Riddle be
> keyed to Voldemort. Personally, I'd be happier doing so for that
> time after he became Voldy. There's five school years before he
> enters the Chamber and presumably changes. These years I  see
> as more or less a continuation of his pre-Hogwarts persona and
> before the defining change.


I don't have a problem with that. One of the advantages of my 
horrible numbering system is that we can easily add extra categories. 
Lord V can still be 2.7.7, but young Tom, aged 0-16/17, could be 
numbered 2.7.7.15. I don't know if any of the theory acronyms relate 
to this younger period, but if they do, we could shift them about to 
reflect this.

> 
>> There's a database in existence for all those "My one true 
prediction" posts made before the publication of OoP. Why not leave 
that lot as a separate database? Or failing that, can they be folded 
into the new database directly as one lump?
 
I'm wondering if it's worth incorporating those fun threads, also
just before OoP "What you will/won't read in OoP". They're a
succession of one liners - some witty, some not. It'd be really 
difficult to sort that lot out - most of each post consists of
duplicating previous efforts. It might be feasible to make a file
of the the compiled lists and stuff it into the files section. Yep,
I know you said that one line posts are to be ignored, but most
are multiple unrelated one line jokes in each post. I suppose 
someone sometime might do research into pre-publication 
hysteria among HP fans. 



I think this is an area where we can amuse ourselves exercising more 
than usual editorial judgement - lets put in the really funny ones, 
the really wrong ones and only the well-argued, insightful ones from 
the rest. This goes for all the prediction posts dating back to the 
start of the list in 1999 (ie pre-GOF). Its not a seriously important 
part of the catalogue, IMO, just nice for the egos of those that got 
it right.

> 
> Something close to my heart - the section on relationships - could
> you include my AGGIE theory in there? Sunken SHIPS are much more
> fun than the hearts and flowers stuff and Snape spurning Lily is a
> relationship of sorts, isn't it?

Carolyn:
Consider it done. In the next revise, AGGIE can go in after RAPIST 
and RASPBERRY.. ! (But probably also ought to get a mention under 
Snape & Lily as well ?)

> 
> You mention not including gibberish - does this mean we can give
> Ivan Vablatsky a miss? None  of  his posts seem to have much to
> do with canon - just his own strange obsessions. Sad, really.
> 
> Barry


LOL! Alas, I think some (a very few) people think he has something to 
say (although the deafening silence after his posts is very 
noticeable, particularly after the last 'open letter' to JKR). To 
cater for this, I have created a special box just for him (1.7.8.2), 
and I think we just hastily put his stuff in there, and gaze at it 
respectfully as an extreme example of the lunatic fringe. Was it 
Voltaire who said 'I disagree with everything you say, but will fight 
to the death for your right to say it' ? There's definitely going to 
be a bit of that we have to deal with in this project !

Thanks for your responses..any more points, anyone else out there ????

Carolyn