Are we wasting our time?/Some thoughts...

[sevenhundredandthirteen]

Carolyn wrote:
> (1) What do people want?
> 
> IMO, people want the following:
> 
> (a) to search for threads on topics/characters
> (b) to search for posts by particular author
> (c) to be offered content to browse
> (d) to have irrelevant or repetitive content filtered out
> (e) to have their attention drawn to outstanding posts

Just to chip in my two kunts.

There is the problem of standardisation. That is, using a word 
search and putting in the keyword 'Voldemort' won't brind up any 
matches with posts discussing: Voldy/Voldie/Vmort/V'mort/V-
mort/V/Lord V/LV/Lord Thingy/You-Know-Who/YKW/He-Who-Must-Not-Be-
Named/HWMNBN/Tom/Tommy/Tom Riddle/TR/TMR/The Dark Lord/Voldrmot 
countelss other typos etc, etc, etc.

Without standardisation there is no way to cross-reference posts and 
ideas. Without some kind of standardisation there is no way for 
newbies to find out what has already been said. However, the 
catalogue is all about standardisation.

I foresee three different ways of using the catalogue: 
Search (for specific posts which would be tedious to find using the 
current search) 
Browse (for nothing in particular)
Cross-Reference (to see if your ideas have already been discussed)

A text search will only be good if you are searching for a very 
particular post. If you know the author and the content then a word 
search will be fine. 

But if you just want to find out if anyone has thought about whether 
Draco Malfoy might be an animagus? What kind of search criteria 
do you use? Draco? Malfoy? DM? Ferret Boy? Animagus? Animagi? What 
about if the posts only say 'Can he turn himself into an animal?'

The catalogue is more than just filtering out bad posts- it's 
standardising the terminology used so that there is continuity 
across the entire archive.

~<(Laurasia)>~