Crouch Sr & Family dynamics

[carolynwhite2]

Debbie:
What a tasty dish of CRAB CUSTARD this category turned out to be!  
There were 218, mostly very good posts, though a significant number 
probably shouldn't have been coded here.   I haven't done anything to 
the coding yet, because I've lost track of the guidelines and I want 
to make sure I do it right. 

(1) 43 posts weren't sufficiently about Crouch Sr. to be coded to 
him.  I think I am supposed to untick his name and add 5.6.

(2) 3 should have been coded to Jr rather than Sr.  I'll switch and 
add 5.6.

(3) 7 repeat points already made and should be rejected.  I'll reject 
and add 5.6.

(4) I would add additional codes to 4 posts.  If I understand this 
right, I put into the comment section what I think should be done, 
add 5.6 but *don't* make the change?  Or do I make the change and 
comment?  This is where I'm confused.

(5) Finally, the Nel question on rulebreaking was here.  Do we keep 
it coded to Crouch Sr?  There was only a 1-word reference asking 
readers to consider Crouch Sr. in analyzing the question.

Carolyn:
(1) No need to add 5.6 when just unchecking the character code.

(2) Yes, add 5.6 in these cases 

(3) No need to add 5.6 unless there are other codes involved - I take 
it that there are not, and that by unchecking Crouch Sr, you create a 
reject situation to 0.5 or whatever?

(4) Please go ahead and make the changes. Add in the additional codes 
that you think appropriate and check 5.6, also put comments in the 
box whenever you like to explain why.

Essentially, it is only necessary to tick 5.6 when you make a change 
that might affect a code someone else is dealing with. If your change 
simply removes the code you are working on, or means that the post 
ends up with no codes, and is therefore a reject, no need to tick 5.6.

(5) Slightly over to you here as I think this is one of your project, 
is it not? The Nel code is there to preserve the threads related to 
the Nel questions so you can revive the questions on main, if you 
wish. We probably should also offer Nel as a search option, for those 
that might be interested in pursuing the original discussions. 

Debbie:
Back to the issue of family dynamics vs. name-specific codes.  I was 
mostly done with Crouch Sr. before noticing that a lot of these posts 
could have been coded to family dynamics, but they were mostly about 
Crouch himself.  Part of the problem is that making sense of his 
treatment of Barty Jr is quintessential to understanding his 
character, but it also sheds light on his attitudes toward 
rulebreaking, the importance of maintaining his public persona, etc.  
To me, these posts were more about Crouch himself than family 
dynamics.  It didn't even occur to me to recode.

In my previous comment, I meant to keep *both* codes.  Part of my 
thinking is that readers won't be as familiar with the headings and 
may not know to look under family dynamics, especially if it isn't 
under character analysis.  This would not be a problem, though, if 
(a) we go with the subheadings under family dynamics, and (b) the 
index for catalogue users includes the family dynamics subheading 
under F&G as well as wherever else it appears.

Maybe I've been doing it wrong all along.  For example, if I code to 
Dumbledore's Agenda, am I not supposed to code to Dumbledore as well?

Carolyn:
These are good questions, Debbie, and go to the heart of the matter 
in the design of the search screens. My thinking is to try and make 
what is under each heading both as individual, and as consistent as 
possible. Although I am a fantastic fan of Elkins, for instance, it 
probably doesn't do her any service to have her lengthy essays come 
up up 30 or 40 times over - I think it will annoy people in the end. 
This makes me as guilty of over-coding as anyone else.

So, in the Crouch Sr case, I think you have done the right thing in 
leaving most of his character posts uncoded to Crouch family 
dynamics. Going back to the search and retrieve screens, we will 
undoubtedly have to provide a lot of help and advice on how to get 
the best out the search routines, but it does seem to me that anyone 
wanting to research the Crouch family interactions will read all the 
individual character posts, plus the family dynamics code. Maybe I am 
wrong in this assumption ? Anyway, even if I am, the search routines 
that Tim is designing will allow you to select quite a lot of codes 
at once, and get a de-duped result which puts all the posts in those 
sections together for you (there will be a lot, obviously, but if 
it's what you want, you will be able to get it).

Dumbledore and Dumbledore's agenda is an awkward case. For a long 
time I have thought they should be merged and cleaned up. There is a 
specific type of post which is about what DD's strategy might be, 
much else is about his character, or whether in fact he is a bumble 
bee or a house elf in disguise.... I have given the pair of them to 
Boyd to take care of (with strict instructions not to break the 
dishwasher), and I am doing the same thing to Voldemort and V's 
agenda (see spying & betrayal post yesterday).