Chapter Coding Proposal

[Jen Reese]

First off, sorry to hear about your dog, Paul.  We had to make that 
decision for our cat when he went into diabetic ketoacidosis at only 
6 years old. Aack--it tore at my heart. Hope you're making it 
through OK.

************************

I finished reviewing PS chapter coding and am about halfway through 
COS. I think I've done enough to make a proposal for future coding: 

1) Coding to the First Category, the Book Title. This is the spot 
for general book reviews and for posts touching on 3 or more 
chapters in a given book. That's an entirely arbitrary number on my 
part, but typically if a post is using multiple chapter examples, it 
starts straying into the territory of reviewing the book. 

This one is a judgement call, of course. If all the examples are 
relevant but there's no connection made between them, it's better to 
code to individual chapters.

2) Coding to Chapters. So far, almost every chapter has a seminal 
event discussed ad nauseam which has become synonymous with the 
chapter. Examples: 'The Mirror of Erised' and the socks; 'Quidditch' 
and Snape saving Harry's life; 'Through the Trapdoor' and discussion 
about the tasks/DD's agenda. Readily identifiable events where most 
people can tell you *exactly* what chapter they occurred in.

In light of this pattern, I left threads about very specific events 
coded to the chapter headings. I think people interested in 
Dumbledore and his socks will naturally tend to click on 'The Mirror 
of Erised' chapter code as a logical entry point for discussion. 

But there are other events that most of us can't recall the exact 
chapter, nor do we care, and they aren't discussed nearly as often 
as the key events. Take for example Justin Finch-Fletchley 
discussing his background in COS. That doesn't need to be coded to 
the chapter IMO, because most people won't know right off the bat 
where to find it anyway. Personally I would look up JFF first.

3) Posts with Extensive Canon References. Initially I was going to 
keep these coded to chapters, but then realized it was redundant. 
These posts are trying to make a point about the series, plot 
development, characterization, etc., not about the actual canon 
points used in the discussion. 

There were a couple of these discussions, a very few, that seemed 
relevant to the chapters. Example: The POV shift in several key 
chapters. For those posts I left the chapter coding in as a 
reference guide.

***********************

Questions, concerns, couldn't care less? :)

Jen