The management challenge/multiple posts/character's ages

[carolynwhite2]

Jen:
"Hold on just a little minute! I'm the *idea* person. You know, the 
one who comes up with a catchy phrase then fades back into the 
woodwork (or cubicle, as it were)? The one who has a burst of 
energy, then falls back into old habits? Like Ginger said about her 
therapist, whoosit, and Taco John guy, who all agreed she should 
make a *contribution*--that's me, too!"

"But Potioncat....now there's a woman with promise! A woman who can 
rise to the occasion, raise teenagers, code *well* over 100 posts a 
day if I read that correctly, and still find time to bake a cake. 
Now she's middle-management material." Jen nodded sagely.

Wearily, Miss Havisham reviewed the shuffling throng... it appeared 
her staff development programme had a way to go yet. Maybe she should 
just go back to hitting people and barking orders; the old ways were 
often the best. Sniffing, she cut herself a large slice of cake, 
since it was lying around, and reviewed the in tray:

*****
Jen:

I'm doing my GOF review and wondering again about the multiple 
posts, most often written by Catlady.

The truth is, many of the individual sections in each post would 
*not* be coded in a stand-alone post. The information is too brief, 
or refers to past discussions or would simply be coded to FAQ/Adds 
nothing new.

I'm running across many of these posts in chapter discussions, and 
have uncoded a few entirely and rejected them because there's just 
nothing new in each individual section, even if the post is massive.

Debbie:
The pearls *are* hard to find among the mere agreement and fanfic 
speculation. I find they average one good thought ever other post 
or so; the rest is all repetition. I assume that some of the early 
posts were saved, so I wouldn't feel too guilty about tossing most of 
the rest.

Ginger:  
I code multiples as I would if each section was a seperate post.  If 
I only code one part, then I only code one.  If I code more, then so 
be it.  I hit "multiple post" regardless.  The only time I don't is 
if there is nothing new in any section and I am rejecting the whole 
thing.  Which happens.  Depending on the topics.

Carolyn:
I think Ginger has the right approach. You need to tackle each 
section of a multiple individually, and assess if it deserves a code. 
I have to admit that I am quite hard on them now, as Rita does repeat 
herself and has been posting almost from the beginning. However, I 
admit to enjoying her flights of fancy, so if she accidentally bases 
something on canon (an oversight on her part usually), I let it 
through. 

I would want to avoid any individual poster getting their own named 
section, as there is no need anyway - people will be able to search 
on any named poster, right across the database and get all the 
person's posts that we have decided to keep. This will be great for 
Elkins' hunts, ESE!Pippin etc, but also ensures that different takes 
on subjects all get coded together. Thus if anyone actually has 
anything sensible to say about Rosicrucianism, people can read it 
alongside, erm, Hans' contributions, and hopefully draw their own 
conclusions.


***********
Next up was a very tatty and scribbled-over bit of parchment, which 
appeared to be Potioncat's so-called 'final thoughts' on the 
characters' ages sections. Miss Havisham struggled to remember where 
this discussion had begun, but failed.
 

>>We need these categories for Ages. They fit well in either 
Characterization or Dynamics. It just depends on which is easier to 
add 
new headings to.

Change Weasley Age Gaps to Calculating Weasley Ages then change its 
number to go with these two new ones:
Calculating Adults' Ages
Calculating Students' Ages<<

Below this, written in a firm, clear, definitely managerial hand, Jen 
had put:

>>As for the Calculating Ages question, if you're really asking for 
my 
opinion ;), it looks easier to code them under Group Dynamics 
because they're already underneath that topic now. So then you would 
just switch the codes to these:

1.2.11.9 Calculating Weasley Ages
1.2.11.10 Calculating Students' Ages
1.2.11.11 Calaculating Adult Ages

Or you could get fancy and sub-code Calculating Weasley Ages under 
the Weasleys, Calculating Student Ages under the Trio, and....well, 
there isn't a good category to code Calculating Adult ages under. So 
I'd vote for the codes above. <<<

This girl really had promise....and had definitely volunteered to be 
on the 'Difficult Topics' committee a while back (though come to 
think of it, so had Boyd). Miss Havisham hastily checked the baseball 
bat was still stored with her gun, rope, pitchfork and collection of 
medieval torture instruments. She wondered how he was getting on with 
Dumbledore, and more to the point, exactly what he was up to with the 
MD posts.

Please note that by implementing this suggestion I will have to re-
number all the succeeding sections ....

Continuing to sigh heavily, she cranked out another 100 posts, just 
to show them what real work was, and snorted with delight to find 
Debbie's extensive 'meaning of quidditch' post [48192]. Now, 
Elfundeb..do you want this coded to any of the literary analysis 
categories? I have put it under foreshadowing, but was wondering 
about plot development perhaps. BTW, you got an FP from me, anyway!

Carolyn