Suggestion: A Guide for posts in HPfGU (Was: No responses on the main list)

[nkafkafi]

> Entropy:
><snip> 
>Simply splitting the list into two groups: 
> 
> (1)newbies who are excited about discovering older theories for
> themselves and 
> (2) oldies who have a certain amount of time put into the group (or 
a
> certain number of posts)
> 
> seems to me to be a fair way of keeping newer members happy and 
older
> members interested.


Neri:
I have a suggestion that, I think, can be carried out whether or not 
any splitting or other actions take place.

I personally doubt the success of any method involving strong 
centralistic control and governing the members, such as (say) 
limiting them to a max of two posts per day, or preventing newbies 
from posting for several months after joining, or splitting the 
group. I think we need a positive approach, something that will be a 
refreshing alternative to all those short newbie posts like  "does 
anybody also think that The Other in the prophecy could be Neville?"

I think it is high time that the post-OotP HPfGU will have a Guide. 
I'm not thinking about anything neat like the "Fantastic Posts" site 
(this is impossible in the current very dynamic situation of the 
group). I'm thinking about a "favorite links" page that will replace 
the horrible search engine of Yahoo. It should be easily accessible, 
so most newbies, instead of posting "does anybody think that The 
Other in the prophecy could be Neville", will instead search the 
guide for this theory, and then will post only if they have a new and 
interesting thought.

I think such a link page can be easily assembled with a minimum 
effort by the list elves (or anybody who will volunteer to edit it. I 
personally would be glad to help). The trick is to delegate the 
tedious work of searching and sifting the good posts to the members. 
Simply ask the members to send links to posts from the last year 
(theirs or of other members) that they think are original, canon-
based, well-written and/or started an interesting thread. Each 
submitted post should include the link, a single line describing its 
subject, and another line listing several key words that did not make 
it to the subject line (these key words are in order to help readers 
to find posts in the subject that they are interested with). To make 
the work of the editors even easier, the members should also 
recommend possible sections where this post might logically be placed.

So for example, if I submit one of my recent posts it will look like 
this:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/106729
Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa according to the Black's family 
tree.
(12 Grimmauld Place, tapestry, Sirius, Rudolphus Lestrange, Ted 
Tonks, genealogy) 

Possible sections: "The Black family", "Minor characters", "Time 
lines"


The editors of the Guide will only have to sort these links according 
to the sections suggested, or any other classification they will find 
convenient. I expect sections such as "Prophecy 
Interpretations", "The Gleam in DD's Eyes", "Severus Snape", "Neville 
Longbottom", "Minor Characters", "H/H SHIP", "Flints and 
Inconsistencies", "Life in the WW", and so on.

I won't be surprised if the ensuing list will contain links to 
several hundred posts, but it will still be easy to search, using the 
browser's "search in page" function or according to the sections. The 
link for "The HPfGU Guide" should be placed in the opening page of 
the website in a noticeable way, and newbies should be encouraged by 
ADNIN to search it before posting. 

The Guide can be important for demonstrating to newbies what is the 
style of the group and what are the qualities of a good post. It may 
also encourage even old timers to go into the effort of writing a 
well thought-of post, so it will be worthy of Guide status. In 
addition, I'm hoping some members will use the Guide to 
write "review" posts that cover many posts of a whole subject, such 
as Elkins' memorable Memory Charm symposium. Perhaps in the future 
when the Guide will (almost certainly) become too large for 
convenient searching, such review posts will be able to serve as a 
Guide to the Guide.

I'm sure other members can improve this idea further. 

Neri, 
who was a newbie less than a year ago