The future of the Archive - tell us your hopes and dreams!

james

One thing I love about the Archive is how easy it can be to find stories of a certain type, whether it's 'all stories with this one person in them, including crossovers' or 'all stories tagged with 'drowning.'
However, some of this requires the author use tags in the first place. I think it could be useful if there were a way for readers to communicate at large about what tags they find useful, or would like to see more of, or simply say 'hey, authors, think about using numerous and descriptive tags because we want to search for all stories about drowning.'
(I won't mention that, in fact, I have not myself used enough descriptive tags, but I plan to fix that Real Soon Now.) Knowing how readers are using the archive can help a lot, I think, when authors are posting stuff to the archive.
I have no idea how this would be implemented! I wave my magic wand and say make it so. ;-)

Posted Thu 03 Jun 2010 06:26AM EDT

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sunflow

As a reader who does most of her reading while offline, I'd love for the Archive to have a better "print/save to local" options. I think efiction has the best implementation of this function - I can choose to print either a chapter or the whole story, and clicking "print" opens up a new page with barely-there formatting, which I can save, then format as I need it and read it later on my phone or at work. There's also a full url to the story attached, so that after I've read it offline I can go back and comment.
As it is now, save-page-as leaves me with no url for reference and a horrible mess within the text, and especially in the header/tag section (which also doesn't print well from browser level - the rating/category/fandom column disappears, leaving only their values, which looks very confusing).
Not sure if it can be implemented, and if easier saving-to-local is something that the Archive wants to encourage, but it's the main reason why I'm using AO3 as the very last resort when searching for stories to read.

Posted Thu 03 Jun 2010 07:09AM EDT

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msilverstar

I always get confused when looking in the story header box, because it is missing the author and title. I do understand that putting them there would be redundant, but I think a lot of fandoms generally include that information, and it's weird to not see it, to have to look up at the title or down below the box.
Also, please please underline the author name, so it's more clear that it's a link rather than plain text. We need our affordances!

Posted Fri 04 Jun 2010 12:53AM EDT

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eosrose

I confess that I haven't been toying much with new search features, but it would be nice if people had the option to pull up both authors' tags and users' tags when filtering stories. Some author's don't use any unrequired tags at all, so relying on tags in bookmarks is all that can be done. I never look at the bookmarks, so I'm sure I'm missing out on things I might have otherwise found...

Posted Fri 04 Jun 2010 10:38PM EDT

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Jaaaarne

A seagull in flight, with slight motion blur.

What's been really bugging me lately is the author profile page. Or rather the "Dashboard" view, to be precise. It's the default view you get when you click the username and it contains just everything without even having a good distinction between sections. It gets overly confusing, especially the bookmarks. Lately I've been withholding myself from making new bookmarks and recs because I have already had a person confuse one of the bookmarked works with my own. >.<
Thing is, what I as a potential reader want to see on the page that loads upon clicking the author name is 1) their brief profile where they tell about themselves (which is now available via "Profile" link) and 2) the list of their stories. Going through their bookmarks is interesting (especially if I find the author interesting), but it's not a top priority. Having this section, which tends to be very big if you're reading actively, on a default view is confusing. I think the "Bookmarks" section should be either removed from the default author profile view (the "Dashboard") or maybe made collapsible via JS and be concealed by default.

Posted Sat 05 Jun 2010 04:23AM EDT

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Scribblesinink (Scribbler)

In the "it'd be so cool if..." category: a way to download/format stories for use with eReaders (ePub, Mobi, etc.). No idea how this would work technically (integrate with Calibre, maybe??), or if it's even feasible, but that'd be a dream feature.

Posted Sat 05 Jun 2010 07:08AM EDT

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Stultiloquentia

Okay, I've got an itty bitty one, for when you've got the bandwidth to spare: I'd like the archive servers to host header images, like Yuletide's swirly one and Clan Mitchell's mountains.

Posted Sat 05 Jun 2010 09:49PM EDT

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sunflow

Another thought - is there any way in the archive to be notified when a new chapter is added to a bookmarked work in progress? If not, I do hope that's in the works!

Posted Sun 06 Jun 2010 06:58PM EDT

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Rebecca

With all the stuff on already on your roadmap, including those items you listed as additional goodies, there's not much left to be desired. As I said elsewhere, I'd definitely approve of a Beta search service, and a private messaging system.
One thing, though: I think it would be useful if there some kind of system to state various author policies. E.g. allow remixes, allow podfic reading, allow critique, allow archiving, ... , with the possibility to set default policies on a per author basis but allow different choices per story. And of course being able to filter for certain policies, so that I can find all German NCIS BDSM fics that I'm allowed to create a podfic of. ;-) How exactly one might go about this remains to be discussed.
Just some smaller things: A preview option for comments would be nice. And wouldn't it make sense to be able to choose a language for an external bookmark, just like you can choose a language for a story?

Posted Mon 07 Jun 2010 09:50AM EDT

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Tanaqui

Letter T with celtic knotwork decoration

At the moment, series are tagged with all the tags that have been applied to the individual stories in the series. Once you have a lengthy series (I have a shared series with a cowriter than has 80 stories in it and we're not done yet), the number of tags can become overwhelming and perhaps not terribly useful to people scanning series in a particular fandom looking for one to read.
It would be nice to be able to show just a subset of the most important tags for the series, perhaps with the ability to click on some kind of "more..." link and see all the tags applied to that series.

Posted Tue 08 Jun 2010 05:00PM EDT

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Rodo

charlotte charles, sitting on a rooftop in winter

I don't remember if it's planned or not, but I just wanted to look for a specific collection/collections on a certain topic and noticed that collections don't have tags, or at least that you can't filter them.
I think it would be useful if you're looking for, say, and open collection for Due South fic only, or remix challenges, gift exchanges and collections that allow entries in a specific language.

Posted Tue 08 Jun 2010 09:55PM EDT

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inalasahl

Frank O'Hara & Grace Hartigan sitting on a couch

It would be nice if there were a dedicated space for people to include links to podfic versions of their stories, so that they showed up on the story page similar to how remixes/translations do.
Oh! And some kind of minimize search engine inclusion option. (For outside search engines like Google and Bing. Not for archive searches.)

Posted Wed 09 Jun 2010 03:45PM EDT

Last Edited Wed 09 Jun 2010 03:55PM EDT

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anenko

I think this would look really messy, but: I wish there was a way to mark off primary vs. secondary characters. If I do a search for "Jane," for example, I don't want to pull up a bunch of stories where she's a background character in a fic that's primarily focused on "Bob/Max."
On the Works page, I'd really love to be able to sort by fandom as well as author, title, word count, date, and hits. I know that it's possible to filter by tags, but that doesn't give me what I'm looking for.

Posted Fri 11 Jun 2010 09:50AM EDT

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Marimba

I hope for introduction of real pseudonyms and not just these given name pseudo-pseudonyms.

Posted Wed 16 Jun 2010 09:39AM EDT

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adderpated

About bookmarks:
1. Multiple links in bookmark. Uses include: works at two or more different archives, single stories spread over unconnected and unindexed posts (an example: WIPS on LJ communities).
You can, of course, choose to hand write in more links into a review, but there might be an advantage to creating links in actual link-categories in the database for this. For one thing, it puts this very factual information with the story, rather than the bookmarker's review.
2. A different kind of bookmark, a multi-work bookmark for other archives, off-site author pages, perhaps mailing lists and communities.
I'm already using the current bookmark for this sort of thing to a small extent.

Posted Wed 07 Jul 2010 09:26PM EDT

Last Edited Wed 07 Jul 2010 09:54PM EDT

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Pslasher

First off, I want you all to know that I appreciate all the hard work going into the Archive, and how responsive to user input and desire the OTW is. Thanks! I thought about it a lot and came up with some things I'd love to see. I'm sorry if it got too long!
I envision the Archive as a huge resource to find fannish works for any fandom, character, and type of fanwork available. On the menu at the top of the page, there could be a "Type of fanwork" button (or something else more concise) where you could search just for one type of fanwork. I want a place where I can search for specific pairings, characters or tags and get all the fic, vids, icons, podfic, artwork (and anything else that fen come up with) that are related to that tag, all in one place. I want the option of getting results in all types of fanworks, or limiting my search to just the specific type of fanwork(s) I'm looking for that day. It would be neat if communities could be open to all types of fanworks, or limited to whatever the maintainer wants. (All this may already be in the works, but I figured it couldn't hurt to express my interest in the idea.)
I'm really excited about the up-coming addition of vids to the archive. Vidding fandom really needs a permanent home, and I think the OTW's archive could be the place. I really liked everything in the Vidding Roadmap. I look forward to being able to browse the Archive for vids, whether they are embedded from other sites, or streamed or downloaded from the TO3. Having a central gathering place for the info that's searchable is really exciting.
When it comes time to add different types of media to the Archive, I hope that all the different formats that a given work might be offered in will show up all together in one post. For example, if a vid is offered in WMV, AVI and H.264 options, all three options will show up on that vid's page in one place. The same thing for podfics, or art. The reason I include this is that the major archive for podfic ( http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/ ) lists each file option for a given recording separately from each other, meaning there is overlap. A specific podfic may have three different listings for that fic by that reader, and a series consisting of multiple fics, with each part offering multiple formats, is going to have a whole lot of entries with a lot of them being overlap. That makes browsing kind of cumbersome, and I think the Archive can eliminate the confusion.
I'd also like to be able to embed text, streaming video, pictures/art, ect. into one post, while somehow being able to credit the makers for each individual part of the post, and for that part of the work to show up in the creator's profile. A good example of this is the last round of entries for the Star Trek Ship Wars.
It would be awesome to be able to have video playlists, preferably streaming when the option is available, and rec sets for fic, podfic, ect... of a certain theme, or whatever the reccer wants.

Posted Fri 09 Jul 2010 09:38PM EDT

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Pslasher

Part 2 :)
I know gift exchanges (like Yuletide) have been made part of the Collections code, but what about prompt-based communities like the Star Trek XI Kink Meme? Something where anyone can put up a prompt, anonymously if desired, and anyone can fill it (either during a limited period of time that the maintainer decides on, or at any time), also anonymously if desired. The prompt could be based on tags which could be searched within the Collection, but ideally not outside of it. (It wouldn't be cool for prompts which haven't been filled to show up in the works section of the general Archive.) Having prompts based on tags would make searching through a large Meme easier. The STXI meme got extremely large, and searching through it became cumbersome after a while. A fic (or other fanwork) could be somehow marked as a fill for a given prompt, and show up in the Collection and general Works section of the Archive. This type of collection could also be coded so that filled and unfilled prompts could be segregated for easy reading or inspiration for writing. Kink Memes seem to require a lot of hands-on maintenance to do everything mentioned above, so an Archive that can do some or all of that automatically might make a neat and current Kink Meme easier to maintain and browse, thus keeping them alive longer.
It would be nice to see all the authors who have posted to a given Collection, and see the works they have posted to that Collection, within that Collection's dashboard. Currently it seems like only the people who maintain the Collection can be viewed in the "People" option of the dashboard.
I'd like to be able to filter works that I've already viewed/bookmarked/commented on out of search results. Also, a user's bookmarks/recs need to be sort-able by fandom/pairing/tag within that user's profile, just like an author's works. Currently that is the reason I'm not collecting outside bookmarks in the AO3, and am still using delicious for fic bookmarks.
I'm curious to know how the Archive is handling multiple bookmarks for the same fic. Will the fic show up on the bookmark page each time it's bookmarked, or are they all collected into one central bookmark? If so, do the tags also get collected together? What about if users give multiple url's for a fic, what happens then?
I'm also curious to know what security measures are in place to prevent the Archive from being hacked and being damaged. I realize that you can't give out very detailed info, as that might undermine the security measures, but it would be nice to have an idea of how secure the Archive is, and be reassured that measures are being taken against something like that.

Posted Fri 09 Jul 2010 09:39PM EDT

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reading_is_in

A somewhat late comment, but I just joined this remarkable archive and am exploring. It's a huge accomplishment.
I second that a searchable list or other feature to find betas would be useful. Also, would the support forum only cover the site, and if so, has a writing support/discussion forum been considered? This could also be used to faciliate co-authoring.

Posted Mon 02 Aug 2010 04:07AM EDT

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