Book layouts The option of have longer pieces organised into specific sections as well as linking pieces together
- Chapters Separating large sections of a book style work into separate pages that can be easily navigated to
- Paragraphs Allowing people to jump around a piece at will. Also the possibility of allowing you to bookmark a paragraph in a piece so you can return later and pick up where you left off
- Sequels The possibility of linking a series of books together
- Replies Allowing other writers to connect their work to yours (due to things such as using the same characters)
Dictionary/thesaurus links Links through to an online dictionary and/or thesaurus
- Search integrated The possibility of integrating a search function for the dictionary/thesaurus into things like the text editor and piece browser
Mail/Notes? Allowing users to send private messages to each other
- Storage space The issue of how much storage space to give the users
- - Plain text, no attachments No wasted space on formatting or large files, possibility of using html for messages (like MySpace does)
- - Emoticons Allowing the use of them in messages, same as on forums
Favourites/bookmarks page A place for users to keep a record of their favourite pieces/authors
- Show newest pieces Organise the pieces by how new they are or how recently they've been updated
- watching messages/alerts Alerts shown to users when something happens like a piece in their favourites is edited or an author they like has posted something new
Future plans Things that are not only out of the scope of this as my major project but will likely have to wait until the site is established (rather than just because of technical issues)
- Integration with other social networking websites Allowing users to connect their profile to their profiles elsewhere
- - Facebook Most likely through some sort of application that would show an overview of the user's profile on the site
- - MySpace Similar to Facebook, not sure how MySpace applications work?
- - Etc There's various other sites to look into, some along the lines of Facebook and MySpace, others more specialised (an important one would be LibraryThing)
- Possible opportunity to be available on devices such as Kindle? Looking into how people using a Kindle could browse the site and download pieces to their device
- Independent publishing to create books on demand of certain pieces Like how people have prints on DeviantArt, this means they can put their pieces up for sale and they will be made into books as people request them
- Publishing collections of shorter pieces Not every piece will be the appropriate length for a book to itself. This is the possibility that pieces will be chosen (through something like a competition) to be part of a collection of work from the site that will be available to buy from the site
- - Genre Collections could be based on genre (such as a sci-fi collection)
- - Piece style Or on the style of the pieces inside (such as a collection of poetry or short stories)
- RSS feeds? The possibility of having RSS feeds from the site. What of is undecided.
- - Personalised? Could you have personalised RSS feeds? These would notify users of their new alerts, etc
- Intricate Creative Commons licensing Giving greater control over how a piece on the site is licensed
- - More depth A user can choose to use one license for the whole work or separate licenses for different parts. So other authors could maybe write pieces set in the same world, but aren't allowed to use the same characters.
Thursday 24 April 2008
Sunday 6 April 2008
Notes from the red book - part 6
Categories Pieces will be organised into categories based on genre (romance, sci-fi, etc), length (short story, novel, etc), style (poetry, prose, etc), and more
- Can be specific or generic Users define what level of a category their piece is placed in
- - Multiple categories Pieces can be placed in multiple categories (so a love story that takes place in space, can be in romance as well as sci-fi)
- Category browsing Users can browse categories and their sub-categories, with pieces within those categories organised in various ways (user-definable)
Searching Allowing users to search through pieces
- Simple search and advanced search Simple search can just be on a keyword, such as "spaceship. Advanced search allows things such as only searching within specific categories (such as if you only want sci-fi short stories) or pieces by a certain user
- Random functions
- - Random piece Navigates to a random piece when clicked
- - Random author Navigates to the profile of a random user when clicked
- - Within a category Random pieces are selected from within a certain category
- Define your interests Allows a user to define what kind of writing they like to read
- - Recommendations? Recommends pieces for a user to read based on their preferences, possibly with a bias towards pieces with little to no comments
- - - User submitted? Users could possibly vote for pieces they think should be featured, either in specific categories, or across the whole site (so there would be "top pieces this week", as well as "top sci-fi pieces this week" or "top short stories this week", etc)
- Can be specific or generic Users define what level of a category their piece is placed in
- - Multiple categories Pieces can be placed in multiple categories (so a love story that takes place in space, can be in romance as well as sci-fi)
- Category browsing Users can browse categories and their sub-categories, with pieces within those categories organised in various ways (user-definable)
Searching Allowing users to search through pieces
- Simple search and advanced search Simple search can just be on a keyword, such as "spaceship. Advanced search allows things such as only searching within specific categories (such as if you only want sci-fi short stories) or pieces by a certain user
- Random functions
- - Random piece Navigates to a random piece when clicked
- - Random author Navigates to the profile of a random user when clicked
- - Within a category Random pieces are selected from within a certain category
- Define your interests Allows a user to define what kind of writing they like to read
- - Recommendations? Recommends pieces for a user to read based on their preferences, possibly with a bias towards pieces with little to no comments
- - - User submitted? Users could possibly vote for pieces they think should be featured, either in specific categories, or across the whole site (so there would be "top pieces this week", as well as "top sci-fi pieces this week" or "top short stories this week", etc)
Notes from the red book - part 5
User profiles Pretty standard for any community site
- List of pieces List of pieces submitted by a user
- - most recent (added/updated) Organised by most recently submitted or updated, possibly other options available
- Description A general description submitted by the user
- Blog An optional blog that a user can use to talk about their writing, or whatever
- Links Any links the user wishes to add to their profile (like MySpace, Facebook, etc)
- Ratings-at-a-glance A value showing their reputation, either a single value or a ratio of their comments score vs. their number of pieces
- - Links to more detailed stats Click through to a more detailed run-down of their activities on the site
- Most recent comments A selection of their most recent comments (in full or as extracts)
- Picture and/or avatar Used to identify the user quickly. Possibility of using just an avatar, just a picture, or both
- - Large on profile (though not too big)
- - Resized to 50x50 elsewhere Such as on comments or forum posts, etc
- Signature? Possibility of allowing users to include a signature with their comments/posts
- - Text/emoticon only Means no inclusions of large images, etc
- - 1 0r 2 lines Means no long, text-filled, signatures
Emoticons A selection of images for use in comments/forums posts/etc
- Build up database Either create them myself, use free-to-use images, or have them be user-created (should have visual coherence)
- - All graphics open and CC licensed
- Sane selection + some randoms Need all the standards (smile, frown, wink, etc) with a couple of non-standard, try to avoid a massive selection of stupid emoticons
- Sane functions to call them Try to avoid anything that could come up in someone's writing (common ones include "8)" or things like multiple punctuation marks)
- Not available in text submission, only comments Pieces shouldn't be filled with emoticons, they are intended for discussion/conversation/etc
- List of pieces List of pieces submitted by a user
- - most recent (added/updated) Organised by most recently submitted or updated, possibly other options available
- Description A general description submitted by the user
- Blog An optional blog that a user can use to talk about their writing, or whatever
- Links Any links the user wishes to add to their profile (like MySpace, Facebook, etc)
- Ratings-at-a-glance A value showing their reputation, either a single value or a ratio of their comments score vs. their number of pieces
- - Links to more detailed stats Click through to a more detailed run-down of their activities on the site
- Most recent comments A selection of their most recent comments (in full or as extracts)
- Picture and/or avatar Used to identify the user quickly. Possibility of using just an avatar, just a picture, or both
- - Large on profile (though not too big)
- - Resized to 50x50 elsewhere Such as on comments or forum posts, etc
- Signature? Possibility of allowing users to include a signature with their comments/posts
- - Text/emoticon only Means no inclusions of large images, etc
- - 1 0r 2 lines Means no long, text-filled, signatures
Emoticons A selection of images for use in comments/forums posts/etc
- Build up database Either create them myself, use free-to-use images, or have them be user-created (should have visual coherence)
- - All graphics open and CC licensed
- Sane selection + some randoms Need all the standards (smile, frown, wink, etc) with a couple of non-standard, try to avoid a massive selection of stupid emoticons
- Sane functions to call them Try to avoid anything that could come up in someone's writing (common ones include "8)" or things like multiple punctuation marks)
- Not available in text submission, only comments Pieces shouldn't be filled with emoticons, they are intended for discussion/conversation/etc
Notes from the red book - part 4
Help pages A selection of pages intended to help users with various things. Including stuff about the site and creative writing in general.
- Writing advice/exercises Help and tips on creative writing, as well as exercises intended to improve writing skills
- user written - wiki? Help pages could be user written, possibly as a selection of articles or in wiki form
- FAQ for the site
- Manifesto about openness Talking about the benefits of collaboration and openness as well as reasons behind using open source technology, etc
- Recommendations about what to use with the site Programmes that can be used to access the site or in conjunction with it
- - Firefox (no need to write spell check programme) Firefox has a built-in spell-checker, which would remove the need to have one built into the editor
- - Commons licensing Creative Commons licensing and why to use it, etc
- - Recommend open source programmes In general, such as things like Open Office/AbiWord or Linux, etc
- Writing advice/exercises Help and tips on creative writing, as well as exercises intended to improve writing skills
- user written - wiki? Help pages could be user written, possibly as a selection of articles or in wiki form
- FAQ for the site
- Manifesto about openness Talking about the benefits of collaboration and openness as well as reasons behind using open source technology, etc
- Recommendations about what to use with the site Programmes that can be used to access the site or in conjunction with it
- - Firefox (no need to write spell check programme) Firefox has a built-in spell-checker, which would remove the need to have one built into the editor
- - Commons licensing Creative Commons licensing and why to use it, etc
- - Recommend open source programmes In general, such as things like Open Office/AbiWord or Linux, etc
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