Folios aka Favorites

#1

folio:
pagination: the system of numbering pages
leaf: a sheet of any written or printed material (especially in a manuscript or book)

I guess you could call them Favorites on steriods.

When you go to amazon you sometimes see lists of items that people put together that are similiar to what you are currently browsing.
It is sorta kinda a little bit like that.

The idea stemmed from the need to make favorites more useable by the member and by others. First thought was to allow users to organize their favorites. To do this you would have to allow multiple lists of favorites so they can be grouped as necessary. Since they are grouped they will have to have a title for easy browsing. Since they need a title, they will probably be themed in some way. Since they will be themed in some way that makes them a perfect candidate for extra sharing of chosen submission with others. We are always looking for new ways to link stuff together, here is another. Eureka.

So by a person just doing their own thing, they can create yet another themed resource that others may benefit from. Since we are going to use them this way then they have to be identified that they WILL be used this way and therefore we can rename them to Folios with the understanding that they are intended to be grouped submissions under some kind of theme (up to the person putting it together) that will be pulled and show as people browse the site.

Another thought on this was a kind of Raw Folio, bookmarks maybe, that would be the catchall till you organized it. Like the current favorites basically. Just a mess, a list of subs you are interested in organizing. This way you can work on a couple Folios at a time. You collect for awhile and then go to the Folio Organizer (TM) and name your folios and put the subs in the correct spot for Folio Submission.

Favorites was getting a rework with the organization ability and Moon reminded me of the old idea from V2.0 that was somehow dropped (by me) that paralleled the improved favorites and made it much better I think. Moon brought this one back to life.

There still needs to be some details worked out: Who should be allowed to create a Folio? Should Folios use a freetext tag system to organize them amongst themselves? Should you allow Folio Collaboration?

Re: Folios

#2

Like Regions, Folios would be a main type.. so it would be on the nav bar up top with dungeon, items, lifeforms, locations, etc.

So in process...

You can select current submissions and put them in your "shopping cart". This is your notebook. It is your current and temporary listing. It functions like a folio for you.

Now you can save the contents of your current shopping cart to a folio.

You would give it a label/ name and a brief summary description. Description would be limited to 250 words or some such.

MoonHunter's Favorite Posts
"These may not be the most popular of my posts, but they are the ones I like the most."

some other examples...
MoonHunter's favorite posts written by other people.
Non-Humans as Humans (grouping Lyrans, Orcens, Dokoren, True Trolls, and so on).
Monsters I would use in Dungeon Most Dark.
Things MoonHunter thinks everyone new to the site should submit to

Each item in the folio would have a preview and goto link link to the whole item and would show the summary. Like with a world submission, you would be able to put it in any order, add and delete them as you see fit, without ep penalty. If you click the preview, it would appear below.

Some of you might think this is a codex. In some ways it is. However, it is smaller, cleaner, easier to use, and better for new people to the citadel.

and to opine on some things...
Who should be allowed to create a Folio? Anyone of 5th level or greater. These levels have to be worth something.
I think certain options should have level requirements. In fact, you should be level 2 before you can post (becoming level 1 through commenting and voting). But this is a discussion for another thread.

Should Folios use a freetext tag system to organize them amongst themselves? NOOOOOOO!!!!
Folios might be allowed to have freetexts, but really, they should just be a alphabetical list in the folio section.

Should you allow Folio Collaboration? HECK YAH!

Re: Folios

#3

nice!

Re: Folios

#4

I see these as almost a codex killer.

It will all depend on the options given for them I suppose but the similiarities between them will cause me to write the same batch of code that controls them both with only minor differences.

The big difference that I see is that a folio allows you to sort and organize whereas a codex does not.

Re: Folios

#5

Folios can have any thematic structure you want, as they are really just a "note page" for quickly grouping things together. Now this can be by purpose, by response, by order). Things in a chronological order could just be linked via names in square brackets.

While there are serious similarities (and any organizational post will have similarities if it has the same functionalities), the big difference is how they are sorted and the experience you get from them.

Folios, in their own section, will not have the big nav bar categories. It will be more like looking for a book on a shelf than a file in the database. (We could sort them alphabetically as a default, by author, and by "age" with oldest first, as options). This changes the texture of the experience. Sure it will make finding specific things more difficult, but that is what search functions are for. And the change of the structure is what we are looking for here.

They are also written more as a "note" rather than a big formal submission. Sure that makes the change mostly psychological, but as we have seen with the ever ongoing debate about post size, completeness, and votes, "what makes a real sub", and similar issues, setting them up as their own category, and changing how things are grouped (via folios), will allow people to have different responses to them.

A folio, if viewed effectively as a codex, would then get slapped with the same crappy vote response that we, as a community, give any short submission.

This creates an unfair impression of the codex to any visitor that is not indoctrinated into our little culture. So they will igore the folio because it is rated 3.5, looking for a higher rated thing. Even though the folio might actually be what they need.

Now if we view these lists in a different way, make them different, and sort them differently, and experience them differently, the community will respond to them differently.

We have yet to determine what they actually look like. Perhaps if a folio has its own summary box and shows the summary box of everything in it? Then it would have a goto (or mabye the goto and review). (Of course, it would have a return to folio link). This would make it different from a codex.

... okay.. I am having an odd idea.
Imagine the graphic of the page looking like an old leatherbound book with parchament pages. It would be open and you would see two pages. The left page would be the control boxes, the right would be the submissions. Each time you click a link to go to another submission, it looks like the page turns and you see that new submission on the next page (right page). Thus a system page would be on the left side. A codex would be on the left side.. and so on.
Just a thought.... and not just for folios, but everything?

Re: Folios

#6

Bumbity bump. I still like this direction for the favorites and will do some more work on them. They definitely need their own page to browse through all the different favorite lists.

Of course there will be private lists available just for that person.