Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Archive organization - is alphabetical best?

Not quite sure where I should ask this.

Yesterday I was looking at the archive's author index and reading some stories in a series, and kept opening the wrong one when I wanted the nect story because they were in alphabetical order, not order of date published.

Is there any way this could be added as an additional sort option?

I can honestly say it's never come up before, Marcus.

It's certainly something to think about. A SG1 site I frequent has the option of listing the author's stories by date uploaded and by alpha and it certainly is a handy way to tell how long ago the latest story was added to the site. I can see where it would be useful for reading an author's series, as you say.

Mind you, that site is all stories by the one author. I'm not sure how difficult it would be, how much extra work or time it would entail, adding such an option when we have a lot of sub-sections - separate author groupings - as with our archive. That might make it more difficult. It may not. I have no clue. <g>

The Archive has shut down for the Christmas period now and Lauren is taking a very well deserved rest. But I'll discuss it with her in the new year and see what the logistics of it are.

LabRat

I have encountered the same problem as Marcus a number of times on the archive...

note: I appreciate that the Archive is closed now for the holidays...

However:
a quick thought is that it would be one option for the GE's if they wanted to do something about this to trawl through the archives ... find any series' and rename them (at least that is how I have dealt with my fav's that I have stored on my laptop)

eg.
say, Oh, I don't know...for example only
CCmalo's Recognition series...
I have saved as REC1, REC2 and REC3...
etc.

I know this would take time, what with 3000 stories and all, but so long as no-one is in a rush to access them it may be a long-term project for the new year (I emphasise the long-term aspect of this, I do appreciate RL issues)...


just a thought
Beet
who happens to have spent a good year trying to organise my
iTunes effectively (what with 7000 songs on it)
and do appreciate the pain my suggestion entails...

That's going to cause a lot of trouble for anyone who has external links to any of the stories, e.g. Nan Smith's timeline page. I think the cure might be worse than the problem.

But would it really? Why would we need to change the links? Why not just change the title as it shows up on the title page, to add a "Series Title #:" right before the fic title? (IE "Series Title 1: Title 1 name" "Series Title 2: Title 2 name") Or is this showing my complete and utter lack of understanding as to how the html works to set up the title pages themselves?

Bethy

Perhaps - to go along with Bethy's suggestion - perhaps something like this [to use Nan's stories]:

A Night at the Office [Series #1, Story #1]
Strange Relationships [Series #1, Story #2]
Best Laid Plans [Series #1, Story #3]

Okay - so it's probably not Nan's first series but Home wouldn't work because at least the first few main ones are numbered. And Nan does have her own series page... but you get the idea. They would still be in alphabetical order for those looking for a specific story but would still be labeled plainly for those looking for the next one in a particular series.

Just a thought...
Carol

Good idea Carol and Bethy. I actually like the fact that the archive offers us folcs a variety of searching methods; by author, date, theme, and search,(which I only recently discovered and love ) I guess once a story is on the archive it's well on the archive? Meaning an author her/himself can't go on and add the part one, two, etc...

Perhaps from now on, and I of course realize, authors don't always intend/know that their story will have multiple parts but if they do, in the opening "credits" there can be a quick this is part 1, 2 whatever of a 3 or 4 part series. For longer stories maybe each author could simply post the link to earlier chapters to make everything altogether? A thought that might be easier for the awesome archive crew!

Mona

I seem to remember there once was a section titled Series, though my memory might be shot. It might be simpler to make a Series section to the archive, and any story that is part of a series make a little linking icon next to it, and also a link next to/under the authors name saying that they have a series of stories, like Nan's does. The series section can have all of the stories in order for easier reading. That way it won't mess up any other section of the archive.

I know some authors in the little description of their story that they state that this is the sequel to such and such story so if you pull up the author you can sort out which story is first.

I save all the stories I read in a special partition on my hard drive. I save them in folders alphabetically but the series stories I have in folders 1-50, 51-100 etc. Then I number them as 1a, 1b, 1c...2a etc. Then I have a spread sheet that is alphabetical with the stories titles and if it is a series its number and letter so I know where every story is. So Marcus if you are having trouble figuring out a series sequence feel free to send me and email and I'll see if I can help you out. I have just about everything from the archive on my harddrive.

Well, that's very kind of you, but it isn't really going to help someone who wants to read the next story of the series NOW and can't wait, or someone who stumbles across the site and doesn't know you're willing to do this. In both cases the easier option is probably to dip into the stories and find the next one, but it's still a bit awkward. Date sorting isn't a perfect answer, of course, since people sometimes post stories in a series out of order, but it'd help.

Jumping back to Nan as an example, the series guide under her name has been really helpful for me, for example. If there are similar authors with many multi part stories, would guides under those particular authors' names be a lot of work to make?

There are a few authors like Nan that I would have trouble following without a guide, but there are all also plenty of other authors who are pretty easy to keep in line with either because of a story description (I.E. "In this third installment of XYZ") or simply because they haven't written a lot of stories.

JD

It'd help a lot - I find this page very useful when I'm looking at Nan's stories. I just wish some of the other prolific series authors on the site would follow her example.

Actually, Marcus, I can't claim credit for the idea of listing the series. Pam Jernigan was getting very confused and emailed me for the lists of series and the stories in them and made up the series guide for herself. Then she figured (quite rightly) that the guide would be useful to others as well. I do try to mention, when I write a sequel to a story, that that is what it is but the credit goes to Pam.

Unfortunately, her life seems to be getting a bit busy and she's having some trouble keeping up these days, so I'm trying to keep a list too.

Nan

Another issue is how a particular author writes their series - and then how they want you to read it. Many authors write sequentially, so that each story written in a particular series follows chronologically after the next one.

But another author may write four that follow each other chronologically, and then the fifth one actually covers "missing time" between #2-3. For a new reader coming in, the author may be very happy with a reading order of #1,2,5,3,4 - but I've seen some that specify that they would prefer if you read in the order written, therefore #1,2,3,4,5. This situation may not occur often, but I have seen it.

Kathy

Another option might be [under fic by Author - wouldn't work other ways] something like this for me:
Carol M.
Series 1:
First Night
Valley of the Shadow

Series 2:
In Sickness and In Health
Till Death Do Us Part

Stand Alone:
Alphabetical Order

The author could have them put up in the order they wanted [if they were written out of order as mentioned earlier]. You might also have a spot for companion pieces that aren't necessarily a series but go together [such as two written about the same event from two different perspectives].

Just another .02 .
Carol