Reviewing and Reading Approved Descriptions

[TLOSpyrogirl]

I...I'm pretty sure there's not a feature like this. o.O If there is, direct me to it, because I want to use it!

Note, if this gets implemented without the commenting part, I would not mind. It's just the ability to easily read descriptions that matters.

 

Have you ever had the urge to read descriptions? Just read them without having to review? Well, good for you! But there's one little problem with that. You need to find somebody with described dragons. And how hard is that? Very hard. I mean, what is the likelihood of you wanting to click back and forth just to see what dragons are described on a scroll with 5,000 dragons? Some people put their described dragons at the top of their scroll, but not everybody does that. Few people want to go description hunting because it's just so hard to find described dragons. So, let's try this!

 

On the Account page, just click a button that says 'Approved Descriptions'. You'll be taken to a page. It will contain sorting orders. There are buttons saying 'Sort by Name A-Z', 'Sort by Name Z-A' [both of those sort symbols by their location on the keyboard, numbers, then letters first], 'Sort by Breed [clicking this will reveal more text listing the breeds]', 'Sort by Popularity [with ones that have the most comments showing up first]', 'Sort by Name [here you type in the name of a desired dragon]' and 'Random'. Click one of those and away you go!

 

Now, say you clicked 'Random' and you're brought to a description of a Gold Tinsel named Elena. The description tells of her magnificent adventure on a pirate ship and such. The page shows up as the normal description reviewing page, with a picture of the dragon at the top, its gender, and its age. Below it is the normal box with the description in it. And below it is the comment bar. The only difference now is that the 'Approve', 'Reject', and 'Abstain' buttons are gone. They're replaced with buttons saying 'Comment' and 'Next'. Clicking comment while there is no text in the bar will do nothing, except maybe pull up a pop-up saying that you need to type in the bar before commenting. The 'Next' button will load the next description. Simple, right? Possibly?

 

Comments will be seen on the Description page. Considering that you may start to get so many comments the page won't load, there will be a wipe when your dragon's description gets fifty comments, perhaps less or more.

 

Pros

No more hunting for described dragons.

You continue to get comments even after your description is approved. (Also a con.)

It'd be much easier to get some inspiration and may give some people a drive to start describing themselves.

 

Cons

People could abuse comments and mods wouldn't get to see them because they've already approved the descriptions. (Perhaps there could be a report function in place, but that still just gives the mods more work...)

Maybe some players would find receiving more comments an issue? (Perhaps you could 'close' your dragon to receiving comments, but people can still read it? Maybe put a checkbox on the account page that says 'Do not let others comment on my descriptions after they are approved.'. Then people could still read your descriptions through the Approved Descriptions page, but the comment button would not be visible/clicking it would pop up a box saying that this user has closed comments.)

Server strain?

Hard to code?

People could steal other's descriptions more easily.

Probably a few other things...

 

 

You're probably going to ask why you can't just go to the reviewing descriptions page. Well, as I said, it's much more enjoyable to read descriptions without possibly having to slug through grammatical errors, not to mention since descriptions are getting approved within minutes now, there will probably not even be anything to read when you actually want to read descriptions.

 

Questions, comments, opinions?

 

Other ideas: Perhaps there could be a 'like' button instead of a commenting button? (By Fengari)

 

Ability to remove comments yourself. (By angelicdragonpuppy)

 

Possibly an opt-out ability (for the whole scroll and/or for individual dragons) so your descriptions won't randomly show for others. (By love_HP and Emeraldmay?)

Edited April 10, 2013 by SockPuppet Strangler

[Fuzzbucket]

Server strain ? Other than that I can't see why not.

[stogucheme]

What if there was a forum thread attached to this for the commenting? You post the dragon's url and add your comment.

No, that'd be too disorganized...gah. I dunno. I like this suggestion, though.

[annageckos]

I really like this idea, except for leaving comments. I don't see a need, plus the potential for abuse. But being able to easily find dragons with descriptions, I'm all for it.

[Obscure_Trash]

I've always been iffy on any suggestion that includes commenting on descriptions after they've been approved, but I do like this idea! I'd still like a description marker, but this is a very neat idea. :3

[TLOSpyrogirl]

Oh, yeah, I forgot about the 'Approved Descriptions' thread. But not everybody posts there, after all. I have described dragons and I haven't even thought of it yet. And there are the non-forum users. xP

 

Yes. Server strain could be a con. Along with possibly hard coding. Although Sock has said the mods have a variety of ways to show unapproved descriptions, and I believe sorting by breed is one of those, so maybe TJ could copy/paste the code and just add a few lines of...whatever the button codes are. I...don't know much about CSS or HTML.

 

And thanks for all your input!

Edited December 7, 2011 by TLOSpyrogirl

[HeatherMarie]

As long as there is an option to not let other people comment on your approved descriptions. I don't want people commenting on my descriptions, they have already been approved and I don't need to know if someone likes it or not.

[purplehaze]

I really don't see a need to comment on the descriptions, but I like the idea of being easily able to find dragons with user descriptions.

[stogucheme]

As long as there is an option to not let other people comment on your approved descriptions. I don't want people commenting on my descriptions, they have already been approved and I don't need to know if someone likes it or not.

This is a very important point. Without this, I wouldn't support this idea.

[TLOSpyrogirl]

That's fine. A 'Do not let others comment on my descriptions after they are approved.' checkbox could be implemented through the Account page, or perhaps only through individual dragons.

I'd actually like people to comment afterwards, myself. Free praise.

[DragonNighthowler]

Take down the "comment" thing and I'm all for it.

 

But like the others, I do not want comments on my descriptions.

[TLOSpyrogirl]

That's what the optional part of it is for.

[Nine]

I wouldn't mind others commenting on approved descriptions of mine, and I certainly would enjoy an official way to find and read dragons with descriptions. I think I'd use a 'random dragon' option more so than specific searches, find those diamond in the rough ones =)

 

In the SD section, Lagie has typed up an extensive, alphabetized list of self-submitted, approved descriptions; it's very convenient. That could be used as a starting database (if dragons with descriptions are currently not tracked in any way), if a feature like this were added.

[Azure]

My two cents would be, besides an 'opt out of comments entirely' checkbox, allowing the owner of the description to prune the comments. That way, you could keep your little comment space as tidy as you prefer it.

 

Bonus points if there's a report button for the nasties, too, and no anonymous comments - just in case a troll happens to feel 'smart' and spam one-letter comments or whatnot.

 

Either way, the commenting is really just an extra feature - just being able to find described dragons and read the descriptions would be plenty to make this feature capture my interest.

[stogucheme]

My two cents would be, besides an 'opt out of comments entirely' checkbox, allowing the owner of the description to prune the comments. That way, you could keep your little comment space as tidy as you prefer it.

 

Bonus points if there's a report button for the nasties, too, and no anonymous comments - just in case a troll happens to feel 'smart' and spam one-letter comments or whatnot.

 

Either way, the commenting is really just an extra feature - just being able to find described dragons and read the descriptions would be plenty to make this feature capture my interest.

You can- they're right here: http://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?act=ST&f=4&t=117376

 

Honestly, all I want is for a note on the descriptions page like, 'share your description here!' So then it's totally optional, people who don't want forum involvement can ignore it, we get rid of the commenting problem, and maybe we can list usernames so that people can send PMs to the user about how awesome the description is. (The suggestion of the thread is okay, too, I just think this would be easier.)

[TLOSpyrogirl]

My two cents would be, besides an 'opt out of comments entirely' checkbox, allowing the owner of the description to prune the comments. That way, you could keep your little comment space as tidy as you prefer it.

 

Bonus points if there's a report button for the nasties, too, and no anonymous comments - just in case a troll happens to feel 'smart' and spam one-letter comments or whatnot.

 

Either way, the commenting is really just an extra feature - just being able to find described dragons and read the descriptions would be plenty to make this feature capture my interest.

You mean simply delete comments you don't want? That could work.

 

Sock has said before that mods can remove a person's ability to comment if they spam the descriptions waiting to be approved. So, maybe they can see exactly who in commenting anyway.

 

stoguchume, that's a good idea.

[Azure]

You can- they're right here: http://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?act=ST&f=4&t=117376

 

<some text omitted>

Oh, certainly, and I do partake of that thread (and in fact had my own links in the old thread, not gotten around to re-listing them on the new), but remember - there are players who aren't on the forums.

 

Furthermore, there are players who don't list their descriptions in that thread for whatever reason (laziness, not knowing about it, god knows). A whole lot of them.

 

 

As for comments, yes, by that I meant ability to delete the ones you don't fancy/don't want to save.

The report button and non-anonymity I suggested to relieve mods of more work. They're already putting in a ton of their time - they do not need the extra burden of having to comb through comments on -approved- descriptions, so if there is to be commenting, it needs to be as self-managing as possible.

(Non-anonymity reasoning in specific is simply, if you get a ton of spam from the same person, you can report them (otherwise you can't tell if it's one person or dozen doing it, and thus can't really tell if it's spam).)

[Lilac Inkdream]

I agree with this suggestion, and a lot of the discussion on this page seems to be well thought out and very useful to the overall potential inputing this into the accutal game. I must say that I support this %100

[TLOSpyrogirl]

I agree with this suggestion, and a lot of the discussion on this page seems to be well thought out and very useful to the overall potential inputing this into the accutal game. I must say that I support this %100

Thank you.

[Lilac Inkdream]

There's only one problem I see with this, and that is potential difficulty to code. Another thing is that on a few other threads, there has been talk about third party coding being a good thing to have for more complex suggestions, like this one.

[dragonwestie64]

I like this idea! I would love to use it!

[Valkiepoo]

I live this idea! I would also like to be about to filter by breed. It would be nice to see what others have written for the same breed as inspiration. On a related note, another con would be that it makes it easy to steal someone else's approved description.

[Completely Different]

I love the idea! It would be nice to find a place to read descriptions.

 

I'd say the only part I'm hesitant about is the continued comments part- I believe the reason the comments aren't saved after approval is because of server strain, and this would only increase the issue. Also, it brings up the question of moderating the comments for anything inappropriate.

[Fengari]

Great idea!

 

For me, it would be a reason to start writing descriptions again. I've done it when I first started, but they took very long to be approved and that made me give up. Now that approvals come quicker, I can't get myself to write more, because I've got so many dragons now and I always figure 'what's the point, nobody is going to read them anyway...'.

 

If comments are included, as said, it would have to be optional, and I would also like to prune them myself. After all, I would want to receive comments but would also want to be able to remove those that really annoy me.

 

If the comment part of it is problematic because of possible abuse and the extra workload that would bring for the mods, maybe that could be replaced by a simple 'like' function? Just a button to press, no text input, so not abusable, and it would still give us a bit of feedback. On the description page there could be stats: 'amount of views' and 'amount of likes'.

[TLOSpyrogirl]

Thanks, guys. First post updated with Fengari's idea and Valkiepoo's con. :3