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epic_recs2010-08-01 04:48 pm
jane-elliot.livejournal.com) wrote in epic_recs2010-08-01 04:48 pm
And the survey says...
Finally, a response to the survey poll we posted last month! I've gone through the responses, condensed them a bit (especially everything related to tags), and ran them past all of Epic Recs's current mods. There were a bunch of fantastic comments and suggestions and while not every one was possible to implement, we loved reading all of the suggestions and will be putting several into effect.
First off, the suggestions:
Reduce the number of pairing tags.
Great idea! We're going to be eliminating the LJ pairing tags for any pairing with less than five recs. If you're looking for obscure pairings, however, never fear -- all pairing tags will still be available on the delicious account.
Add author tags.
Unfortunately this just isn't possible. LJ only allows 1,000 tags and we're already using over 400 of them. With over a thousand recs to date, there just aren't enough tags left over for author tags.
Add tags for [fill in the blank].
We had lots of request for new tags and nearly as many comments from people who think there are too many tags. Thus we've decided to add a tag for super!epics (fics over 100,000 words), but will be passing on other tags for now. (Though I should note that all recs have a ratings tag over at the delicious account.)
Post more recs per day and/or have more reccers.
One to two recs per reccer per week probably doesn't sound like a lot, but you have to remember that it can often take a hundred stories to find a single story worth reccing. Mix in the fact that we try to rec longer stories (and thus have to read longer stories) and one rec a week becomes a challenging goal to meet. We have tried to increase the number of reccers for the comm, but I have to be honest: it's a lot harder to keep a full roster of reccers than you might imagine. One day, when all of the planets align, we'll have more than seven reccers. For now, I'm just happy that we still have enough folks to rec on weekends.
Include where a story is set in canon timeline in the recs.
We debated this for a long time, and finally came to the conclusion that this one just isn't possible on a practical level. If a reccer knows where a story is set in canon timeline (or if she knows that it spoils for a recent episode), she'll be happy to include that information. However several of our reccers (including me) read fanfic in fandoms where they haven't read/watched a lick of canon and in those cases it's not possible to include canon timeline/spoiler information.
Include warnings for work-safeness, formatting issues and/or ending information.
You may not have noticed this, but we actually have a tag for "sad stories" so we do warn for unhappy endings. We try not to be hugely intrusive about it for folks who don't want the warning, but the warning is there for those who do.
Worksafeness should be covered by a story's rating. If you feel that a rating isn't appropriate for a story, please let us know and we'll get it fixed.
Formatting is something that people have their own opinions on, thus it's not really something we can warn for, since warnings only work if there's a generally accepted standard. That said, most reccers do include a note if there's light text on a dark background or difficult-to-read fonts.
Use a rating system for recs (i.e., four or five stars).
Pretty much everyone vetoed this one. It's a nice idea in theory, but speaking for myself, I am *terrible* at trying to rate a story on a scale. On the plus side, however, you can trust that if we did use a five star scale there wouldn't be any recs on the comm for stories that didn't get at least four stars.
Put more information in the description for the memories.
There is a limit on the number of characters allowed in the memory descriptions and we often exceed that limit just with the title, author, and rating. Thus it's not possible to include anymore information there.
Use word counts rather than length categories for LJ and delicious tags.
When I started the comm, I used length categories for a reason: it's very time consuming to try to get exact word counts for long stories that are broken up into parts and the time spent on adding up word counts is time that isn't spent on reading stories or writing recs. Estimating lengths, on the other hand, is far easier and faster. While most reccers are now including word counts where possible, it's not something we want to require as the more work we require of our reccers, the more quickly they burn out.
Aaaand, the comments:
Epic Recs isn't reccing enough epic length stories.
This was one of the most repeated comments. Unfortunately, we can only rec what's actually been written and it's a sad fact of life that there are a limited number of epics (and even fewer super!epics) out there, especially since the rise of LJ and the subsequent popularity of the single-post fic. Our ratio of recs for epic and long fics to medium and short fics is vastly higher than fandom as a whole and the best we can do is to continue to keep that ratio high.
There aren't enough het/gen recs, fandoms, recs in a given fandom, darkfic/tragedy recs, crossovers, etc.
For better or for worse, we can only rec what we read. That said, we have specific theme weeks for a lot of the lesser-recced genres (in fact, I think we're having crossover week this month). Even better, we have new reccers coming on board on a regular basis (two new ones starting this month!) and with each new reccer comes new preferences.
It's hard to find recs in large categories.
I highly recommend that folks with this issue check out our memories and delicious account. Memories are great if you want to see all of the recs for a fandom on a single page (and, bonus, they're sorted by pairing type). Delicious is great if you want to be able to filter by multiple tags at a time, which helps pare the large categories down.
Recs are missing information (especially ratings).
If you see a rec missing information, please post a comment to that rec to give the reccer a head's up so she can fix the issue. In the extremely unlikely event that the rec isn't updated within 72 hours, you can drop a line to one of the mods (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jane_elliot , slyprentice , slytherin_gypsy ) and we'll get it taken care of.
Finally, my favorite comment:
Epic Recs could use a new look.
YES! We totally agree. Unfortunately, none of us have a lick of visual talent or any skill at layouts. Thus we're seeking graphically-minded volunteers to design a new layout for us. We currently have a paid account so the sky's the limit. Either PM me or respond to this post if you're interested.
Thanks again to everyone to participated in our poll! You gave us a lot to think about and we're looking forward to implementing your ideas.
First off, the suggestions:
Reduce the number of pairing tags.
Great idea! We're going to be eliminating the LJ pairing tags for any pairing with less than five recs. If you're looking for obscure pairings, however, never fear -- all pairing tags will still be available on the delicious account.
Add author tags.
Unfortunately this just isn't possible. LJ only allows 1,000 tags and we're already using over 400 of them. With over a thousand recs to date, there just aren't enough tags left over for author tags.
Add tags for [fill in the blank].
We had lots of request for new tags and nearly as many comments from people who think there are too many tags. Thus we've decided to add a tag for super!epics (fics over 100,000 words), but will be passing on other tags for now. (Though I should note that all recs have a ratings tag over at the delicious account.)
Post more recs per day and/or have more reccers.
One to two recs per reccer per week probably doesn't sound like a lot, but you have to remember that it can often take a hundred stories to find a single story worth reccing. Mix in the fact that we try to rec longer stories (and thus have to read longer stories) and one rec a week becomes a challenging goal to meet. We have tried to increase the number of reccers for the comm, but I have to be honest: it's a lot harder to keep a full roster of reccers than you might imagine. One day, when all of the planets align, we'll have more than seven reccers. For now, I'm just happy that we still have enough folks to rec on weekends.
Include where a story is set in canon timeline in the recs.
We debated this for a long time, and finally came to the conclusion that this one just isn't possible on a practical level. If a reccer knows where a story is set in canon timeline (or if she knows that it spoils for a recent episode), she'll be happy to include that information. However several of our reccers (including me) read fanfic in fandoms where they haven't read/watched a lick of canon and in those cases it's not possible to include canon timeline/spoiler information.
Include warnings for work-safeness, formatting issues and/or ending information.
You may not have noticed this, but we actually have a tag for "sad stories" so we do warn for unhappy endings. We try not to be hugely intrusive about it for folks who don't want the warning, but the warning is there for those who do.
Worksafeness should be covered by a story's rating. If you feel that a rating isn't appropriate for a story, please let us know and we'll get it fixed.
Formatting is something that people have their own opinions on, thus it's not really something we can warn for, since warnings only work if there's a generally accepted standard. That said, most reccers do include a note if there's light text on a dark background or difficult-to-read fonts.
Use a rating system for recs (i.e., four or five stars).
Pretty much everyone vetoed this one. It's a nice idea in theory, but speaking for myself, I am *terrible* at trying to rate a story on a scale. On the plus side, however, you can trust that if we did use a five star scale there wouldn't be any recs on the comm for stories that didn't get at least four stars.
Put more information in the description for the memories.
There is a limit on the number of characters allowed in the memory descriptions and we often exceed that limit just with the title, author, and rating. Thus it's not possible to include anymore information there.
Use word counts rather than length categories for LJ and delicious tags.
When I started the comm, I used length categories for a reason: it's very time consuming to try to get exact word counts for long stories that are broken up into parts and the time spent on adding up word counts is time that isn't spent on reading stories or writing recs. Estimating lengths, on the other hand, is far easier and faster. While most reccers are now including word counts where possible, it's not something we want to require as the more work we require of our reccers, the more quickly they burn out.
Aaaand, the comments:
Epic Recs isn't reccing enough epic length stories.
This was one of the most repeated comments. Unfortunately, we can only rec what's actually been written and it's a sad fact of life that there are a limited number of epics (and even fewer super!epics) out there, especially since the rise of LJ and the subsequent popularity of the single-post fic. Our ratio of recs for epic and long fics to medium and short fics is vastly higher than fandom as a whole and the best we can do is to continue to keep that ratio high.
There aren't enough het/gen recs, fandoms, recs in a given fandom, darkfic/tragedy recs, crossovers, etc.
For better or for worse, we can only rec what we read. That said, we have specific theme weeks for a lot of the lesser-recced genres (in fact, I think we're having crossover week this month). Even better, we have new reccers coming on board on a regular basis (two new ones starting this month!) and with each new reccer comes new preferences.
It's hard to find recs in large categories.
I highly recommend that folks with this issue check out our memories and delicious account. Memories are great if you want to see all of the recs for a fandom on a single page (and, bonus, they're sorted by pairing type). Delicious is great if you want to be able to filter by multiple tags at a time, which helps pare the large categories down.
Recs are missing information (especially ratings).
If you see a rec missing information, please post a comment to that rec to give the reccer a head's up so she can fix the issue. In the extremely unlikely event that the rec isn't updated within 72 hours, you can drop a line to one of the mods (
jane_elliot , slyprentice , slytherin_gypsy ) and we'll get it taken care of.Finally, my favorite comment:
Epic Recs could use a new look.
YES! We totally agree. Unfortunately, none of us have a lick of visual talent or any skill at layouts. Thus we're seeking graphically-minded volunteers to design a new layout for us. We currently have a paid account so the sky's the limit. Either PM me or respond to this post if you're interested.
Thanks again to everyone to participated in our poll! You gave us a lot to think about and we're looking forward to implementing your ideas.