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I spend a lot of time on this site. I mean, a LOT. One thing I do from time to time is click through the names of active users to check out their profile pages and see what stories they have marked as favorites. I like the idea of going to the page of an author I enjoy and seeing what stories they recommend or are inspired by. Unfortunately, not many people use this feature of the site, one of my favorites.
Thinking about that got me wondering; how hard would it be to put a 'recommended' section at the end of stories? Kind of like what Amazon and other shopping sites use. Maybe a way to track who votes for stories, and see what other stories that person voted for? 'Readers who enjoyed this story also enjoyed...', with maybe the top three other stories according to shared votes. I figure it would probably be hard, but I also think it would be nifty to see how that would link from story to story. Maybe it would get readers to go back and vote on older stories that they loved but never voted on to try and get them promoted to the front of other stories?
Melanie E.
Comments
OTOH
If people get the idea that their reading can be tracked, it may make them less likely to vote. Some people might be embarrassed if the stories they were reading were tracked by a third party. Already we can look at somebody's comments and see what stories they comment on, if the votes were to start showing up some people would quit voting also.
I say this because it was one of the biggest complaints about BC voiced over on Crystal's Cyberboard some months back. People didn't like BC because they had to register to vote and comment. I can't begin to guess how many people read stories here that never register or log-in because that would leave more of a trail than they do now, but I'm guessing that may be true of a lot.
They know they can survive
I guess...
Though I don't see why BC is any more difficult for any of the commenting and such than other places. Sure, you have to register a name, but all that does is make it harder for others to impersonate you. If it was about tracking IPs, well, ANY site can do that, and most people will use the same screen name over and over registered or not, so I BC isn't any worse on any of that. Besides, vote tracking like that wouldn't be able to be traced by users; I'm not asking for a 'these people voted for this!' listing.
I just thought it would be fun, and a good way for people to find stories that they might not otherwise have read but that fit their tastes.
Melanie E.
Just pointing it out
Obviously, if I was that concerned myself, I wouldn't be registered. But that was a frequently voiced complaint about BC when people were discussing alternatives while FM was down. I know the discussion regarding BC, both con and pro, became so long that Erin started a topic over here to avoid wasting Crystal's bandwidth. Of course, then everybody who didn't want to register on BC were left out, so as I recall it was dropped after that. Everybody went back to supporting/bashing the TF, which probably accounted for 2/3rds of the bandwidth used over there in the last 7-8 months. :-(
Call me a devil's advocate. My sister says I'd bitch if I won the powerball lottery, 'cause I'd have to pay the taxes. ;-) I prefer to think of myself as somebody who considers all sides of an idea.
They know they can survive
Which goes to show
There's not a lot you can do when people want to complain. You don't have to register to vote or comment here and tracking of visitors occurs everywhere because it is unavoidable.
I gave up responding to complaints about BC on other boards because of this sort of complaint: things that were not true or were just as true for BC as anywhere else. Some complaints were useful as regard readability of pages and organizational details but lots were just cheerleading for Storysite. :)
BTW the recommended section already exists, it's in the right hand column and it's run by Amazon as an ad. If a page gets enough hits, it generates an inset in the ad that shows other pages hit by visitors that hit the same page.
How does that work? Well, you can't visit anywhere on the internet without leaving a trail of where you've been. It's silly to complain about this or be afraid of it since it is just plain impossible to avoid since that's part of the essential mechanism of how the internet works.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Thanks!
I need to look through what ads I have on and off - apparently that's one of the 'off' ones :P
Melanie E.
Guest Reader
Anyone can log in as "Guest Reader" and enjoy the magnificent powers of registration without being readily distinguishable from other Guest Readers, and in this era of "throwaway" e-mail addresses there's really no need to do that either.
If the National Security Agency — or similar agencies in every country in the world — is after one, no amount of anonymity will help, because page loads are delivered, one might notice, to the end of a physical wire in the near vicinity of one's computer, even if one sits at a café and uses their WiFi connection. By following the wires, and it is possible if they are sufficiently motivated, they can knock on your door. Whether they need a search warrant or not depends on where you live.
Cheers,
Puddin'
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P.S. I suppose it might be made a tiny bit easier if the system would log one in automatically as Guest Reader, and then make glowing comments to every story you read under your Guest Reader cognomen without the trouble of having to move one's fingers, or whatever it is one does if one is a space alien from somewhere out there in the void, but where's the fun in that?
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Here I am as Guest Reader....
...and I approve of everything I said!
Good Job!
Cheers,
Puddintane(whoops!) Guest ReaderWe note, howver...
...that anyone could have said this.
Cheers,
Puddin'
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Why?
You don't have to register to vote or comment here
When you are not logged in, the vote box says "Login". If you log-in as a Guest Reader, there is no vote box at all.
Favorites
I entered some favorites when the feature was first made available (or publicized by Erin) but haven't updated it since. I suspect that will be the case with others. I think what you've suggested would be cool if Erin has the data to do it automatically. Amazon and Netflix are always marketing stuff to me based on what I've bought previously, rented, or I'm currently looking at. If I read a story here that I like by an author I haven't read before, I usually look for other stories by that same author. That technique has mostly worked for me so far.
I agree with you that registration here isn't a big deal.