Additional story classifications

Now, that we're heading in the direction of 10,000 items in the library, I've been giving some serious thought to the possibility of adding further classification details to the stories. The first thing to say, however, is that at this stage it's merely something for us to have a think about, not least because to retrospectively add extra classifications to all the items we already have is going to require a monstrous amount of effort and may not even be practical unless we suddenly start to get a coach load of volunteers shipped in from somewhere. In addition, the story validaters and content icon assigners already expend a huge amount of effort in providing information about the stories as it is.

Having said that, we can perhaps worry about the 'how' later and for now concentrate on the 'what'. My current thinking, which is subject to change on a daily basis or depending on the number of cans of Red Bull that I have consumed in the past 24 hours, is something along the following lines....


Given the sheer number of items we now have, and although we already have numerous items of information recorded for most stories to assist people in finding what they want to read, perhaps some additional items of classification would be useful. Should we decide to add further items then there are 2 fundamental criteria we would need to fulfill:

1. They would need to actually be of real use to people in terms of helping them locate suitable reading material. IOW it's not something we would want to do for the sake of it .. art for art's sake so to speak.

2. They would need to be sufficiently simple so that most people could determine the classifications without a PhD in spanking fiction taxonomy or several weeks of navel gazing.


As it stands I had been considering the possibility of adding 3 extra items of information in terms of story classification:

1. Sub-genre.

This could also be described as 'scenario' but I think I prefer the term sub-genre and could perhaps include, inter alia, things like:

school,
domestic,
fantasy,
judicial,
romance,
historical
sport

.. and no doubt others.

So, the first question to ask the would be reader and searcher of spanking fiction is would that be useful to you? Assuming the answer is in the affirmative what other sub-genres might it be worth having, the criterion being that whatever they might be they would occur numerous times, rather than just once or twice.

Something else to point out here is that should we go down this route then the current "document type" categories of "parody" and "fan fiction" would be moved here as that's where they logically belong rather than being classified as actual document types as they are currently.


2. Features

This classification would relate to certain "features" found within the story, for example, a babysitter or governess. Would this be useful and if so what "features" might we look to identify? Bear in mind that they must relate directly to the spanking element of the story .. we wouldn't want to include such things as mouth-soaping whether they are of interest or not as we are always at pains to keep the focus of the site on spanking itself. Also, implements would not be considered as they are already identified separately. Again, any suggested features would need to apply to numerous stories to be considered,


3. Consensuality

An indicator of whether any spankings described in a particular story are consensual or non-consensual with the possibility for a story to feature one or the other, neither or both.


If we were to go down the route described above the extra classification information is unlikely to be displayed in the story listings as it would be likely to make them cluttered and confusing in my opinion. However, the information could be used via the Search screen and I have in mind the possibility of having some sort of "bookshelf" facility where you could click on a graphic of some sort in order to be presented with a list of stories belonging to a particular sub-genre.


Anyway, constructive feedback would be welcomed, especially for suggestions of sub-genres and "features" that it would be appropriate to record as well as a general feeling of whether all the above would be of any value.

And finally, I just want to give notice, that if at some point in the future we do in fact go ahead with the above and retrospectively classify all the library contents and people still ONLY use the latest loaded list for suitable reading material, I will be forced to hunt some of you down and commit unspeakable acts of violence upon you.

Covering might be something to think about. As in over clothes, over underwear, or bare.

The more categories we have available to search, the easier it is to find the type of story that you like. I applaud your efforts.

Goodgulf

The ideas mentioned are good ones (and yes, I know they will add to the workload). Consensuality is an important feature, that affects how people enjoy a story. I also like the sub-genre. Where you mention 'features,' and suggest 'baby-sitter' or 'governess,' it might be good to look at the RELATIONSHIP between the primary spanker and primary spankee in the story - in addition to the ones you mentioned, perhaps parent-child, romantic couple, boss-employee, just friends, strangers, etc. I'm not sure how important the clothes/bare item is, since probably 90%+ are on the bare.

Tone is something else to consider. Some of us like humorous stories, others maybe not so much. Even for stories which are not trying to be funny, there are serious ones, and ones with a more lighthearted tone.

Of course, this would be a hard judgement call for whoever volunteers to classify this stuff.

-- Jefesse (working slowly toward his doctorate in Spanking Fiction Taxonomy)

There is a place to write comments on each story which is nice but I would suggest that it would also be nice to have an "Authors Section" where readers could comment on various authors.

Different authors have different styles and interests. If there was a place to comment on authors it would have two advantages: First, it would give feedback to the authors, which they would like. Second, it would allow readers go to the Authors Section and read comments about the various authors to find those who write stories appealing to their particular kink.

I am all for more feedback to authors, but don't we have what you suggest already? ...right here on the forum, and also in the story comments?

Respectfully, I would suggest adding a "semi-consensual" classification to the consensuality sub-genre. Obviously, this is subject to considerable individual latitude and opinion...

As Guy writes we do have information on authors in the story comments and on the forum but what I am suggesting is that there be an authors section where readers and authors could find all the comments about authors in one place.

Clicking the 'Comments' Tab on an author's authorpage will show the last 20 comments they have received (Click the + symbol to reveal the full comment text).