Story Variations - how best to handle these?

[Tian]

@shauny

After further thought, I can remove the variations from the quick (popup) search to make it easier but can’t remove them from the main story list / filters, because otherwise those Set pages can’t exist.

I think that we can solve this. I am not able to write the solution now because I am at a mall, but this is solvable from a design point and, I believe, a database point as well.

[shauny]

If you’re thinking

“Just hide them from the main list but show them again on specific set pages”

That won’t work because in the main list you can eg filter to just show animations, if these were hidden then they wouldn’t show here:

Stories

You can’t just hide something until it’s required to be shown, because if they are not in the list then they won’t be counted in these numbers so you wouldn’t be able to filter in the first place.

This is difficult to describe lol

[Tian]

@shauny

This is difficult to describe lol

I think that I understand. Can you make it one item containing the variants and have different pictures depending on the circumstances?

[shauny]

No, because things like release date would be all wrong. The animated reconstructions were not done in the same order as the main stories and neither were the TotT

I think if there are tabs on a story page then clicking the tab takes you to the different story page, containing all the new info about the variation, as well as reviews etc.

[shauny]

Ah I’ve just realised something as well

If I remove the variations from the search, that’s no good because then if you are specifically looking for an animation, say you filter by animations:

And then you type in the search box “underwater” because you’re looking for that one, it will return 0 results because I’ve blocked the variation from showing up in the results.

There is only 1 search index, I can’t have a different one for the popup and a different one for here.

So maybe scrap the idea of removing it from search.

This is why it’s such a difficult thing to sort out!

[shauny]

I think perhaps the answer is simple:

• Keep things exactly how they are, in regards to the variations showing up in search and filters. It only affects relatively small amount of stories anyway
• If you rate a variation but do not ‘complete’ the original, then the original gets marked as complete at the same time, but not added to the diary or stats - it gets marked as ‘exclude from stats’
• (I will maybe replace the ‘archive’ with just a toggle in the diary ‘exclude from stats’, that will make the diary easier to understand too!)
• Add switcher buttons on the story page directly under the title to view the other variations, this just navigates to their pages

So not much change at all, really…

[AlfieSigma]

@shauny

replace the ‘archive’ with just a toggle in the diary ‘exclude from stats’,

Why exclude stories in my archive from stats? All the ones I finished before joining TG are there… Perhaps I’m understanding it wrong but this makes no sense to me

[MrColdStream]

I have loved reading this thread and how we’re slowly working our way towards a solution. Two steps forward, one step back!

[shauny]

@AlfieSigma

Why exclude stories in my archive from stats?

This already happens.

If you “Bulk Complete” all of Classic Who, they go in an ‘archive’ because otherwise the stats would show that you watched hundreds of hours of TV today, when clearly you didn’t.

That’s what the archive does, it’s for episodes you’ve completed but we don’t know exactly when you did it.

[AlfieSigma]

Oh you mean the stats for time finished! I thought it’s percentage of hours watched and stuff

[shauny]

Yeah I meant just dates.

But actually you’re right, it’s not a total exclude from stats.

I’m confusing myself here haha. That won’t work…

[shauny]

I’m not as bothered about variations showing in search now that I’ve de-prioritised them:

Website Development Diary

I’ve made some tweaks to search, as we continue to try and figure out what to do about variations. Hopefully these should make the search way better: Stories get a boost in relevance above collectables, so you should always see the stories first TV Stories get a boost above everything else, so you should always see the original TV story above any novelisation Original stories are boosted above variations, so they never come out on top For example search for “The Power of The Daleks” now retu…

[Tian]

I think that this solves the stories can be shown multiple times problem. I still that adding variants to the story card is a good idea.

[Tian]

I have not been following along as much during the weekend. What problems are left to solve?

[SweetAIBelle]

The US now has tariffs on almost every other nation on the planet.

[SweetAIBelle]

Though, you never know, maybe Frobisher will take care of that.

[shauny]

I think @Tian meant problems with variations, not in the world in general. We’d be here all day…

[shauny]

I think I just need to invent a “skipped because you completed a different version” and give that a shorter, easier title, then we’re ready.

[Tian]

Yeah I don’t expect us to solve world politics here. Even if I would trust most of you more than some of our world leaders.

[shauny]

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