[FFML] A thought on the future of the FFML

[Bryan Neef]

I think, overall, having a companion site to the list is an excellent idea, and should be pursued.  But some of the issues presented, such as post size and quoting, are as much technical as they are functional.  A forum based system is going to be limited by the database configuration behind it.  Whether you go with a commercial, open-source, or custom forum, certain limitations will have to be addressed.

Obviously, a custom system will fit most of our needs, provided they're spelled out explicitly.  Larger post limits can be set, but how large do you go before degrading performance?  After all, there are memory constraints on the physical server, the database engine, and the client machine.  That doesn't include parsing for network traffic, data retrieval times, etc.

You can set a draft mode, but will you remember to unset it when you're ready to post at midnight?  Should draft mode be the default mode?  Do you want a sort of revision management for drafts?

How do you address spammers?  Some forums, like vBullettin, are fairly good and straight forward on their security.  Others are less obvious and have higher learning curves.  None are foolproof.

For databases, do you want performance over storage?  The larger the fields, the less related data you can store in a single table, forcing more link tables, which complicates relations, and leads to corruption and dropped data.  To add complexity, each of the popular databases handles free form text data differently, especially the upper size limits.


Will the host server have the requested software?  Will we be able, to a point, to install our own software (such as vBullettin?)

And finally, who will maintain the system, whether as moderators or system admins?  Who will build/customize the interfaces?


I'm on data migration projects, and overall, these are what we're looking at, especially when the old data was not necessarily maintained in a relational manner.  Smarter people than I are working on those details.


________________________________
 From: Larry F <lwf58 at cvalley.net>
To: The Fanfiction Mailing List <ffml at chez-vrolet.net> 
Sent: Monday, June 24, 2013 6:37 PM
Subject: Re: [FFML] A thought on the future of the FFML
 

    It's long, long past the point where the list should have had a web site, or at least a BBS. Keeping it email only instead of growing with the times probably contributed to its decline. Heaven knows my site, the Lost Library, still gets visitors even 8 years after I lost the time and the motivation to work on it that I had back in the early years.

    That said, though, it was the loss of White Wolf that sent the list into a death spiral. Before his passing, lots of members. After, very few members, partly because no one knew where the list's successors were, or which of the competing successors was the "official" one.

    I'm also not at all certain that the decline was really a bad thing, necessarily. When the list was young, it was a writers' forum where people came to get advice and critiques from their peers. Then it grew, and grew, and eventually the majority of its "members" were people who just signed up to get fics delivered to them on the proverbial silver platter, not to write fiction or provide critiques. When that happened, it lost something very important, and it may be impossible to get it back.

    Still, I believe there's still a market for a place where an amateur writer can post with the assurance of getting a response that is helpful, instead of the infamous "good fic, write more!" There was once a voluntary panel on this list that you could flag down to get guaranteed feedback. Would it be possible to gather up enough people to revive that service for a web site?

    Larry F
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