"Logging" a Story on NightmareShift.com

The Reviews section is an important part of Nightmare Shift. As a matter of fact, I would dare say it is the aspect I am most excited about. A lot of thought has went into the idea, and a lot more ideas will turn into actual features once they have been developed and / or obtained. One such feature we are workshopping is the "Logging" system.

What is that, you may ask - well, I'll tell you! The Logging system is a new concept I have been workshopping on Hodgepodgers. Basically, like our Review system itself, it is created through tweaking features already available on the XenForo forum software (and adding to them).

If you look over to your left-hand side (or wherever it would be, dependent on the Theme you've selected), you will notice a section in your Navigation appropriately named Your Logs.

What is that!? It's a simple concept, but one I think could be very cool, very soon.

Basically, with that, you will be able to log Movies, Books, or Videogames that have been added in the Review section of Hodgepodgers.

Try it out,

(1.) All you have to do is click on the Reviews section and click on a Story (whatever you want).



(2.) In the corner, you will notice a small ribbon. That's how you edit your "Log" of each item.


(3.) When you click the ribbon, it will ask you to attach a Tag in the Labels section.
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In the Dropdown Menu for the Your Logs selection I have added some Quick Select options for all of you (Movies Seen, Books Read, and Games Beaten). These are only suggestions I have come up with (if you type Movies Seen into a label, that is automatically where that film will be logged and you will see it listed whenever you click that link). However, you can actually add whatever you want to it.

Through the system, you can create as many Filters as you want. For example, I am always trying to find new South Korean films I want to check out. This would be a fantastic way for me to create a queue of South Korean films I have had recommended, or maybe I want to make a Top 10 Favorite Books of All-Time list.

They are all available and very much encouraged, have fun with it!

That's it for now ...​

Feel free to share if you have any questions and / or suggestions I should think of implementing into the concept. I do have other ideas already I am trying to will into existence. Something in-particular I hope to do is make each person's Log shareable or embeddable on the forum itself. That way, everyone would be able to personally share their logs with each other. Something else I would like to figure out is how to tabulate how many Logs are in each filter (that way, you'd be able to easily tabulate how many books you've read this year, or what your all-time games beaten list is without having to do math or count by hand).

​

 

[Hattrick]

An interesting idea, I like what you're thinking with Dustjacket so far. It reminds me of Letterboxd almost, with more a sense of community (once you have a chance to grow) and a means for more serious discussion.

 

[Nick]

An interesting idea, I like what you're thinking with Dustjacket so far. It reminds me of Letterboxd almost, with more a sense of community (once you have a chance to grow) and a means for more serious discussion.

That's an ideal comparison.

Obviously, Letterboxd is far more complex than what we are trying to accomplish, but I am constantly trying to find new add-ons and additions, and am also trying to show a little ingenuity of my own in making in a neat, fun tool for Dustjacket users.

 

[Jake]

Have you decided on a format yet for when people create stories?

 

[Nick]

Have you decided on a format yet for when people create stories?

What do you mean by format / submitting stories?

 

[Jake]

What we had discussed before about a general layout you'd prefer people use when submitting movies, films, or books?

 

[Nick]

What we had discussed before about a general layout you'd prefer people use when submitting movies, films, or books?

Oh, okay. I thought that might be what you meant, but I wasn't certain.

Movie

Title:
Director:
Writers:
Brief Summary:

Videogame

Title:
Developer:
Publisher:
Writers:
Brief Summary:

Book

Title:
Author:
Publisher:
Brief Summary:

(More important, is to remember to add a proper, decent looking cover art. It will be largely what everyone sees when talking about that Story forever after, after all. Once I had a new layout for the Reviews section, images will be apparent, also.

I would one day like to have something in-place where it is automatic, but I am uncertain of how that is obtained. On one hand, I realize if I create a Sticky thread someplace (like in the "News and Information" thread), any stringent rule will be broken and be broken a lot. What I would like to do is have it where the Review section automatically has a rubric built-in. Like, if you went and created a Review, you'd see something like this:




The only issue is I don't know how to obtain that and have it automatically distinguish whether you are submitting a videogame, movie or book.

I can create sub-sections and other text boxes, i.e. a section for "Writers" or a section for the "Brief Summary", or "Game Publisher", etc., and whatnot, so maybe I will do that.

Whatever I do, it should be in place when you go to submit a review and not a thread you have to locate each time you want to make a submission.

In the end, it is a gaudier venture too, I realize. I care because I care, but I know that once we have thousands of stories available to log and, ideally, hundreds of people who have submitted, that will be difficult to moderate and maintain.

Besides, I don't think anybody will ever use the section is a location for information - not when you have IMDb, Amazon, or plainly Google to choose from. Instead, it will be able the discourse we all participate in. The reviews we've written and the back and forth discussion we have had. Dustjacket is an avenue to discuss and, maybe, sell somebody on / dissuade somebody from a story, and not an end-all, all-encompassing service.