Category & Sub-Category Suggestions

[Admin]

If you have suggestions for Categories or Sub-Categories, please post 'em here.  

[Siobhan]

As mentioned in previous threads, I vote for:

Culture --> Mythology & Folklore
Entertainment --> some sort of "general", "genre" or "generic" category for miscellaneous rings that don't necessarily fit into Books/Television/Movies, or overlap all three. I'm not sure what this category should be called though. Unless the system will allow for rings to be placed into the "entertainment" category itself, which would be OK (since too many subcategories would also be problematic)

In addition:

Culture --> Alternative
Culture --> LGBT (Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Trans) This category *could* be combined with "Alternative" initially, but I think that once the number of rings on the system grows, it deserves its own sub-category (since Alternative could apply to peircings/tattoos/hermits/etc., and doesn't necessarily mean "Alternative sexuality")
Culture --> Women (there are a huge number of Women's issues rings out there, I have two myself, that I think having a seperate sub-category would do well.)
Hobbies & Crafts --> Fiber arts (for Knitting/Crochet/Cross-stitch/Sewing/Etc.)
Religion & Beliefs --> Eastern (could be more specific, eventually)
Religion & Beliefs --> Alternative (for Paranormal/Etc. beliefs -- a lot of times these are tossed in with "Paganism" rings, but this is not appropriate in many cases.)
Computers & Internet --> Blogs
Computers & Internet --> Webrings (we all know that they deserve their own sub-category, what with the number of rings that are sure to be started specifically for Ringmasters!)

That's all I can think of for now. I also question the "pop-culture" sub-category within "Culture & Society"... would not most of these rings fall into the "entertainment" category? If anything, could sub-categories be cross-listed?

Also, will these categories be monitored to make sure that rings are appropriately placed? It's probably not an issue with a small system such as this, but as the number of rings grows, things could get crowded and things could be misplaced.
 

[SHarkins]

I posted elsewhere and perhaps I should have dropped the suggestion in this forum thread. Anyway, here is the cc of the other posting for cat/subcat suggestions....

 

Perhaps another suggestion for cats > subcats could be:

Religion > Pagan > Wicca

LifeStyles > Gothic

Genres > Horror

 

and maybe you might want to have a 'tight fit' for each ring so that there is no room for confusion or 'general fit' across multiple catagories? Perhaps you might wish to approach it similar to an example like:

 

Entertainment and Arts >

     Media Arts >

          Genre >

               Horror>

                    |--TV

                    |--Radio

                    |--Internet

                    |--Literature

 

Really, it seems to come down to the question...do you want a deep drill down with a few rings and sites in the bottom level (specific) or a wide shallow drill down with many rings in more generalized catagories? It may be better (only a suggestion) to create a tighter deeper drill down to limit the amount of rings for sites that would belong in multiple rings across different catagories. The reason I mention this is to keep the hits to the server down and keep costs lower, especially, when webringo takes on a large number of sites in rings across multiple catagories. One thing that might be taken into account is that SOMETHING drove Webring to do what it did and you dont want to repeat it. It is my guess that their servers got hammered...that is why they first started with not serving up pix for the rings on their servers because of bandwidth. Well...I am just sharing my two cents and hope that something might come of it and benefit Webringo.  

 

Talk to ya's again!

 

Regards,

 

Susan Harkins

 

[SHarkins]

One more thing as you consider the design of the directory listing (I was thinking about it on my drive home from work last night)...

 

It is not always a bad thing to replicate what is tried and true. Consider the success of one of the largest human-edited directories out there (*DM0Z*) and notice the deep drill down of its subcats which highly compartmentalize catagories. The only drawback is the number of user-clicks that a user must make before getting to a subcat of interest. As well, it may be a bit more work on the front-end to create such a deep directory, however, it may prove to be less costly in the future when it comes to server hits and bandwidth. It seems to me that the more loosely bound and shallow the directory is, the greater # of hits the server will get as users search for rings that may fall under a more general catagory. For example...say there is a subcat called 'HORROR' and beneath it are subcats for which type of media related to horror...say 'Online Writing' is one of them. Then naturally, rings for 'Horror - Online Writing' can fall under 2 subcats : 'Horror Subcat.' and 'Horror>Online Writing' Subcat. That doesnt sound like much, but then add 'Horror for TV & Film', 'Horror for Halloween', 'Horror for Paranormal', 'Horror for 'Historical Murders'...    and then see how many rings you get under the 'Horror Subcat'. Perhaps you DONT want listings for rings at the Horror Subcat level and give the user further drilldown options to compartmentalize which type of horror they seek. Doing so, you reduce the amounts of hits on the server and, as well, drive the user to EXACTLY which type of Horror interests them.

 

It is only a suggestion that special attention is given to the way the (*DM0Z*) directory structure is construction while considering the design of the Webringo directory structure. I hope this suggestion might be of interest in initial design considerations.

 

Till again, my friends!

 

Regards,

 

Susan Harkins   

[Admin]

  I think we will be able to flag a ring with multiple categories; we believe the schema, as designed, accomodates this, but I'm not sure how it will play out in the user-interface. 

[sarahswebrings]

Can the Hobbies & Crafts category be expanded.  It only allows for Antiques, collecting and Photography at the moment.

I have rings and sites dealing with needlecrafts (crochet, cross stitch), jewellery and beading, scrapbooking, and stamping.

Maybe new sub-categories for needlecrafts, beading, stamping and scrapbooking.  As more rings are created the needlecrafts could be expanded to have sub-categories for crochet, cross stitch, knitting, etc.

I tried seleting the main category of Hobbies & Crafts for my rings to be listed in but when you go to the Browse Webrings page and select that category it doesn't list the rings, only the sub-category links.  The rings only show up in the directory when listed in one of the sub-categories.

Sarah
 
 

[Admin]

  sarahswebrings wrote:
Can the Hobbies & Crafts category be expanded.  It only allows for Antiques, collecting and Photography at the moment.
I have rings and sites dealing with needlecrafts (crochet, cross stitch), jewellery and beading, scrapbooking, and stamping.

We added a "Scrapbooking, & Stamping" category, with some more to come. We need to modify the code on the front page so it doesn't get out of hand, then we can add many more subcategories.


I tried seleting the main category of Hobbies & Crafts for my rings to be listed in but when you go to the Browse Webrings page and select that category it doesn't list the rings, only the sub-category links.  The rings only show up in the directory when listed in one of the sub-categories.

This is something we'll add. Stand by.       

[Admin]

Culture --> Alternative - Added
Culture --> LGBT - Added
Culture --> Women - Added
Hobbies & Crafts --> Fiber arts  - Not added (yet)
Religion & Beliefs --> Eastern - Added
Religion & Beliefs --> Alternative - Added
Computers & Internet --> Blogs - Added

We also added "Computers & Internet --> Programming"

[Admin]

Admin wrote:
Culture --> Alternative - Added
Culture --> LGBT - Added
Culture --> Women - Added
Hobbies & Crafts --> Fiber arts  - Not added (yet)
Religion & Beliefs --> Eastern - Added
Religion & Beliefs --> Alternative - Added
Computers & Internet --> Blogs - Added

We also added "Computers & Internet --> Programming"

01-15-2007 UPDATE: We've aded lots of additional sub-categories, with a total of about 105 or so currently in place.

[asanah]

Admin wrote:
If you have suggestions for Categories or Sub-Categories, please post 'em here.  

Hi there I have a question...sorry but I was not sure where to post it...I have been looking online everywhere and it seems like blogs are taking over...it seems like it would be hard to install the code on a blog...any take on this? thanks Ana...

[Admin]

asanah wrote:

Hi there I have a question...sorry but I was not sure where to post it...I have been looking online everywhere and it seems like blogs are taking over...it seems like it would be hard to install the code on a blog...any take on this? thanks Ana...

Mmmm, you should, in theory, be able to place the ring nav code on any page, whenther it's a blog or whatever. (??)

[faeldray]

asanah wrote:
<DIV>Hi there I have a question...sorry but I was not sure where to post it...I have been looking online everywhere and it seems like blogs are taking over...it seems like it would be hard to install the code on a blog...any take on this? thanks Ana...</DIV>

It's a matter of knowing two things: how the edit the blog code and where to edit it so that the ring code appears in the right spot. Each type of blogging system is different so it depends on what you're using.

[sptdhawk]

Admin wrote:
If you have suggestions for Categories or Sub-Categories, please post 'em here.  

 

It may already be here, but how about a catagory for Nattive Americans
 

[Admin]

sptdhawk wrote:
It may already be here, but how about a catagory for Nattive Americans

Tell us what category this should go under and we'll add it.

[sptdhawk]

My thanks to the Admin for such quick and thoughtful actions. This place will go far!