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#1 2005-08-17 14:42:12
- igner
- Plugin Author
- Registered: 2004-06-03
- Posts: 337
Top 10 Lists
I’m working on a project right now one of the requirements of which is a top 10 list functionality for multiple authors. Since the site’s running off TXP, I thought it makes sense to do this as a plugin, and this isn’t something I see currently available.
[clarification] What I’m talking about here is not ranking posts, or authors, or comments, etc. Instead what I mean by top 10 lists is somewhat arbitrary data, in my case initially it’ll be top 10 new release CDs, but could also apply to books or movies. The catch is that I’m going to need to maintain separate lists for individual authors, and create an aggregate list from the individual lists.[/clarification]
What I’m trying to do is gauge interest in this kind of functionality, to determine whether it’s worth the extra effort to make it flexible enough for public consumption. To that end, what I’d like to know is:
1) Who / how many would be interested in such a plugin?
2) What kind of functionality would you like to see? i.e. what are the make or break features?
(of course, if such a beast already exists, I’d appreciate a gentle nudge in its direction…)
Last edited by igner (2005-08-17 19:41:01)
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Re: Top 10 Lists
i’d be interested possibly depends on if i get my site finished but is this going to offer something like a top ten list linking the author name to the article list for that author, perhaps a bracketed total for each author? Also is this going to be limited to authors or do you have plans to broaden it to say, the top 10 categories, top 10 most viewed articles and so on and so forth? will you be limiting the output to only 10?
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#3 2005-08-17 18:00:14
- igner
- Plugin Author
- Registered: 2004-06-03
- Posts: 337
Re: Top 10 Lists
I don’t think I was entirely clear in my description this isn’t going to be a ranking system for posts, but rather a system for ranking top 10 lists (as in top 10 desert island records, top 10 movies, top 10 books, etc., top 10 links, etc.). Sort of a “current favorites” functionality, when taken in the broadest sense.
In my implementation, it’ll most likely be a sidebar kind of thing, when viewing an author’s archive, or a single article by an author.
I’m still in the concept phase, hence the request for feedback / interest level, as that’ll play a role as I flesh out the idea more.
And then my dog ate my badger, and the love was lost.
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Re: Top 10 Lists
Sounds like a very interesting idea. I would look at the following in the plugin..
1) most viewed categories
2) most viewed sections
3) most viewed articles
4) most searched items (by keywords) [i dont think this is possible]
5) Top 10 authors
6) Top 10 commenters
7) Top 10 most-commented articles or sections or categories
Hope this gives you an idea :)
“Take a point, stretch it into a line, curl it into a circle, twist it into a sphere, and punch through the sphere.”
— Albert Einstein
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#5 2005-08-17 19:51:15
- igner
- Plugin Author
- Registered: 2004-06-03
- Posts: 337
Re: Top 10 Lists
That’s not the end goal I’m shooting for; I’ve edited the original post to hopefully clarify what I’m going to be doing…
Last edited by igner (2005-08-17 19:51:38)
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#6 2005-08-17 19:53:50
- els
- Moderator
- From: The Netherlands
- Registered: 2004-06-06
- Posts: 7,458
Re: Top 10 Lists
igner wrote:
I don’t think I was entirely clear in my description this isn’t going to be a ranking system for posts, but rather a system for ranking top 10 lists (as in top 10 desert island records, top 10 movies, top 10 books, etc., top 10 links, etc.). Sort of a “current favorites” functionality, when taken in the broadest sense.
I like the idea, but if I understand you correctly, then I don’t quite understand why you would need a plugin for that? I can make a list of my top 10 books and occasionally make changes to that manually? Or am I missing something?
Edit: Never mind, I read your clarification :)
Last edited by doggiez (2005-08-17 19:55:07)
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#7 2005-08-17 20:05:27
- igner
- Plugin Author
- Registered: 2004-06-03
- Posts: 337
Re: Top 10 Lists
I don’t need a plugin, but in this case, since this will be an ancillary item that gets associated with individual authors in a multi-author blog.
It’s definitely a niche product, but the other piece of it would be the ability to maintain a history of the older lists, so we could conceivably revisit the data over time, to create say, a most-popular artist ranking (either by author, or aggregated across all the authors).
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#8 2005-08-17 23:32:59
- nardo
- Member
- From: tuvalahiti
- Registered: 2004-04-22
- Posts: 743
Re: Top 10 Lists
igner, definitely see potential in a ‘lists’ content type – or at least, once upon a time I wished there was this feature in txp
for me it would be playlists, that would be archived by date … but now thinking of it, might be easier to do with articles …
what would make it attractive is the ability to give your authors a ‘write’ page with a flexible number of inputs (1 to 10, or 1 to 5, or 1 to 20) and input fields for ‘title’, ‘artist’, ‘label’, ‘format’ … for example (format could be a dropdown selection) – so it’s easy for them to contribute …
and you can get the content kinda standardised across authors
will have a ponder – love lists, me
PS I know manfre is working on some high-level top-shelf stuff that might allow for creating your own ‘write’ screens, so perhaps this will solve the issue I mention above
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#9 2005-08-18 00:57:00
- igner
- Plugin Author
- Registered: 2004-06-03
- Posts: 337
Re: Top 10 Lists
nardo – that’s exactly the type of content we’re going to be dealing with (top picks of new releases / reissues), and while I was thinking of storing the data in a table in the database for analytical purposes, the goal is definitely to standardize the inputs (artist, title, label, etc.).
Though I will have use of these custom write screens as well, so I’ll have to touch base with Manfre on that after wrapping up my current project…
And then my dog ate my badger, and the love was lost.
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Re: Top 10 Lists
care to expand on that last comment?
I’m working on an Event Manager atm as a separate tab in the content area mainly aimed at bands/performance artists and the like. Utilises xCalender and xCard methodology (expanded upon by microformats)… Currently it’s adding two extra tables to the DB…
BE + MEngSc = engineer with a side dish of frustrated designer/developer with a penchant for photography outside
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#11 2005-08-18 04:00:16
- igner
- Plugin Author
- Registered: 2004-06-03
- Posts: 337
Re: Top 10 Lists
If you’re referring to my last comment, it was in response to nardo’s mention of Manfre’s work (how’s that for indirect) on custom write screens. Not sure there’s much to say, except that I can see a use for that sort of functionality (constraining the input process, but maintaining the free-form back end). Don’t know if that clarifies things at all, but there you go :)
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