It would be helpful, I think, if when an author revises his or her piece on the Workshop, a tag could be added to the title in the thread list. Maybe a simple drop-down date stamp that only the original poster would have access to, so that under the original thread title it would thereafter read (maybe in red or some color other than black), "Revision Posted on [date] at [time]. Yes, I have mercenary reasons for mentioning it. I started a crit thread for an excerpt of my novel on June 1st. Got some good (that is, incisive) feedback, but the rewrite wasn't coming together. I worked on other sections of my book instead. This week I got the redo of those chapters to the point where I could repost them. I did, a day or so ago, and it bumped the thread to the top of the list. Well and good, but I've received no new critiques. And why should I be surprised? There's no way to tell there's new material there. A member sees me cited as the latest commentator on my own old thread, and for all they know I'm just saying "Thank you" for previous crits, or worse, posting something marginally relevant to bump it up. Don't know how easy this would be to program, or if anyone else would see the value in it. But when I go into the Workshop to decide what I might like to review, I'd appreciate seeing what excerpts have been revised. As for preventing misuse (for improper thread bumping), seems to me if someone falsely put up a "Revised" notice and there was no revision on that day, it'd annoy members to the point they'd no longer pay attention to that author. Thanks!
I'm not sure if the forum has a feature that lets users edit threads they've started. Even if it did, I can see it being abused by, say, spammers. I guess my only suggestion is to post your revision and then add something like "Revision in post x" in big, red font to your first post. It may not help, but it's something. Also, it could be that people do check your thread but just don't feel like re-critiquing a piece.
Yeah, did do the big red "Revised on 8/14/14" thing. So by "edit threads" you mean rejigger the titles?
Yeah. As far as I know, the only way for members to edit thread titles would be to give them permission to edit threads in the entire subforum, which would mean they could change the titles of threads created by other members.
Oh. There would have to be some way to limit the change to the title to the OP. And limit the change to a drop-down, fill-in-the-blank system. Which would take a bit of programming, if it's possible at all.
I think you should PM one of the mods regarding your OP here, @Catrin Lewis . In case they don't see this thread. This is a very VERY good idea, and surely is do-able. If you don't have a tag that signals revision, it will look as if you're bumping your own thread. A 'revised' tag on the thread title would be good. Mind you, you'd need to indicate how many times you've revised if you do it more than once, wouldn't you?
The forum already has a feature known as "prefixes" (I think). Maybe this feature could be used to achieve this very good idea. In some parts of the forum members can choose a "prefix" to thread titles (kind of like a label) from a drop-down box. These prefixes are then displayed before the thread title, with a special background colour. If you go to the Publishing sub-forum and choose "Create Thread" you should have the text "(No prefix)" followed by a down-arrow to the very left of the thread title field. There you can choose a prefix. If you head back to the Publishing forum you can see these prefixes in action. Maybe this could be used in the workshop as well, where you would be able to choose "Revision 1", "Revision 2", etc. (up to maybe rev. 10 or something?). The only drawback is that it won't display dates. Here's a quick mock-up (re-used an old one, hence the yellow colour):
This is a neat idea, but I think a tag would be insufficient to get more reviews. People won't know when the piece was last revised since they only see the tag. A complimentary idea would be to have a revision notification. If someone posts in a workshop thread, they are notified when the OP makes a "Revision" post. The notification obviously would work the same as alerts. edit: thinking about this again, it's not the best idea to get new reviewers..
I like your idea, though as you say it would not attract new reviewers (though maybe some new reviews from those who reviewed the first/previous version). Maybe it would be possible to squeeze in a "Replies since last revision" counter somewhere in the thread list? I'm thinking of something along the lines of the current "Replies" counter, but in the Workshop there could be a second counter that counts the replies since the thread last received a revision. If this is used in conjunction with the previously suggested tag system users/reviewers would be able to see which items have been revised and how many reviews they have received since the last revision. A potential drawback would be that the thread creator himself would have to tag the thread as revised and reset the "replies since last revision counter". This could be abused by resetting the counter every now and then (without posting new revisions) in order to attract more reviewers. However, if @rhduke's alert system would be in place the reviewers would probably notice that the user is trying to cheat the system and (hopefully) warn/report them should it be necessary.
For ot to be useful, you would have to also indicate which post in the thread contains the latest revision. PLEASE DO NOT REVISE THE ORIGINAL POST IN PLACE! (See How to Use the Writing Workshop)
I second this idea. I often don't revisit a thread with a number of replies, so it's easy for me to miss a rewrite--in fact, almost certain. Both the OP's and @Komposten 's idea seems reasonable, though I think the latter is more practical and could be put into effect immediately. To an extent, it may also help with the ongoing issue of lack of reviews. Also, perhaps there could be simply way to add a certain symbol beside the topic title for the poster, which signifies that a rewrite has been posted? Not sure how complicated that would be, but it could be that the entire sub-forum has that feature for the original poster to use, and they'd just have to edit the first post or press some button thingie besides the topic title (like starring emails).
Absolutely, it would have to indicate the latest revision. Otherwise, what would be the point? (Though I know some people do it; they must not understand how the Workshop functions.)
If we're going to use those prefix tags for revision then it's only fair to have a "New" tag for new stories that last a couple days or so, to give attention where it's needed. But I honestly think it's messy looking at those tags. I was never a fan of the ones in the contests. Also, adding another reply counter to the thread listing might be confusing for people. The least intrusive solution I can think of is having "Last revised: mm/dd/yyyy" underneath the thread title. It is clickable and takes you to the revision post directly. Might look something like: Blue instead of red would be just as good too to keep the color theme. I actually always wanted a way to go straight to the revision post easily instead of accidentally reading the original and then having to read the revision..
I've also found the prefix tags in the contests confusing, I do however think it can be designed in a more readable and understandable way with a different look/colour theme. Though I must say that your idea is the best I've seen here so far. The "New" tags makes it easier to catch new posts and the "Last revised on XXX" text is clear, simple and not intrusive. And, yes, it would be awesome if the text would be clickable and link directly to the last revision. You, good sir, has my vote! Just throwing a couple of @-tags in here to bring this thread to the attention of Daniel and the mods, if that hasn't been done already: [USERGROUP=24][USERGROUP=24][USERGROUP=24][USERGROUP=24][USERGROUP=24]@Development Team[/USERGROUP][/USERGROUP][/USERGROUP][/USERGROUP][/USERGROUP], @Daniel
We're gonna have to discuss this once @Wreybies gets back from his holiday. I think it'd be great to find some clear solution to notify members when a revision has been posted. I watch the threads I've critted and usually after a notification, check what's new in the thread. I'm also fine with members tagging me or PMing me to read their revision, but perhaps we can set up a clearer, more uniform way to do this.
This right here wins my vote, but the implementation of such a thing is above my pay-grade. This is a Daniel thing.
Now we just have to wait for him to read those 300+ PMs, check the 100+ alerts, fix a ton of other stuff, and take a break.
