Removing dead, crappy stories

[severenz]

As discussed in another thread, there are a lot of dead and crappy stories. I'm starting this thread to discuss and track the process of removing them from public view.

I'm thinking I can programmatically remove a lot of stories based on size but at some point there will need to be some subjectivity. I'll probably rely on the few forum users that are around to do this.

Going forward, I think stories should have to be voted in. Maybe we can use the forums for people to submit and folks can discuss.

A few questions/thoughts:
- What should the criteria be for a story to be featured on the site
- What should the criteria be for a story to remain on the site
- Should "public" stories even be allowed - are there good stories that have public submissions?
- How do we handle abandoning a story that allowed submissions?
- Should we keep some of the long-standing public stories that have been around since the beginning

My hope is that by only featuring "good" stories - it may improve the overall view/usage of the site. I'm suspecting we lose readers who click on a shitty story and get bored.

Talk amongst yourselves...

[donteatpoop]

Criteria for a story to be featured:

First, I like the obvious: Winners of past Tournaments set up.
I can see rotating through a series of lists like that. Featured action stories, humor stories, westerns, fantasy, modern, sci-fi, etc. How many to a category though? 5? 7?
As for the criteria, I think ratings at a minimum of 8 that are suggested by the community. The forum users can suggest some stories (not of their own) and then we can vote on which ones we think should be featured.

Somewhat off topic, but I think with the featured stories we should use one or two of the positive lines from the ratings. like "great character development," or "i was on the edge of my seat," and maybe a brief overview (provided by forum members who are willing to help, if no one else is interested I would be) such as "A trio of bank robbers deal with the aftermath of one of their members earning the ire of a notorious gangster." Just a suggestion.

What should the criteria be for a story to remain on the site? / How do we handle abandoning a story that allowed submissions?
I think terrible stories that have been long abandoned should be deleted. By terrible I mean that they have at least 5 ratings and are rated 2 or less; and by long abandoned I mean 2+ years.. Surprisingly that's a lot of stories. What do the rest of you think?

As for abandoned stories that are still open for submissions but aren't completely terrible; I'd be interested in the prospect of assigning them to the ownership of active members who are interested in holding on to them. I don't know how long abandoned a story should be before this is considered; or if it even sounds like a good idea to anyone else; but there's at least one I'd like to take adopt, change the rating of, etc.

Should "public" stories even be allowed - are there good stories that have public submissions?
I like public stories. I've had some of my stories open to public before. Ninja Epidemic is a goofy story of mine open to the public right now. Paco Valdez and Brothers were briefly open to the public as well. As a writer I just polished what they wrote (deleted the worthless ones) and made it sound more like it came from the same voice. Hall of Infinite Doors is a good example of a decent public story with many authors and many rooms.

Should we keep some of the long-standing public stories that have been around since the beginning?
I think we keep some of the original long standing stories for sure. I wouldn't feature them or anything.

[donteatpoop]

Anyone else got anything?

[Cat2000]

In some ways, I agree with doing something with abandoned stories... but speaking as someone who has been frustrated due to not being able to find a story previously read, is it possible to make some just available through search? Or are you thinking about automatically changing them to private status?

I think voting for stories is a good idea.