Interest Queues

Rumxcoke and I were debating over ways to identify a good writer on a website rather than having to just roleplay with each person. Reading their posts obviously is another option, but Rum smartly pointed out that some people tend to write better with certain other people. It's finding out who you are compatible with, so someone who does horrible with others may shine when the two of you write. (Forgive the length; I'm providing why we thought of this. If you want to skip ahead, check the sentence in bold.)

We discussed wordcount, because some people write so little that it's less tandem writing and more like you are working by yourself with the occasional interruption. An old friend of mine once had someone write, " *Growl*, " as a response. What I had to learn in regards to that is to write as if you were alone, which has brought a world of relief in ways. Anywho, we both agreed that someone could just write a word over and over and over, to receive higher counts. Likewise, the same can be done with posts to a lesser extent, but there is still quality information lost.

We argued between stars verses thumbs(-up/down) in regards to the ability for it to be manipulated, which (while I am a big supporter of the range-voting system) I stand that stars is worse when a voter can see the results (or the result average) so far.

We talked about reviews and how someone can give a scathing comment that destroys someone's reputation.

Even though we don't believe that any of these options are bulletproof, in the end, we concluded that there is a more secure, useful method, and I hope you like it too: the idea of an interest queue.

I know that I'm not the only person on here who does this, but I keep a list of writers that--even if I never write with them--I want to write with them. I've received emails myself from people who had their own lists of people they wanted to continue writing with. There are a couple of ways that we saw this having benefits:

1. It allows for a simple method for telling about your interest in another writer. I joked that it reminded me of sending a ;) (or *wink*) at other writers, like a dating website. You can still write letters or messages, if you want to, but I thought this was convenient and might reduce feelings of rejection.

2. This is me being lazy, but I like the idea of having a list online that I can access. I know that friends is there, but that relies on them accepting. I kinda feel obligated to accept a "friend" request anyway, because, well, I'm not your enemy. (At least, I hope not and, even if you think I am, I hope I never behave that way.)

3. It gives credit to writers and specifically connects writers who enjoy the same values/genres/etc. For instance, if I like Enkerzed's writing and I want to know who he thinks are quality writers, then I can check his queue to find those he likes. I can even compare it to queues from other people on their opinions.

The only flaw I see is that people might go around asking for people to show them interest. Can't stop that, but then it does lessen the value of an opinion if they will reference anyone. I guess I can see this being easier to spot if there were details and groups that they could add to their queue, such as "This is whose scifi interests me/I prefer" versus romance, fantasy, etc.

I'm not saying to get rid of the postcount by the way. I think that's a useful tool, along with average postcount and last activity. I don't mind any of these, but this particular idea is interesting to me. ;)