Request for comments:
I am
currently under a sort of
dilemma in my noding. I've been here long enough to know that
where you put a node is just as
critical as how you write it all up. For
instance, I want to node all sorts of items relating to my
hometown, but there aren't very good ways to associate them and make the
content even remotely
findable, and a metanode really isn't that great in this sort of a situation (or any situation really).
For instance, one place I have
memories that I want to share is the old
Friendly's on
South Street. How do I choose a good
title for it? Do I either:
(Neither exist yet, so bear with me)
The first item is
nodespacing, something that is looked down upon in
Everything University's entry under
Don't Nodespace Your Lyrics, but the second is never going to be found, even if I were to
softlink it to other relavant nodes that I have
outstanding. I would form a pocket inside of everything (things that only link to other items in the pocket, without a way for them to stand out.
Thus, I propose that people be given the
power to create
nodespheres, or a band of
association of nodes under a common
description. Users should be able to add nodes to their
nodespheres under some sort of edit and removal
mechanism (a
superdoc most likely), and manage the way their content sticks to each other. You should be able to find people's nodespheres and read them as a set of stories. In the bar where you see:
(idea) by JayBonci
...along with the votes and such, it should say:
(idea) by JayBonci, part of
Stories of Holyoke
Where
Stories of Holyoke would be the nodesphere it belongs to.
Nodespaces would solve the following "problems" in my eyes:
- It would encourage conscious noding as people could nodesphere entire topics.
- It would add a code-based tool for what many people hardlink into their writeups. ( back to the Dictionary of Sexology, the Jargon File, other noded projects).
- It would give a stronger tool than softlinks for people who write all of one topic, and would not give credit for index tools.
- Metanodes would be less common for people who would seek to group all of their writeups together
- It would string together more vague items in a series of otherwise unrelated nodes, especially things like daylogs or items with otherwise good (read: relevant) titles.
- People who node entire books could associate them all together.
- Currently e2 only supports cohesion of name, but not cohesion of topic. This would change that.
Implementation ideas:
A nodesphere would be a new
e2 nodetype and an e2 dbtable (like
coolwriteups). The
dbtable should look something like:
node_id - (primary key) - Default: 0 - INT(11)
Holds the
e2node, if a node could only belong to one
nodesphere
nodesphere_id - Default 0 - INT(11)
Holds the
id of the node of type nodesphere, containing the information. This way it won't clog up the
database with associations.
position - Default: 0 - INT(?)
If one were to support user-defined positioning of the items in the
nodesphere
Things to keep in mind:
- Moving from one item in a nodesphere to another in that sphere through the displayed sphere should drag a softlink, but you shouldn't be able to softlink to the nodesphere itself (since it isn't an e2node). Linking should find the item.
- You should only be able to add your own items to a nodesphere (maybe only one sphere per node; no multiple associations).
- Deleting an entire sphere would be no big deal, and should be user controllable. (highly debatable)
- Nodespheres should be ed-coolable
- Nodeshperes should allow for a description (same as a node) that can describe how these items are related.
- Optional - Maybe nodespheres can add other nodespheres (thus solving the parenting problem..)
The superdoc for
editing the actual nodespheres themselves wouldn't be too terrible (im playing around with how I think it should be done elsewhere, and will put up something if people are for this idea). The
displaytype should be very similar to that of edev docs (the owner can edit the description), and then a
listing of the items in some kind of order.
It may make a good
level power perhaps (4?, or 5?). Any
thoughts and
suggestions would be really helpful. Thanks.