rusty_halo

So, as it turns out, classifying almost 1,000 stories into 30 potential categories is really, really difficult. Because even though every story won't be in every category (or even in any category), you still have to look at every story, remember what it's about, and go through the list of categories to see which, if any, it fits.

And while some of the categories are fairly cut-and-dry ("Post-Apocalypse," for example), others are pretty ambiguous. How do you decide what goes into the category "Angst"? Most stories have a bit of angst. Is it, what, 90% angst and then it goes into the angst category? The overwhelming mood of the piece is angsty? You can't really quantify something like that. And I don't have much time to re-read stories that I archived a year and a half ago to see if the overwhelming mood is angsty, or whether or not they contain, say, bloodplay (which someone suggested as a category) or hurt/comfort or whatever.

So, this is going to take awhile. But hey, at least I got the programming part done. And many thanks to everyone who offered suggestions.

Now (I feel very guilty for asking this), a couple of times in the past, people have volunteered to help out with my site. I've always said no thanks because, well, mostly because I'm a control freak and it's easier for me to do things myself rather than panic over how someone else might be doing it incorrectly. But this is something that people could actually help out with, especially if you're an author who has stories on my site. You know your work better than I do; if you have time, why not take a look at the list of categories and let me know which, if any, each of your stories might fit into. And if you're a reader who is familiar with the fiction on my site, let me know which stories you think would fit well into one or more of these categories. (And anyone is free to suggest more categories or changes in the current categories. I found as I went through the stories that new possibilities for categorization kept popping up.)

I would be grateful to anyone who helps out, and certainly won't hold it against anyone who doesn't have the time. You can comment here or email me.

I will continue sorting through them myself; I just figured this might be a way to speed the process a bit.

Action/Adventure
Angst
Bloodplay
Character Study
Crossovers
Drabble
End-of-Year Holidays
Episode Coda
False Memories
Fanged Four
Five Things Challenge
Friendship
Futurefic
Halloween
Horror/Darkfic
Humor, Parody, and/or Fluff
Hurt/Comfort
McSweeney’s Lists Challenge
Memory Loss
Missing Scene
Poetry
Post-Apocalypse
Post-Soul Insantiy
Pre-Soul Chip Removal
Quest
Romance
Soulless Redemption
Spike/Xander Kiss Meme
Sports
Thanksgiving
Threesome
Time/Universe Displacement
Valentine's Day

(Pairings are already covered in Fiction by Pairing, time periods are already covered in Fiction by Episode, ratings are already covered in Fiction by Rating, and length is already covered in Fiction by Length.)

It's also quite possible that some stories don't fit into any of these categories, which is fine. Not every story will be categorized here.

If you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about--it started here.

I totally understand that this is a ridiculous request; I figured I may as well ask just in case anyone feels like helping. :)

ETA: Each story can be in up to five categories, but most will just be in one or two. It's fine for a story to not be in any of these categories. The categories added since I first posted are Romance, Character Study, False Memories, Time/Universe Displacement, Missing Scene, Drabble, Friendship, Episode Coda, Action/Adventure, and Quest.