Categorizing Fic

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.

( the categories )

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.

Just a little PSA...

I've had two complaints about people getting pop-up advertisements when they visit my site. Guys, this has nothing to do with me. All About Spike has no pop-up advertisements and never will. If you're getting pop-ups, it's because you've got adware and/or spyware on your computer.

You get these if, say, your security settings are low and you visit a site like fanfiction.net, which has ads that try to automatically download and install spyware programs on your computer. Or you download a program like, say, Kazaa, which comes with a ton of spyware programs bundled in that automatically install themselves when you install Kazaa. (More info here or here or here). Or if you've ever downloaded that awful Comet Cursor thing, for example, you're pretty much guaranteed to have spyware on your computer.

Spyware doesn't just cause annoying pop-ups, either; if uses up your system resources and slows down your computer. It can be used for all sorts of malicious activity, like tracking your internet use by advertisers or stealing your personal information, which may eventually lead to identity theft.

There are many programs, some free and some that you pay for, that will scan your computer for adware/spyware and remove it for you. Do a search on yahoo or download.com and you'll find some; AdAware is a good one to try.