[development] contrib categorisation

[robert crowther]

Listen, if anyone wants to suggest a better thread title, please do so!

Anyhow, the 'Duplicated Modules' thread has moved in this direction (one
suggestion being that duplicate modules would be more easily avoided if
modules were categorised more freely and finely)

...and the 'An Alternative to Common Thinking' thread has moved in this
direction, as leaning towards natural selection (if I might draw that
analogy without upsetting anyone. If I have, I do apologise, but I hope
you understand the process I am trying to summon) ...whereas at the
moment we have an exciting and spontaneous enthusiasm from the fertile
ground of Drupal core.

But it would be nice to move this part of the discussion aside, I feel?
Hence the new subject line.



Look, I simply glance at dev to keep tabs on things. But I do recall
something about this being talked over before. So I'm sure there is
discussion I am not party to.

RE: Walt Daniels - I've never seen Tagadelic (told you I'm not current)
but a quick look tells me you most certainly get my drift.



SoundSnap has a number of features (many I like),

- A rough overall vocabulary

- Sub categories 
Terms. Don't know who provides these.

- A tagging system 
Now I assume this is free-tagging by contributors. But it works very
well. I use it all the time for cross checking.

Whether these categorisations are actively checked for synonyms or not,
I don't know. I assume that people think carefully about their tagging
though, otherwise their contribution will not show.

- A star rating system.
Now I hardly ever use this, as I may want a 'spitfire takeoff', not a
'spitfire flyby' (if I looked up aircraft). But I might use...

- Download count

- List sorting
I never use it. As with EBay, where I slam everything onto 'Ending
Soonest' (though I do use 'Auctions' and 'Buy-it-now' tabs)

- Comments
Hardly ever use them, because...

- Try before download

and finally

- Search box suggestions
e.g. 'telephone' might suggest 'ring'/'booth'/'operator'. Don't know how
SoundSnap regulate this, but the suggestions are clearly pertinent, even
inspiring.



Differences (between Soundsnap and Contrib)

Soundsnap is actively vetted for content. Don't see how this changes the
argument, but there you are.

You can sum up a sound sample on one line. Actually, I don't see why you
can't sum up a module on one line, but there you go...



Similarities

Errm, I think SoundSnap is Drupal. Just guessing, from the interface and
all.

The base information is probably on a similar scale to contrib.
SoundSnap claim about 100,000 samples. Anyway, they achieve highly
effective searching over a large base. I imagine, given their content,
the searches are pulverising and fine grained... in short, very
intensive.



Further thoughts

The current Drupal system provides SOME of this anyhow. The main missing
bits seem to be,

- A thumpingly big front end.
- Some sub-classification on the front end.
- Tagging.
- A suggestive search.
- Knowing which bits SoundSnap actively administer, and what that would
cost in the Drupal contrib environment.

And maybe

- Encouraging people to produce one or two line distillations of module
descriptions.

I love the idea of a try-before-buy feature. The only analogy I can
think of is to more actively encourage screenshots. This may work in an
EBay fashion - you get no interest without that little picture in on the
left...




Right, and now I feel somewhat embarrassed that I'm not going to do
this, ...well, not now anyhow... so, over to the list,

Rob