Arduinna

In the wake of some of the "meta on AO3" discussions that veered off into talking about finding things on the archive, I decided to poke more intently at the search and filter features.

Like pretty much everyone else, I think things will be easier and more organized once there are media categories to sort on, and I'm very much hoping that the posting forms pick up a radio button for "nonfiction" to make all sorts of nonfic things filterable. I also really hope that a crossover button gets added, and that crossovers become something that can be filtered in or out.

My own ideal filter sidebar would include options to include/exclude terms from each section, with sections added for Source Media Type and Fanwork Media Type (based on the media categories I suggested in the Category Change post, which I'm still very keen on), and checkboxes for complete/wips, crossovers/no-crossovers, and creative/nonfiction.

( It would look something like this )

But we don't have that yet, so I figured I would try to make the existing filters/search do what I wanted them to.

There are three basic ways to search.

• The general search box at the top of every page, where you just type in a string of search terms, whatever you're looking for.


• The filters sidebar on any tag-based landing page -- fandom, pairing, trope, etc. These let you see the most common tags in use on that landing page, so you have a starting point to work from.


• The Advanced Search, available via link at the top of every page, or directly at http://archiveofourown.org/works/search. This is a form that provides structure for your search, with a lot of detail.

All three of these default to AND searches: every term you type in is considered a requirement, so the more terms you add, the narrower your search.

All three also have a box that does allow you to search for options (OR) or exclude things (NOT), across all of the fields associated with a work in the database, including title, author, summary, notes, and tags. That means this is a text search box. It doesn't search for tags specifically, it searches for the text inside the tags.

In the general search box, you can do OR or NOT directly in the box. In the filters sidebar, this is the Search within results box. In the Advanced Search form, this is the Any Field box.

( Using that single-box search no matter where you find it. )

( Things to keep in mind using the search box )

So those are the things they all have in common. They all have some differences and specific strengths, as well.

The general search box does everything listed under the "single box" explanation, and has the huge advantage of being right there on every page, and very fast to use.

( Using the general search box )

The filters let you see what you're dealing with, so you can easily adjust things on the fly. You can use filters on a fandom page, bookmarks page, tag page, and individual people's Works and Bookmarks pages.

( Using the filters sidebar )

( Filtering crossovers in or out )

The advanced search lets you search not just fanworks, but also bookmarks, tags, and people. It also lets you specify date ranges for you results, which neither of the other two search options do.

( Using Advanced Search )

There are still a few things I'm hoping will be added to search on AO3: crossover filters, source media types, fanwork media types, excludes right within the filter options and advanced search fields.

But the search as it stands is miles ahead of where it was three months ago, and it's possible to do some pretty refined searching now.

Tips:

• You can use the general search box as a shortcut to your fandom, pairing, character, or trope of choice. Type the term in, and click on the first appropriate tag in the results to get to the Filters page for that term.


• If you only check your fandom, pairing, or favorite trope once every week or two and only want to see the most recent works, use Advanced Search to set up what you want.


Specify your fandom and/or pairing and/or tag, and put in a duration such as <7 days or < 2 weeks in the Date field. Bookmark your search results in your browser, and you can just click that bookmark any time you want to catch up on the last week or two.


• If you never want crossovers for your fandom, go to your fandom page and filter out all the crossovers, then bookmark your results. You can use that bookmark as your landing page for your fandom, and just start filtering/searching from there every time.


• You may need to update your bookmark as more crossovers are created in your fandom, by adding more fandoms to your "search within results" box.


• Don't just default to excludes; sometimes OR searches will be better.


• If you want all ratings but Explicit, searching for -explicit is the way to go.


• But if you want only General and Teen ratings, searching for ("general audiences" OR "teen and up audiences") may be easier than excluding all other ratings.

To keep myself busy and online so I don't forget to register, I wrote up the world's longest, rambliest post. \o/ There are spoilers for practically everything here...

I'm settled in for a nice snowy weekend -- lots of cat food, plenty of people food, clean laundry, and a good parking spot. (... I'm a little compulsive about parking spots in bad weather, after 20 years of unassigned street parking in a neighborhood where snow emergencies mean there are too many cars vying for juuuust too few spots, especially given how many people don't know how to shovel, argh, so we wind up losing potential spots to crappy shoveling jobs. But I digress.)

This is going to be much better than last weekend's 27 inches in 24 hours; it'll be more like 4-ish inches in 24 hours, just enough so I can indulge my hermit-y ways and not budge till I have to go to work on Tuesday.

My only concrete plan for today is to sign up for Vividcon, yay! I can't believe it's already time again. All my fannish plans keep winding up on the backburner, but at least maybe this will kick the vidding in the butt, because if reg is here, deadlines are nearly upon us.

I've grabbed a bunch of tv that I probably won't have time to watch, but it looks interesting enough that maybe I'll give it a try at some point, like The Americans and Cracked. I'm banking them for the moment, for some day I'm looking for something new to watch and can marathon through.

I've been watching a bunch of other stuff, though. A couple I've only seen the pilot for so far:

( Zero Hour )

( The Following )

And then there were the shows that ended recently:

( Leverage )

( Fringe )

( Alphas )

And then, of course, there are the shows that are currently airing and ongoing. Anyone else remember how, 15 years ago, we used to fret every year that this year would be the last year of fannish tv? How we hung on cancellation news, because if X got cancelled, what would we watch?

I kinda miss those days, to tell you the truth. How is there this much tv all the damn time? I feel like I never talk about any of it, because I'm always racing to catch up to just watching it. And for all that I tend to really like the summer shows, man, I miss having a few months every year to catch up on stuff I missed, or rewatch things, or get involved in complicated discussions about What! Might! Happen! (... with other unspoiled people, because for me the fun is guessing, not knowing in advance).

So instead, have a bunch of brief overall reactions to shows, with only a little specific commentary, just so people have some idea of what it is I'm watching these days:

( Person of Interest )

( Elementary )

( Lewis )

( Once Upon a Time )

( White Collar )

( Revenge )

Shows that I'm waiting to come back:

( Grimm )

( Burn Notice )

( Haven )

I know as soon as I post this I'll come up with another half dozen shows I meant to mention. Oh well.

I would write about the reality tv I'm watching, but this is already an absurdly long post. Suffice to say, my favorite shows -- Amazing Race, Project Runway, Top Chef -- still have me, but I'm burning out from overload, and less invested every season. All three shows have had aired four complete seasons since December 2010, and all three are in or about to start another season. I hate to give any of them up for completist reasons, but man. I am just burning out.

One year ago, I went off to a local shelter in search of a bonded pair of young cats, and wound up with a very sweet pair of 8-month-old brothers I named Darien (orange) and Hobbes (brown & black). *points to icon*

They're now 20 months old and in the last month or so have suddenly stopped looking like kittens; they've turned into young cats instead. And they are still so very cute and sweet. <3

So in honor of their adoptaversary, have some pics!



( Lots more below the cut, because I'm still besotted and could only narrow it down so far )

Yeah, pretty much it's all fun and games for these two. <3

I can't believe they've been here a year already!

I am at !!BEARS!! so will distract myself with doing the Yuletide meme that's going around.

( Yuletide! )

I'm guessing that by this point most people have seen the links to kouredios's friending meme for folks who want to talk more on DW & LJ, but if not, you should check it out. Lots of people showing up from all over, into all kinds of fandoms and non-fannish things! (And here's the LJ version, for the LJ-inclined!)

I continue to fail to post because I get bogged down by wanting to say ALL THE THINGS, so I never finish anything.

So in the spirit of just freaking posting more, dammit, I will not wait till I have a huge post about Leverage to post this bit of Leverage news:

A letter from Dean Devlin

As of the writing of this letter, we still do not know if there will be a season six of our show. Just as we didn’t know when we created the last three episodes which are about to air. Because of this uncertainty, John Rogers and I decided to end this season with the episode we had planned to make to end the series, way back when we shot the pilot. So, the episode that will air on Christmas is, in fact, the series finale we had always envisioned.

This is not to say we would not do a season six should we get the opportunity. Everyone involved with the show, from the cast, the crew, the writers and producers, would like nothing more than to continue telling these stories. But, in case we do not get that opportunity we felt that, creatively, after 77 episodes, we owed it to you, our fans, to end the show properly.

I sincerely hope you watch these last three episodes. They build to our conclusion. And the finale, I believe, is the most powerful episode we’ve ever done.

From all of us who make the show, thank you for watching, supporting and encouraging us. I’ve never experienced a fandom as intense, loyal and wonderful as you all.

Let’s go steal a series finale!

Dean Devlin

Executive Producer/Director LEVERAGE

I'm torn on the possibility of cancellation; I love Leverage a lot and want it to keep going, but I also feel like they've started to wander sort of far afield recently in some eps, and it's tough to keep a show fresh past five seasons.

But man, I'm glad that if they're going out, they're going out the way they want to.

Final post! ...for now.

There's lots of sort of random interesting things going on in the background of this show that didn't really fit anywhere else, so here's a grab bag.

( Jokes )

( Hidden clues about the curse )

( Emma arrives and things change )

( Emma SWAN )

( Timey-wimey stuff )

( Dimensional portals )

( The Mad Hatter )

( Jiminy Cricket )

And I will wrap this thing up with a quote from Grumpy to Snow, as she disarmed herself for a meeting with Queen Regina in one episode:

"Keep the little knife between your tuffets."

*dies*

And thus endeth the season 1 picspam series.

-----
OUaT s1 picspam series

Part 1: Season one takes place in a forest

Part 2: Regina and Rumple: colors and castles

Part 3: Clothes make the match

Part 4: Clothes make the point

Part 5: Disney references

Part 6: You are here!

Short one this time! And all the text is going under a cut, because I can't explain this without spoilers.

( spoilers for episode 8 )

Next up, some visual Disney references.

-----
OUaT s1 picspam series

Part 1: Season one takes place in a forest

Part 2: Regina and Rumple: colors and castles

Part 3: Clothes make the match

Part 4: You are here!

Part 5: Disney references

Part 6: Bits and pieces

(Image-heavy!)

Regina and Gold both still "live" in castles -- really they work in them, despite their very nice, very large, houses. But their castles are very different from each other, in both worlds.

Regina likes contrast and starkness, with as much black and white as she can get -- she'll take grey in a pinch, too. The only non-neutral color she likes is red, which is her passion and anger.

( Regina in Storyland )

( Regina in Storybrooke )

Rumple likes softness and shadows, with as much red and gold as he can get, and where Regina's "medium" color is usually a cool grey, his is usually a warm brown.

( Rumple in Storyland )

( Gold in Storybrooke )

And obviously, on top of the actual colors, the lighting & filters used heighten all of the effects.

But the interesting thing is how all of this reflects them both.

( Their spaces encapsulate their entire worldviews. )

It's going to be interesting to see what happens with the colors this season, if anything.

Next up in the series: clothing connections.

-----
OUaT s1 picspam series

Part 1: Season one takes place in a forest

Part 2: You are here!

Part 3: Clothes make the match

Part 4: Clothes make the point

Part 5: Disney references

Part 6: Bits and pieces

I had planned to do grown-up, responsible things this weekend, and that is still my plan, but now, as a reward for being a grown-up?

I am totally going to go watch superheroes bond and blow shit up (thanks to devildoll for the heads-up!)

The Avengers is back in US theaters for a week, starting this weekend. The studio is apparently telling people to be sure to sit through the credits, so there are suspicions flying around that there may be an additional post-credits scene -- maybe an Iron Man 3 tease?

\o/

Almost two months ago, I asked for today off from work, because I know what Vividcon deadline day is like, and there is no way a few hours in the evening is enough time. This was meant to be a day of panic and flail, with last-minute fixes to the vid (or, worst-case, still filling in black space), and then dealing with exporting and aspect ratios and tech fail.

Instead, it's day of rest*, because therienne and I finished our vid last night, exported it, and uploaded it more than 24 hours before the deadline.

Vidding Deadline Threat Level: KITTENS.

Unfortunately, Vidding Deadline Threat Level Adrenaline Reaction: BEARS

So we spent the next hour having little bursts of panic at each other, because how is it possible to be done and uploaded before the deadline? Vid farr is not over till the deadline passes!

Then I went home and we got on the phone and panicked at each other more. See above, re: vid farr and bears.

Then I fell asleep in my chair before I could manage to write a post. I may have been a little tired.

And now? I am home, lounging about my apartment with my cats for the first time in weeks. I can clean my pit of a place, and buy groceries omg, and maybe watch some tv, or read...

I still don't quite believe it, and am braced to find out that therienne has gotten word from Lum and Ian that we screwed something up horribly, and need to fix it right damn now.

But until that email comes in, it is kittens all around. Yay!


* It is not actually that restful a day so far. I got home last night after midnight to the sight of a van from my oil company pulling away from in front of the house, and the scent of oil in my apartment, but no message from my landlord's son, so I figured it was a problem with his tank that had been handled.

Then this morning I got woken up a bit after 10 by a call saying that he'd found a leak in my tank last night (just a tiny pinhole leak), which had been plugged, but today they were coming to drain & remove the old tank, and install & fill a new one.

So now the basement under my feet is full of oil-company guys yelling and banging and drilling and otherwise using implements of destruction to scare the hell out of my cats.

But still. I am not at work! And I am not over at therienne's! I am HOME! \o/

( So have some kittens )

Somewhere on my network, I found a link to this webcomic, "Little League", which I then spent a while reading all the way through. It's little-kid Justice League, and it is one of the cutest things I have ever seen.

Case in point: wee Bruce gets sent to timeout for misbehaving in class

<3 <3 <3

I'm a JL fan from the cartoon rather than DC comics, and this isn't quite a match (no Hawk Girl; Barry Allen instead of Wally West for the Flash; Hal Jordan instead of John Stewart for Green Lantern; and the addition of Power Girl), but it's adorable anyway.

I started reading backward from the link above, then realized I wanted the whole thing in order, because this is a storyline, not standalones.

You can read the whole thing via the little league tumblr's archive, or by paging back to the first strip and moving forward, which is probably going to be a lot easier (definitely easier if you're reading on mobile, where you can't mouseover to see the dates on the archived strips).

As of right now, it starts on page 5 -- scroll down, then start reading forward.

I'm following it on tumblr now, but tumblr moves so fast and I didn't want to miss anything, so I checked and it turns out there's already a DW feed for it:

littleleaguecomics_feed

The cartoon has better music (or rather,had better music, before they butchered it this season, sob), but despite that, I went to the movie Sunday with therienne and mollyamory. Which, thank god, because now we can all stop squinting and averting our eyes from the intarwebs.

( random spoilers ho! )

Relatedly, wooooooo we're gonna get Black Widow backstory!
'Black Widow' movie will focus on the heroine's origin

I was sure they wouldn't give us a movie for her at all, because, you know, she's female. But yay, already confirmed! \o/

Images:

There's currently a smallbatchicons request fest going on for Three Weeks for Dreamwidth; anyone can request up to five icons on any theme (show, character, color, emotion, object, whatever), and anyone can fill those requests.

If you're the requester, you leave a comment with screencaps/images you want the icon-maker to use, or if you want text, leave that instead.



Fanfic:

Not Prime Time is open for signups. "Not Ready For Prime Time (Fandoms), or otherwise known as Not Prime Time, is a gen, het, femslash, and slash multifandom secret fiction exchange for medium sized fandoms. This is for the fandoms that are no longer eligible for Yuletide but are not megafandoms."

This looks like a lot of fun, and I'd probably be signing up if the deadline wasn't four days before the Vividcon deadline. Woe.


Not Prime Time (AO3 collection)
Frequently Asked Questions | Megafandoms List
npt_admin on LJ | npt_admin on DW

Fandom

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