Suggestion: Author Function Categories in Collabs

[Faewild]

Suggestion: Author Function Categories in Collabs

Reason:
When it comes to collabs, everyone has different functions. Big collabs often have several artists, moderators, recruiters, things like that.

Some collabs have an artist and a writer team.

For me, some confusion has been called when I do collabs, as to why I have another artist posted yet am claiming the work.

Artist categories, like "Writer", "Colorist", "General Artist", "Moderator", things like that... I'm pretty sure it's a small change, and it'd help in a lot of ways, like clearing up ownership confusion and who does what.

[SaikoSelda]

I second this strongly.

[eishiya]

Support this. In particular, I just want a "manager/layout person" category that lets the author be hidden from the public.

Don't really care for writer/colorist/etc distinctions personally, I think the lack of distinction makes things seem fairer. So, if this is added, it should be opt-in. So, each author should be functions unassigned to start, but then they can be assigned, and perhaps a little label can be added underneath their username that says what they do. Other than that, I don't think there need to be any changes. Even with 10+ authors, I don't think it's of much use to group by author type.

Groups I propose:
Writer
Artist
Penciller
Inker
Colorist (this, Inker and Penciller are more specific types of Artist, basically, for those cases where the distinction is relevant. An artist performing multiple duties would just be Artist)
Site Manager (for all those misc functions like recruiting, updating in place of other authors, doing layout work, etc).

I think the Site Managers should show up by default, but there should be a profile option to hide all the managers.

I think these roles should also show up on the user's list of comics somehow... in particular, a good profile option would be to allow hiding those comics where the user is a Site Manager.

[trenton_dawn]

What if the categories were able to be defined by the superuser of the comic?

[SuperBiasedMan]

I don't think they should be categories, just titles set by the superuser as trenton_dawn said, because the list of suggestions could easily be a mile long.

But it seems a bit redundant to me to hide a user when you can distinguish their role anyway (as there's no longer confusion about what they did when you say it yourself) and hiding them seems a little disrespectful to someone who helped you out. :/

[eishiya]

SBM: That is true...

I'd still at least like the option for a user to hide their Managed comics from their list. I have four comics on my list, only two of which are mine (one I do layout stuff for, the other I update in the author's stead while she's busy). I do NOT want to be thought of as an author to them at all. My contributions to them are already credited in other ways. I want people to see MY comics when they look at my profile, yanno?

I think Site Managers (or any author?) should be hideable, but perhaps it would have to be something set by the users themselves? But that opens up another level of code for Dan to do ):

[SuperBiasedMan]

SBM: That is true...

I'd still at least like the option for a user to hide their Managed comics from their list. I have four comics on my list, only two of which are mine (one I do layout stuff for, the other I update in the author's stead while she's busy). I do NOT want to be thought of as an author to them at all. My contributions to them are already credited in other ways. I want people to see MY comics when they look at my profile, yanno?

I think Site Managers (or any author?) should be hideable, but perhaps it would have to be something set by the users themselves? But that opens up another level of code for Dan to do ):

Yeah, this sounds like a better alternative, because unless you have a massive team (and I'm pretty sure this only happens with unwieldy collab comics that intend to have vast numbers) then the comic profile isn't going to get cluttered, whereas a person's profile would.

It also has the benefit of putting the user themself in charge as opposed to the superuser of the comic who might remove a contributor without consulting them.

[eishiya]

...perhaps the profile problem can be solved by a more general, unrelated system - allow a user to select which comics are shown in their profile, and which are not, regardless of their role in that comic.

I don't know how SJ's database is set up, but I figure there's something of a has-a table between comics and users, so a "display in profile" field could be added to that (and an authorship type field)? I dislike modifying has-a tables for things like this (the less queries have to be run on has-a tables, the better), but I can't think of a better way.

[SuperBiasedMan]

...perhaps the profile problem can be solved by a more general, unrelated system - allow a user to select which comics are shown in their profile, and which are not, regardless of their role in that comic.

I don't know how SJ's database is set up, but I figure there's something of a has-a table between comics and users, so a "display in profile" field could be added to that (and an authorship type field)? I dislike modifying has-a tables for things like this (the less queries have to be run on has-a tables, the better), but I can't think of a better way.

Ah yes, indeed this would also help people with hiatuses, or defunct comics.
I've got 10 in my profile, and I'd rather not delete them but I still have a lot of them that I'd rather cleared away to give more room for the ones I'm actually working on.

[pwii]

I strongly support this. I think the roles of the user should be put under the webcomic link in their profile. So, if I'm looking for someone to collaborate with, you can see what roles they play in certain comics. You could also have a customize the labels you put.

[Mangaka_Yuki]

Great idea.