Sluggy NiftySearch

[DaveRhodes]

Hey folks, we were all talking here about how it'd be nifty if Sluggy had a search function. Problem is, someone would have to transcribe all 10 years of Sluggy into a database. That'd take a long time for a single person, so I thought, why not crowdsource it?

And so without asking anyone for approval or anything, I just went ahead and did it.

http://www.sluggy.info


EDIT: Finally updated the URL in this post to the current place. I think NiftySearch is shaping up pretty well! As always, please post any questions/comments/complaints/suggestions right here and I'll address them. Happy searching!

Old stuff: And now we have a search in place. It's pretty ugly for now, but that'll be fixed. It searches for every word you type individually, but the more words that show up, the better.
I'll come up with a way that works better later, but for now, it should work just fine. Happy searching!
Also, if someone wants to help me with graphic design, that'd be awesome. CSS would be awesome too. I need to learn that...

Older stuff:
It's a very simple setup so far. It randomly chooses a Sluggy comic and asks you to transcribe it into a text box. You can transcribe as many as you want. Some of them may be transcribed already. If so, please check the transcript and make any corrections necessary (or remove vandalism). Soon, once the DB starts to get all nice and populous, I'll add a search function to the site so you can search for your favorite sluggy strips yourself! Won't that be great?

If you want to see the code so you can make it much prettier and better, please e-mail me at dave.was.r@gmail.com and I'll send you a copy.
Unless your e-mail ends up caught in my spam filter. If it does, I apologize.

[WOTrombone]

Thank You!

[MrJest]

Nifty; I just did one!

One question, though - I know little about the various search-bot products available (i.e. ohnorobot); is there a particular format or case that these things will want the data collected to be in?

Before I go any further, I'd like to know - I did one in all lower-case with the same punctuation seen in the comic, but I wondered if it mattered... hopefully you or someone else will have more detailed info...

Mr. "But, yeah, transcribe, people, transcribe!" Jest

[DaveRhodes]

I don't have any specific format in mind. I figured I'd just make a google-esque search... you type in a series of words, and it goes through the DB, finding all the ones with matching words... the more words that match, the higher it goes on the list.

So when you're transcribing, include the dialogue, but you might also want to include anything about the individual strip you'd search for in addition to the dialogue, such as characters speaking, significant actions...

Like the one where Oasis rips the lower part of her wedding dress off so she can stuff it into Riff and Kiki's mouths... might want to include (Oasis rips the lower part of her wedding dress off and stuffs it in Riff and Kiki's mouths), 'cause that's what you might be searching for later.

Hope that makes sense!

In summary: Write whatever you think should be written. Even if it's not enough, it means a lot less work for whoever double-checks the strip next.

[WOTrombone]

When I click on the link i get redirected to http://prohosts.org/hosting-blog/index.php and I see no reference to sluggy or a place to transcribe or anything. Why is this happening?

[DaveRhodes]

When I click on the link i get redirected to http://prohosts.org/hosting-blog/index.php and I see no reference to sluggy or a place to transcribe or anything. Why is this happening?

Try again? The link still works when I try it.
The host I used for my site is free, so it's ad supported. Please make sure your pop-up blocker is running and ready... I thought it was only in-page ads (below the text box), but if it's throwing popups, I apologize.

[WOTrombone]

what should it look like? I just tried another browser and it still didn't work.

[DaveRhodes]

it should look like a text box with a submit button at the top with a Sluggy page below... text between the two saying "Please transcribe the comic below into the text box above!"

I just tested it in Firefox Opera, Safari and IE 6, and they all loaded it fine.
Maybe your ISP is at fault?

[WOTrombone]

Must be, i'm gonna see if i can do it through a proxy site.

[WOTrombone]

Its works fine in the proxy site So, Now I'm gonna have to go ask Verizon why they would block the site.

[DaveRhodes]

I was able to reproduce the problem on another ISP. Looks like it might just be an old DNS entry. If you can't get to it, give it a few days to propagate.

[swmartian]

Now we notice just how wordy Pete can be...

So, if Pete misspells something, do we type it as he wrote it, or as it should be written?

[DaveRhodes]

I've been keeping his spelling errors intact, but if you want to fix them, that's fine.

[SaveTheGreyhounds]

I might suggest typing it as written, then maybe typing it "correctly" underneath in parentheses, so that people searchign under either can find it.

Stupid example:

Kiki: I'm sowwy!
(Kiki: I'm sorry!)

[WOTrombone]

He really is wordy. I can only stand to do one at a time 2 or 3 if they are nice and short. Then I have to take a break. But They are getting done, albeit slowly. It would be cool if there was a way to see how many you had done.