Michelle's corner

The book world is bumbling on; a mass of literary, political mazes that leave the individual, no matter their personal proclivities, wondering how the hell they are to navigate such a sea of egos, arguments and opinions.

Everyone knows that some authors are better and worse than others when it comes to receiving criticism. Some wage war on their perceived, "enemies," for slights which would only make sense in Alice's Wonderland. The weapons in these battles being one star reviews containing no more than a full stop. Sock accounts and other implements of the Internet, serve to render opponents deflated and denounced, on the digital battlefield.

The bad behaviour which is such a fingerprint of the human condition, is not to be found absent from the world of internet reviewers, either. I have called out a small number on hypocrisy, but deletion of evidence from ones web site, no matter how swift, can not best the response of the PrtScr key. My name is no doubt mud in some small enclaves of statistic driven reviewer egos. Sometimes I feel sorry for their audiences, who never even know of the works that such reviewers have denied ... then I recover, as their followers are probably mostly made up from silenced bot follows, that were told to sit in the queue and watch for the competitions and give aways. (fortunately, the good outnumber the dishonest.)

The customers are the ones that I feel for. The genuine people forever in search of that elusive good read. Even various indie sites and reviewers are bent over the benches and given good spankings by Uncle Amazon ... forced to give priority to the giggling Kindle above all others, by dint of the peanuts that are thrown their way in order to pay for the services that drive their sites.

But is there a better way, I hear you ask? Yes. There is.

To start with, our categorisation of books is wrong. While ideal for the men and women who walk the aisles of rustling paper, spending their days dutifully checking the chains on the more troubled tombs, and ensuring that the little lost volumes find their way back to their proper home among the shelves full of their pulped and inked brethren ... this doesn't do much for the person who just wants to find a good book.

So who am I to have anything to say about the problem?

While I am not trained in the art of keeping books ... I am a studied herder of data.

There was a game called Lineage II. The open source version was administered only from someone within the game. Difficult for administrators to keep a track of their servers while at work; at least not without the boss potentially querying as to why the document they are working on, consists of a prominent, one-winged, dancing dark elf.

I not only programmed a web control system, but built an ecosystem for the average player as well; giving tools to the leaders of clans.

First, study the following, and then I'll tell you all about it...


This is part of a view that a clan leader would see for the recipe to make the, "Sword of Damascus." One of the ingredients is, "Artisan's Frame." Although an item in its own right, it can be manufactured in its stead from Steel Mold, Varnish of Purity and Adamantite Nugget. In its turn, Steel Mould can be made from Braided Hemp, Iron Ore and Coal. You get the picture.

The light background colour tells the clan leader that there are dwarves who are capable of executing these recipes. The dark colour, that no one in the clan can do this. There is a mid colour, that says that the recipe exists within the clan (someone has the cook book) but no one has read it yet.

However, there is green and red. Also, character names. We don't need to make Steel Mould, as "Kiranis," already has five in their inventory somewhere. But from the figures below it, the clan has the ability to make, "Rec," nine more if needed.

A web page is effectively written from left to right, but in this page I have appeared to defy this, by passing the results of later calculations back up the tree! It is, of course, an illusion ... but it works, and the clan leader can use this to formulate their orders.

Some items are, "dropped," by monsters when they are killed...


Braided Hemp is dropped by various different monsters and enemies, at different, "chance," rates. But the levels are distinct. If a monster is killed by a character who is more than five levels above or below it, then the chance is effectively zero.

So here, the clan leader would need to send someone of between level 20 to 30, to hunt Turek Orc Sentinels. Either that, or send someone to Mr Cat in the Kamael Village, with a purse full of adena, to make the required purchase.

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I stopped working on the, "Drop Calculator." Someone found a security flaw, but after telling me so I could plug the hole, went on to blast of a conquest and I endured years of people asking if it was secure, long after the hole was fixed. Also, a Russian crew took my open code and ripped out the attribution to me; passing it off as their own work. Deflated by the very community that I had written the code for, I gave it up as a thankless task.

But, at least you have proof that I am capable.

I have discussed my thoughts with the keeper of an indie book look up service, but they are currently among the number tied by Amazon's purse strings in order to fund their server. It is more that just data crunching also. It is a method of review system whereby authors should put forward a small amount of money to have their book entered ... and that money goes to the, "cup of coffee," model so that the reviewer gets some reward for their work ... as this system will not be able to go from existing classifications, but will require a means of organisation which is more suited to the reader, than the librarian.

However, if that persons site should never free itself from the Amazonian tithe, my thoughts will not die. Should I attain the proper independent resource be assured that I will work towards bringing this system to life in a manner which will ultimately sustain itself and remain independent ... while serving the reader.

In the words of the artilleryman in War Of The Worlds ... "I have a plan..."