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Remember back when websites were organized according to a hierarchy and if you wanted to find, say, all the reviews of MP3 players you just clicked on the MP3 p
by causality0 5y ago
Remember back when websites were organized according to a hierarchy and if you wanted to find, say, all the reviews of MP3 players you just clicked on the MP3 player section and saw them all? Now you have to punch terms into a search box and sort through a massive unorganized list of results, only some of which are relevant. If you missed something you'll never know about it.
- contingencies 5y agoIndexing against an ontology is becoming a rare skill. Popular comprehension has become so hocus-pocus that schools now teach kids that if a book has an index it's non-fiction. Meanwhile, Grammarly assists people in faking literacy. Wiktionary has become the best Scrabble dictionary. Late 19th century people of letters are no doubt turning in their graves.
- na85 5y ago>if a book has an index it's non-fiction. I've read an awful lot of novels and not a single one has had an index.
- contingencies 5y agoYes, exactly the point. It feels as if education has dropped to the point where poor heuristics are commonly deployed in lieu of comprehension.
- deertick1 5y agoMan I was just thinking about this last night. I recall an assignent in middle school where I had to write a poem with a simile in it (among ither literary devices) I lost points because there was no simile. When I went to the teacher and told her "there is a simile : 'the cat fell in much the same way as a boulder' " (or something to that effect) I was told similes have to have the word 'like' or 'as' in them. Which is just not true but has become such a common hueristic that even English teachers think its the definition of a simile. sigh I totally did that on purposes though cause I wanted to see if she would dock me a point for that. I was such a little prick.
- BeFlatXIII 5y agoBeing a prick to clueless teachers was a perverse joy of mine in my K–12 years. I enjoyed coming up with the most galaxy-brained solutions to assignments.
- mbrodersen 5y agoSame. However I went too far. A philosophy teacher left the class room, and refused to continue teaching my class, after I politely started arguing against her reasoning and showing counter examples. They had to find another teacher to take over the class.
- eropple 5y agoI believe the thinking is that it's the need for that as an ontological divide, rather than "it's telling a story about a thing that didn't happen". The divide being "heuristics about things it has" rather than "critical analysis of what it is".
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoLord Of The Rings has one.
- KineticLensman 5y agoThe Lord of the Rings has an index. Only one I can think of.
- moogly 5y agoRobert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" books.
- BeFlatXIII 5y agoHouse of Leaves is another. It also has footnotes.
- KineticLensman 5y ago> footnotes Footnotes. I hadn't thought about footnotes. The winner here has to be Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell, some of whose footnotes are micro stories thrown in as a bonus for attentive readers. Although Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell doesn't have an index.
- dredmorbius 5y agoStrict consistent hierarchical classification is ultimately impossible. It's used in domains where access is based on physical location (as with libraries), though there are numerous alternatives to subject-based grouping used (especially with closed stacks). If you ever want to see librarians in a heated discussion, tell them of your plans to develop a consistent hierarchical topical classification scheme. That said: there are useful classifications. None are perfect, serve all needs, please all parties, or are fully consistent. But most are better than a haphazard mess.
- mdoms 5y agoYour comment could not be more irrelevant. OP said "websites were organized according to a hierarchy" - a hierarchy, not THE hierarchy.
- dredmorbius 5y agoTry it sometime. You'll find that: 1. It's harder than it looks. 1. The hierarchy is stubbornly inconsistent. Take the example of MP3s, or more generally, audio files vs. text vs. images vs. multimedia. Do you classify all audio indepednetly of any text, regardless of whether it's, say, a history of WWII in the Czechoslovakia? Is a historical study of military technology used in Czechoslovaki during WWII filed under history (WWII), geography (Czechoslovakia), technology (military), or military science (technology)? What happens when countries change or borders shift (Holy Roman Empire -> Austria-Hungary -> Czechoslovakia -> Czechia)? Or when a region is disputed (West Bank, Taiwan, Kashmir, Oregon Teritory, Malvinas, ...)? Is Ireland part of the British Isles? Is it "mythology", "fiction", "religion", "theology", "philosophy", "cult", or "mass delusion"? Even if it's a single person's classification, conflicts rapidly emerge. Increase the number of catologers, or add multiple readers/users, and you'll start getting complaints and exceptionally strong disagreements. I'm not opposed to the practice. I've attempted it myself numerous times. I'm working on several approaches presently.
- causality0 5y agoDude I just want content to be preserved in an organized way instead of a stream of consciousness where anything that isn't on the front page disappears into the void forever.
- quickthrower2 5y agoFinding stuff on any shopping site is hell. Search for bike and get bikes mixed up with helmets, lights and weird stuff. Looking at you Amazon but really no one has got this right
- petepete 5y agohttps://www.halfords.com/bikes/mountain-bikes/ https://www.halfords.com/bikes/mountain-bikes/