MyBibleVersion.com – Adding a New Concept
Lingalinga, formerly going under the identity lingamish, made a suggestion about my Bible Version Selection Tool. He thought it would be nice to be able to modify the version profiles to one’s individual tastes, and use the tool against those profiles rather than the ones I supply.
I agree with him, and it wouldn’t be that difficult for me to implement, partially because I have most of the necessary code on file from other projects. The main difficulty is designing a usable system. So I’m going to give you, my readers, a chance to make more detailed suggestions.
I will have one firm proviso. I’m not going to mix this idea in with the original tool. Feedback has indicated that my original tool (still available at http://books.energion.com/bibles/eneversion.php) was simply too complicated for most users. They would give up after going through one or two of the items, and rarely would get to all eleven. That’s why I created the simplified version with profiles. Users can now check a box and get the more detailed layout. I think, however, that adding links for all of this to that page will remove the benefit. Instead I will create a new page for individually tailored selection.
Here are the basic features:
- Simple registration and sign-in. Version information can then be recalled and edited, but only by the one who created it.
- Though each person, unless possessed of multiple personalities, should likely have one set of descriptions for Bible versions, multiple sets are possible.
- The editor will present a matrix with the complete list of versions, defaulting to the current numbers and descriptions. Users will simply provide an ID for their data, and then modify any information they wish.
- Users of the personalized selection tool will be able to choose any one of the profiles provided by users, probably via drop-down box.
- Other than selection of the data set against which you want to work, the selection tool will function in the same way as it does at present.
Some options I’m considering:
- User profile, with some kind of user ID (not necessarily real name) and web site/blog link.
- Published/not-published option, so you can edit on a new set of profiles for the translations without having it show publicly.
- Published profile sets would then display the user profile information, allowing users to evaluate a bit. For example, if the person who created the profile set is contributor to a major Bible translation blog (Better Bibles, for example), one might give it more weight.
- Allow users, more specifically anyone who creates a profile-set, to add characteristics on which they want to rate a version. This is a bit more complex, and would not be in any initial version.
- Allow users to add versions to the list. Again, in the initial version, people would have to e-mail me to add a new version.
For those who have web sites, it looks to me like we would have the same XML generator available to work under your individualized profile. You’d be able to create a set of profiles for Bible versions, then use an RSS reader to access your information and display it on your site. I have the basic code for doing so here. I would expect this to be possible with the personalized version as well.
These are just my preliminary ideas. I will accept suggestions via comments to this blog entry.
Another option to consider is allowing users to select what Bible(s) they currently have and [1] present a list of similar translations to consider looking at and [2] allow them to enter how they’d like things changed for a potential different translation.
For example, I really enjoy reading the REB. But let’s say public reading is not a priority. Keeping the REB’s other scores the same, but dropping that one criterion, what would be another recommended translation with similar scores? Assuming of course that it was not the qualities for public reading that attracted me to the REB in the first place (an assumption that I wouldn’t dare make).
That might also answer why, when I manually do the above with the current tool, I get the NET as the top recommendation, but if I line item compare translations, the REB and NLT score very similarly.
Well, cool! I’ll check this out later after I put out some fires!
That is a brilliant idea, though I think it needs to be added to the regular edition rather than the personalized, provided I can do the interface without getting too complicated.
My idea would be to give a series of checkboxes for the 11 numerical ratings, and then list the versions according to the sum of the differences in those scores. I could give you the 11 weighting boxes, but I’m thinking that might be too complicated to be useful. If I used the weighting boxes, then I’d rank according to the difference in weighted score.
Neither of these is hard to do, and would likely happen before I get the personalized edition out.
What do you think?
lingalinga: All ideas are welcome. I usually just think of something and do it. I’m trying to code to some other people’s desires this time!
Yes, I think presenting according the sum of differences would be better than the total weighted score. That gives a better idea of how different the translations are, versus a total score that might similar, but added from a completely different profile, e.g. the REB vs. NET/NLT in my original suggestion.