For the month of June, I’m participating in Reclaim’s Gravity Forms flex course, where we’re learning about the tool Gravity Forms and how to use it to accomplish great things. So I’m recording some of my plans in the hopes of laying them out a little more clearly for myself. If I know what I want to do, that’s a pretty big step in being able to do it.
I’ve thought idly about the idea of an audio drama database for years. Quick terminology: audio dramas are fiction podcasts, usually with multiple actors but not always, and they’re getting more and more popular. I used to be quite ahead of the curve, but now– well, a bit less so.
By database I’m thinking an entry for each show, which can be submitted via the form, covering:
- Title
- Network
- Website
- RSS feed
- Quick descriptor tags (sci-fi, fantasy, small cast, single narrator, comedy, drama, etc.)
- Summary
- Cast (?)
- Crew (?)
- … and maybe some other things I haven’t thought of
Cast and crew are maybes mostly because I’m not sure how to format and standardize them yet, and they have the potential to seriously bloat an entry. Maybe something along the lines of a text box for name, dropdown description of role (“Writer”, “Director”, “Producer”, “Sound Designer”, “Actor”, etc.)… and then citation-inspired formatting. Who knows.
This is also likely a first draft; if I were ever to iterate on it, it would probably be a good idea to get feedback from the actual audio drama community on what information they think would be relevant (I could collect it using a Gravity Form!).
Ideally I’d like to be able to search and filter based on multiple tags (so people could narrow down a search to something along the lines of “sci fi + single narrator + drama” and get a recommendation for exactly what they’re looking for), but that’s probably a different plugin, and probably not something I have the capacity to write myself… maybe. Who knows? Maybe writing WordPress plugins is my next project after this.
I’ve toyed with the idea of having an additional form that people can use to submit reviews, and then maybe have a way to append them to the entry Comments is probably the simplest way to go about that, but I’m on the fence. Are reviews something that would have a place in a database like this? Is it not enough to collect information in a centralized place?
And the last question is — how to verify this information, and OK it with the crew of the show? Preventing spam is always a concern, as is preventing just straight-up fiction. But that’s a question for the future. For now, I’ll need to get building.
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