Steve,

To quote a certain fast food chain with respect to the new feature, “I’m lovin’ it!”

Now all I have to do is just figure what out all these “readability indices” (or is it indexes?) mean and I’ll be golden. Thanks!

Fun! I’ve just learned what Gunning-Fog, Coleman-Liau, and other indexes are (go wiki!).
Also had some fun with them! For one of my poems the indexes were all between 45 and 65, which, when you know that they show how many years of formal education you require to fully understand the text on your first reading, was quite disturbing :)
The Coleman-Liau index was the only normal: 7.05
Then I added punctuation.
Now all the indexes are between 1 and 7.7, 7.7 being the Coleman-Liau index.

Although fun at first sight, the whole PRO data seems somewhat useless to the writer (poetry at least, maybe it rocks for short stories, I won’t judge that) and I fear it’s not worth the pressure I’m sure it does on the database/servers. Those resources could maybe be used on other features?

I have to agree with jebozid. The new features and indices are interesting but I’m not sure about it’s application and usefulness. In longer works, the stats on frequently used phrases and words are helpful, to avoid too much repetition. I’m sure you’ve got something else cooking here, this is just the first step. Curious to see what gets built out of this data.

Yes, PRO Data is far more useful on longer items. This application will be used in other areas, including reviews. Wouldn’t it be nice to see the most commonly used phrases people use in all of their reviews? Much easier to spot the “I like it” people.

Yes I think this is useful…. But I don’t like the stats that are based on letter per word count for readibilty… perfor more syllable based formulas… also some fo the stuff is not really usefull like key terms… what is that for?

“also some fo the stuff is not really usefull like key terms… what is that for?”

Yeah, we will probably remove the “suggest keywords.” Basically, we are licensing the technology that does this and that feature came with the package. Keywords are typically used for search engine optimization.

It is interesting looking up these indices. The only PRO item I have up, a simple poem, is ranking as 3-6 years above high school? Ack!

I note from looking them up that the SMOG Index has the highest correlation score, 0.985 for those with 100% comprehension of test materials according to grade level. It is also used by the NIH to test comprehensibility for public information. That one might be useful to have too. SMOG places the readability of that same poem at 11.22 – which seems more accurate to me.

So far, I suspect these indices are designed for prose, and they may not have a high correlation with poetry. Partly, this would be because of the structure of sentences in poetry.

Still, some interesting information for writers when gearing their work for certain age levels, or the public at large. Although, to be honest, I haven’t the foggiest where a work should fall for general consumption…12?

I found the data fun and interesting but, to be truthful, I never find any of these ‘AI tools’ useful.

Remind me of ‘psych’ tests for interviewers – trying to be a silver bullet for those either lacking skills or lazy.

Give me a human opinion and set of eyes any day.

General consumption should fall around 9th grade – Reader’s Digest is at that level… methinks.

I’m not sure about fiction, but in my line of work, we have to make sure the consent forms we use are not above 8th grade level.

Unfortunately, in my line of work, simplicity is counterintuitive. Words have specific meanings within specific contexts, and everyone’s terrified of rocking the boat by using similar words when the old one is understood and works perfectly fine where it is. I remember citing dictionary definitions to demonstrate the government’s policy on disability pensions had shifted, incorrectly, and they were – quite frankly – wrong. And they were…so said three wise men.

Is there a way to turn off Pro Data on a submission so that you can turn it on for another piece of writing? Since we can only have two submissions under Pro Data, it would be nice if we could modify which submissions are signed up for Pro Data. Sorry if this has already been discussed but I didn’t find a way to do this and I really would love if this feature were added to Pro Data. Otherwise, it’s a great way of getting your writing noticed and reviewed!

The only way to do that is to delete the items you have as PRO. No other way, I am afraid is available at the moment.

I have been calling for a more interactive “storage” for our pieces… any news on this?

“I have been calling for a more interactive “storage” for our pieces… any news on this?”

What do you mean?

The ability to sort by genre, date posted, etc.

The ability to search for all reviews/comments by a user on our pieces.

And other such niceties.

Make two separate lists, one for items and one for reviews, of filters and sorting criteria you would like to see. Put it in feature requests.

Thanks,

Steve