Direction for search results

I think if the user really wants to see the Guides for a single Crop, they will use the filter. And if they want to see Guides for many Crops, they will want to see them interleaved and ranked purely with the ranking factors, without any other organization. So in this case, each Guide would have to specify with text, which Crop it is written for.

How about allowing the user to choose how things are sorted? By default, it can sort by "magic" which is our ranking algorithm that takes into account all factors. There could be a dropdown with the options to sort by: "compatibility", "popularity", "activity", "newness", and "completeness".

This sorting option could also be for Crops. Default would probably be "magic", taking into account not only the number of guides available for the crop, but also on average how compatible they are. Other options could be: alphabetical, compatibility, and popularity.

Sorting options combined with filters could be really powerful and efficient.

Ps, love the css hack!

Another thought: What if when a user is creating a Guide and filling out the Title, we automatically append the Crop's name? - and the user is well aware of it. This would force the user to use words describing their plant or process and prevent them from stating the Crop's name themselves and then it double showing up in places where we want to display it (such as in search results or on the Guide page itself) It would also force it to be there when we do want it! Examples of what we want:

Juicy Heirloom Tomatoes by Nancy
Big, Colorful, and Tasty Heirloom Tomatoes by Nancy
Dry Farmed in a Greenhouse Heirloom Tomatoes by Nancy

What we don't want:

Juicy Heirloom Tomatoes Guide for Heirloom Tomatoes by Nancy
Juicy Guide by Nancy

Messin around, what do you guys think?

Link to play with it/comment on it: https://docs.google.com/a/roryaronson.com/drawings/d/1Bm-FcSiF0NZL4_8vq4zlq9q30n3zmr0oZsc3vbXQnTY/edit

Pretty much! Messing with some quick filter ideas right now…
I really like that idea of forcing the title style. Helps us know how we can display/format it down the line too. …trying to think of times that would be annoying though…

I've been playing around with how simple filters might work and am understand that there are a lot of ways (more complex than this) one might want to filter by and that if crop isn't a priority filtering method then it doesn't belong as it's whole sidebar view. I was under the assumption that this was important to people, but I'm realizing that maybe it isn't. This all said, I think it'd tough to sort by things like "sow time" without showing on each guide card how they're being sorted (ie. showing sow time), which I think could be straying into showing too much info, but maybe not?… maybe there should be a little row of stats icons with seasons icons for sow time, etc (although I imagine for a crop, each variety would vary in more specificity than season).

I see two types of filters that each serve a separate purpose: crop filters and guide filters. Crop filters help the user find the appropriate plant for their area and needs. I think a lot of people will want to filter by crop first (I know I would) to find things like:

• Native?
• Invasive/aggressive?
• Is the fruit good for eating raw, preservation, or cooking?
• Is the plant hardy or delicate?
• Does it look good? (Think about people using OpenFarm for flowers and trees, ornamentals, or making decisions based on the pictures)

Guide filters help the user find the best growing advice for the selected crop. Maybe some people just want to use the guide most compatible with them, they don't really care about the variety so much.

• Is the method organic, biodynamic, hydroponic?
• Is the plant ready to be planted now based on the method?
• What type of soil do I need?
• Do I have the time required to grow this?
• How much water?

So, I think the Crop sidebar is a great idea.

Showing sowing time could be fine, I think, as long as that info was only shown on the card when that sorting option is active.

Also, I want to make a distinction between filtering and sorting. One would filter for sow: now or sow: within 1 month, thereby limiting the number of guides shown to those fitting that criteria. One would sort to list all the guides in some specific order, for example starting with sow time: now, then within 1 week, 2 weeks, etc.

I've not read all the past posts on Loomio or GitHub, so I may be writing this out of ignorance. As I read this thread on search results, I think this discussion of search, filtering, and sorting would benefit from a list and/or diagram of the terms and data fields being considered and their hierarchy and definitions. I'm not sure we're all thinking the same things with words like "crop", "plant", or "variety". And what about "cultivar" and "type"? Also, when I see a distinction made with certain words such as "heirloom" for tomatoes, I think it refers to such a broad grouping that the many varieties (or is that "cultivars"?) it encompasses would make their growing guide very generic and likely not much different from a general "tomato" guide as a whole. I'm assuming that a search has to begin at a high level yet will also allow very specific terms to be added or filtered upon, and defining the hierarchy of those terms may help our discussion of the search function and results presentation design. In the tomato example, I think searching for the word "tomato" should include results that can be filtered based upon "determinate" or "indeterminate", "Beefsteak-type", "Roma/paste-type", "Cherry-type", "Virus resistance", "Time to maturity" etc., which can lead to very specific varieties or cultivars. Then there are all the attributes related to the growing process mentioned by Rory. What is the current thinking for how all that information will be organized and how they relate to each other? Is there a list and/or diagram that lays it all out?

Rory and Mike, good points, definitely oversimplified at the moment. What would be the best way to collaborate and figure out this list of filters and sorts? Google doc perhaps?

Rory, I think sorting on top of filtering isn't necessary if we do it right, especially with combined filters. A lot of times we can intelligently sort based on the filters used (ie. if sow time + appearance are used as filters we should probably sort by nearest sow time and best appearance.

Ryan,
Google docs should work if we make the files editable.

Just wanted to link to these github issues just to give some background to what's already been raised.

(I say raised because it's more like @andruvallance raising concerns about classifying things in certain ways, and everyone else kind of just like "this is complicated, i dunno").

A diagram might be of help. I also think that maybe we just have to decide that we're inserting crops into our database by their binomial names, and then going to have to map localized names to those binomial names, and let users supply such a name if it doesn't exist (we can, for example just say "we notice that you're dutch, what's the dutch name for Amaranthus retroflexus?" and then we add it to our list of common names for that plant).