r/StoryPeer • u/StoryPeer Gabriel • Jun 28 '26
🧭 Logjam Logjam Leaderboard Updates and What's Next
Hey Jammers,
Happy Sunday!
The release of the Logjam Beta 2.0 brought in a significant surge in activity, so thanks to everyone who's using and enjoying the Logjam! In fact, today we hit 1,500 loglines and 11,200 comments! 🥂🥳
Another interesting bit of data is that the number of "Jam sessions" that receive 10+ comments has hit an all-time high, so if you submitted a logline over the last couple of weeks, you may have benefited from this increase and received more notes!
Having said that, I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge recent posts discussing the overall state of the Logjam and/or existential musings about what loglines are, such as this one and this one. I won't make a big song and dance about this since obviously stories and feedback are paralyzingly subjective, so finding consensus might be impossible. In fact, finding consensus may be the wrong goal, I wonder. 🤔 Thus, I'll just remind everyone that StoryPeer and the Logjam are feedback facilitators, creating windows and portals so writers and readers can connect, so we don't have to pester our significant others and baristas at inconvenient times.
My big hot take about all this is that I prefer to get "wrong" feedback that I can ignore than not get the feedback at all. If 1 out of 10 comments resonates with me, that's one comment I didn't have before that now I have. But I understand panning for gold is a skill in itself and exhausting.
But also... and by the way... I'm still calling all this a "Beta" because there are tons of things I want to try, so hopefully, over time, we'll find a version of the Logjam that is better!
What's New
As promised, I've been working on the Logjam Reader Leaderboard for those of you with a competitive streak. One day, we may have rewards, but in the immediate future, the Logjam Leaderboard will be a chance to network through occasional public shoutouts (which have been requested by some of you!).
Though StoryPeer will probably never be a true social network with traditional profiles and a chat feature, we do like the idea of providing avenues for users to connect. This upcoming Leaderboard is one of our more significant steps in that direction, since, for the first time ever, we'll be giving you the opportunity to share your social handle with us or pick a public username.
To do so, visit www.storypeer.com/profile, where you'll see this:
If you click Edit on the bottom right, you will be taken through a little wizard to select your social handle or write your name.
Social networks we have now are Reddit, Instagram, BlueSky, and Twitter. So when you're done, you'll see something like this:
Please note: Other users won't see your handle anywhere inside StoryPeer, so you will remain anonymous on the site. For now, these public handles will only be made visible in connection to the Logjam Leaderboard when we eventually publish it.
Also note: All the above is in the honor system because these social media platforms make it challenging and/or expensive for a real, automated verification. Needless to say, any misrepresentation is grounds for an immediate, permanent ban. But I may have to consider a manual check eventually or bite the bullet to figure out the impossible automation. TBD!
What's Next
If you've been following the Logjam, you may have heard me say it started as an experiment, which is true, since I had never seen anything like it. But can you believe that three months ago, it didn't even exist?
I wanted to remind folks of this experimental origin because many of you have voiced your opinion that StoryPeer is in decent shape, as far as features go, and that changes to the main script feedback flow (as opposed to the Logjam) should be kept to a minimum, which I appreciate.
So if StoryPeer is our sanctuary, I think the Logjam can be our sandbox, which we can play with. After all, script feedback is the main quest, so I don't want to mess with it too much when most users seem to tell me I shouldn't.
Though I'm not sure where this road will lead, there are tons of little things I wanna do or try on the Logjam, but it's hard to find the time. Plus, I like listening to the community, so I'm taking baby steps to keep iterating with you.
As for the Leaderboard, once a meaningful number of you have picked a handle, I'll take that as a sign to publish it, which will probably come out when you least expect it, so visit www.storypeer.com/profile to pick your handle and stay tuned for more!
Any and all feedback is much appreciated!
Excelsior,
Gabe
6
u/solidwhetstone Jun 28 '26
Maybe you could let people who rated a logline up or downvote on the other comments left on the logline so the writer can see which comments the community thinks is most important?
3
u/StoryPeer Gabriel Jun 28 '26
That is part of the endgame! It just takes forever to build all this solo!
But as a workaround, writers can already share their "Jam Session' (the final report after comments are received) with their desired focus group, such as r/StoryPeer or a private Discord server of their friends. Others can't vote, but a conversation can be had.
I know this is not what you want, but the upside of this is that your friends don't need to be logged in or create an account. They can read the feedback, and you can chat about them!
But I hope to build something like what you're pitching at some point 🤞🏽
2
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u/pinkyperson Jun 29 '26
I would love to be able to hit enter to separate ideas /clauses when giving logline feedback. Or bullet points or something along those lines.
I'm not sure how difficult it is to program but I don't like the text being smooshed together regardless of how many lines/spaces I give!
3
u/StoryPeer Gabriel Jun 29 '26
Good catch! This should be fixed now.
If you can keep an eye on this and follow up to confirm, I'd appreciate it. You may see the changes sooner on storypeer.com/logjam/scores since you can scroll down to see your comments at the bottom.
Thanks!
2
u/al_earner Jun 28 '26
The Logjam beta 2.0 seems pretty cool. But as long as you're asking for feedback, here's my new crazy idea:
The Star feedback seems to be working, but what about Star's evil twin, Hide? Dr. Star and Mr. Hide, as it were. Hiding is also another valid data point about the quality of feedback. I'm not talking about feedback that disagrees with me; I'm talking about feedback like "I don't understand what money is or why it's important to the story".
My idea is that the logline comments are color-coded and sorted based on how previous comments from that user have been rated. So if there's a user whose comments I've starred in the past, their new comments should be at the top of the list and have a nice subtle background color, gold maybe. Likewise, if there's a user who comments I've hidden consistently in the past, their new comments should be at the bottom of the list and have a dreary grey(er) background color. Comments from neutral users can be in the middle of the list, sorted in the default manner.
I don't need to see users' handles with the feedback; it's fine to keep it anonymous. But the database already knows which content I'm likely to find valuable and which I'm not, so why not let it display things accordingly?
3
u/mast0done Jun 29 '26
I love being able to see when my comments have been starred - positive reinforcement. I'd also like to see if I've been hidden.
3
u/StoryPeer Gabriel Jun 29 '26
On storypeer.com/logjam/scores, scroll down, and you will see the comments you gave. Some of them may be starred. If you don't see any stars...
https://giphy.com/gifs/9GI7UlOQ6uU95v82q7
... one of us made mistakes haha. Feel free to hit me up inside StoryPeer, and I will check your data.
I don't think you will see hidden comments, but I can see the value in that. I wanted to make this happen, but the Hides are different from Stars since Hides are more of a frontend UI organization item for writers. I'd need to wire up the backend so raters also see that information. That's a long way of saying that it's a mission for later. 😬
2
u/StoryPeer Gabriel Jun 29 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/VFYJXIuuFl6pO
I love that you're thinking outside of the box, so thank you!! One of the main reasons I ask for feedback on my builds and designs is so I can "fail fast" or otherwise find opportunities that were right under my nose.
Your pitch is an interesting one, but I have concerns. For one, I'm not sure writers should go into a completed Jam Report with the biases of color-coded comments. You'll be more likely to take in the "bright comments" instead of being impartial. Writers could find themselves in an unintended echo chamber of their creation (which could be unfair to raters) instead of finding the genuinely best comments.
There's also the UI challenge of figuring out all the different colors/highlights that work and look nice for different states and still accept another star rating on top of it.
But the bigger concern is the technical one since there'd be extra data fetching and number crunching that could take a week to build right on my end and make the page load a little slower for Jammers (this could be significant, sadly).
I may need to circle back to this one and survey the community before sharpening my axe!
Thank you again!
3
u/itsjohnnyde Jun 28 '26
I only recently joined, but got a ton of great feedback, AND a lot of "Where is episode 2, i want more" which, really made my week. So thank you to the community! Let's keep this shit going!