Enable alternate, natural sort algorithm for articles

Feature Upgrade · Articles & templates · Created by VoidWatcher
accepted

What functionality is missing? What is unsatisfying with the current situation?

Currently we are able to sort articles in a category alphabetically. This works most of the time, but if we have numeric values in the article title it orders them unintuitively.

Example:

How does this feature request address the current situation?

It would create an alternate sort option where numerics in article titles are sorted naturally.

What I would expect:

What are other uses for this feature request?

This would simplify organizing articles that have numeric values in them. Examples:

  • Hero Protagonist - Book (1, 2, 3, 10, 23, 99, ...)
  • Having a separate article noting the changes between each book for a character's personality / story goal / foils / etc.
  • Dogmatic Agenda (79, 592, 1130, ...)
  • Separate treatises that were the inciting incident for a major religion's schisms.
  • Juror (9, 11, 20, ...)
  • Secret character names in a trial before a big reveal.

How can this be implemented?

As a presumptuous outsider who knows nothing about your backend, I of course know exactly what needs to be done. Here's some helpful links:

And because I know exactly how you want your UI to look, here's a mockup:

The Team's Response

Thanks for the suggestion! We're putting this under investigation, as there are technical limitations we have to work around (related to the structure of the database, as well as scaling issues), but we'll try! In the meantime, I suggest naming your single-digit chapters 01, 02, etc so they are sorted as you expect them to be
Current score

19/300 Votes · +3703 points

Votes Cast

  • +300

    by Gregorian
    on 2024-12-11 06:07
  • +100

    by spooktacular
    on 2024-12-08 02:53
  • +300

    by A Revolutionary Dragon
    on 2024-12-06 23:58
  • +100

    by Willow H.R. Harper
    on 2024-12-02 19:24
  • +300

    by AvalonArcana
    on 2024-12-01 05:15
  • +300

    by DesNordlund
    on 2024-11-24 11:49
  • +300

    by illumiinae
    on 2024-11-22 16:51
  • +1

    by DivinestSmite
    on 2024-11-21 00:49
    AWESOME
  • +1

    by soaptoaster
    on 2024-11-20 18:49
    Qualified support: I agree with The Big G that "03" should not be placed before "1", but I generally endorse that a natural sort would be nice.
  • +1

    by WeStanNikolai
    on 2024-11-19 08:50
  • +100

    by Rilameth
    on 2024-11-17 21:32
  • +300

    by ss2020
    on 2024-11-17 03:44
    Sorting and filtering need a lot of TLC.
  • +100

    by Maz_Cat
    on 2024-11-17 01:28
  • +100

    by The Big G
    on 2024-11-16 21:45
    Qualified support. I'm in favor of numerical ordering, but not if "03" gets placed before "1". If I want something to appear before Chapter 1 I'll call it "Chapter 0.3".
  • +300

    by Amancham
    on 2024-11-16 20:13
  • +100

    by LittleRaider
    on 2024-11-16 13:04
  • +100

    by kaixabu
    on 2024-11-16 11:38
  • +300

    by Jacob-W
    on 2024-11-16 06:25
  • +300

    by BenScerri
    on 2024-11-16 05:57
  • +300

    by VoidWatcher
    on 2024-11-15 18:24