Shipping Grids

[melannen]

This is how badly I'm procrastinating on the things I'm currently over-deadline on:

I sat down today and decided it was time to finally teach myself Javascript.

So, um, I have made a thing. Specifically, I have made a Troll Romance Shipping Grid Generator, where you can put in a list of characters and then automatically fill out the grid with ♥/⋄/♣/♠. Because that is something I've needed in my life, and I haven't been able to find one that did what I wanted, and it seemed like the sort of thing I could program with pretty basic stuff.

Troll Romance Shipping Grid Maker


There is a bunch more stuff I'd like to fix/add to it, but it's reached the point of functionality that I'm spending more time playing with it than coding it, so I thought I'd share. :P

(and while the example lists there are all Homestuck characters, let's be honest, I made this so I could do a TTOI shipping grid, it is not limited to Homestuck characters.)

Sample grid:

	♋	♍	♎	♑
♋		♣	♥	♦	♣	♠
♍	♣		♦	♠	♣	♥
♎	♥	♦		♣	♠	♣
♑	♦	♠	♣		♥	♣
	♣	♣	♠	♥		♦
	♠	♥	♣	♣	♦

I spent about half the time trying to remember basic programming stuff I haven't used in so long I've forgotten (like, oh yeah, == and = are different, that matters in C-ish languages) and half the time figuring out the weirdness that comes with js and html and making output happen. (I was going to be good and do the styling with all CSS, too, but I still can't make myself do rube goldberg css kludges when table and font tags work PERFECTLY FINE for the purpose. :P I did the CSS-appropriate stuff in CSS, anyway.)

Things to work on:

Style:
more flexible formatting on column/row headers so longer labels fit better
accessibility
figure out metadata stuff
make page prettier
add comments to code (if i have to, i guess)
figure out how embeds work
in-page way to save grids (output as HTML table?) Done!
mark center diagonal Done!
Highlight row/column on mouseover
recognize image urls in input field
strip unwanted html in input field
strip unwanted html & add bg colors in html output

Functionality:
automatically fill in mirror-image space on grid WOOHOO!
automatically check for duplications/contradictions
notify when a grid is fully drone-safe
add option for & and / symbols for human relationships Done
add option for vacillation
puzzles

Most of those - especially the functionality fixes - will require basically re-doing the whole thing, so it, like, uses actual arrays to store values and stuff, but that can be my Lesson 2 :P

Comments

[cest_what]

Oh my god, that's amazing. What an excellent tool, thank you for sharing!

[melannen]

Thank you! It is such a useful thing I'm sure somebody out there must have done one already, but if so, I never found it.

[erinptah]

I think ♥ could work for human romance too, you know? That's basically equivalent. I like the idea of an & or + option, though.

All the +1s for marking the center diagonal and automatically filling in mirror-image spaces.

[melannen]

Well, but it would be human romance in addition to troll romance (because this is how Homestuck shipping happens, if you don't have at least seven ships for every character somebody dies), so I'd have to keep the human love symbol distinct from the troll matesprit symbol, and ♥ is already claimed by the trolls :P I could go with ♡ maybe, or just a different color heart? But I'd want to keep them very distinct.

And yeah I want the diagonals better! But with my current method of drawing the grid that would be really hard (given my skill level) so not yet!

[stellar_dust]

No no no, leave the diagonals functioning! Because Karkat♠Karkat. And! I put in Star Wars characters and realized that Luke♣Luke is basically EU canon.

I guess you could just make the background grey or something.

(I am failing really hard at writing a paper tonight.)

[melannen]

It would be optional! You could leave the grid completely open (like now) or turn on various automatic checks that limit the possibilities. (I just have to figure out how to do tickyboxes, that's all.)

I think I would probably change the background colors of the squares to make it easier to see where the diagonal is, though, I think that would be helpful to everyone.

[thatyourefuse]

... Do you actually know how badly I need to see the TTOI shipping grid now?

(Also this is marvelous and I need to do it for all my fandoms as soon as I remind myself which symbols are what.)

[melannen]

I was filling it out as if I was Phil, because he probably does keep a Homestuck shipping grid, so possibly less than you think. :P (You can make your own! You don't actually have to know anything about Homestuck to use the tool!)

[thatyourefuse]

... no, actually, that's even more beautiful.

[melannen]

I keep wanting to ship everybody hatesex! The only red heart on the TToI grid so far is Ollie/Himself (well, and Emma/Peter, but that's just because of That One Kinkmeme Fic, it gets into your headcanon.)

ETA: Also I had not realized how strong my Emma⋄Phil bffs feelings were. (Or at least Phil's ⋄ feelings RE: Emma, I'm a bit confused at this point.)

[thatyourefuse]

Phil totally ♥ Peter, though, although I don't know he'd be self-aware enough to put that on his own chart. Although oh my god, you're right, that's what it looks like when Phil is BFFs with someone, and he and Ollie are totally the world's worst kismeses.

(Adam♠Emma if only in his wildest dreams, yes?)

(Really, TTOI is the most polycaliginous show. And dear god, I bounced off Homestuck three times, what am I even doing.)

(Re. headcanon:

<.<

>.>

I wouldn't know. No. Why would I?)

[melannen]

Phil's chart is somewhat different from a chart that reflects reality, it's true. (He ships Ollie♠Emma, but that's mostly because he wants Ollie to keep coming around but doesn't want to admit he ships him with himself.)

(Adam♠Emma, yes!)

(it is really really easy to homestuck!ship without caring about homestuck proper, I should know, I managed, um, a whole six months like that.)

(sorry about the thread freezing! I have no idea how I managed to do that accidentally.)

[thatyourefuse]

Yes. I believe this to be true.

(And somehow Terri manages to have made herself Robyn's auspistice without Robyn having any other relationships. Terri is just like that.)

(I know there's a point at which Homestuck gets to be not tedious and actually starts sounding like incredibly much my kind of thing, and that the tedious opening parts get to be retroactively awesome. I just have yet to make it to that point.)

[melannen]

(I am not someone who's going to try to sell you on Homestuck! I got through the tedious parts in one go over the course of about twenty-four hours while slightly out of my mind with what was probably the flu, I don't really recommend that method either.)

[thatyourefuse]

(I want to sell myself on it! Because trolls! I just -- maybe I'll have another go some other time.)

[thatyourefuse]

Also, I just realized that Freddie and Bel from The Hour swing back and forth between ♥ and ⋄ every time they change camera angles, which I don't think should be possible, poor darlings, no wonder they're so confused. But then they're the ones who end up having sexual tension even in the sedoretu universe in my head where that would be incestuous, so who the fuck even knows with them.

(Freddie and Hector are totally falling in blackrom as of 2.01 though.)

(This is fun. And I should go to bed. Those two statements might be related.)

[calvinahobbes]

OMG you are so right re: Freddie-Bel. /brain realigned.

Although, I think there's totally room to argue that Freddie and Hector belong in the blackrom waaay before s2?

[thatyourefuse]

Freddie and Bel: it's TOO COMPLICATED FOR TROLL QUADRANTS.

And oh, no, they are totally flirting with it from Moment One, but now they've just gone in with both feet. (Also I have a horrible feeling that it would be easy for Bel to get dragged into auspisticizing them. She's going to need a lot more vodka.)

[calvinahobbes]

HAHA SO TRUE!

(OMG yes I think so, too. I'm not sure there's enough vodka in the world, though. Poor Bel.)

[thatyourefuse]

That is some complicated shit, right there.

(Auspisticizing your ex-flushed-fling and your, erm, person. Bet THAT situation doesn't come up all that often. I wonder if you can have some sort of meta-auspistice to facilitate your auspisticeship? Lix could do it. After she stopped laughing.)

[calvinahobbes]

Hee, I'm sure it doesn't! It seems like an awesome solution to have an auspisticeship coach :D Although idk could it work even if Bel <3 Lix (because that is just such an enticing possibility)?

(Is it time for me to make the caveat that I am not per-se in Homestuck fandom, so apologies if I get something wrong /o\ I just love troll romance.)

[thatyourefuse]

Bel♥Lix is getting to be more and more there this season -- oh, I am so not over 2.02. (Lix, honey, we can all SEE where you keep looking, there. Not that we blame you.) I mean, I wanted it last season, but I couldn't get there -- but wow has something shifted. Like, if it were to turn out that they drunkenly kissed at some point during the missing months, I would not be surprised. There is also something going on with Bel and Randall that I can't pin down to a quadrant, n'est ce pas? (Possibly because there isn't a quadrant for "Holy. Crap. Nice To Make Your Acquaintance, Bel's Daddy Issues." Although there should be.)

I don't know, basically I ship Bel/Everyone? Bel/Awesomeness? Bel/Such Multifarious Ways Of Relating To People That If She's Not Sleeping With Everyone, She's Denying Bits Of Herself?

(And I'm not in Homestuck fandom either -- I keep trying to stick with the comic until the good part, and I haven't got there yet. But I will probably try again, because TROLL ROMANCE.)

[calvinahobbes]

Oh oh oh, agreed! There was this wonderful amazingcakes tension there in that scene. I just thought they were so deliciously intimate in that first scene in the bathroom, just the way their near each other and their voices when they talked IDK at that point I could have actually believed they had more than just drunkenly made out, you know? Now I'm not sure, but holy cap I just think Lix would be amazing for Bel.

Wrt Randall I didn't actually pick up on anything? I may just have been too focused on the Randall/Lix MYSTERY, though. But I do just love how much he's already surprised Bel, because she underestimated him HARD in episode 1.

(Possibly because there isn't a quadrant for "Holy. Crap. Nice To Make Your Acquaintance, Bel's Daddy Issues." Although there should be.)
Best sentence ever!

(Thank you, now I feel like less of a poser :oP I did exactly the same thing, tried and failed.)

[thatyourefuse]

TOTALLY agreed; they would actually be great for each other. And Lix manages to be the queerest queer thing ever to have two canon het involvements. And they are so comfortable and casual physically around each other.

With Bel and Randall -- "let me hear your tick, Miss Rowley." I mean, you can absolutely read everything that goes on with them in that episode in a totally gen way, but she is so thrown by him, and I think he likes her in a somewhat left-of-center way, and to my eye there's some sort of kink potential there. IDK, mileage, probably I'm biased by Peter Capaldi and Romola Garai and daddy issues, but I see something. (He's also one of those actors who can have UST with the furniture, so there's that.)

(Needless to say I am also totally obsessed with Lix/Randall. But I was expecting that one.)

[calvinahobbes]

Haha, well, maybe except for how Freddie is plainly queerer, but then again he's only been seen onscreen with Lix, so maybe that doesn't even count? Does their mutual queerness make it impossible to count their tryst as hetero-anything?

Ahh, it's funny because I am usually very susceptible to daddy kink and age difference kink, but mmmaaayyybe my usual being-skeeved-out by the straight iterations of that made me ignore it? Right now I just believe Randall is some kind of mind-reading superhuman -- he's got them all so exactly pegged, it's a wonder to behold how he interacts with everyone *__*

(Yes yes yes. I want to know about them! So badly! I really hope the writers won't string us along all season, I can't bear it!)

[melannen]

I have not started watching The Hour yet, but learning about it via your shipping ideas continues to be fascinating! :D

[thatyourefuse]

Basically: in a sedoretu universe circa S1, Freddie and Bel are the Morning people and Lix and Hector are the Evening people, except Freddie and Bel have incredibly wrong feelings about each other. (The lady Hector is canonically married to is off to the side somewhere, because I adore her but they're not good for each other.)

In a troll romance universe circa S2, Bel used to be flushed with Hector, but now she's auspisticing him and Freddie, Lix and Randall were probably matesprits back in the day but no one's talking, they're having to make up a new symbol (possibly ~) to encapsulate Bel and Freddie, and Bel might be having a flushed crush on Lix or Randall or possibly both.

Really almost in canon circa S2, Lix and Randall are Mummy and Daddy, Bel is having very confusing new feelings about wanting to be parented, Freddie would be totally onboard with being her little brother in an incredibly inappropriate way except for a certain complication who's totally going to dump his skinny ass sooner rather than later, and Hector has gone full metal douchebag and needs snapped back in line hard.

Also sometimes there's some news.

[melannen]

Continuing to be fascinating. :D

>>they're having to make up a new symbol (possibly ~) to encapsulate Bel and Freddie,

Relationships that fluctuate rapidly and continuosly between various categories are troll canon, I just haven't figured out how I'm going to work them in the generator yet - the symbols used in the comic are migraine-inducing animations that flash wildly between the various symbols, but I think I may go with an overlay or something instead. (even if migraine-inducing is probably *accurate* symbolism for many of those relationships.)

[thatyourefuse]

Overlays would be good, or smaller symbols side by side, or something of the type.

(And it is, all joking and pornography aside, really fucking amazeballs TV.)

[calvinahobbes]

This whole description: accurate and amazing! *__*

[calvinahobbes]

THIS IS SO COOL! *___*

[melannen]

I KNOW GOD I NEED TO STOP PLAYING WITH IT.

Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

That is amazingly intricate. Thanks for sharing!

Re: Wow!

[melannen]

You're welcome! I'm glad people are enjoying it.

[swamp_adder]

Whee! This is so much fun to play with. (Totally random: your post on poly relationships got me to start reading Homestuck. Now I'm completely obsessed with it. So, um, thank you!)

[melannen]

It is way more fun than putting symbols in a grid has any right to be! (You're welcome, I guess. (also, sorry. :P))

[silvermink]

Well, to be fair, creating tables is still a perfectly appropriate use of HTML's table tag. :)

[melannen]

You would think, but the first couple pages I tried to use as models were doing similar things (like sudoku games) entirely with CSS and divs. *shudder*

[silvermink]

Blech! That just seems masochistic.

I figure if the table tag was meant to be entirely verboten it wouldn't be in HTML5... but lo, there it is.