Fic-Privileging on Fanlore and Limitations to Fannish Diversity

[kylara]

Following a discussion in Talk:Tentaclefic, RatCreature suggested bringing the topic up in the community to raise awareness of the issue and hopefully get some more input on what to do about it. The topic began with the suggestion that the "Tentaclefic" article, which address tentacles in fandom and fanworks more broadly than just fic, be renamed to incorporate other mediums of fanwork. This expanded into a broader discussion on what to do about other such named articles and fic-privileging on Fanlore.

I'm mostly from anime/manga fandom. From the discussion it seems that fic is the core of many Western-sourced fandoms which would explain the fic-centricism on Fanlore. Fic is also important in anime/manga fandom, but quite a lot of activity is also focused on visual mediums such as fanart, webcomics, and manga-style doujinshi. Tropes aren't limited to written fiction, and fic-centered terms are not as prevalent.

I'm concerned that when topics (such as tentacles) have articles with fic-centered instead of inclusive names, that this works at the exclusion of other mediums of fanworks. I would like to see more anime/manga information brought into Fanlore, and so far the inclusion has been rather limited (which could be for a number of reasons besides). Still, I would like to see Fanlore remain welcoming to expansion.

So how about it? Ideas on how to be more mindful to non-fic fanworks? RatCreature's also looking for ideas on how to rename topics like "wingfic," "apocafic," and others which are not inherently fic-centric.

Comments

[torachan]

I think this is the best solution. And apocafic can redirect to Apocalypse, tentaclefic can redirect to Tentacles, etc. so that if fans type in those terms they still get to the right place.

[yue_ix]

I really like this suggestion of redirecting and referring. As someone who's as interested in visual art as she is in fics, I've noticed that a lot of artists themselves describe their works with "wingfic" and "babyfic" even if their mediums aren't fic, because that was the only term at their disposition. This leads to a lot of things being miscategorized, especially if new catgories are being created without being linked to. A redirection to the most generic term would allow everyone to have a global idea and then refine their searches to any of the sub-categories.