Fandom as a Category v2 Posted

[meri_oddities]

We have posted the revised version of the Fandom as Category policy change Here to the Fanlore wiki. We invite discussion on it. Please post your comments here on Dreamwidth. If there are no problems or issues that require a change, the policy will become final in seven days after posting (4/28/2010).

At that time, we'll start adding the fandom categories and we'll put out a call for help with moving and changing the pages the need it.

Comments

[mikes_grrl]

I'm sorry to be dense, but I don't understand this from the technical end. I read the policy change and I certainly don't have any issues with it theoretically, but I'm not understand how this changes pages. Which okay, doesn't really matter at my level of use of fanlore but I'd still like to understand. :)

For instance, I've worked on the Life on Mars fandoms pages (http://fanlore.org/wiki/Life_On_Mars), as there are at least three fandoms for it (UK, US, and for the off-shoot show A2A). I made a page and mistakenly tried to make the individual fandoms subpages to the primary LoM page, although that was fixed later. Anyway, if LoM is a category now, is the main page unnecessary? Because in my mind the main page is kind of important in explaining the sub-fandoms, which is how I made the sub-pages mistake to begin with. I guess I just don't get the database relations here.

I'm sorry to be asking such a n00b kind of question, but I don't think I can really debate the matter anyway until I understand what the change effects. :(

[meri_oddities]

Okay, so I'd create a fandom called: Life on Mars. And then you'd put [[category:Life_on_Mars]] on the bottom of all the main page and the 4 sub- pages. When you clicked on Life on Mars under Fandoms by Source Text category, you'd get the main page and the sub-pages listed.

For more complex fandoms, like say, Harry Potter, you'd have sub-categories under it, like pairings and characters and communities.

Does this make any sense to you?

[mikes_grrl]

Thank you for replying!

So the categories are meta structures, outside the hierarchical framework of the individual entries, used for relational (and search) functions?

Perhaps it's a taxonomy issue for me; there is the "category" level, which serves as a bucket for all things associated with that topic; then the main fandom page (e.g. the Life on Mars main page, in this case) is NOT a category, but a...what? A hub?

(also, as it stands now, the sub-fandoms are NOT sub-pages; would that change now? Or the meta-category of "Life On Mars" serving as a bucket for them would continue to make that unnecessary?)

[aethel]

No, the sub-fandoms would not become subpages.

The main fandom page, like the other fandom pages, would be added to the "Life on Mars" category. The content of the page isn't affected by the fandom category policy--it'll evolve in whatever way makes sense to the editors (you!). The main Life on Mars page seems like a hub already.

(frozen)

[arduinna]

The main page is definitely necessary! It may help if you don't think of it as a database per se; think of it as tags.

The category/tag "Life on Mars" belongs to all things Life on Mars, from main summary page to individual fandom pages.

In addition, the category/tag "Life on Mars (UK)" belongs on the Life on Mars: UK fandom page, as well as its pairing pages, character pages, convention pages (if there are any), etc.

In addition, if the fandom is big enough to need specific character pages (rather than just having the character info on the main page), the category/tag "Life on Mars (UK): Characters" belongs on the "Gene Hunt (Life on Mars UK)" page.

(And the same structure for Life on Mars (US) and Ashes to Ashes, obviously.)

So as a fandom gets larger and more complicated, each level of "precision" (for lack of a better term) gains another category, while still belonging to all the categories above it.

Assuming I'm understanding this correctly. *g*