Status of Fanwork Categories

[aethel]

Since response to the fanwork category proposal post was positive, we have started creating the proposed fanwork subcategories. So far, we have added:

* Zine Fandom
* Podfics
* Fanfiction
* Vids

and updated the corresponding templates. Now the Fanworks category contains only 348 pages, down from over 11,000! Check out the current Fanworks category.

The fanart categories haven't been created yet because we wanted to double check on what categories are needed. Because these categories would be added manually, and there are over 29,000 image files on Fanlore to sort through, we want to do it right the first time, if possible. So far, the proposed list includes:

* Category:Artworks
** Category:Zine Covers
** Category:Doujinshi Covers
** Category:Manips
** Category:Icons
** Category:Banners
** Category:Drawings

1. Are these good category names?
2. Anything missing?
3. Would zine covers with drawn artwork be given both the Zine Covers and Drawings categories?
4. Zine Covers needs to be further subdivied since there are so many examples on the wiki. (What is a useful way to do this? Fandom? Style? Decade? Do we want to distinguish between "art covers" and text-only covers?)
5. No one has requested this yet, but how about a "Calendars" category? There are quite a few articles about print calendars on the wiki.

Commenters on the last post also requested other templates and categories. So far, we have a template (but no category) for Template:FanFilm and related stuff. Also proposed:

*Filk
*Podcasts (needs a template first) new template
*Tape Zines (might have to be added manually?)

Regarding Filk, we have a filk album template (and an unused songbook template), but no dedicated categories other than Filk Music. We have a brand new filksong template that needs some feedback from filk experts. Do we want a new category like Filk Songs & Albums? Like this:
* Category:Filk Music (existing)
** Filk Songs & Albums (new)

Or do we want separate categories? Like this:

* Category:Filk Music (existing)
** Filk Songs (new)
** Filk Albums (new)

Comments

[elf]

I've got some feedback about filk even though I think I had a lot of influence on the template; looking at it now, I've got maybe different thoughts.

Filk could maybe use a TTTO (to the tune of) line in the template instead of "original." Original tunes would just say "original" in that spot. I believe TTTO filks are the vast majority--but not in recordings, where licensing comes into play.

"Name of fan who wrote the lyrics" is odd--some filks weren't written by fans. Jabberwocky sung to the tune of Greensleeves is a filk favorite. And Leslie Fish gave tunes to a lot of Kipling's poetry. There's potentially an argument that those aren't "really filksongs," but that's not specifically relevant for Fanlore, other than being a potential space for MPoV input.

Performer is weird. Filksongs don't have specific performers unless they're recorded, and those might have several performers. (I mean, might be recorded by several different people on different collections.) Albums have performers; individual songs don't. (If there's a song whose writer refuses to allow anyone else to perform it, that can be noted in the text somewhere.)

Suggestion:
* Category:Filk Music (existing)
** Filk Songs (new)
** Filk Albums (new)
** Filk Books/zines
** Filk fanac

I'm unsure of the proper label for the last two. With a bit of thought, I could maybe come up with differences between the standard Fanzine template & a Filk Zine/Songbook template (Includes sheet music y/n? Includes chords y/n? Single theme/genre or various?) but I haven't got time/energy right now to really sort that out.

Filk fanac: there are filk conventions, filk awards, filk events ("house filks"), and filky websites.

There are enough of all of these things to justify a category set on Fanlore, even if there aren't many there now. Part of the reason Fanlore continues to grow in ficfandom and zines and not so much other areas, is the tendency of wikis to build on what already exists instead of branching into new territory; having the categories available would encourage more pages being built.

[aethel]

Thanks for your feedback! I made the changes you suggested to the Filk Song template.

It'll be easy to create separate "Filk Songs" and "Filk Albums" categories now that we have the templates.

I've been noodling around with a FilkSongbook template, but I don't know how useful it is. We could also have a FilkZine template. We could define "Filk Zines" as all zines with some filk-related content and then create Filk Books as a subcategory? Like this:

Filk Music
* Filk Zines
** Filk Books

Zines
* Filk Zines
** Filk Books

?

[elf]

I would think that "filk zine" and "filk songbook" are the same thing. It's just that filkers don't call them zines; they call them "songbooks" or just "books" (because a filk book is obviously a songbook). (IME; YMMV.) I don't know of any "filk zines" that aren't collections of songs, although there might be some with non-song content. Certainly, there are many with editorial notes/intros; could easily be some with an essay or two; not sure there's any that have fic, as opposed to "a fic zine with a song or two included."

Filkers who visit the site would not be likely to look in the "zines" category to find filkbooks. It would make sense to them if they found them there, but they wouldn't necessarily think of categorizing them that way without being told that's where they were. They would, however, look under "filk music." And possibly get confused by the label "filk zines," wondering if someone had made fanfic about filkers or specifically for filk conventions or something like that.

(Hmm, does Fanlore have a way to embed sounds? This question has nothing at all to do with categorization.)

---

Entirely other topic: How are APAs categorized? Are they a subset of zines or their own thing? (What I know of APA fandom could fill whole thimbles, so it's not an area I'm comfortable expounding on; I'm just aware that it runs in somewhat different circles than zineishness.)

[aethel]

APAs are in the Newsletters & Letterzines category.

We do tend to default to "zines" as the generic term for any fannish print periodical. There's also an issue where every zine that includes material related to more than one canon could be labeled a "multimedia zine", even though I understand the term to refer specifically to media fandom zines. I'm not sure what to do about that, especially since I have zero first-hand knowledge of any fannish print tradition.

I had thought that there were zines about filking that did not contain lyrics/chords, but I can't call up any examples at the moment.

[aethel]

so far, I've created these two categories:

http://fanlore.org/wiki/Category:Filk_Albums
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Category:Filk_Songs

(There's an unfortunate side effect wherein the main Albums category is now empty because we don't have any documentation on wizard rock albums. I hope this is temporary.)

[elf]

I can kind-of imagine other fannish Album types (um, Renfaire things? Bands like Avalon Rising? Rocky Horror Picture Show audience participation album?) so I'm not worried about it being wizard rock only.

I should, um, maybe add more songs to the filk songs template. Hm. (When I have more brain. Finding template details & instructions is beyond me right now.)

Other filksongs (which I am listing so I'll remember them, or someone else can add filk template details):
http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Horse-Tamer%27s_Daughter_%28filksong%29
http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Battle_Hymn_of_the_Helpers
http://fanlore.org/wiki/My_Old_Man
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Rebel_Pilot%27s_Lament
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Temper_of_Revenge
http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Territory_of_Rigel
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Tie-Fighters_in_the_Sky
http://fanlore.org/wiki/We_Didn%27t_Start_the_Fandom
http://fanlore.org/wiki/Zaphod_Beeblebrox_and_Me

Songs that should get added (when someone who knows about them has time; mentioning it here gives me an email that will work as a reminder for when I've got time):
S-100 Bus
Old Time Religion
Velveteen
Yoda and The Saga Begins (which Weird Al insists are not filk, but damn do they get sung at filksings fairly often)
What Shall We Do With A Drunken Hobbit?
You Bash the Balrog

[aethel]

psst, I just created the Filk Songbooks category.