Template talk:Fanon

Repurposed

With the Fanon Purge in effect, this template in its original form became moot. However, seeing how a *lot* of fan-made image files for various rank insignia were tagged with it, I decided to keep it and re-word it for a new purpose... resulting in the new text. Frabby 14:10, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

Old Talk page

The following is a carryover from the older talk page(s), and not relevant anymore, though I didn't want to delete it:

Merge into Template:Fanon

I don't see any real difference between an article on a canonical subject, and a Fanon story. Yet we have two distinct templates for these, and many contributors seem to mix them up. I have therefore altered the Template:Fanon to read "article/story", effectively covering both cases. The next step would be to delete the superflous Template:Fanonarticle. However, this would require small changes to numerous articles which currently include that template. Also, I didn't create the template in the first place. Before purging it for good, therefore, I take this opportunity to ask if anyone knows a good reason to keep it after all?

If nobody objects, then I shall proceed to delete this template and change the articles accordingly in due time. Frabby 13:10, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

I see a clear difference. Using the same tag lumps them into the same category. If you could see how it was before, you'd see a series on military unit and biography articles mixed up with stories, when the intent between the two is quite different. I really wanted to be able to highlight fan fiction (which comes with its own appreciation by BT fandom) and is linked to on the main page.

The answer, if the tag is doomed to deletion, is to add the criteria of differing cat tags in the help file for the different categories of fan articles.

Also note: the deletion review and process tags are now being displayed on the fan articles, as they were added to the templates. I've assured (I hope) one contributor that his custom 'Mech article was not up for deletion. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 19:43, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

I see where you're coming from (to a degree). But the difference is not within the "Fanon" aspect of the articles. Those stories, 'Mechs, characters etc are all equally fan-made and should therefore receive the same single "Fanon" tag. Case in point, the users who mistake one template for the other, and end up using the wrong template time and again for their fanon article. Would it not be better to lump all Fanon articles together, but add categories to sub-sort them?

As for the deletion template, oops. :/ Unintended side effect. Will remove it from the Fanon template. Frabby 20:12, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

As I have no problem using the same tag, we're in agreement. Moving on to administration, you and I (appear to) agree that categories would be the way to differentiate. I'm fine with the sub-category concept. How do you propose to institute it? Clarification: normally we used an embedded cat tag within the fanon tag. In this case, doing so lumps them together automatically. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 23:48, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Which is as it should be imho - I positively want all Fanon-tagged articles to be lumped together in one Fanon category. My suggestion is to combine the current "Fan Fiction" and "Fanon articles" category into "Fanon" (in line with the "Fanon" tag), and use this as the embedded master Fanon category. For custom-made units we already have sub-categories (i.e. Category:BattleMechsCustom), all we need to do is to instate a similar category expressly for stories. "Fan Fiction" seems an appropriate name here. The current Help:CreateFictionStoryArticle has a [[Category:Fan Fiction]] tag at the bottom (it was obviously made before this was embedded in the Fanon template) and thus needs not be altered. Might save a lot of work when implementing the change. Frabby 08:07, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Sounds like you have a handle on it. This Editor supports. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 12:31, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Name of master category

Frabby, what about 'Fan Submissions' for the name of the master category? Fan fiction seems to me to imply stories...and only stories. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 20:42, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

My own gut feeling leans towards "Fan Fiction" more than "Fan Submissions", but I should (again) point out that I'm not a native speaker. I would say that "Fan Fiction" is pretty clear on what it tries to say, i.e. this is something entirely made up by a fan, and technically it is also correct because any fan contribution is by its very nature fictional. "Fan Submission", on the other hand, lacks the clarity of the expression "fiction"; the term somehow has a more official air. Perhaps because "submission" sounds a lot like it was solicited. I'd prefer to make it perfectly clear that we're dealing with non-solicited stuff that fans made up, and "Fan Fiction" seems to be spot on. I don't feel it implies stories at all. Frabby 12:22, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Okay, I concede that point, as it removes one problem (my definition of 'fiction' as relating to narrative stories) and replaces it with another (your issue with 'submission'). Let's both keep our minds open for a healthy alternative. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 17:26, 18 March 2010 (UTC)