Editing Category talk:Novellas

==Why have this category?==
BattleTech, by and larger, had two kinds of fiction: 'Long fiction' (novels) and 'short fiction' (everything else, from short stories to novellas). This is even explained in the respective categories. The main reason behind this, I think, was BattleCorps' initial limitation to short fiction, which they apparently circumvented by publishing novels as multi-part stories, before they published full novels straight later on.

I don't think a category 'Novella' is useful to have, especially given that the boundaries between short stories, novellettes, novellas and novels are only very loosely defined and have little if any meaning beyond being an inaccurate measure of approximate word count. Even now with only two categories in place there is overlap, i.e. fiction that is sorted into both categories. Why would we want to sort out novellas into their own category? [[User:Frabby|Frabby]] ([[User talk:Frabby|talk]]) 16:43, 29 July 2020 (EDT)
@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 I don't think a category 'Novella' is useful to have, especially given that the boundaries between short stories, novellettes, novellas and novels are only very loosely defined and have little if any meaning beyond being an inaccurate measure of approximate word count. Even now with only two categories in place there is overlap, i.e. fiction that is sorted into both categories. Why would we want to sort out novellas into their own category? [[User:Frabby|Frabby]] ([[User talk:Frabby|talk]]) 16:43, 29 July 2020 (EDT)
-:I have been debating in my own head for a while as to weather we should have a novella category and I agree that adding the new category does not actually bring anything to the wiki that is not already served by the current system. But I keep coming back to one single sticking point. CGL are actively promoting them as novellas.--[[User:Dmon|Dmon]] ([[User talk:Dmon|talk]]) 17:15, 29 July 2020 (EDT)
-::Frabby, I do think it's useful. It's what the OFFICIAL company calls them, and lists. I'm not INVENTING a new naming. I'd like make it very clear to players / readers who has and will buy these things and may want a list of them. They are officially called Novellas not a Short Fiction.  Their being SOLD as Novellas.  No one going THINK OF calling them Short fiction. Catalyst Game Labs CLEARLY defines this category of books as Novellas, in a physical LIST. If you read at the end of the recent novella releases, they clear state it. The latest book is the 25th book of the novellas. [https://imgur.com/a/VudMkRU Here scan of the list DIRECTLY from the novella itself.] -- [[User:Wrangler|Wrangler]] ([[User talk:Wrangler|talk]]) 17:32, 29 July 2020 (EDT)
-::I'd like to add additionally.  Our categories do not tell reader what their looking at.  By at least this category defines what these products are.  This is novella, not full novel, or short story that will likely be in anthology because it's too small to be novella and printed on it's own.  This makes sense, specially when you look up a easy/quick list of books instead of digging a lot. -- [[User:Wrangler|Wrangler]] ([[User talk:Wrangler|talk]]) 17:51, 29 July 2020 (EDT)
-:::My misgivings have just been confirmed by Blaine Pardoe's blog where he describes one "novella" as clocking in at 55k words, 10k short of the old ROC novel length. By all standards this should be regarded as a novel, only CGL call it a novella. Which, in my opinion, goes to show that it is meaningless if CGL call it a novel or novella, and thus renders any distinction through categorisation moot. [[User:Frabby|Frabby]] ([[User talk:Frabby|talk]]) 02:56, 4 August 2020 (EDT)