Comment on Call for Feedback on Category Change Proposal

  1. Live Action Films, TV Shows & Other Productions
    Animation, Comics, Manga & Other Sequential Art
    You don't think much about Smartphones and other smaller screens, do you?

    I already hate fanfiction.net's 'can't find fandoms anymore, because sorted by popularity' change, AO3's propsed 'tons of useless spacewasting blurbs for the juggernauts that totally really absolutrly need that exposition, but no obvious way to find the fandoms' change.

    I want one scrollable list, sorted from A to Z (an other applicable characters). I don't want to click to get to a next page, I don't want infini-scroll, I don't want to apply filters, and I absolutely don't want to search. If I want to search, my browser has CRTL+F, which works awesomely on the one scrollable ABC list.

    I need the fandom list to browse, because that's the only thing I use it for.

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    1. Elf in anime style.

      I would also love an option for "one scrollable list of ALL THE FANDOMS," possibly with the umbrella ("& Related fandoms") categories removed. I've often been frustrated trying to move between main categories.

      I'd also like a way to sort fandom lists by numbers of fics, but that's got nothing directly to do with categorizing them.

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      1. Speaking of sorting by number of works...

        I just posted my latest project

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        1. which I explained, but all that was stripped out of the comment. Awesome.

          I made a bookmarklet to do exactly what you want.

          I just can't link to it because I don't have an AO3 account.

          Um, if you email me at carene_waterman at zoho dot com, I can give you the link.

          I'll put up a post at that ao3some on Dreamwidth tomorrow.

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      2. Hi Elf,

        Because of the huge number of fandoms on the Archive (12,990 at present) it is unfortunately simply not possible for us to have a single A-Z fandom listing. While currently the fandom listings are slated to be sorted alphabetically as on the present media pages, we will keep your suggestion for other sort orders in mind.

        Best,
        Lady Oscar
        AO3 Category Change Workgroup

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        1. Elf in anime style.

          Maybe we could have a downloadable/static list? Updated daily, so producing it doesn't drain the servers too much? (Even updated weekly would be better than not having it.)

          I would love to have a way to get a list of all the fandoms--preferably, both with and without the umbrella-fandom listings, but "without" would be first preference--even if it were a basic text list. Right now, if I want to build one, I have to open each category of fandom, copy/paste into a list, and then try to find all the duplicates and remove them.

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          1. Hi Elf,

            I will pass your suggestion along to the coding and design team!

            Best,
            Lady Oscar
            AO3 Category Change Workgroup

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    2. Hand with long red/black nails and a keyboard

      Agreed on the long titles. They're definitely a serious usability issue. I think 'Live action' would be clear enough for the former, and I don't understand why animation and comics should be lumped together and not two categories called 'Animation' and 'Sequential Art'?

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      1. I find just 'Sequential Art' unacceptable as a category title. The titles should give an immediate hint of what is in them. Sequential Art is an academic term that only people in academy or following this discussion, know. The average fan doesn't.

        Animation is also rather undescriptive people might expect to find actual animations there and wonder where the cartoons went.

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        1. "Animated Canons"?

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    3. Hi Gretchen,

      It’s unfortunately not possible for us to provide a complete A-Z fandom listing on one page. The Archive currently has 12,990 fandoms, so the page would simply be too large to be practical for either our users’ devices or our servers.

      Best,
      Lady Oscar
      AO3 Category Change Workgroup

      Last Edited Thu 19 Sep 2013 04:46PM UTC

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