Comment on Call for Feedback on Category Change Proposal

  1. A cartoon drawing of Ada Lovelace as a child, reading a Calculus book, by 2googles

    Hi there!

    Not all potential subcategories will exist — not necessarily even all those we've used to illustrate the system. All fandoms that don't fit any submedium will just be placed in the category (or categories) they belong to, and will be filterable by language and country of origin.

    Thanks for your feedback; I've recorded it to use it in our discussion.

    Best,
    hele
    AO3 Category Change

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    1. Thanks! It definitely makes sense that things that would go in a subcategory that would tiny are better off just being in the parent.

      My biggest objection right now is to brand names as categories. Those get tagged as fandoms and I think it's fine that way. I liked the suggestion of breaking superhero comics out as a subcat.

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      1. Superhero comics is kinda wishwashi, too. Sailor Moon, Naruto, Luffy and a bunch of others can easily be counted as superheroes. Should they get in there, too?

        I'm getting the feeling that this re-categorisation is trying to transport apples and bananas in the same boxes and expecting both of them to be still be sell-able at the end.

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        1. Rusyuna from Grenadier holding her hat brim

          While they definitely can easily be counted as superheroes, in practice no one I'm aware of in anime and manga fandom as it currently exists would classify them that way, not even series like Dragonball Z that are deliberately inspired by American superheroes. It's a theoretical overlap, but one that no user I'm aware of would have difficulty with. So it's really a question of whether in this case we're looking for a user-driven set of categories, or an archive-driven one that makes clearer distinctions. Both are totally valid organizational schemas.

          Also, I should note that I'm not aware of any classification system that eliminates ambiguity. Both Library of Congress and Dewey cataloguing allow for significant variation based on individual decisions by librarians, and I wouldn't expect the AO3 not to either. To some extent, you're always going to have judgement calls that require decisions by your staff, and it's just a question of where you want those to happen most often -- we've already raised the question of whether imprints owned by DC and Marvel that are traditionally mostly or entirely separate from their main universes belong in those categories as things currently stand.

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      2. A cartoon drawing of Ada Lovelace as a child, reading a Calculus book, by 2googles

        Hi,

        We're registering the objections to the submedia names, and we will be discussing alternatives.

        Best,
        hele
        AO3 Category Change

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        1. Thanks! Much appreciated!

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