MOD Classification of Story Eras Discussion

I like #1 or #2

 

<Gasp> It's the Disney Continuity Police (DCP). But seriously, I'm glad they're just stating how things are early on. And I'm glad they're not using the EU as a guide. Lucas did not for the prequels (like it really shows that none of the pre-prequel EU books mention that honking big Jedi Temple and the fact that Jedi are forbidden to have family attachments) so it would not make any sense for them to do so for the future movies.

I like Option 1 (allowing multiple tags would be a big help) and Option 2. Not so hot about Option 3 (Battle of Yavin always seemed like an odd way to date things since it's in the middle of the Saga). I don't think Option 4 would work well with this new Legends thing. Also don't like Option 5 -- Before and Beyond are too different to be lumped together. And I don't think Option 6 will work -- something has to change.

With the tag system(especially if stories can have multiple tags), I don't think you need to split the forum, unless it would become too big with everything in it. If that is the case, the problem is how to split it

The problem is (for either split forums or new tags) that everything has to be sorted now by source timeframe (pre- and post-Disney) AND GFFA timeframe (referenced to the Saga)

- Saga refers to the movies and it doesn't matter if they're pre- or post-Disney. Saga is the source that even Disney bows to.

EU Legends is pre-Disney EU - non-movie sources; books, games, comics, etc. -- [Will SW: The Clone Wars be EU Legends, too, I wonder?--- EDIT: never mind, I just reread the statement about Legends - Clone Wars is canon, too.]

But what do we call post-Disney EU? How about just GFFA? [Will the new post-Disney cartoons be EU or Saga? -- EDIT: same here; those are canon, too]

 

I like option 3 or 4 the best, but I'm an oldtimer and remember how having the different boards for different eras made it easier to find things. Tags aren't a bad way to go, but it does make it harder to just browse, particularly when one era happens to be in vogue.

 

Was anything ever decided on this, or was it forgotten about? Some kind of system needs to be put in place before too long, as there are a few Episode VII fics and Rebels fics out there, and the number of those will only grow as Rebels progresses and The Force Awakens gets closer.

 

It has not been forgotten, nor completely decided on, but thank you for bringing it up again so other may join the discussion if they choose to. We do realize a decision does need to be made sooner rather than later.

 

Okay. I read the whole thread and this is going to be one big mess of a headache. The easiest option is obviously number 6 (leave everything as is, it's up to the writers to indicate which universe they follow in the thread title) but once Disney-canon stories start pouring in, it's all going to be very chaotic.

I think a powerful argument in favour of option 1 (i.e. keeping the existing tags and offering the option of adding a Legends tag) is simplicity. It doesn't require re-classification of the entire archive, and by archive I mean the 22,948 threads that currently exist in the "Before, Saga and Beyond" sub-forum. It would be easier for the mods to simply add the Legends tag by default to all existing stories and ask writers to remove it if it doesn't apply to theirs. Imagine having to re-classify everything with new tagging categories (which is probably not feasible anyway) and then being pestered by writers who are not happy with the re-classification of their story In reality, all Before and Beyond stories would get the Legends tag anyway, and if Saga writers are not around to correct the tagging on their story, well, too bad, but that wouldn't leave too many stories out.

The fact that Disney reserved the prerogative to re-canonize anything they want from the EU is also a strong argument for this option. If someone is writing a Saga story that involves Legends characters now, but those characters are later re-canonized by Disney, hey, leave it up to them to update their tags.

There's one more thing though: if we decide to add a Legends tag, we'll also need to add a Canon tag so that a reader can filter the stories by era and then by canon status.

In terms of simplicity and feasibility, creating a fanfic board for new stories and moving all existing stories to an archive board may be a good option, but I personally wouldn't like it as I really enjoy opening the list of all fics and reading things at random. Another argument against it for the mods' sake is the risk of pestering by writers who want their story moved to the new board and it doesn't eliminate the need for a new classification system in the new board anyway.

That was my two drachmas

 

And here I thought Greece was on the Euro now...

 

I'm practising for the future, just in case. Besides, 2 drachmas is just under 0.6 cents of a euro. You got my opinion on the cheap

 

For tags possibly do, before movie saga, movie saga, Beyond movie saga and split EU into Pre ANH and post ANH?

 

Just wanted to give an update on this. Bri and I planned on making this our first priority after the awards, so I contacted the person we needed to talk to about doing multiple tags to see if we could do that yet. (This was by far the most popular of the options.)

Currently, we have not upgraded to the version of XenForo that we need to have multiple tags, but he is hoping that will happen soon. It "soon" turns into longer, we may have to do a temporary change that will easily morph into multiple tags, but I don't think we are quite at the need for that, yet.

 

I was actually planning to ask about this at some point today, as some stories will definitely go from e.g. Saga to Beyond. So, this would be a great, great thing, thank you.

Also, it would be really interesting to have tags corresponding to the spin-off films and all the TV series released so far. To fan fiction n00bs, it will help them find the stuff they will likely want, related to recently popular things and to those who go deep, deep down the hole of the TV canon (is this even a separate thing?), it can serve as a way to find something they probably thought of as non-existent.

 

I don't mean to nag, but - no, wait, sorry, I guess I do mean to nag, and even if I don't, people are going to say I'm nagging anyway, so why bother with this lame qualifier in the first place, right? Of course right!

So . . .

Has anything been decided yet?

 

I think adding multiple tags would probably be the best way to do it.

 

Basically, we are still waiting on the person who can, to upgrade the version of Xenforo so we can have the multiple tag system (by far the best and easiest option). If we don't have a concrete time soon, then we will try to figure out something in the meantime.

 

And who is that person so that I can yell at nag him or her? Because I know that upgrade will also fix the editing issue in Firefox, which is INCREDIBLY annoying, but we've been waiting on the upgrade for about TWO ****ING YEARS already. (Seriously, how long does it take to upgrade the forum software?)

 

On the other half, if the new Xenforo is anything like Invision 4.0, which is a rapid change with so, so many unnecessary AJAX gizmos everywhere; we may be setting ourselves on fire when it's done.

 

Another forum I'm on tried to upgrade from Invision 3.x to Invision 4.0 last month. It was so buggy that people just kept complaining. Among the problems, one prominent member was shut out completely because his only internet access is an iPhone, and the new software refused to play nice with iPhones. After about a week, the forums started to get themselves into a get loop, and the tech admin threw in the towel at 4:30 AM and reverted to 3.x.

So yeah, I hope the new Xenforo version isn't like Invision 4.0.

 

In a similar situation, on the board glitteryboots and I are members of, I ran out of memory despite 8Gb of it and the guy running the board sort of...enjoys his users' woes. He told people to get better tablets and phones, he disabled signatures and some other features, trying them to pass as deprecated as of 4.0. And then he asked us for donations. LOLNOPE.

Now I kinda hope the get loop thing will happen to him, too. He needs an "I told you so" badly.

My personal issue is that I will have to buy the licence for 3.4.7. because I forgot to upgrade on time.

So, whoever is doing this should test Xenforo first. I have this nightmare that other prominent board solutions will be going for Invision's "great" example.