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The Jim Ellison page on Fanlore, admittedly compiled mostly by me, was tagged as "Needs More Fandom."
I can see how it might be redundant to make Fanlore into an encyclopedia of canon information about, say, Captain Kirk, because he's well documented elsewhere, but who cares about a little redundancy, especially when the information is better organized and easier to find there than elsewhere? I'd rather see Fanlore include some redundancy than omit information fans need. After all, who needs to know canon in more obsessive detail than fic writers? And who has that information in more obsessive detail than other fans? Where else are you going to go for that kind of stuff?
I understand that the original idea of Fanlore is to document the community and experience of fans (that's why it includes all those pages on various wanks and dramas, etc.), but to my mind, any information that helps fans in the pursuit of their fannish goals should be equally prized, not just the information you won't find anywhere else. Are we so hard up for server space that we need to focus on fandom to the exclusion of canon? How does that even make sense? Fandom is meaningless without canon!
/end rant.
(Am I the first person to be snitty about an OTW project? Do I get the Rodney McKay Trophy for Unnecessary Negativity in the Face of an Optimistic Enterprise?)
This article needs more fandom/fannish content. Please try to focus on how fans relate or interact with this subject or topic. See What Fanlore is not for more information.I'm so not trying to be the guy who gets all "MY BABY! YOU MUST NOT EDIT IT!!!!" about a page on a wiki, but I have to say I don't think it's a fair criticism--and here I'm not referring to the specific page (which admittedly lacks fandom content), but of ANY canon-based page. The implication that canon information is irrelevant or inappropriate content for Fanlore confuses me. The "What Fanlore is not" page includes phrases like "Fanlore is not a pop culture encyclopedia." Well, when it comes to works like The Sentinel, which are popular pretty much exclusively within fanfic-writing communities, who is?
I can see how it might be redundant to make Fanlore into an encyclopedia of canon information about, say, Captain Kirk, because he's well documented elsewhere, but who cares about a little redundancy, especially when the information is better organized and easier to find there than elsewhere? I'd rather see Fanlore include some redundancy than omit information fans need. After all, who needs to know canon in more obsessive detail than fic writers? And who has that information in more obsessive detail than other fans? Where else are you going to go for that kind of stuff?
I understand that the original idea of Fanlore is to document the community and experience of fans (that's why it includes all those pages on various wanks and dramas, etc.), but to my mind, any information that helps fans in the pursuit of their fannish goals should be equally prized, not just the information you won't find anywhere else. Are we so hard up for server space that we need to focus on fandom to the exclusion of canon? How does that even make sense? Fandom is meaningless without canon!
/end rant.
(Am I the first person to be snitty about an OTW project? Do I get the Rodney McKay Trophy for Unnecessary Negativity in the Face of an Optimistic Enterprise?)