Help:Fandom Categories

Fandoms with multiple pages on Fanlore merit their own category. See Fanlore:Fandom as a Category for more information about this policy. See also this dreamwidth post on additional rules, clarifications and questions about fandom categories.

How do I create a fandom category?

First, check that the category doesn't already exist! Fandom categories are subcategories of Fandoms By Source Text and are listed on the page in alphabetical order--because the parent category is so large, not all of them will appear on the first page. You may also want to check Wanted Categories for spelling variations or a list of all categories.

Second, create the page:

Type "Category:Fandom Name" into the search box
Click on the red link to open an edit window for the new page.
Add this text: [[Category:Fandoms by Source Text]]
Add the appropriate media format category under Category:Fandoms by Canon Type, such as Live-action Television or Anime.
Save the page.

You may have noticed two generic subcategories under Fandoms By Source Text are sorted under an asterisk (*) -- Characters and Pairings. In contrast, fandom categories should be sorted alphabetically under the first letter of the category name.

Which pages should be added to a fandom category?

Characters; pairings; individual fanworks; fandom-specific glossary terms, conventions, awards, challenges, and fests; other fandom-specific topics (e.g. Vulcan, The Ray Wars)

Which pages should NOT be added to a fandom category?

Fan pages should not be added to a fandom category. While it may sometimes seem clear-cut as to which fans belong to certain fandoms, it is difficult to apply the same criteria to all fans. Some fans may create fanworks for fandoms they are a part of, while others might consider themselves to belong to a fandom for which they have not created any content because they read, watch, or otherwise consume content from that fandom.

As such, it can be difficult to make a single judgement as to whether a fan "belongs" to a certain fandom based on the headcanons, fanworks, meta, or other content the fan has created, so Fanlore policy errs on the side of not attaching fans’ pages to fandom categories to reflect this. This includes the creation of fandom-specific fan subcategories, like Category:Haikyuu! Authors or Category: Xena Artists, or ship-specific fan subcategories, like Category:Drarry Vidders.

What if a page could belong to more than one fandom?

If the page belongs to a few fandoms, add the page to both/all the fandom categories. If the page could belong to lots and lots of fandoms (e.g. Fanfiction.net), then there's no need to add fandom categories.

For pages about multimedia fanzines, there is also a Category:Multimedia Zines available. See this discussion for more on when to use the multimedia zine category.

When should subcategories be created, and how do I use them?

Some fandoms may have so many pages of one type or another that these pages should get their own category. For example, Fanlore has a lot of pairing pages for the Harry Potter fandom and a lot of fanzine pages for the Doctor Who fandom.

As a rule of thumb, if there are (or will be) more than 5 pages about zines for one fandom, then a zine subcategory should be created. The same rule applies to characters, pairings, communities/mailing lists, doujinshi, or other types of fanworks.

Exception: if there are more than 5 of one type of page, but there are no other types of pages for that fandom (e.g. if there are 30 Ziggy Stardust zine pages and nothing else in the Ziggy Stardust category), do not create a subcategory for these pages. It doesn't make sense to have a main Ziggy Stardust category where the only page listed is Ziggy Stardust.

Generally, if there's a subcategory (i.e. Doctor Who Zines), then pages that fit in that category should NOT get the main fandom category. This is to prevent the main category from getting swamped with zines or what-have-you and making the main pages harder to find.

How do I create these fandom subcategories?

Follow the same procedure as above, except you should add the main fandom category to the new page instead of Fandoms by Source Text. The category can also be cross-categorized under another category if applicable.

Examples:

When you create the category Harry Potter Fanfiction, add this text: [[Category:Harry Potter|*Harry Potter Fanfiction]] [[Category:Fanfiction|+Harry Potter Fanfiction]]
When you create the category Harry Potter Relationships, add this text:[[Category:Harry Potter|*Harry Potter Relationships]] [[Category:Relationships|*Harry Potter Relationships]]

Note that unlike the main fandom categories, subcategories are usually sorted under an asterisk. When in doubt, look at the parent category to see how the subcategories are sorted.

What happened to the subpages?

In 2008, Fanlore used subpages instead of categories to organize pages about a fandom; since 2010 we have used categories instead.

Former list subpages that are fandom-specific have been renamed according to the following formula: "List of [Fandom] [Whatever]". For example, see List of Due South Fanzines.

Subpages are still used for other purposes around the wiki, mainly to store more specific details, lists, etc. that make the main page too long and unreadable.

For any other questions, you can use the Talk page or contact the Fanlore Committee.