Talk:Ficathon

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Could we maybe change the article name to "Thingathon" so that the name also reflects that these events are not necessarily fic only? I know that fic is the most common, but I find it awkard that the opening reads "A ficathon is a challenge in which each participant is assigned to write fanfic or create fanart based on another participant's request." (emphasis mine). IMO it would read more sensibly if it the definition line was "A thingathon is a challenge in which each participant is assigned to create a fanwork based on another participant's request." and then a line that it's called ficathon if it is a fanfic exchange rather than open to all kinds of fanworks or something like that.--RatCreature 10:19, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Ficathon is a glossary term so I would leave it the way it is, but we could turn the Thingathon page into a regular glossary page too. Then the text here could be changed to "A ficathon is a challenge in which each participant is assigned to write fanfic or create fanart based on another participant's request. More general thingatons are challenges that include other types of fanworks as well." Or something like that. --Doro 12:48, 5 March 2010 (UTC)
I'm not sure that splitting is a great idea, because if we ever get a bit more info on this than a definition the context of both would be the same. Like when did this type of challenge become common on LJ (and were there precursors on MLs?), what were the first ones, when did fandoms start calling it ficathon etc. and then when someone came up with calling the more general type thingathon? And the latter is pretty much the only thing I can see that would be worth mention specifically for thingathon. I guess the history will also all go on the combined "challenge" page, at least in an overview, so you'd get the connection there, but still. There is also the gift exchange article too as overlapping, and I don't see how splitting this across even more articles is a good idea. The point I can see for having both as ficathon is that in my experience it is more widely used than thingathon as a term, but then I'd be in favor of taking out fanart out of the introduction sentence and rephrase it like you suggested, but without an extra article for thingathon, just bolding it or something so people redirected can find it.--RatCreature 07:01, 6 March 2010 (UTC)
What about going with -athon as the primary page, with an explanation like the one above but that it can be for any sort of fanwork, and that these can be called thingathon, ficathon, artathon, iconathon, vidathon (hey it could happen someday *g*), maybe with further explanation/examples if need be, and with redirects from pages with those names? It's the concept that's the unifying feature, and that way no single way of approaching the concept is being privileged. y/n? --Arduinna 20:20, 23 March 2010 (UTC)
That's a neat idea. Though I'm not sure I have seen artathon in the sense of ficathon, but only as a (non-fandom) art thing, often for charity? I think as portmanteau of "art marathon" perhaps. Like [1] or [2]--RatCreature 20:38, 23 March 2010 (UTC)
Yeah, I wasn't sure about that one; that's the sort of thing I was finding searching just for "artathon". But searching for "artathon fandom" brings up several "fic/artathon" listings (like this, or this "reverse" ficathon/artathon, so it looks like the term has been used somewhat in fandom, at least as a precursor to thingathon. We could always leave artathon out if it's not as useful as the others, though. --Arduinna 21:40, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Merge into gift exchange and/or turn into a disambugation?

The above conversation about 'ficathon' giving the false impression that this only happens with fics and not art could be solved by merging this page with gift exchange; the example ficathon linked on this page, Trek Exchange, uh, is an exchange, so mostly the two seem to be the same. Except when people on LJ are using it to mean prompt meme:

You may have noticed that we don't have a page for prompt memes, but we probably should. Maybe commentfic fest is more common, since that's used on several Fanlore pages? But we don't have an individual page for that, either. AO3 uses 'prompt meme,' at least. - Hoopla (talk) 23:07, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

Hmm. So, since this is a glossary page, I'm a little wary of merging into "gift exchange." I'm not super familiar with the term ficathon, but since there are distinct fannish usages of it, I think it merits its own page. Some of the material on this page might be best shifted over to the gift exchange page (if, for example, the original posters were specifically talking about GEs and not using the term "ficathon") but I think there should at least remain a stub with the definition, related terms, and fannish usages. Without having done any research, my guess is that our language for referring to ficathons/gift exchanges/prompt memes/etc. has evolved over time, and so terms that were once used fairly generally/broadly are perhaps now less in-vogue. Migration from various online platforms and the development of AO3 also definitely affect our language around these types of fannish activities. Ideally, we'd retain pages for all terms, noting unique usages/historically relevant info without being repetitive/redundant across pages. That's my take, anyways. Wonder if other editors have thoughts? (And yeah, prompt meme would make a great page!) - Fandomgeographies (talk) 16:49, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

I'll keep looking to see if I can find any actually different information on exchange!ficathons vs exchanges, but I think all of the information I've been collecting on exchanges doesn't mention ficathons at all, so... I guess I should just add it to the gift exchange page.
And there is also the problem of what to do about "ficathon" sometimes also meaning "prompt meme." I guess PPOV would say this page should say something like "A ficathon (or thing-a-thon) can refer to either a gift exchange or a prompt meme" and then... give information on the terms being used that way, assuming I can find any. Or should I disambiguate somehow?. - Hoopla (talk) 21:05, 8 September 2018 (UTC)
Yeah, I think something like that would fit well. There are some fannish terms that get used to refer to different-but-related things, or have co-existing definitions - that's why I personally thing this page should be retained as a glossary item, but it may not work to use the term "ficathon" as a general, catch-all term in contemporary use. Most of the references I've seen for the term source to Livejournal, which again suggests there's a specific context for the term that may not totally transfer. - Fandomgeographies (talk) 14:20, 9 September 2018 (UTC)
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