Talk:List of Blake's 7 Fanzines

There's going to be lots more, too. I've done the first swoop through multimedia gen and slash, am up to "F" in Blake's only adult/slash, haven't started Blake's only gen or Blake's non-fiction. *light at the end of the tunnel* -->But aside from Doctor Who (not sure what to do about that one), this is the last big fandom/zine chunk. Mrs. Potato Head 21:47, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

I should have started sorting sooner, lol. But well, at first it was a tiny list and just to keep track of duplicates, and of course now it's a pain to check for each which goes where.--RatCreature 21:53, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

What should I do about categories for "Mixed (mostly slash and adult het)" and "Adult/Het" zines? Put the "Mixed" in slash? Ask for a new category for Blake's 7 Het Zines and put "Adult/Het" and "Mixed" in there? --Mrs. Potato Head 12:26, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

We need another category here but I wasn't sure what to name it so I just started with the categories that seemed clearcut. I would suggest to leave these mixed and het/adult zines alone for now. --Doro 13:23, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

ETA: Category suggestions:

Category:Blake's 7 Het Zines

Category:Blake's 7 Mixed Zines

What do you think?--Doro 14:44, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

One one hand, I'd say sure. But I'm also so confused by the arbitrariness of categories as presented so far. I've got bigger questions, though, for folks who are making these decisions:

• Are categories meant to break down large groups and if so, for example, why is Sentinel broken down in gen and slash and Man from UNCLE isn't?
• A fandom like Battlestar Galactica has lots of zines, but doesn't have a specific zine category, as does Starman. As I understand it, fandoms with little current activity (aka have zines as really their only content) don't get a zine category at all, but I'm still confused on how this is being decided especially after the "15 zine rule," something that doesn't seem to be a rule at all.
• Personally, I like Doro's idea of also dividing zines up into smaller groups in some big fandoms (poetry, art zines...), or dividing zines into smaller groups across fandoms (cookbooks, calendars...) and I'd be more than willing to break these big groups into smaller ones. But I don't know if it's allowed, desired or useful.
• I have a great capacity and patience for doing mind-numbing work and rework, but personally, I need much more of an over-arching plan/guideline.--Mrs. Potato Head 15:25, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't know who you mean when you say "folks who are making these decisions". Everyone can make fandom categories so do you mean everyone who has ever decided to make a fandom category? With regard to the Man from UNCLE and Sentinel categories I can only say that one was made by Arduinna and the other by me, so you see two different approaches. I based the Sentinel categories on the list of Sentinel fanzines because I thought it useful to sort them by gen and slash and Arduinna probably thought sorting them as fanzines was enough. Doesn't mean one is right and the other is wrong and also doesn't mean that someone else can't break down the huge Man from UNCLE list into smaller sections. Fandom pages aren't all the same either. It often depends on the fandom, the person who creates it, how they like to structure things, etc. When in doubt, I would say discuss it on the talk page. That's basically all I can say about it. *shrugs* For what it's worth, this is how I understand the rules: 1. If something has its own subcategory, it's only tagged with the subcategory, not the main category. 2. There need to be at least 15 pages (or items? If I have 14 filk zine pages and one cover, I would still create a subcategory) for a separate subcategory. 3. Even if you have 15 pages/items, you don't need to put them in a subcategory when your main page would otherwise be empty. It doesn't make sense to have a main page where the only item listed is a subcategory. That's about it. --Doro 20:58, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I'm just worried about cluttering things up and bothering folks. I didn't know anyone could make fandom categories. I thought that anything other than the category for the fandom itself had to be approved somehow, like putting the request for a new category somewhere (the bugs page?). And then there is the line on each edit page that says not to add categories that don't exist. "If something has its own subcategory, it's only tagged with the subcategory, not the main category" is good to know. So is "It doesn't make sense to have a main page where the only item listed is a subcategory." Thanks for clarifying, Doro. --Mrs. Potato Head 22:21, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

What Doro said. Basically, the fandom category policy represents broad strokes, but individual fandoms may have a different balance of pages, so discussing on the talk pages which subcategories a fandom needs is really the best approach. I also just updated Help:Fandom Categories based on this discussion.--æthel 05:51, 27 May 2010 (UTC)