Template talk:WebsiteAuthor

What is the scope of this template?

I like this template, having found it frustrating that the main "Site" template doesn't have a space for the owner's name. However, is this only for personal fan fiction archives? What about personal sites with mixed content? There are quite a few where the webmistress's own fan fiction is a major component, but she also has a small screen capture archive, a rec page, a links page, a con report she's written, photos of costumes she's made (and/or similar fan-related things). Not to mention a small personal section about herself and her job/family/friends/pets/. Indeed, there are personal sites that are primarily something else, because the owner isn't much of an author.

What I mean is this: as it stands, this template seems to be only for sites that are simultaneously personal and fan fiction archives. However, if we consider Ye Olde Venn Diagram, that's the intersection of two concepts. Is this really only for personal fan fiction sites? Or is this actually supposed to be a Personal Fansite Template (only someone assumed that meant fan fiction)?

If this is for personal fan sites, then maybe it should have a space for the type of content (the way the general Site template has a space for type of site).

A separate problem is the sort of "semi-personal" site, especially since they usually start out as personal sites and go through a process of evolution, meaning that it all depends when in their history one considers them. For example, a site can start out as a personal fan fiction archive, but then the webmistress kindly includes a couple of stories by a friend who doesn't know how to make a site for herself or doesn't have webspace. What should one do with that?

Furthermore, such sites may—but don't necessarily—evolve into what might be called a mini-archive, where, in addition to her own stories, the owner provides space for stories by a handful of friends (though no more than two to four.) These clearly contrast with "real" archives, which normally contain stories from many authors.

Basically, I'm asking about the scope of the use of this template. Is it for personal sites that are exclusively for fan fiction? And how narrowly is the term "personal" to be defined? --Greer Watson 03:50, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

I created this template to go with a proposed "Author Pages" category--I took it to mean the personal websites of fanfiction writers that contain their fanfiction (but might include bits of other things, as personal websites usually do). I don't know what to do with those edge cases where the author also hosts her friends' fic.

I can add an "Owner" field to the main Website template if you want one.--æþel 04:05, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

I think "Owner" would be really useful. --Greer Watson 05:13, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

The new field has been added! See Template:Site. Please note that the template will display the new field on all pages where it is already being used, but when you open the edit window, you will need to manually add the text |owner= to the infobox to add the owner information.--æþel 01:23, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

If it hosts the fanfic of other people it is usually no longer an author page. Also the other authors' subpages may be author pages with their own fanlore page. These host pages may need a differnt template or they may be just fine with author page. That all depends on the site in question. There are different types of personal fansites and I suggested the author page category because these are actually quite easy to identify and if we have done so, we can narrow it down for the other sites. --Doro 06:04, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

"the owner provides space for stories by a handful of friends (though no more than two to four.)" -- what about sites like talkoncorners.net? It looks like originally someone's personal site that expanded: it hosts fic (and other fannish pages such as recs & resources) of 11 authors, and several big bangs, plus a few (challenge or subsection of a fandom-specific) mini-archives, but much of it does not function as a multiauthor archive in that there is no function to search for fic by all 11 authors (and across the BBs and the mini-archives) at the same time. ? --Sk 05:40, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

I think these pages should have their own template as they have left the realm of author pages and entered general fanpage territory. --Doro 06:04, 7 February 2012 (UTC)