User talk:LateCurator

Getting Started on Fanlore

Hi LateCurator, I received your email and wanted to respond to you on your talk page so that I did not reveal my personal email address.

On what can be added and what cannot be added to Fanlore, you can check out our About and our What Fanlore is Not pages, which should help. Unlike usual Fandom Wikis, Fanlore does not seek to catalog canon, but fanon and fandom activity (though some brief canon is sometimes included on pages for context). All of our policies can be found at Fanlore Policies as well, if you are interested in going into more detail about what is and isn't included on Fanlore.

Additionally, editors are always open to communicating on the talk pages of articles when there are questions or need for more planned collaborations. If you're ever unsure of what can be added or removed from a page, you can ask on the talk page, and are free to add an "Attention Gardeners" tag to it if you'd like to request gardener (or admin) attention.

I hope this helps get you started and answers your question, though let me know if you have any other questions. Happy editing! Patchlamb (talk) 17:54, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

Understandable about the e-mail situation, that was not my intent. I do not want to disclose personal information so much either. I am unsure what kind of fan activity to cover is my core problem. In some of my previous attempts at small-scale fandom archives, I often tried to elevate as much information as possible in neutral terms, such as comprehensive lists of fansites or former pairings, only to receive responses suggesting any inclusion was tantamount to endorsement, including after adding disclaimers. This was not a single controversy but a long-term problem. I do not want to repeat the mistakes of adding "too much" information, so I was hoping to find if there were certain kinds of fannish activity that there is more desire to cover or more desire to limit? I want to contribute as a historian with fannish experience, but not necessarily as a biased "fan" if that makes some sense, especially as some of my fandom experiences were in the presence of people I may not want to "elevate". I am sorry if this sounds vague. --LateCurator (talk) 04:33, 30 May 2024 (UTC)

Hm, I think I understand the question. Fanlore itself isn't an archive, which is mentioned as a bullet point on the What Fanlore is note page ("Fanlore is not an index of every fanwork ever created,"). But, there are curated lists on Fanlore. For example, List of Marvel Universes or List of Teen Wolf Relationship Names. There is no notability requirement for something to exist on Fanlore so even "unpopular" or not well known topics or fanworks may be added.

And, as for "endorsement," pages do frequently cover controversial topics and drama, and we have a category for this (Scandals). Pages and sections on controversial topics must be written with our plural point of view policy in mind, as any page. Pages that don't seem to follow PPOV can have a PPOV tag attached to them.

It is possible for a page to have "too much" or "too detailed" information, particularly for controversy or canon, but this isn't automatically considered "malicious," and usually just gets discussed on the talk page of the article to see what can be edited/removed/moved to another page. Patchlamb (talk) 16:54, 31 May 2024 (UTC)

Thank you, that does help a lot. I have never liked notability policies in the past and generally was a wiki inclusionist, but try to be more cautious today. It does not come naturally to me at times. I have read some scandal pages in the past but none that made me sure how to add in those I have seen or experienced. There is also a case where I was on the fringe of a scandal that was covered and am unsure if adding information could appear unfair or biased. Here is a more specific question - when it comes to fan websites, are there any specific standards to follow or good examples? Particularly for those that do not double as fanfic archives. Thank you again for the support. --LateCurator (talk) 08:10, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

Yes, we have categories for forums, websites, and blogs, which could be helpful to look at and reference. I have written a few on forums and websites, here is an Invader Zim forum and here is for a general website.

For writing pages on events you were involved with, editors do frequently do this so that would not be a problem. Some editors also make articles for themselves. You will just want to always adhere to the PPOV policy. If another editor feels there is bias, the page can be edited to be more neutral. Patchlamb (talk) 22:33, 2 June 2024 (UTC)