Category talk:Fanworks by Year

Scope and Category Name

Hi, I'm wondering what is the scope of this category? It's called "Fanworks by Year" so someone might think its a kind of chronological parent category for all fanworks. I don't think that was the intention. It appears to be used for fanworks which can't be classified as a particular type (ie. fanfiction by year or fanart by year etc.), but I'm not certain if that's the case. Maybe there's some discussion on another talk page that I'm missing?

Once we understand the scope of these categories, I think the scope of the should be clarified on each category page, with an intro of sorts. And I'm also wondering if this category name should be changed? --Auntags (talk) 22:04, 14 December 2023 (UTC)

I agree that the current state is confusing. In general it's not good policy to have "miscellaneous" categories; leftover unclassifiable pages should be left in the parent category. A Fanworks by Year tree makes sense, but it should be the parent to specific fanwork types, and all the fanworks whose type is clear should only be added to the subcategory [Year] [Fanwork Type] and not the main [Year] Fanworks category. It should also be mentioned somewhere that the year category represents the year in which the fanwork was published/shared.--aethel (talk) 16:07, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

When you talk about a fanwork tree do you mean a category structure like this:

• Fanworks by Year
  • 2023 Fanworks
    • 2023 Fanfiction
    • 2023 Fanart (etc.)

And the Fanworks by Year and 2023 Fanworks categories can only contain subcategories. No individual articles can be added. Am I understanding all that correctly?

I would be in favor of pages that don't fit one of the subcategories being added to the 2023 Fanworks category, because if the other subcategories are there, then its obvious that this page is not about a Fanfic/Fanart etc. And it would be easier to identify when we have enough pages (at least 5) for an additional subcategory. I'm also in favour of adding a note to these categoies, basically saying pages should only be added when the year a work was published/shared is known. And if a work is ongoing over multiple years, should it only be added to the decade category..? --Auntags (talk) 23:57, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

I agree that the 2023 Fanworks categories should contain pages about individual fanworks-not-otherwise-specified. I think having the [date] fanworks categories at the same level as the [year] fanfiction, etc. categories is what causes confusion. Among other things it sort of implies that fanfiction, etc. aren't fanworks. Yes, I'd go with the category structure above, and also include the other [fanwork type] by year categories, like so:

• Fanworks by Year
  • 2023 Fanworks
    • 2023 Fanfiction
    • 2023 Fanart (etc.)
  • Fanfiction by Year
    • 2023 Fanfiction

I think there's a rule of three for date categories--anything that spans three years or more should get the decade category instead. I've noticed there's some oddness in how fanwork decade categories have been added--they should be the parent cats of the years, so ideally we'd have

• Fanworks by Year
  • 2020s Fanworks
    • 2023 Fanworks
      • 2023 Fanfiction
    • 2020s Fanfiction
      • 2023 Fanfiction
    • 2020s Fanart (etc.)
  • Fanfiction by Year
    • 2020s Fanfiction
      • 2023 Fanfiction

--aethel (talk) 02:58, 22 December 2023 (UTC)