Basically discussed in length a long time ago and now discussed in IRC chat by Zev, MS, and I and numerous others over the last hour.

Basically recategorisation to remove stories that don't fit, are dead-links, are viewed as shouldn't be there (got in before the switch to the 5 star system) and to be more in-line with the awards and provide more ease to the user of the site.

Improvement is always a plus, I suppose but these may be stupid, so discuss.

The current categories are as followed:

FOR REVIEW
The Trash Bin
Dark Arts
Independent Harry
Romance
The Alternate's
Humor/Parody
Time Travel Fics
Azkaban Fics
General Fics
Restricted Section

My proposal for categories are as followed:
For Review, capitalization looks tacky; if people can't figure it out, they don't need to be posting.

General, General becomes SOLIDLY defined to mean the norm for Dark Lord Potter.net and no one else. This means Independent gets swallowed up into this. This may need a rename and an award created for it.

Noir, incorporates Dark Arts and anything else. Allows for the removal of "Azkaban Fics." This could incorporate General and include Independent stories and simply come to be the bread and butter of the site. Will need a very solid, clear and understandable definition.

Alternate, incorporates Time Travel Fics and the Alternate's.

Crossover, breaks away from Alternate to accomodate the award and people that prefer it. It is, after all, two fandoms being used to write a story.

Romance, includes the Restricted Section within sub-categorized. Make Romance DLP-styled and do not shun erotic stories for nominations come award time. This is DLP, this is what we do. Don't make categories to appease people that don't exist.

Comedy, Humor/Parody renamed.

Recycle Bin, Needs to be rewritten, improved - anything that does not meet the minimum requirements for inclusion but could be improved upon. A kinder name for the Trash Bin, which comes off as too arrogant even for DLP.net.

Discuss.

 

Agreed.

And by discuss, he means discuss the topic and not turn it into a whiny bitchfest. Constructive ideas and opinions only. I will delete rearded and/or irrelevant posts. you have been warned.

 

That sounds good. I have been thinking that we need a crossover section for a while. I was also thinking that we could move 'Work by Author' up to the library too. These changes you proposed will make things much neater and easier to categorize stories.

Slightly related, the winners of the awards for each section could get a sticky thread as their 'trophy'. Just a random thought...

 

I like the proposed idea. Perhaps there could be a list of rejected fics to avoid repeat submissions.

 

So the idea is to cut off all the categories that could possibly host anti-DLP stories? Huh, I just wonder what IS anti-DLP these days? Only Marry Sue, slash and fangirlism, as far as I see; And it's not like there's an abundance of such stories around.

*shrugs* Not my business. Two suggestions:

- Change the name of "Noir" into something else ("Dark"?). I know stuffing Noir everywhere is Bio's obsession for some reason, but if this voting had shown anything, it's that few people really understand what this term means.

- Add a category for well-written non-DLP stories. Mostly for classics such as Barb's trilogy, for an occasional canon-compliant fic that's worth the effort (Rob's story) and for exotic stories that can't be sorted easily (murder mysteries or something like that).

EDIT: Oh, and deleted threads should go to a 'DELETED' category (locked of course). DLP history should be kept intact; too many good flame wars and bashing threads are gone by actually deleting bad stories.

 

This makes sense to me, I agree with it. The caps always did bother me a bit.

What would be done with the stories that are not DLP standard and fit in no other category? I can't remember any off the top of my head, but there are good stories where Harry still works with the Order and Dumbledore, while not fitting into the other categories. I can even think of a few good Harry/Hermione stories. (Emphasis on few)

How would independant get swallowed up in here if it is to become part of the General category?

Agreed, time travel creates an alternate universe anyways, so they can fit into one topic.

Also agreed, this will make it easier to find solid Harry Potter stories, or to find crossovers. I don't always want to read crossovers, but I run into them a lot in the current alternates section.

I'm not sure Restricted should be a subsection of Romance. There are quite a few stories that are NC-17, but in no way romantic. Thal's story, Queens of Darkness, Ladies of Light, is one, and several of Vash's stories are the same.

Agreed, why use two words when one will cover both?

That sounds more accurate for what we are doing now. Previously we had stories that were truly horrible in the bin, now we drop 1-2 star stories from the site altogether, and 3 star stories go in here.

 

What about a section devoted to Abandoned fics? Being that it's useless to put a abandoned fic into the main category no matter how good they are

just a thought

madeyemoody

 

Unless the author has explicitly declared so, how would we know whether a fic is abandoned?

 

Going to all that trouble just for fics no one will read anyway is a waste of time. If its abandoned, I seriously doubt people will want to waste some++ hours of their lives.

 

There is a huge alphabetical list in Sya's sticky thread in 'For Review' for those who hadn't noticed >_>

"Noir" seems to pose a problem for those who aren't up to date with American cinema. We banged our heads together but couldn't think of a better name. any suggestions would be more than welcomed.

We contemplated that but couldn't think of an appropriate name, so it would simply go into general, or whatever that section will end up being called.

Trust me, deleted threads aren't really that funny. If anything is really great, it goes in the Hall of Shame, otherwise, it's cleaner and easier just to straight up delete it.

 

Yeah, I pretty much have, from day one, asked for better names for Fantastical and Noir.

People need to take a more active approach. I'm not the creator, I'm merely a contributor attempting to contribute something positive and if you're going to get antsy with me for it, that's fine.

Edit: I suppose I should have been concise - the Noir and General could be two seperate categories or one category, Noir, if General is too vague or impossible to come to terms with and Noir could thus serve as the bread and butter of the site.

When discussing what to rename Noir, we even actually got led back to Noir after entering terms we associated with the category we were trying to create. Perhaps it's something we could make a DLP tradition? We don't have to subscribe to the genres that Fanfiction.net creates and this site is for us and for us to make labels for.

I encourage everyone to voice their disgust with any category, any confusion with current or suggested, and any idea - perhaps brilliant or perhaps just a thought that popped in, in this thread as it's very possible that we might get a reshuffle as apparently, according to Zev and MS, the staff has been looking into reformatting the categories.

Thanks.

 

I'm pretty sure there is an archive for the forum linked at the bottom of the main page though whether or not this includes deleted threads or not I don't know.

EDIT: Archive

 

Yeah, but we still need 2 categories, to distinguish DLP-ish stuff (Independent, kick-ass) from canonish; Maybe that's the ticket? "Independent!Harry" (or even "DLP!Harry") and "Canon!Harry"?

Or maybe just leave it "General" and "Independent", with darkish fics going to the new "dark/noir" category.

I know one that was funny - Kinsfire bashing thread.

In the end, what's the harm in keeping them around, for amusement's sake? Unless it's a problem storing a few extra kb's on the server?

 

I would very much like to see a Noir category, but I am unsure if all 'independent' fics are automatically noir, or if the general fics should be put in with noir as well. Not to be facetious but I think for this the story must have the elements of Noir as generally understood by cinema to be in the fic, unless we will have a DLP definition of Noir by which 'independent' = noir.

I guess I would like to see a proposed definition of Noir and go from there.

Splitting Crossover and Alternate is an excellent idea, I have often had to go through that category sifting through which was which.

 

For the purpose of moving this forward, I'll start the attempt to define noir, using the dictionary:

Of or relating to the genre of literature featuring tough, cynical characters and bleak settings; Suggestive of danger or violence.​

Meaning stories entered into this category would have to fit the bill for most of this. Meaning violence, danger, dark settings, sarcastic or cynical characters that get fresh or intense in dialogue. Gritty feeling. Malevolent, vicious, evil, anti-hero, villainy.

Vague enough to include stories from Azkaban, Dark Arts and the more extreme independent stories that almost cross the line. Horror stories, paranoia stories. DLP's patented juice forum .

 

Time for my two cents.

Honestly, I don't believe that crossovers should be split from alternates. Classified as a subgenre, perhaps, but the very definition of an alternate is something that does not follow or subverts previous canon in an attempt to create a different universe (HBP notwithstanding). Even though the canon might be followed in the HP half, the fact of the matter is Rowling, as far as we know, didn't plan Harry Potter to be in the world of The Jetsons, and even them suddenly meeting up is a subversion of canon.

 

The way I see it, that category should contain dark!Harry and angst (includes Azkaban!Harry and such). A better term for this would be "Dark fiction".

Why not a combination?

"Dark, evil and noir"

 

Not even the staff's stories get special treatment. I disagree with the well-written nonDLP stories. Let someone suggest it. If its voted out, its voted out. DLP does not mean it has to be non-canon-compliant. Its probably prefered, but Ove read a few canon compliant stories I liked that I thought would fit well. And most murder mystery novels are usually considered Noir, or borderline noir.

And Noir is a fair better name, but I think it should be more like a general area for NOIR fics, not necessarily "Dark Arts" stories, as they can be Noir and not. Harry's Madness is most certainly not gonna fit that category. Id suggest adding a second category for those that dont fit the noir but are dark.

 

I muse to myself, when did site wide changes become something for the general users to more or less vote on, and not something for the staff to discuss? I must of missed the memo when I was busy *shrug*