Needs Help: Creator.Magnetic Video

So, in the wake of lists of specific Walt Disney Home Video releases disappearing, should this article:
a)Lose its own list
b)Reduce its list to an index of movies, a la Creator.The Criterion Collection
c)Keep its list, but become a Useful Notes page

Opening and clocking.

Eh. I'd vote for option c to make this a Useful Note and keep it's list. Since this is not an active creator/distributor, there's not going to be any upkeep necessary. Honestly, reading the description was interesting enough, and the first sentence seemed to put it in the history of home video.

If it weren't for 645 inbounds, I'd say cut the page. This doesn't seem like the sort of thing we usually keep useful notes for—not something often found in media—and it's definitely not a creator.

We're about tropes, not tracking the obscure legal details of distribution rights amongst media giants.

But the inbounds do make it tricky. I'm inclined to say cut anyway, but otherwise, I suppose we could make it into a use(ful|less) notes page. I think that might be a bad precedent, though. We're not and don't want to be Wikipedia.

Ok, after taking a closer look. I still think this should be kept as a Useful Notes but it needs significant trimming and refocusing. I know we are not Wikipeda, but this page does talk about the history of an evolving media form, home video. I agree that distribution rights are not needed here.

I don't know anything about the company itself, but here's some editing thoughts from a cold pass:

• The first paragraph talks about the history of Mag Vid and piracy vs. home videos.That's interesting and potentially useful.
• The second and third paragraph about rights is not useful or interesting and should be cut.
• The final section about extended rights should be removed.
• We should also remove the index. That's unnecessary and creates index bloat.
• Potentially remove the different "waves" and pull out what information is actually useful/interesting.

I might throw up sandbox and see if it can be condensed to what is "useful" enough for Useful Notes.

edited 20th Feb '17 11:47:30 AM by pokedude10

If I may... may I suggest regrouping each MagVid release in folders categorizing them by release category? The category system I propose for releases is as follows:

• 20th Century-Fox
• Viacom International
• RBC Films
• Avco Embassy Pictures Corporation
• Brut Productions
• Bill Burrud Productions
• Pathé News
• ABC Video Enterprises
• ITC Entertainment
• American Film Theatre
• United Artists Corporation
• Miscellaneous

Like I said, all of the above categories would be represented by folders. As for the contested paragraphs, the second one could use some trimming, particularly regarding the later names for the company (save for Twentieth Century-Fox Video, since that name change was directly from Magnetic Video) and the list of companies Magnetic dealt with, and mention of their Sports division and their laser videodisc releases should definitely be kept. Unsure about mention of Magnetic duplicating the earliest tapes from some other companies, though I'm leaning towards retention for that one, too. For the third paragraph, the company mentions can go, but the rest of it is fine. I'm not sure about the final paragraph, though.

I also agree with the index removal for concerns regarding index bloat. As for potentially useful information, I think information regarding which versions of each film Magnetic Video released would definitely be useful, as would mention of where tape breaks are placed for multi-part (e.g. two-tape) releases, they may be different depending on the issue (most notably, the first release of Patton had the tape break placed after the line "Give me a swift kick in the ass", nearly two hours in, but later releases had the tape break placed at the end of the slapping scene, approximately halfway through the three-hour film). Particularly for releases that don't have their own page yet, information on the initial American release (obviously before each one's home media debut), could also be useful. Especially for Viacom releases, if Viacom isn't the actual owner through its divestment from CBS Films, for instance, information on who originally licensed the release to Viacom and, if known, which syndication package it was part of might also be of use.

That's all I can think of in regards to my two cents at present. I'll come back here when I can think of anything more.

Um...didn't we just gut the Walt Disney Home Video pages as not tropeworthy? And this is different how exactly?

I'm with 6. This seems like a Useful Note, and it's not worth keeping as an index since we gutted the similar Disney one.

edited 6th Mar '17 11:25:07 PM by Karxrida

6 raises some interesting points, but I'm not sure how it's relevant to tropes in fiction. Which is what this wiki is supposed to be about. Most of our useful notes are things which either appear in fiction (e.g. a Historical Domain Character or location), or which affect how fiction is presented (e.g. game consoles and such). This is just...some company which happened to distribute other companies' works. Relevant to The Other Wiki's mission, but not to ours.

That said, I'm not adamantly opposed to making this a useful note. But I'm still leaning cut.

I'd go with making this a Useful Notes.

Crowner.

Crowner's hooked, thanks.

Bump for votes (currently each option has 6)

Another nudge for votes won't hurt.

What's useful about this note? Who cares about this?

Locking per New Year Purge.