Needs Help: Fan Preferred Couple

We've added to the list at the bottom, but the actual description still outright says that competing with a canon couple isn't necessary for the trope. The description still needs to be rewritten.

Looking at it yeah. You are right. Any ideas?

Edited by Bullman on Apr 22nd 2021 at 11:32:50 AM

Did a quick writeup on Sandbox.Fan Preferred Couple. I've done away with the folder because such editor-facing instructions don't belong there and it's better represented by folding it in the description.

Thank you. I think it looks good. Though should we add part about there being able to be more than one so long as they are still more popular than the canon one, and make it bit more clear that you need a creator/official pairing to be able to count.

Edited by Bullman on Apr 23rd 2021 at 1:00:28 PM

It still opens by referencing one pairing, but we decided there can be more than one.

To be honest, that looks like an invitation to shoehorn stuff in. I am also looking at the crowner and it says "Broaden it to include any ship that's more popular than a canon/creator-preferred ship " has only 8yes-8no.

Because that was too vague, and allowed any pairing to count even if it doesn't share any characters between the fanon and canon pairings. Note that the other entry, which more specifically allows multiple pairings for the same character, was quite popular on the crowner.

I tried to tweak the description for clarity but I still don't love it.

"Allow characters in official pairings to have multiple entries for fanon ships more popular than the canon ship" has 14 s and 2 s. I don't personally agree with it, like you said it might led to shoehorns, but it was a consensus reached.

I still think that if an example truly counts, it'll be obvious enough to avoid shoehorning.

And if two ships have around 1000 fics and the canon ship has 100 fics, I'd rather just list both fanon ships than go through the trouble of determining which fanon ship is more popular.

Yeah, the issue with the "any relationship" option is that it has no actual connection to said canon relationship; it would've allowed any popular crack pairing to be listed.

Oh I get that. Like I said though I feel like it should be kept to one if it can be. Like if the canon ship is so unpopular that any other is more popular, then just list the most popular. However, again I am willing to accept the consensus.

Edited by Bullman on Apr 23rd 2021 at 2:04:05 PM

Examples should try to stick to the most popular ship to avoid entry bloat and the Long List, unless the next one or two after are also comparable in number.

For example if the FPC has 5000 works, the next after has 1000, and the canon ship has 100, then we can probably just stick to the first one. If the next one after has 4500 or so, and then the third one after has 1000, then maybe list them both.

Edited by AlleyOop on Apr 23rd 2021 at 3:23:24 PM

Yeah, I think that’s fair, and I recall the old rules having a thing saying you could list multiple if you could explain how they were both the most popular. So if they’re close and you can’t decipher, it should be fine. Plus, I’ve been in fandoms where the canon ship is so unpopular most other ships are more popular than it even if there’s one or two stand-out most popular ones. So it would be easier to limit it at least a bit.

Edit: Though one thing to add: we are making it so the fanon pairing has to beat the canon one by a fair amount right? So if the canon and fanon pairing are practically neck-in-neck, it wouldn’t count as an FPC?

Edited by Oshawott337 on Apr 23rd 2021 at 1:30:18 PM

A specific example, The Devil Wears Prada. In the fandom the canon ship, Andy/Nate is so unpopular that you can say that any ship is more popular. The most popular ship on AO3, Miranda/Andy, has over 2000, the next most popular one for Andy, with Emily, is 70, and the canon one is 16. In this case it is just easier to list the most popular. Especially since Miranda/Andy is consistency the most popular across every site.

I would think not. It does say more popular. If it is not more popular than the canon one than it's can't be listed in my opinion.

Edited by Bullman on Apr 23rd 2021 at 2:34:18 PM

mightymewtron: I missed you're post there. I think you're edit looks good. Though I still kind of want to add a part that mentions historical examples.

Should we delete the part about not needing an Official Couple? It's not technically incorrect since we're counting Maybe Ever Afters, but I'm worried people will get confused.

Yeah we should probably delete that part in my opinion.

Anymore opinions on what to do with the above mentioned line?

I agree with just cutting it.

I think the new bits look good from what I can tell. I think it might just take getting used to after that in order to not have so much misuse. Then again, that’s YMMV for you: all opinions, all the time.

Once we're done with the description update, is there anything else to do? We can take care of wick-cleaning at the cleanup thread.

I don't think there's anything else after that.

Okay. Well, it looks good to me, if we cut that last line.

Alright, I cut that last line. The description is ready to be moved, then I presume we can close this and move back to the clean-up thread.