Within the fanon of any series, there will be shipping. Whether it is jossed, confirmed or left in the air by the end of the story, the fans will not be silenced. This of course can take many different forms, but each pairing falls somewhere along this set of likelyhoods. Whether or not a character would like another doesn't affect these, because that can be worked around. But how much they interact in canon, and how many cases of ship tease there are is what this scale refers to.
Jossed:
The writers have specifically said that this pairing could never happen in a million years, maybe not even to the end of time. It's not going to happen. But there's probably someone who will ship them anyway.
Unknown Crack Ship:
The two characters are not only a crack pairing, but have also never met or been in the same general area of each other.
Heard-of Crack Ship:
The members of the crack ship have been in the same general area before, maybe seen each other even. But it's still a crack ship.
Known Crack Ship:
The two participants know each other fairly well and have interacted. But again, still shipping beyond all bounds of sanity.
Unknown Ship:
These characters have never met and possibly will never meet.
Heard-of Ship:
These characters have at least been in the same area before. They might have even made eye contact at some point. But no more than that.
Known Ship:
These characters have met, interacted, maybe they've even known each other since the beginning of the story. The audience has seen a lot of interaction between them. There have been no cases of blatant ship teasing, however.
These next ones all have to fall under the known category, since they all involve ship tease.
Once Teased Twice Bitten:
There is one case of UST or something to that effect between these two characters. Maybe they shared a meal, even if it was platonic. But it's something for this pair to run with.
Trolling the Fanon:
The writers are putting in ship tease just often enough to drive the fans insane. But most days these characters couldn't care less about each other, let alone notice any feelings for the other.
Obfuscating Shipability:
These characters seem to have a "relationship" depending on the writer, some days they will have some evidence of being a couple. But some days they will even go for a different pairing entirely.
Blatantly Obvious:
These characters hardly seem to interact without there being some UST. It is to the point that if these characters didn't have other, more official pairings, they would be together. Or hating each others' guts still, but that can be attributed to Tsundere.
Almost Canon, But not Quite:
This pair never gets together in the canon. This can be because the story got cut short or because there's more books in a series. This can even be caused by the death of one of the characters.
Whatever the reason, this ship seems like it is being pushed to be canon; in fact, if it isn't canon, there's probably either a love triangle, or no other pair that should be canon.
Confirmed:
Either by Word of God or through the events of the story line, this couple is official. They are together whether the fans like it or not (barring Die for Our Ship). This is the official couple of the story. No amount of fanon can undo it without severe Retcon or death.
