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GnomeTitan Oversized Garden Ornament Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
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#1: Jan 3rd 2022 at 7:55:08 AM

I've noticed that on trope pages that are divided into sections by medium, there's sometimes both a "Comic Strips" and a "Comic Books" section. This corresponds directly to the name spaces Comic Strip and Comic Book, of course, so it's entirely reasonable.

Sometimes there's a section called "Comics" that combines these two. And sometimes there's just a "Comic Books" section that contains examples both from Comic Book and Comic Strip.

What's the preferred organization here?

The last case above seems illogical. Should the "Comic Books" section be split and the strip examples moved to a new section? Or, if there are just a few examples from one or both of the types of comics, should we keep the combined folder and rename it to just "Comics" (or perhaps "Comic strips and books")?

(This question is of course not limited to comics, but I can't remember any examples where there's this kind of combined folder for any other combination of media).

Edited by GnomeTitan on Jan 3rd 2022 at 4:58:17 PM

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#2: Jan 3rd 2022 at 8:34:05 AM

Web Original works the same way. Worse, there are still a few isolated pages with Web Original and New Media folders.

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wingedcatgirl mys. minty from the silly dimension from lurking (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Oh my word! I'm gay!
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#3: Jan 3rd 2022 at 8:41:12 AM

Visual novels are often lumped into the Video Games folder (moreso when the page doesn't have many of them), and fan works are often split out from their media to be lumped with each other in a Fan Works folder...

And what goes in the Web Original folder feels like a total crapshoot. Sometimes it includes Web Serial Novels, Fan Vids, Play-by-Post Games, and who knows what else, but sometimes those get sorted into a different folder.

Edited by wingedcatgirl on Jan 3rd 2022 at 10:42:22 AM

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GrigorII Since: Aug, 2011
#4: Jan 3rd 2022 at 6:38:59 PM

There is no minimum number of examples for a folder. Go ahead and create the "Comic strip" folder, even if for a single example (wiki magic should eventually add more), don't make mixed folders. And if someone else did, it should be fixed if possible.

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#5: Jan 4th 2022 at 6:05:25 AM

Comic strip examples should definitely be separated from comic book examples, headered/foldered until either Comic Strips or Newspaper Comics...the former is probably more correct since that's the namespace but I don't have a problem with the latter.

Synchronicity (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#6: Jan 4th 2022 at 9:50:03 AM

I've also seen a single "Film" folder in lieu of "Films — Animated" and "Films — Live Action" sometimes used.

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#7: Jan 5th 2022 at 6:13:43 AM

There is no specific coding for medium folders, so people can do whatever they want. If you come across articles that don't conform with our standard, feel free to correct them.

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GnomeTitan Oversized Garden Ornament Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
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#8: Jan 5th 2022 at 7:17:40 AM

[up]I will (and have already done so on the page that prompted my question).

My personal view is that I don't mind if, say, the Comic Strips folder is called "Newspaper Comics", or if there is a common folder that combines entries from several name spaces, but what is a problem is when a folder has the same name as a namespace but contains examples from other namespaces (such as, in this case, a folder called "Comic Books" that contained examples from the Comic Strip namespace).

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#9: Jan 5th 2022 at 8:15:50 AM

Media categories in trope examples and namespaces need not match perfectly and this aligns with precedent. There is no need to obsessively split folders.

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VampireBuddha Calendar enthusiast from Ireland (Wise, aged troper) Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
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#10: Jan 7th 2022 at 2:01:15 PM

Case in point - for some reason, Dan Dare is in Comicstrip while Judge Dredd is in Comicbook/. Both of these are comics, but neither is a comic book. Comicstrip/ is specifically for newspaper and allied comics, which Dan Dare is not. Furthermore, from 1977 to 1980, Dan Dare and Judge Dredd were published in the same comic book.

They are both the same medium and should be in the same folder, even if they're arbitrarily in different namespaces.

(Also, Comicbook/ should just be Comic/ or Comics/, but that's a battle I know I'll never win).

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GnomeTitan Oversized Garden Ornament Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
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#11: Jan 7th 2022 at 4:13:22 PM

Yes, the distinction between comic books and comic strips is a bit artificial. Most cases are clear-cut (typical newspaper joke-a-day strips, for instance), but for example Modesty Blaise was serialized in newspapers but reads like what’s called a graphic novel today.

But that’s beside the point of this thread - it’s a question of namespaces rather than folders, and more of a matter for the namespace threads.

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