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Fanfic Recs formatting

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Discar Since: Jun, 2009
#1: Dec 25th 2022 at 6:56:43 PM

The Fanfic Recommendations page has a very specific formatting required for recs, which has been faithfully used basically everywhere, as far as I can tell:

Title of the Fanfic by Author OR Fic Trope Page, by Author (Link)

  • Recommended by: Troper Namenote 
  • Crossover with: List the works the fic crosses over with. If the work isn't a crossover, remove this line.
  • Status: Completenote /Ongoingnote /Hiatusnote /Dormantnote / Deadnote 
  • Synopsis: Give a breakdown of the plot. Do not copy the fic's summary; that's plagiarism and could land the wiki in hot water.
  • Pairing(s): List the pairings in the fic. Use the x/y (e.g. Alice/Bob, Charlie/Delilah, etc.) format. If there are no pairings, remove this line.
  • Tags: If any are known. These would be things like W.A.F.F., Lemon, Crack Fic, etc.
    [[reviews:TitleOfTheFic]]

All of which is fine. Good information. However, I feel that having that first line, the title, naked without any indentation, makes the list look just a bit unprofessional and hard to read. See FanficRecs.Miraculous Ladybug; the recs blur into each other a bit.

My suggestion is just to indent that first line with one bullet, then the rest with two. Makes it look much smoother. I tried it on FanficRecs.Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and I feel like it makes the page easier to read.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
GrafVonTirol We can be heroes, just for one day from a state of boredom (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Standing outside, playing "In Your Eyes" on the boombox
We can be heroes, just for one day
#2: Dec 25th 2022 at 10:33:13 PM

One thing's for sure, the reviews must go! They look awkward the way they're implemented right now.

I guess another thing to address is whether to keep entries that a troper winds up making a page on, or if that just gets referred to the respective FanWorks/ index.

Edited by GrafVonTirol on Dec 25th 2022 at 10:34:48 AM

Discar Since: Jun, 2009
#3: Dec 26th 2022 at 11:08:35 AM

I've been keeping recs that have their own pages, just adding a link in the title. After all, there's no rule that you can only recommend things without pages, or that recs are supposed to be for things people don't care about. Removing them seems like an unnecessary extra headache.

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
crazysamaritan NaNo 4328 / 50,000 from Lupin III Since: Apr, 2010
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
#4: Dec 26th 2022 at 11:40:59 AM

A few notes...

See FanficRecs.Miraculous Ladybug; the recs blur into each other a bit.

Actually, they're not following the template correctly because they're putting the [review] tag on a new line entirely instead of using the line break markup (\\) to keep it indented. That's probably why the entries look to be flowing into one another.

Next,
I dislike how the formatting causes extra work when someone wants to make a page for the fic. I'd rather standardize to the second version of the first line, especially when the author cross-posts to multiple sites.

Finally,
I don't hate the idea of adjusting the entries by increasing the indent by one for all. It wouldn't exactly solve the demonstrated problem, which is probably from folks copying from the main article rather than the source code. Adding the markup so that copying it the way it seems folks already do should fix the problem.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Discar Since: Jun, 2009
#5: Dec 26th 2022 at 6:43:58 PM

You mean just put it in equal signs so that the markup is exactly what it looks like? Meaning the template will look like:

* [[http://www.fanfiction.net Title of the Fanfic]] by Author OR Fic Trope Page, by Author ([[http://www.fanfiction.net Link]])

** Recommended by: Troper Name[[note]]Reminder - if you want to recommend the fic but not write a review, add your Troper name to this line after the original name[[/note]]
** Crossover with: List the works the fic crosses over with. If the work isn't a crossover, remove this line.
** Status: Complete[[note]]the author considers it finished[[/note]]/Ongoing[[note]]updated regularly or semi-regularly[[/note]]/Hiatus[[note]]stops for whatever reason, possibly with a note that it'll be back soon[[/note]]/Dormant[[note]]at least a year without an update[[/note]]/ Dead[[note]]killed by the author, at least two years without an update, or the author DiedDuringProduction[[/note]]
** Synopsis: Give a breakdown of the plot. ''Do not'' copy the fic's summary; that's UsefulNotes/{{plagiarism}} and could land the wiki in hot water.
** Pairing(s): List the pairings in the fic. Use the x/y (e.g. Alice/Bob, Charlie/Delilah, etc.) format. If there are no pairings, remove this line.
** Tags: If any are known. These would be things like SugarWiki/{{WAFF}}, {{Lemon}}, CrackFic, etc.\\
[[reviews:TitleOfTheFic]]

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
crazysamaritan NaNo 4328 / 50,000 from Lupin III Since: Apr, 2010
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
#6: Dec 26th 2022 at 7:30:36 PM

I didn't mean for the whole thing. The template already uses that sort of markup so that it shows [[reviews:TitleOfTheFic]] instead of [[reviews:Title Of The Fic]] (well, the other thing which doesn't show up on the forums, apparently). The previous line should have something like [=\\ =]\\ so that it shows the \\ markup that precedes the reviews markup.

Also, I'm still grumbling over how the first line basically recommends that we not follow the Red Link policy.

Edited by crazysamaritan on Dec 26th 2022 at 3:31:55 PM

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Discar Since: Jun, 2009
#7: Dec 28th 2022 at 6:53:23 PM

I'm not sure exactly what you mean. Can you just show what you want it to look like?

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
MorganWick (Elder Troper)
#8: Dec 28th 2022 at 9:12:45 PM

Basically, just add visible "\\" markup, so it shows up on the page itself without opening the source, before the actual active \\ markup on the last bullet point.

Edited by MorganWick on Dec 28th 2022 at 9:16:21 AM

Discar Since: Jun, 2009
#9: Jan 8th 2023 at 5:38:36 PM

Lost track of this one for a while.

So basically what I'm here for is to get permission to indent fanfic rec pages like I suggested. I'm not going to start a cleanup thread (though maybe I should?), but I can at least get some of the biggest pages like FanficRecs.My Hero Academia and FanficRecs.Miraculous Ladybug.

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
Tabs Since: Jan, 2001
#10: Jan 9th 2023 at 12:00:50 AM

So *reviewing thread*

The suggestion is to add an extra bullet to each line (sounds fine) and make sure the double backslashes at the end of the Tags line in the copy-pastable template is visible (also sounds fine) ?

badtothebaritone (Life not ruined yet) Relationship Status: Snooping as usual
#11: Jan 9th 2023 at 8:40:54 AM

I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but does the pothole to Better Than Canon in the opening text for each page need to be there? It's single-handedly turning the YMMV item into a pothole magnet, and I don't think it really adds anything. A non-canon pairing being present in a Fan Work doesn't automatically make it better.

[down] Tons of pages in the Fanfic Recs namespace, like A Brother's Price, A Certain Magical Index, and A Christmas Carol, just to list the first three. It's to the point that wicks in this namespace make up nearly half the total wicks, going off Better Than Canon's Related tab.

Edited by badtothebaritone on Jan 9th 2023 at 7:51:00 AM

Discar Since: Jun, 2009
#12: Jan 9th 2023 at 5:46:09 PM

[up][up] Yep. I just want to make sure not to start an edit war, because while it's a minor change it is a broad one.

[up] What page? I don't see it anywhere on Fanfic Recommendations.

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
Tabs Since: Jan, 2001
#13: Jan 9th 2023 at 9:39:59 PM

[up][up] I swear we had a discussion on the appropriateness of Better Than Canon on fanfic rec pages. Probably on Trope Talk somewhere.

If the proposal moves forward, it's a minor change that's going to be a huge project to undertake. Maybe wait for some more users to chime in here, but I have no objections.

badtothebaritone (Life not ruined yet) Relationship Status: Snooping as usual
#14: Jan 9th 2023 at 11:16:08 PM

[up] Indeed we did. I just decided to bring it up here since it's going to be a while before Better Than Canon hits the top of the TRS queue and this thread seemed like the place for discussing changes like what I proposed.

Edit: Here's the thread.

Edited by badtothebaritone on Jan 9th 2023 at 1:24:01 PM

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