Recs organization

[doranwen]

I realized I had a question about how to organize recs and thought "where can I ask it?" Of course, the answer was "at fictional_fans". :)

If you're looking through a recs list for a fandom, one which is more than just a tiny handful of fics, how do you want to see the fics ordered? By the main ship(s)? By where it occurs in canon? Does it depend on what the canon is? (For instance, I could imagine fic recs for a TV show might be more useful organized by where each appears in the show, compared to those for a film.) Do you like to see both ways, depending on what you're looking for? (e.g. anything that features your favorite ship vs. fics set within the first season only because you've not seen the rest yet) (I presumed that within those two categorization methods, one would organize the fics by author and then title.)

See, I'd set up my master recs post by fandom, and the posts for each fandom large enough to get its own post (or more than one), I organized by ship. The biggest one (which required four separate posts to get them all in) being a series of movies where at least half the fics are shippy for a single pairing, I figured that made the most sense. But my fic database *does* let me tag fics for their position in canon (and I do that for each fic), so it's quite possible for me to set up posts organized by "times" such as "pre-film 1", "post-film 1", "during film 2", "AU", "distant past", "future", "multi", "indeterminate", etc. Whether I *should* do so or not was the question I could not answer, because I don't know whether people would want to browse fics that way.

Note that for a post organized by time in canon, all fics would also be marked with which major ships were present, they just wouldn't be *grouped* together by ship. The reverse would not be true, however - at least, I haven't marked times for individual fics in any post yet. I *could*, though. (Possibly relevant - of the other four fandoms which got their own posts, two are TV shows, one's a film, and one's a film and book combo where the two mediums were similar enough that I combined them into one post.)

So I welcome your input. (If you never read recs posts at all, I'd also be curious to know why.)

Comments

[vriddy]

Recs! I love rec posts.

I think recs organised by episode/movie for fandoms with multiple canons would make the fans who find these lists so happy!! I know that more than once, I've desperately wanted to start consuming fic before finishing canon, but stepping on AO3 means encountering spoilers whether you want to or not so it's a tough decision. (Last time I did that I saw the "Character X Lives" tag and left sobbing 😂)

I like ship-based recs list but I'm also a heavy multi-shipper so I'd be just as happy to see a recs list by episode/theme/timeline as long as there's a ship indicator where relevant on the rec itself, too. Good luck with your project!!

[doranwen]

Awww, I know what you mean there. When I watched Leverage in the spring/summer of 2020, I deliberately went to both ff.n and AO3 and sorted by fic update date - and then carefully only looked at/read fics up to the date the next episode aired as I slowly watched through the show. It worked pretty well (though I never did actually finish reading the most recent ones on once I finished watching the entire show, and I haven't bothered to watch the new series so I'm just dodging fics for it by checking character/ship tags), but I can imagine it might be tricky otherwise.

So for the shows, at least (and maybe the films too, especially considering how recently the new Matrix one came out), it would make sense to make posts of the recs organized by time as well as keeping my posts organized by ship. Then there'd be options for the fan who wants to read one way or the other. It's nearly impossible to include any descriptions of the fics themselves if there are too many, so that wouldn't spoil anyone. And I always mark ships *somehow* so people who really don't like a particular ship don't have to read about it. If the recs are organized by something else (or like the tiny fandoms, sharing a post with other fandoms, so that the post is organized simply by fandom), then the major ships are listed beneath the rec in a list so the reader can make their decision as to whether to click or not.

[vriddy]

I deliberately went to both ff.n and AO3 and sorted by fic update date - and then carefully only looked at/read fics up to the date the next episode aired as I slowly watched through the show.

That is dedication 😂 And probably the only safe way to do it, without a rec list by episode or clear tags to navigate a fandom!!