Post by forlornjackalope on Jan 29, 2022 18:44:08 GMT
I know this topic comes up a few times a year, but I wanted to see what the community thinks about this unless it would be way too much work.
I should preface this isn't exactly about proposing we add categories for anime (see Kenny Lauderdale's video on what constitutes anime for why this would be difficult), but rather categorizing and organizing stuff that's based on region. We occasionally get threads asking if a certain country or continent has any notable lost media, and it brings up a lot of interesting discussions.
As an example, we have a ton of lost media from North America and mainland Europe. When it comes to Asia, the majority of lost media we usually end up talking about is from Japan, and maybe the Phillipines and China. Scarcely, we'll hear about something from Oceania and a few countries in South America, but that's about it. But, in the case of one thread we have, the topic of media from Africa and the Middle East was brought up - and next to nothing shows up. In a thread for media that's likely completely lost, a user mentioned a lost Irish soap opera that they're also looking for and I'm sure apart from them, none of us would know about it if they didn't tell us.
I think the point I wanted to get at was if it would be helpful if we organized stuff like this based on their place of origin, and maybe, just maybe, someone seeing that if a country like Ghana, Latvia, Bolivia, Estonia, the Bahamas, Afghanistan, or Chile doesn't have a single footprint, maybe that would spark some interest in people seeing they can dig up. If anything, and this would be better, locals from said places see a lack of representation for their homelands and are able to help out with providing insight on something that's completely foreign to others.
_________
Pros:
* The Wiki would become way more diverse and such an opportunity would make it more welcoming to outsiders; especially people who aren't American, Canadian, or European who don't feel like they're getting valid or proper representation.
* It might make the site feel more organized, much like how Metal Archives has a categorizing system to help fans find niche and specific content.
* It can help ignite more international searches, much like the ongoing efforts to find the Hitogata PSA.
Cons:
* Such a task may become very tedious and time consuming, especially for articles that need cleaning and additional fact checking. [Ex: Europe > Finland] This will be especially tough for the "Hard to Find / Obscure" movies in the lost film section as well, unless that doesn't count.
* Because not everything we have articles have up can be pinned down to one location, figuring out how to place it in multiple locations if it was a duel effort might get confusing and lost in the system.
* This would require more moderation from the staff to make sure everything checks out, even though that responsibility falls first and foremost on the shoulders of the person submitting the article. However, if a piece of media's place of origin isn't well known or can't verified, it would fall into a similar category as "Existence Unconfirmed", and require an extra space to end up in.
_________
Let me know if this sounds like a good idea or not. Personally, I think it would give us an extra layer of organization and help us have all of our bases covered. Wikipedia does this well enough, and the aforementioned Metal Archives and their system is superb with getting ahold of stuff that's relatively unknown and obscure.
I should preface this isn't exactly about proposing we add categories for anime (see Kenny Lauderdale's video on what constitutes anime for why this would be difficult), but rather categorizing and organizing stuff that's based on region. We occasionally get threads asking if a certain country or continent has any notable lost media, and it brings up a lot of interesting discussions.
As an example, we have a ton of lost media from North America and mainland Europe. When it comes to Asia, the majority of lost media we usually end up talking about is from Japan, and maybe the Phillipines and China. Scarcely, we'll hear about something from Oceania and a few countries in South America, but that's about it. But, in the case of one thread we have, the topic of media from Africa and the Middle East was brought up - and next to nothing shows up. In a thread for media that's likely completely lost, a user mentioned a lost Irish soap opera that they're also looking for and I'm sure apart from them, none of us would know about it if they didn't tell us.
I think the point I wanted to get at was if it would be helpful if we organized stuff like this based on their place of origin, and maybe, just maybe, someone seeing that if a country like Ghana, Latvia, Bolivia, Estonia, the Bahamas, Afghanistan, or Chile doesn't have a single footprint, maybe that would spark some interest in people seeing they can dig up. If anything, and this would be better, locals from said places see a lack of representation for their homelands and are able to help out with providing insight on something that's completely foreign to others.
_________
Pros:
* The Wiki would become way more diverse and such an opportunity would make it more welcoming to outsiders; especially people who aren't American, Canadian, or European who don't feel like they're getting valid or proper representation.
* It might make the site feel more organized, much like how Metal Archives has a categorizing system to help fans find niche and specific content.
* It can help ignite more international searches, much like the ongoing efforts to find the Hitogata PSA.
Cons:
* Such a task may become very tedious and time consuming, especially for articles that need cleaning and additional fact checking. [Ex: Europe > Finland] This will be especially tough for the "Hard to Find / Obscure" movies in the lost film section as well, unless that doesn't count.
* Because not everything we have articles have up can be pinned down to one location, figuring out how to place it in multiple locations if it was a duel effort might get confusing and lost in the system.
* This would require more moderation from the staff to make sure everything checks out, even though that responsibility falls first and foremost on the shoulders of the person submitting the article. However, if a piece of media's place of origin isn't well known or can't verified, it would fall into a similar category as "Existence Unconfirmed", and require an extra space to end up in.
_________
Let me know if this sounds like a good idea or not. Personally, I think it would give us an extra layer of organization and help us have all of our bases covered. Wikipedia does this well enough, and the aforementioned Metal Archives and their system is superb with getting ahold of stuff that's relatively unknown and obscure.
