User talk:Gaijin

Gaijin, Let's discuss this, since we seem to be in disagreement. ZineWiki, unlike Wikipedia, is not an unlimited bandwidth website, and is not supported by donations. Therefore, we try to keep such things as categories, terms and definitions within a parameter that is most useful to the larger fanzine community and audience. A term like "genzine", which is, at present, used to describe three zines, is not useful to the larger zine community and ends up isolating those zines it is used to describe, since the larger zine community won't be looking for zines under that category. Likewise with the label "personalzine": the more common term, "perzine", is widely known with the community and the most widely used, and this is the category under which most people would look to find a perzine they were searching for. They will not be looking under "personalzine" or "genzine" since these terms are little known and idiosyncratic, and the three or four zines categorized using these terms will end up being ignored. Since they are not useful categories or terms for the larger community, these pages end up taking up bandwidth for no useful purpose. On the other hand, the term "Apazine" which you introduced, is useful, since I could find at least ten zines which would fit in that category. As well, it is a term that not only applies to Science Fiction zines but also to Comic zines and so is widely known within the larger zine community.

I have no great desire to delete others' pages here at Zine Wiki, but as an administrator I have done most of the work in organizing the categorization of all the zines. I have read every entry on the site and I'm therefore in a postion to know whether a term or category will be useful for Zine Wiki. A term like "genzine", used to describe 'general interest' zines, could be used to describe at least a thousand zines here. However, it is not a term in general usage. It is a term that no other contributors have ever used aside from yourself. I think it would be silly to go through Zine Wiki and recategorize a thousand zines under the category "genzine" and insist people start using this term. This type of action would simply be a case of imposing my own likes and dislikes on the readership. Rather than do that, I prefer to use terms and categories that are already in common usage within the larger zine community.

Inasmuch as each article writer, zine editor and zine strives to be unique and stand out from the rest, it would not be useful to have as many categories as there are zine articles. With so many articles here at Zine Wiki, it can already be a daunting task to find what one is looking for. We have to try and make it easy for people to find the zines and categories they are searching for. InvisibleFriend 15:10, 7 January 2008 (EST)

Terms such as "genzine", "newszine", etc, were certainly in common usage in the mid-1980s, but I do accept your general points. How about we adopt your earlier changes, but we add one page defining those additional terms, to which all such enquiries can henceforth be routed? Gaijin 21:57, 7 January 2008 (EST)

If context assists, I've been a fanzine reviewer since the late 1970s, sometimes for fanzines, sometimes for professional publications, and have probably covered 1500+ fanzines over the past 30 years. Gaijin 22:02, 7 January 2008 (EST)

Having one page to define these terms is a good idea. I'm just guessing, but it seems to me, given the zines you've written articles about, that you are knowledgeable about the world of Science Fiction zines; perhaps an article on Science Fiction terminology would be interesting and could included these terms. I suggest this since I haven't heard of those terms being used by anyone outside of this community, and the Science Fiction zine community seems to have developed its own terminology which would be very interesting to read about. Just an idea! InvisibleFriend 06:15, 8 January 2008 (EST)

I've reverted the three entries as discussed. Can you delete the separate pages for "Newszine" and "Genzine"? Gaijin 10:18, 8 January 2008 (EST)

Regarding a mini-dictionary, I guess it wouldn't be that difficult to put together. If we went ahead, I'd suggest we add it to the "quick links" index. Gaijin 10:26, 8 January 2008 (EST)

I personally love the idea of a glossary of zine terms! dan10things 19:26, 8 January 2008 (EST)

There's definitely a need for this kind of thing. What I envision is a page devoted to Science Fiction terminology, including these terms 'genzine' and 'newszine', which appear to me to be somewhat specific to the SF community. I imagine there is other terminology I'm not aware of and haven't encountered as of yet but would be interested in finding out about. Zine Wiki does have articles on more common terms such as newsletter, zine and fanzine (obviously), even pamphleteer, which I generally use for 'pamphlet', and articles on punk, hardcore and Straight Edge, even Veganism, as well as the more technical aspects of zine making, such as Cut and Paste and Woodcut and Linocut in Zine Production, which Eugenepunk has done a great job on. There are two articles relating to SF fandom so far: PDF and LetterHack, but it would be great to have more specific articles, such as this proposed page on SF terminology, if you'd be interested in writing it.InvisibleFriend 20:04, 8 January 2008 (EST)

Italics

I can't really answer for Alan and Dan, who had adopted that policy before I started editing here. They had already created hundreds of articles using this format. So now, in the interests of consistency, that's become the standard form. Of course movies and television programmes, plays, essays, and all other titles are italicised. I think, in the long run, this is the best thing to do, since so many people come to Zine Wiki to write an article on their zine(s) and have trouble enough just doing that. It's probably good to adopt a policy that makes things as easy for them as possible. I still have to format almost every single article written by contributors (aside from the long time editors), so that the articles will have the same general appearance. That's enough work! I can't imagine going through Zine Wiki at this point and italicising every title of every one of the two thousand articles on a zine! : ) InvisibleFriend 22:40, 10 January 2008 (EST)