A Pitch for Redoing the Genres

[domisotto]

Because you rely on the readers to come to the site with a very specific idea of what they want to read in mind, then go through a ladder process to find it. That's not realistic and inconvenient.

The Genres should be sensitive to what's popular and organically break out the large incoming streams of that, even if they are technically a subgenre, because, practically, who cares?

Which Tapas did with BL and GL, etc, and will, hopefully, do with Paranormal or Isekai or High School

[darthmongoose]

Honestly I think a more actionable change based on things that are already on the site would be to make secondary genre tags on our works actually have a mechanical function in terms of search or filtering.

Right now, secondary genres we pick are pretty much just descriptive. My ranking determined entirely on my place in the "Action" Genre, and that's fine, but let's say hypothetically, somebody really liked my comic and went "hmm, okay, Action-LGBTQ+, Fantasy.... what else has those three tags?
If we had a way of searching things by narrowing down to two or three genre tags, somebody who liked my comic would be recommended stuff like "Magical Boy", which I think they'd almost certainly like. Unlike the current system, which recommends just whatever is popular in the "Action" genre.

Basically rather than shuffling all around the genres we have, make the genre combinations have a function for searching or filtering and recommendations. Combined with adding frequently asked for genres like "Paranormal" and you're onto a winner. "Okay I want... Paranormal and Romance....everything with those two tags in order of popularity" BOOM, the site recommends you all the stories about straight romance where people are in love with werewolves and vampires and whatever.

[Llyrel]

This would also be great!

[jjfresh]

Genre fix or riot \o/

[DaveStankoven]

Great point. Non-fiction needs an Prime Genre.

[DaveStankoven]

That is essentially what this is. The Prime and Secondaries are all treated functionally the same I just have them divvied for organization. It could be exactly this but just with more options, I just figured boiling it down would make it easier to find what you're looking for or filter out what you aren't.

[DaveStankoven]

Essentially exactly this.

[DaveStankoven]

The very premise of my story is based on the fact that magic exists and lets you do things you normally wouldn't be able to do, if you take that out of the plot, the entire story would make no sense... so no, it's definitely not just an "aesthetic" thing

I believe this to be a misconception of how stories work. The world details could easily be translated to a real-world version. This takes some bearing with me.
Yes in fantasy things that are impossible in our world become possible but that doesn't change the nature of themes of the story. Most fantasies use this world-difference to highlight issues with our own world. Lord of the Rings for example, you can easily swap the fantasy races with real world ones, make the ring some sort of tempting but dangerous weapon like, I dunno, the button to a nuke, and make the Orcs part of some radical warring cult. obviously this is less interesting but you could make the same story with the same themes without the fantasy elements. Thus my reasoning.

especially since a lot of the genres I see listed as "secondary" are actual genres of their own, often with a long and well established literary tradition (poetry, anyone?

Yes it seems my naming scheme is ruffling feathers. I'm going to make an edit.

[HGohwell]

I think the major issue with this is a fundamental misunderstanding of what a genre is and why they're important if you think action and adventure are 2 categories and sci-fi/fantasy is on. You're not using "genres" you're using "what I deem to be categories".

And also a fundamental misunderstanding of how Tapas' categories work. BL got seperated out from Romance because it was a huge category. Fantasy is likewise, huge and sci-fi isn't tiny. They would never combine them any more than they would put BL back into Romance.

[Llyrel]

Yes, fantasy and sci-fi can be used as metaphors to talk about real life issues... but if you were to swap everything with a real life equivalent, can you even call the thing "fantasy" or "science-fiction" anymore? XD

As @HGohwell said, genres are there for a reason, and so far what you have expressed sounds more like your own personal opinion about how to categorize a story rather than anything based on how genre categorization in literature/comics actually works.

[DaveStankoven]

I have posted a new version above. Please take a look and let me know what you think.

[DaveStankoven]

You wouldn't and that's exactly my point. That sci-fi and fantasy dependent on the aesthetic and not the story itself.

Yes this is based on my understanding of how I think Genres should would. I believe we were limited by the order in which genres appeared in history and because we didn't have computers when libraries first existed so organization was far more difficult.
BUT I've posted a new version above so please check it out. This should negate my opinions on genre and focus on the search needs of the readers and creators.

[ar-ninetysix]

..I mean, I dunno how else to say it. You have a very roundabout way of explaining things, man. You make it sound like there wouldn't genres, but a category of genres.. But then you can select from a long list of genres to further clarify what we wanna search for. That long list is techincally what we're already doing, so it just sounds needlessly more complicated than it has to be for a future change. So there's that. On a seperate note, I don't agree with conjuctions of Sci-fi/Fantasy and what sounds like Romance/BL/GL either. Why? Just.. Why? They've already been recognized as seperate things here, we'd just be going backwards.

Also, none of these ideas have any visual examples either, so that's not helping either lmao I'm trying to understand, but it's all convoluted the way I try to imagine actually using it, and I would hate if that system I imagined is what we end up working with in the future

[DaveStankoven]

I understand. I figured this would be easier to grasp on paper and I considered visual aids but my main fault seems to have been trying to divide things into Primary and Secondary and that caused pretty much everyone's issues in the comments so there is a NEW version above in the original post that loses that part and hopefully explains it clearer.
Let me know what you think.

[Llyrel]

Guess we'll have to agree to disagree, then.

[HGohwell]

That definitely seems like a much better way of doing it. (Also, it should be noted we already have a pick three and tell us which is the main genre system in place on Tapas). But yeah, more genres is what most of us want and a shopping style filter seems like a much better plan.

And for reference as to how huge genres are and how they're normal categories and sub categorized:

List of writing genres

And to clear up any misunderstandings: genres are not for the us as creators, but for readers to find what they want. This is why you rubbed people the wrong way with the assertion scifi/fantasy is the same thing - because it's not about the creator's view, it's about the reader and the reader doesn't want real world or scifi when they're looking for fantasy. (I know you've rewritten the post, I'm just explaining why it's annoyed people.) And this is why the shopping filter style works better.

[DaveStankoven]

And to clear up any misunderstandings: genres are not for the us as creators, but for readers to find what they want. This is why you rubbed people the wrong way with the assertion scifi/fantasy is the same thing - because it's not about the creator's view, it's about the reader and the reader doesn't want real world or scifi when they're looking for fantasy. (I know you've rewritten the post, I'm just explaining why it's annoyed people.) And this is why the shopping filter style works better.

That's actually a good point and thank you for that.

[scribesunlimited]

Still missing Furry/Anthro

I am filled with disappoint.

[DaveStankoven]

Haha I'll add it. Can't leave them out.

[scribesunlimited]

You have my blessings.