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Old Sep 5, 2013, 05:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Secret Squirrel View Post
The original intent for the classification "doujin" was to filter out all those old Key and Ragnarok Online albums from comiket for people who didn't want to see them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Secret Squirrel View Post
I suppose one way to encapsulate its general use, would be to change it from "Doujin/Independent" to "Unlicensed Fan Arrange".
This should probably be discussed with the people who want to filter out these albums: do they want all of them gone, or just unlicensed ones? If it were me, I'd want licensed ones hidden too, because licensing doesn't change that they're fan arrangements. However, I've never filtered them out and probably never will, so my opinion is pretty moot.

Maybe related: do we want the same filter to hide works albums by doujin artists too? (Alternately: a separate filter for that? Filter out all works albums regardless of composer?)


Quote:
Originally Posted by Secret Squirrel View Post
I'm not sure we really want 3 fields (publisher type, publication type, rights type) for this. Although we like to be thorough, I'm not sure that it adds anything that the user wants. I am not sure the distinction between large publisher, independent publisher, and self-publishing is that significant anymore.
Yeah, I get that adding more complexity to an already complex form for minimal gain isn't necessarily a great idea. The thing is that I don't think the complex and inconsistent way we've been using that field is really any better. That's why I've been trying to nail down and separate all the different things we mean by "Commercial" and "Doujin/Indie": so we can figure out which of them we truly care about and the best ways to represent each. I'm not necessarily in favor of three fields if we can come up with something better.

~~~~~

Here's an imperfect idea to get the ball rolling: (1) remove Publish Format entirely and use whether the linked publisher is a commercial label, doujin group, or bootlegger; (2) add "Fan Arrangement" as a Classification; and (3) have a Rights listbox for "Licensed" and "Unlicensed," allowing multiple selection.

To get it out of the way, the glaring problem with this scheme is that it requires a publisher entity for every single album. This would mean having to make a lot of new entries and pull more information from the publisher table into album pages and color coding, so this could be a big issue. There are also a lot of albums that we simply can't know are licensed or not, but that would also be a problem if we changed "Doujin/Indie" to "Unlicensed Fan Arrange."

If we take care of those, here's how it would work in practice:

wall o' text:
Doujin albums: This gets rid of the confusion of classifying doujin albums differently based on content by just not doing so.

Filtering out doujin albums: We could filter out all albums with "Fan Arrangement" classifications, as well as albums with doujin publishers and "Original Work" Classifications. This leaves doujin-published OSTs alone.

Official doujin arrangements: Some doujin albums have official arrangements because the group arranged their own compositions, so differentiating between "Arrangement" and "Fan Arrangement" is important for filtering.

Licensed & unlicensed fan arrangements: Both types of album would have a "Fan Arrangement" Classification, so there would be no inconsistency. If we want to leave licensed fan arrangements unfiltered, we can do that too.

Bootlegs: There are a couple of really weird cases where a bootlegger published a legitimate release, so a Rights field would be necessary to properly classify bootlegs. We can't just inherit it from the publisher.

Original soundtracks and fan arrangements on the same album: Here's one that's all fan arrangements except for a special in-game track by ZUN. So we'd want both "Licensed" and "Unlicensed" for this album, which is why I suggested a listbox instead of a checkbox.

Original soundtracks and bootleg soundtracks on the same album: Here's a soundtrack containing several pieces for which publishing rights weren't actually acquired. Combining both Rights options helps here too.

Official arrangements and fan arrangements on the same album: I can't think of any specific examples right now, but I'm pretty sure we have at least one doujin album where someone arranged both one of their original compositions as well as other game music. "Arrangement" & "Fan Arrangement" plus "Licensed" & "Unlicensed."

How does that sound? I think it takes care of most of the inconsistency and weirdness by clarifying the fan arrangement and licensing statuses without adding too much: +1 Classification, +1 simple field, -1 complex field. Any improvements on this, or huge holes that it wouldn't be able to deal with?
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