Hi Bryony, thanks for your reply. You've raised some interesting points. As mentioned below, I think that we (the current respondents to this topic) should form an ad hoc committee to decide matters of policy when (and if) the project goes online.

I'd suggest there should also be a category of tropes: the recurring themes that we see with each entry charting significant plot points and notable examples of them.

I completely agree, and employed some of your wording in my application to Miraheze.org (see comment below). Hope you don't mind.

My only gripe about the wiki format is that it might be biased towards universes and serials while stand-alone stories might contribute far more in the way of novelty, yet be hard to index.

I think we can overcome such (potential) disparities if we encourage authors to write articles about their own material and allow for flexibility within lists and categories. We might also promote stand-alone pieces by featuring a 'Story of the Month' on the main page (I'd suggest random selection to avoid allegations of favoritism in this case). We could do the same for individual characters, obscure plot devices and authors (via a "Did you know?" section on the main).

Please let us know if you'd be willing to serve on the ad hoc committee when (and if) the project goes online.

I've just put in a request at Miaheze.org (a free wiki-hosting service). The proposal reads as follows:

Proposal: a wiki devoted to Transgender Fiction, documenting literary world-building, major themes, recurring tropes and a history of the genre, starting with the mythology of ancient Greece and following through until the present day. Contemporary authors will be encouraged to contribute bibliographic and educational content to the database.

Please note that while articles may discuss mature themes (eg transsexuality in medical, psychological and literary terms) the wiki will feature no pornographic content.

If the request is approved (may take a while), I'll post an update informing everyone here of the situation and calling for volunteers to get things started. I would also suggest that the current respondents to this topic be considered an ad hoc committee to serve as administrators if and when we get the green light.

Hi Karen, thanks very much for your reply.

When classifying a story, would you (the universal "you") go by the author's classification/keywords, etc. for their stories, or would it be independently decided by something like a panel.

These are questions we'll need to consider once the project goes online. As mentioned above, I think that we (the current respondents to this topic) should form an ad hoc committee to decide matters of policy in the early days, then encourage regular editors to make consensus decisions once we've built up a large enough user-base.

Please let us know if you'd be willing to serve on the ad hoc committee.

That's great Debbie! Based on your experience with wiki-related media, I'd like to nominate you as an administrator on the project if you're willing to serve in that capacity.

Coding skills are not an absolute necessity, Dorothy. This would be a group effort, and there are other things you could do. For example, would you be willing to write articles describing popular themes in TG literature? If you provide the raw data, others could do the technical work (mark-up and formatting etc).

Also, please let us know if you'd be willing to serve on an ad hoc policy-making committee when (and if) the project goes online.