Hello, I have noticed that most unabridged audiobooks (or scriptbooks) are generally stubs and don't include a "Plot summary" section and sometimes include a "Publisher's summary" section. After some initial discussion on the discord I would like to propose a layout standard for audiobooks and scriptbooks. (I am still pretty new here so forgive me if this is a little off).

Proposal[]

Update Out-of-universe Published narrative works section to include the specifics related to Plot summaries for audiobooks and scriptbooks:

1. Plot summary summarizes the plot of the work, written in-universe and in the present tense. If the article is about a collection of multiple works (eg, a book trilogy or a comic book story arc), the summaries should be more condensed than if the article is about an individual work (eg, a single book or comic). If the article is about an individual work that has a publisher's summary, then a sourced Publisher's summary subsection should lead this section. If the work includes an Opening crawl, it can be added at the beginning of this section using {{Opening crawl}}.

• If the article is about an unabridged audiobook or scriptbook the plot summary should use {{Plot-link}} to direct the reader to the original work article.

Example[]

Plot summary[]

Support[]

1. User:ThePedantry (talk) 00:38, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
2. The template will prolly need some more work, but the general idea (and the new policy wording) I'm happy with. Imperators II^(Talk) 14:04, 23 July 2024 (UTC)
3. Nice OOM 224 (he/him/they) 15:39, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
4. Lewisr (talk) 23:56, 24 July 2024 (UTC)
5. NanoLuuke^{Cloning Facility} 10:03, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
6. Ayrehead02 (talk) 19:17, 25 July 2024 (UTC)
7. Tommy-Macaroni (he/they) 18:44, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
8. Zed42 ^(talk) 23:47, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Oppose[]

Discuss[]

• This proposal doesn't specify/link to what policy this is changing or where the proposed text will be placed upon an admin closing it.—spookywilloww^talk 00:49, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
  • Additionally; the capitalization of Audiobooks and Scriptbooks doesn't really align with current other policies regarding these subjects and seems unnecessary; ideally to have been workshopped in Senate Hall first to smooth these out.—spookywilloww^talk 00:51, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
    • Sorry, first time trying to make a proposal like this, and I haven't really done much with the Senate Hall yet. I updated the proposal section stating that it would be the Out-of-universe section of the layout guide that this change would be targeting. -User:ThePedantry (talk) 01:07, 10 July 2024 (UTC)
• Hmm, I like the general gist of this but it does need a bit of refinement, for example, "translated" isn't really the right word choice here, and ideally I'd like to also see a standardized way codified in this passage for how this link to the original novel's article section should be formatted. Imperators II^(Talk) 11:30, 11 July 2024 (UTC)
  • Do you like the work adapted better? As for the standardization of the direct, it might make sense to have a template but I think it should be pretty simple like: "See the novel for full plot summary"—ThePedantry (talk) 17:55, 12 July 2024 (UTC)
    • I would love to see a specific wording for the former; as for the latter, a template would be a good idea imo, yes, even if a simple one like that. Imperators II^(Talk) 19:07, 12 July 2024 (UTC)
      • I updated the proposal with specific wording and setup a template with the template sandbox. (I'm not sure if I am using the template sandbox correctly) - ThePedantry (talk) 00:05, 17 July 2024 (UTC)
        • So "adapted" is definitely a more appropriate descriptor here than "translated", but is there a reason why we shouldn't just be explicitly limiting this to unabridged audiobooks and scriptbooks? Right now, the proposed wording of the policy would in fact make us take this approach for every adapted work, which is absolutely not what we want. Imperators II^(Talk) 19:16, 19 July 2024 (UTC)
          • Yeah that was why I was initially put "translated" but what being more specific as "unabridged adapted work" with a specific call out for the abridged audiooks (see update to proposal) - ThePedantry (talk) 19:40, 19 July 2024 (UTC)
            • I have to re-iterate my question though :P Why not have the policy wording be something like "If the article is about an unabridged audiobook or a scriptbook, ..."? If we discover more of pertinent media types we can always codify those into policy as well, and this way we don't have a technical loophole in a situation where we really only care about those two specific media types anyway. Imperators II^(Talk) 19:49, 19 July 2024 (UTC)
              • Oh, yes that makes a lot of sense, I have updated the proposal to reflect that - ThePedantry (talk) 01:58, 21 July 2024 (UTC)
                • Nice! Imperators II^(Talk) 10:43, 22 July 2024 (UTC)
• Now, about the abridged audiobook bit - the current proposal requires that the plot summary section of abridged audiobook articles note the changes from the original work. Such discussion would necessarily be OOU in perspective, which kinda clashes with that existing paragraph, "Plot summary summarizes the plot of the work, written in-universe..." I'd suggest that adding a note to the paragraph about the Development sections stipulating that such changes instead be documented there would make more sense. And in my opinion, using the Plot-link template on the abridged audiobook articles wouldn't really be warranted. Imperators II^(Talk) 10:43, 22 July 2024 (UTC)
  • That is an excellent point. I will remove the the mention of abridged audiobooks from my proposal since my main objective was for unabridged audiobooks. Btw thank you very much for all this feedback, I realized now I should have started this discussion in Senate hall forum so I appreciate all the feedback on here! I will do it better in the future. - ThePedantry (talk) 18:40, 22 July 2024 (UTC)