All of this discussion about how the archive is organised and whether certain things should be consolidated seems to tie back to one key point - this archive doesn't seem to have a clear(ly stated) purpose.
The obvious solution is to look at the archive and try to determine what value it adds. In other words, why is it superior to the forum itself?
I can come up with a few answers, but this isn't an exhaustive list:
- It is consistent. The forums shift whenever someone responds to a thread.
- It contains useful information that cannot be practically included in a thread title (viewpoint, pairings, length, etc.).
- It is easily searchable. The forum search too isn't bad
per se, but it certainly isn't good, either.
What we're looking at here is an index. As such, it has two key uses:
Reference - If, when commenting on another thread, a poster mentions, say, "
Pearly Whites," anyone can refer to this index, scroll down to the "P" section, and find the appropriate link. While the forum software is sufficient for many stories, it won't be easy to find all of them, especially when the title is a common word or phrase. As a matter of fact,w e already have some degree of confusion with a one-shot and a series using the same title ("Waiting"). It also may be difficult to find stories by name when they're contained in a one-shot collection.
Specific Tastes - With a simple text search, readers can jump to prologues, epilogues, fics that focus on one particular character, or a few other common categories. It will take a little effort, but it's more consistently organised than the forums at large.
So why alphabetical over anything else?
Alphabetical is inherently unbiased. As someone pointed out, they could write a story entitled "Aardvark" and get it on the top of the index (until someone writes "AAA-Sponsored Fic - Stranded on the Roadside (Hisao x Kenji x Hideaki x Ikuno x OC)), but that's missing the point. You can (theoretically) legally change your name to Aaaaaaaaaaaasmith to get to the front of the phone book, but that's missing the point of a phone book. (Historical note: Phone books were large tomes that listed phone numbers for people you didn't know or care about. Before cell phones and the internet, it was necessary to refer to such tomes if you were unable to memorise the phone number of someone you knew.)
Why not sort by focus? Or pairing? Or one of several other categories?
The phrasing of this question makes an obvious point of itself - there are many different formats, and only one can be chosen. You aren't going to please everyone. And these aren't necessarily as unbiased as they might seem at first. On top of that, they would require judgment calls that simply aren't required in alphabetical organisation. For example, intelligent people might disagree on whether "
It All Makes sense In The End" should be considered "Hisao x Misha" as opposed to "None" (Side note: The Great And Powerful Archivist may want to consider including "Major Characters" as a category). Were the stories organised by pairing, a dilligent reader might assume the story had not been archived, because it wasn't in "Hisao x Misha." And what of more complex pairings? If a story's pairings was something like "Hisao x Emi, Hisao x Rin, Hisao x Kenji, Hisao x fleshlight, Hisao x a tree that kinda looked like Lilly, Hisao x Rin's daughter, Hisao x Rin's granddaughter, Nomiya x Othello, Miki x Shizune, Hanako x Lezard x Taro, OC x OC, Shub-niggurath x Emi, Misha x Byakhee x Monkey D. Luffy x Alphonse Elric x Birdramon, American-Born Reincarnation of Hitler x Hanako," where would that most appropriately be filed?
In short, the archive is sorted alphabetically because it's practical and unbiased. Also because it's what The Great And Powerful Archivist decided and this isn't a democracy.
