User blog comment:VicGeorge2K9/Making big noises about retcons in your own fanfics/@comment-5449478-20180112205330

'''"Is it really necessary to make big noises about retcons in your own fanfiction series?" '''

In this context, what does 'big noise' actually mean? Does it mean re-written pages with Edit Summaries signifying the change? Or does it mean constant advertisement all over the wiki? Are the two things even the same? You'll need to define what you mean by this vague term, and whether it's relevant to what anyone on this wiki is doing.

'''"I mean, if you're just world-building and you haven't written a single story in your series that actually uses any of the characters and elements you established for it, can you really call it a "retcon" if you change things that contradict earlier information of those same elements and characters?" (subsequent concerns addressed here) '''

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Retcon

Whether it is considered a retcon or not is not dependent on whether I have written any material you consider a 'story'. It is only dependent on changes to the timeline; examples of this are when I write an article depicting an in-universe historical event, only to edit the course of events and end up with a bunch of outdated articles. This throws the universe out of order. The re-ordering process is known as the retcon, and this is consistent with my above definition. 

I also consider my stories to be flexible and able to change for the most part, but you need to consider where an individual author is getting their inspiration from. Aeon of the Champion takes cues from Warcraft lore, where retcons and general changes to the storyline are mentioned on the relevant pages, either as footnotes or, if significant enough, in the main body of text. They're reference points to previous versions of events that may interest prospective readers. If somebody doesn't like that approach, I'm going to accept that people have different ways of doing things and carry on with my day. Besides, retconned material often serves as a basis for alternative timelines, which are a big part of the story series itself (hence the Time Ship, the brown dragonflight's association with it, and Lokil's meddling with it). I've even named my own  main-sequence timeline, with alternate ones to be released when they're ready. 

<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">A constant criticism of my work is that I never write "any stories", or it's not "relevant to the Smurfs", criticisms I've already addressed in the past: I'm world-building. Like Warcraft,  Aeon of the Champion  is an expansive universe with lots of different settings and characters, so until everything is coherent and ironed out flat, I'm going to hold-off writing what you consider a "story" (bear in mind I did do a short story regarding your Erosand my Asmodeus; the quality of which is for you to decide for yourself). If I start writing stories now, the end result will be more retcons and more 'big noises', which you seem to loathe so much.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:12pt0cm;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;">By the way, my lore-writing is part of the main storyline, so it could actually be considered a 'story' in a sense different from your own, given that I still have to spend time putting plots together and making sure those plots make sense. Just because it isn't split into itty-little parts 1-6 with a fancy introduction and standalone article page pointing to each part doesn't necessarily mean it's not a story.

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