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How many of the posts here are for stfantasy writers (or editors or artists) compared with how many for actors (or directors)? If someone has both written and acted, go with what they're best known for.

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  • 4
    Why don't you just count them?
    – Valorum
    Sep 10, 2017 at 12:16
  • 4
    @Valorum to get that sweet sweet rep
    – Edlothiad
    Sep 10, 2017 at 12:29
  • 3
    @Edlothiad - Good luck with that on meta.
    – Valorum
    Sep 10, 2017 at 12:32
  • 2
    @Valorum /r/thatsthejoke
    – Edlothiad
    Sep 10, 2017 at 12:33
  • 4
    @Edlothiad - me
    – Valorum
    Sep 10, 2017 at 12:34
  • 1
    @Valorum Rhetorical question.
    – user14111
    Sep 10, 2017 at 13:40
  • 1
    I'm surprised nobody posted a Meta post re: Pournelle
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Sep 10, 2017 at 15:25
  • @DVK flagged as obsolete ;-)
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Sep 11, 2017 at 16:28

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Actors - 10

Film makers/directors - 1

Authors - 4

Site members - 1

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  • 4
    +1 to you for the research. -100 to the community because... seriously, can the creators be valued a bit more than actors on a site dedicated to SciFi content?
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Sep 10, 2017 at 15:27
  • @DVK-on-Ahch-To Maybe the actors have a penchant for dying in more recent times?
    – Skooba
    Sep 11, 2017 at 12:13
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    @Skooba - no, not really. It just seems that way from media scrambling for ratings/clicks by playing to celebrity obsessed culture :(
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Sep 11, 2017 at 13:38
  • @DVK-on-Ahch-to - What writers do you feel that we've missed?
    – Valorum
    Sep 11, 2017 at 15:46
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    @Valorum - just from random recognition of their work - and please note that I RARELY pay attention to news such as this: Frederik Pohl (2013), Boris Strugtsky (2012), Jerry Pournelle (2017), Brian Aldiss (2017); Ray Bradbury (2012), Iain Banks (2013), George Johnson (2015), Edward Bryant, K. D. Wentworth (2012), Daniel Keyes (2014)
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Sep 11, 2017 at 15:59
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    @Valorum - also, Richard Matheson, Parke Godwin, Andrew J. Offutt, John Christopher, Jack Vance
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Sep 11, 2017 at 16:01
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    @DVK-on-Ahch-To - Great. The next time someone of this stature dies, write a post about it.
    – Valorum
    Sep 11, 2017 at 16:11
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    @Valorum - Im' (semi) retired. I try to limit my Meta participation to snarky comments about getting off lawns and how the young of today have it easy.
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Sep 11, 2017 at 16:14
  • How about Keen and DVK?
    – ibid
    Sep 12, 2017 at 0:11
  • @ibid - they're still alive and well, just left the site.
    – Mithical
    Sep 12, 2017 at 1:39
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    The farewell posts are a very similar style to the death posts. I don't see a reason to separate the two.
    – ibid
    Sep 12, 2017 at 1:52
  • 1
    @DVK insert monty python 'not dead yet' scene
    – user68762
    Sep 12, 2017 at 14:35
  • 2
    @ibid - posts about site users are debatable in and out of itself (I agonized for a while before deciding my exile post was ontopic), but they are indubitably MORE ontopic on a site meta than posts about site's subject matter that have nothing to do with the site or its operation.
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Sep 12, 2017 at 14:39
  • @Morri - my entire Politics.SE user profile used to mostly consist of "watery tart" bit :)
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Sep 12, 2017 at 14:41
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I am not sure users should guilt-trip one another into posting in memoriam stuff.

Let me present what Stanislaw Lem (or rather Chlorian Theoreticus the Proph) has to say on the subject:

Let them know, they who will worship me and raise up gilded monuments to my memory, that in return I wish them all to— to sprain their sprockets, pop their valves, burn out their transmissions, and may their data be dumped, and verdigris cover them from head to foot, if all they are able to do is honor corpses exhumed from the cemetery of history! Perchance there will arise among them a new sage, but they, slavishly poring over the remains of some letters I wrote to my laundress, will take no notice of him! Let them know, I say, oh let them know, once and for all, that they have my heartfelt damnation and most sincere contempt, that I hold them all for skeleton-kissers, corpse-lickers, professional axle-jackals, who feed on carrion because they are blind to wisdom when it is alive! ~ The Cyberiad - Tale of the Three Storytelling Machines of King Genius

We honor the brilliance of creators of secondary worlds by discussing their work here. It makes no difference whether they are alive or dead. Their creations are alive and they are at our (nonexistent) mercy to overanalyse.

What you think Terry Pratchett, who had no respect for empty, or as he called it 'recycled words' would have preferred, a sentimental post about him being dead as a stone or a lively discussion about one of his books ?

Wouldn't authors like Robert Sheckley or Philip K. Dick (and many other writers) who died in poverty would have appreciated it more if someone helped them out while they were alive?

So why should we lament over the corpses of the deceased authors, writing however beautifully executed if a bit morbid posts on meta, instead of say, posting questions on the main site about the author and his work?

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  • You see any users "guilt-tripping one another into posting in memoriam stuff"? Why would they do that when they can just post their own in memoriam posts?
    – user14111
    Sep 12, 2017 at 23:42
  • I don't see any reason for the in memoriam posts either. But given that we have them, why TF are they all about actors and actresses instead of real fantasts and science fiction people?
    – user14111
    Sep 12, 2017 at 23:52
  • @user14111 "I don't see reason for them either" - i am not following your reasoning. In memoriam posts are unreasonable therefore... we should have more of them as authors are currently underrepresented in them?
    – user68762
    Sep 12, 2017 at 23:56
  • It's not that complicated. In memoriam posts are off-topic, even if they are about notable SF people. They are EVEN MORE OFF-TOPIC if they are about random people who have nothing to do with SF (or some slight connection such as working in a movie or TV show). I never said "we should have more" in memoriam posts. We would have a lot fewer of them if we could at least stop having in memoriam posts for actors.
    – user14111
    Sep 13, 2017 at 0:12
  • But the point of my question wasn't that there should be more in memoriam posts or fewer in memoriam posts or none at all (though chat seems like a better place for them). The point was an interesting (if small sample) statistic—5 actors for every author. What does that tell us about what kind of people we are, what kind of community this is? Looks like we have more in common with the demographic of People magazine or TMZ.com than, say, the Royal Society or the Association for Symbolic Logic. Duh. You can also see that from the questions on the main site.
    – user14111
    Sep 13, 2017 at 2:11
  • @user14111 it seems youre too quick to judge based on a very limited data of IM posts. on the main site books (for example Tolkien's and Rowling's) are discussed daily and rather feverently and held in much higher regard than their interpretation by the visual arts. In case of HP on meta it took much effort even to include the fimls in our SFF canon, some were arguing that films should be books :)
    – user68762
    Sep 13, 2017 at 5:11
  • @user14111 in memoriam posts are on-topic and have been deemed as such for meta So your rant seems slightly pointless. We are not specifically a SFF LITERATURE site, and the actors and actresses that represent the characters we love deserve the same attention, it just so happens their deaths are more greatly reported and more people are likely to come due to things seen on the big screen
    – Edlothiad
    Sep 13, 2017 at 15:35

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