Series, Sequels, and Sagas

A lot of hair-splitting goes into making a database. A lot of bending of formalities and twisting of preconceptions. One of these major splits comes in the form of the series. In typical parlance, a series is an overarching device which houses smaller works of art. The Simpsons is a series which houses multiple episodes. Harry Potter houses multiple books.

The question is, when handling all media as a batch, how do you determine what media archs over the rest? In situations like television shows, it's obvious: episodes are beneath the series title. This is much less obvious in instances of books and movies. While it could successfully be argued that all of the Jurassic Park films should be lumped into the sub-folders within the primary, this is traditionally not how such things have been housed. Each Jurassic Park film is treated as its own object, much like each Harry Potter is and each album by an artist.

However, episodes of television shows and issues of magazines are treated as lesser objects. This is mainly for the sake of organization, something which is very valuable.

It cannot be argued, though, that Harry Potter and Jurassic Park are not series. They clearly are. And so it stands to reason that some series are different from other series. I've chosen to dub these "sagas". Sagas are overarching franchises, such as the Simpsons, with many smaller parts which are not treated as individual. You can think of a saga as being a communist series.

It can be difficult to determine what is a saga and what is a series, and I'm sure some complicated situations shall arise from this decision. Even as we speak, I am thinking of things which contradict both established definitions (how about reprint series such as Great Illustrated Classics? They may include the entirety of a series within themselves. How are we to organize such datas?)

The simplest solution is this: series do not get ETIO numbers, nor do they get POG numbers. This may in the future be revoked, but for now it shall not be. If necessarry, the series is to be mentioned in parenthesis after the title of the work -- as an example: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter #1) (J. K. Rowling) (ETIO).

Contrary, sagas do get ETIO numbers, and are to be treated in a fashion similar to the handling of compilations. In this manner, I hope everything will remain neat and tidy.

Here's something to remember: while series will not be given ETIO or POG numbers, they can be categories. Series that are not numbered do not need to display an order in their titles.