Categorizing Remarkist: A Dive into Events and Worlds
We explore the two main components of our categorization system, Events and Worlds, and how you should think about them.
I think it’s about time we discuss our categorization system on Remarkist. While the system relies on two main components—Events and Worlds—they have a lot of nuances that make the whole system pretty robust and scalable. Still, with so many moving parts, it’s easy to lose sight of how these two main components hold our entire catalog together. So let’s get into it.
Events
The core of Remarkist is the live Event. These are live-hosted audio experiences focused on the stories we love and the creators that bring them to life. Members gather in our audio 🎧 rooms to geek out over our favorite fictional worlds, build communities around them, and play. As we dig deep into these franchises, we learn from each other and gain deeper insights about those stories and maybe even ourselves. Great stories and characters are that powerful.
Every Event on Remarkist has five main properties that we use to index it. Those properties are:
Its event-type
Its hosts
Its duration
Its date & time
Its franchise World
Events also have secondary properties that correspond to particular event types. For example, Watch Parties also include where to watch the content, its content format, and how chatty attendees should be. Games will consist of the game type. Discussions can be tagged as spoiler-free or not. Listening parties 🎶might have playlists. Talks and panels 🗣 will include special guests.
Every Event can also include the following optional properties:
A Brand Title - these are catchy titles you might use across a series of events you’re hosting. You use them for branding the entire campaign.
A set of Tags - our tag catalog has 10,000+ entertainment tags covering artists & celebs, themes & motifs, subgenres, styles & movements, causes & groups, dates & periods, cultures, holidays, and locations. And that catalog will continue to grow over time. Unlike arbitrary tagging systems on social media platforms, our tags are curated by Remarkist.
A Memento set - hosts can craft one limited edition collection of digital keepsakes for every event they host. These keepsakes are distributed at the event.
In the future, Events will also include archivable chat threads and archived audio from the event itself.
Worlds
Remarkist Worlds are the home of the Remarkist Event. That’s to say, all Events at Remarkist must be scheduled within a Remarkist World, and some of their properties—particular mementos—will also be bound by Worlds.
On Remarkist, we establish Worlds strictly around story franchises. They are fandom spaces that celebrate a narrative storyworld—and with only a few exceptions, those storyworlds are fictional. Some Worlds celebrate smaller television series IP while others host events and content for huge media franchises like Marvel or Star Wars.
The connected stories of a parent franchise will always live in the same World. That would include two or more TV series where some are a spin-off of others… or a franchise of films and its reboots, remakes, revivals, and canonical films. Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul would live together in a single World rather than each having their own. Iron Man wouldn’t have its own world but would instead share the same world with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and all Marvel IP.
What are Worlds not? They aren’t groupings of content by theme, format, genre, or era. We don’t establish Remarkist Worlds based on story creators, studios, or publishers. And we only create non-fiction Worlds around docu-series and reality franchises with at least a season of content.
So, for example, we wouldn’t have a Netflix World. We wouldn’t have a Stephen King World. We wouldn’t have a 1980s World. We wouldn’t have a Musical Theater World. Instead, we use our tagging system to categorize Events outside their storyworld. Tags will one day help us to form even larger fandom spaces that group many Events and Worlds under those categories… but Worlds themselves will always be based on narrative landscapes where multiple stories take place—shared characters, settings, and history.
Founding a New World
When scheduling an Event on Remarkist, you’ll need first to find its World within our Worlds Tab on the app. If it doesn’t have a World, it either doesn’t qualify for one or—more likely—you are the first to schedule an event for that storyworld. Either way, you’ll need to schedule such an orphan event in one of our General Genre Worlds, and if you think it should have a World, you’ll also need to request it. If we create a new World for you, we’ll move your event(s) into it.
Here are the criteria we consider when we are adding a new World:
Does it have at least one season of a series?
Does it have at least two films of a franchise?
Does it have at least two books or graphic novels of a book series?
Is it part of a big fictional universe like Marvel, DC, Star Wars, etc?
Does it have any reboots, remakes, or revivals… or is it the reboot, remake, or revival of another work?
Does it have any prequels, or is it a prequel to another work?
Does it have any spin-offs, or is it the spin-off of another work?
If it has only one film or book, does that work have a huge fandom that has continued celebrating it with derivative fan content?
If you can say yes to any of those questions, it may qualify as a World on Remarkist; if so, we’d want to get it in there soon for you.
That’s really the gist of Events and Worlds and how they interact with other content, community, and game-play on Remarkist.
By helping members understand the Remarkist categorization of Worlds and Events within them, we want to empower the community to take part in the creation of the vast fandom ecosystem on the platform. Fans are the best companions to have on a journey through a storyworld that’s new to you, and you are the best guide through a storyworld that’s new to someone else. Fandom and community go hand in hand. Be sure to visit our Discord to chat with other members about the franchise Worlds you love. There, you can request new Worlds creations if you don’t see events on the Remarkist app dedicated to a franchise you are passionate about. It’s easy to join us (see below) and start participating in events—as a host or an attendee—in the storyworlds you love!
