...is there anyone around here aside from Iximaz who has an interest in Disney/Pixar? I'm working on a second draft for a little secret something relevant to this discussion, and I might need one or two more beta-readers for it.

As a general response to everyone who replied to my original question: In hindsight, an OFU with that broad of a scope may have indeed been a bit too much. Especially with regards to Huinesoron's statement that OFUs are free for anyone to write, so one could crop up for any particular continuum in theory. On the other hand, most of these fandoms are small enough that Iximaz does make a valid point about a Disney/Pixar OFU to cover the films produced by those companies (both the 2D stuff like the Disney Princesses and the 3D stuff like Pixar). Besides, a Disney/Pixar mega-crossover does technically exist in the form of Disney Infinity, though it doesn't have a Subspace Emissary-style story mode yet AFAIK.

A possible compromise would be as follows: At the Ohio State University, where I attend, we have a 'main' college in Columbus, but also a number of affiliated campuses in Lima, Mansfield, Marion, and Newark. The OFUs for the animated film anthologies made by specific companies (Disney/Pixar, Dreamworks, Studio Ghibli, Blue Sky Studios...) could work in the same way - there are 'hub' OFUs that cover everything affiliated with the particular studio, but for those who still want OFUs to exist in specific continua and take care of specific fandoms like HTTYD or Frozen, the 'hub' OFU could have multiple divisions or 'campuses' distributed throughout the various worlds. Then anyone can write a specific division and tie it back to the main OFU for in-universe consistency.

Again, this hasn't actually been put into practice yet, but it's the best solution I can think of. If anyone has a better alternative, though, I'm all ears for it.

OFUs, as stories, are written by people who want to write them, not 'according to need'. If someone decides they want to write, let's say a Prince of Egypt OFU (FF.net story total: 179), but decides not to because you/someone else has already briefly mentioned it in OFUAnimation - or even potentially could - then you've cut down on the number of people writing stories. That's a negative, in my view.

The key point here is the difference between in-universe and out-of-universe. In-universe, yes, it would make sense for the 'minor OFUs' to all be combined in one, in the same way that it would make sense for there to be a vast number of PPC agents working in Star Wars, Percy Jackson, and all the other popular fandoms. But out-of-universe, people write what they want to write. In missions, that means random obscure fandoms get a mission (like Flatland), while seriously huge ones don't because no-one on the Board is invested enough in them. In OFUs, it means... basically the same thing: the fandoms covered are the ones people want to write for, not the ones that 'need it most'.

I feel I should also point out, in case of anyone getting confused, that the PPC has no authority over OFUs. Miss Cam has said anyone can write them, and that's the end of that. Your phrasing says you know this and are essentially using us as a sounding Board, which is absolutely fine; just making sure no-one gets tangled up in it.

hS

First of all, I'd say that a lot of badfic trends are really similar, period. Something like a Tenth Walker may seem fandom specific in theory, but in practice it's the same basic principle as any other brand new character who joins the main characters. The specific ways in which they break canon are what vary from fandom to fandom. You could argue that the true focus of OFUs is breaking their students from these universal bad fannish habits, but you need something a little more specific to focus on in order to make it unique.

Honestly, I also feel like there would be a tendency for this to fall into the trap of pepper-jack cheese, or other pitfalls found in mega-crossovers. Maybe this is just a personal issue, as I tend not to be fond of super-fandoms; they just tend to feel really forced to me. But I feel like it would just turn into All-My-Personal-Favorites OFU. Even in your proposal, I noticed that you only mentioned 3D animated movies by Disney/Pixar or DreamWorks. Where do the Disney Princesses fit into this, just as an example?

Like Iximaz mentioned, I could maybe see one for a group of movies that are thematically connected, like a Disney OFU. Especially since Disney has a preexisting trend of characters from different movies interacting with each other. But a general animated movie OFU is just too big.

If there's a single series you want to focus on, just go with that one. Numbers aren't everything - HTTYD may only have one-fifth the fic count of LOTR, but there's been a Discworld OFU and it only has ~2000 fics.

At first, I was a bit hesitant toward the idea, because all the OFUs I've read/read about cover one fandom only. However, like SkarmorySilver pointed out, the separate fandoms have so little badfic in comparison to the 'Big Names' that combining them all into one OFU would make a certain amount of sense.

I'm still reluctant to say 'sure, why not' to an OFU for all animated movies, but, say, a Disney OFU, or a Pixar OFU, or a Dreamworks OFU on its own could be feasible. But throwing all animated movies into one OFU seems a bit much.

Of course, the distinction becomes a bit murkier when you take into consideration the number of popular, say, Disney/Pixar films. Still, I'm not the ultimate authority on this sort of thing, so... what does everyone else think?