At a Baltimore-area convention back in 1997 (I think), I recall that J. Michael Straczynski spoke of a Four Point System that he had developed for rating the overall quality (hardness?) of a piece of science fiction (I do not think he was explicitly including fantasy in his categorization, but I believe much of this is applicable to most forms of fantasy as well). For a brief time in the late 90's, this system was popular -- at least among my circle of friends :), but I have seen nary a mention of it on the Internet these days. Since it's possible that some of you may know it by a different name, I'll reproduce the rules here. Each item may get a rating from 1-5:
- Universe Size (Physical "size" of the fictional universe)
- Smaller than our universe
- Single "normal" universe (like ours)
- Single universe with multiple timelines
- Multiple universes
- Multiple universes with multiple timelines
- Complexity/Attention to Detail
- Little or no discernable details
- ?? not sure, but I think it was "average"
- Cartographic maps
- Complete or mostly-complete developed language systems
- The way in which everything works down the molecular level (this may be a joke) is known and explained
- Canon Size/Volumes of Work
- Single work in one medium
- Multiple works in one medium
- Multiple works in multiple media
- Meta-works available that discuss cannon
- Dedicated team maintaining canon
- Continuity Errors
- Highly inconsistent; virtually no attempt at coherence
- Limited local consistency; continuity within a single episode for example
- Average consistency; most people won't notice the flaws
- Very consistent; may be some retconning or production errors
- Perfectly consistent; stands up to scrutiny
Are there any wikis/sites out there today that make use of this rating system? I haven't seen any myself, but I'm not familiar with much current sci-fi. Has this evolved into something else?