"Project mortality" is the concept by which projects go through their life cycles. At HtraEartH, there are several stages a project can be classified as going through. Projects that end up in Post-production Hell can end up being shelved until they can be completed. Other projects may end up being canceled. Projects that are a major embarrassment to the creator or else are too old or have too many lost necessary components to ever be effectively resurrected are destroyed.
Stages of mortality[]
Proposed[]
A proposed project is one that has merely been suggested, but in which no actual work has been done on the project. If some work has been done on it but then work stopped, it is classified as being shelved. If said project is proposed and zero work is done on it, then it might not have an article page, much less a mortality category.
Active[]
An active project is one that is alive; its content is being actively produced and pursued. These projects typically do not belong to a project mortality category.
Shelved[]
Some work was done on a project. It may even be mostly completed. But for whatever reason, it had to be put on a metaphorical bookshelf somewhere and finished at a later time. Shelving a project means that there is intent on the project being finished in some semblance or another in the future, but that it is currently not possible.
It may be in Development Hell or in Post-production Hell. Reasons for this may vary from lost interest to classroom or work-related priorities in the creator's life. It may also have to deal with the creator having health issues or equipment issues that interfere with completion of a project. Shelved projects are classified as belonging to the Shelved projects category. They also use {{Shelvednote}} templates that wield the following notice when rendered:
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Note: The following project has been shelved. It may or may not ever be completed. |
Canceled[]
Projects that fall into the Canceled Category are projects that still have creator sympathy; but which are no longer practical as pursuits. Instead of being shelved, with the promise existing at least in the creator's mind that these projects will be finished later on, Canceled projects are remembered fondly and documented but otherwise not pursued for renewal unless external circumstances renew interest in them.
Archival often exists of materials, so that should interest ever be renewed in the product that was canceled, then inspirational material exists as a foundation. The key thing about this category is that interest or capability in its production has ceased to exist. Canceled projects are often denoted with a flag of {{Cancelednote}}, and render the following notice on pages:
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Note: The following project has been canceled. Renewed interest in it is possible, but not likely at this time. |
Destroyed[]
Projects that fall into the Destroyed Category are projects no longer have creator sympathy; and which are no longer practical as pursuits unless an outside influence forces them to be against all reason. Instead of being merely canceled, with projects being remembered fondly and documented but otherwise not pursued for renewal unless external circumstances renew interest in them; destroyed projects are documented by necessity, and otherwise completely forsaken. Creators may or may not be proud to say they were ever involved in their creation in the first place.
Archival often does not exist of materials, so renewed interest would require that the entire thing be recreated from the ground-up. The key thing is that creators are heavily resistant to ever consider renewing these extra-canceled projects, and doing so would require incredible work as virtually nothing of the original work remains. Destroyed projects are often denoted with a flag of {{Destroyednote}}, and render the following notice on pages:
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Note: The following project has been destroyed. There is little to no hope it will ever again see the light of day. |
Completed[]
Completed projects are those that were seen through from beginning to end, and are documented in their finished form. New information may still be made on the articles concerning them, but the works themselves were deemed "finished" at one point or another in time. Completed projects usually don't get a special flag to indicate that they are done. Instead, they are merely noted in-article as being finished, and are added to the category. At this point, only the distribution end of a project is considered still alive. The rest is metaphorically dead, but it is dead in a "gone to Heaven" sense, rather than a "trapped in Hell" or "trapped in Limbo" sense.
Archived[]
Archived projects are completed projects that have been either archived or have gone missing since their completion. They are considered completed projects in the category system, but are listed as archived in the infoboxes. If they didn't turn up missing or the source footage damaged/destroyed after completion, then an archived project is one that was simply removed from publication for whatever reason. This could be: 1) the creator is no longer proud of the project or 2) the project has produced legal issues or 3) the project is of low quality or 4) the original means of distribution are no longer reliable. Additional reasons may apply.