With that out of the way, is there some kind of general rule or consensus as when we’re allowed to start discussing actual preservation and/or fan edit attempts on the boards for TFA?
For example I’m interested in making a P&S edit of TFA, would this be clear to discuss after the official release of the film or are we waiting a bit for these topics?
No, there’s not really a consensus or rule as far as I know.
Fan edits: I think, early on, it will probably depend on the details. If you’re making a couple small tweaks to the film in order to have it be your ideal version (deleting the trash compactor joke, for example), you’ll be welcome to discuss your changes here. People are already doing that. But distributing very minor edits like that has always been iffy. Myspleen won’t take it, and fanedit.org won’t recognize it as a fanedit. Including the 6 <1min deleted “scenes” (I suspect they are simply previews of scenes) won’t be recognized as a fanedit or proper extended version, either.
More complete re-workings and re-structurings will take time to master. And by then, a substantially different version of the film will probably be seen as acceptable. But again, there’s nothing to stop you from discussing and planning. And as of next week, I assume people will be sharing preview shots and such. I think it will be quite some time before super minor edits are seen as acceptable for distribution.
Preservations: Less clear, but again it will depend on the details. People will inevitably be working on the analysis and comparison of versions in private. None seems to have already geared up to do that, and he has done a thorough analysis on the other SW films, including the prequels. It will depend on what shows up, I guess. Myspleen is okay with preservations of the HDTV RoTS, which differs from the blu-ray only in three very minor ways, and a nearly undetectable difference in color timing. So, at some point in time even slight changes will be reversed and preserved by someone. But it’s a sensitive issue.