User:Aquanafrahudy/Sandbox the Second

Sorry for anyone reading this, for it is another long post
''I hope nobody minds my using headers, I don't think I'd be able to organise my thoughts otherwise; it'd all just be a jumbled mess, and besides, Najawin and Scrooge did it. Yes, I know that's no excuse, but I'm taking it as evidence that using headers isn't really a truly terrible crime, if I'm wrong please don't hesitate to tell me off.''

What, exactly is validity?
As literally everyone else has started with the question, it seems that I must too turn my thoughts to this.

From how I understand it, the validity/invalidity split exists to let us cover sources that are not intended to be set in the DWU. See User:CzechOut's comments quoted at the top of the page, which I will requote here because a) it's a bloody long way to scroll and b) Czech is quoted multiple times at the top of the page, so one can't be sure that one has found the right comment, even if a comment is found:

"Tangerineduel has made the point that we can't believe a writer who says that their work is canonical. That's very true. But, in my opinion, he's incorrect on the reverse. I think we do have to believe a writer who declares, "Look, this isn't a part of the mainstream continuity." After all, we've believed it before. I don't see any rational argument for doing something different in this case. Moreover, it's kinda stupid to say that as the author, unless you mean it. Saying something is out of continuity will have a negative impact on sales. So if someone says it, you do take it seriously, because they're acting against their self-interest."

- User:CzechOut

But we also say that parodies, fourth wall breaks and the like invalidate something. And there is also Rule 4 by proxy, which I think comes under the same subsection. So it appears that validity is really some intersection of the underlying reasoning behind Rule 4, and the question, "What is most helpful for us to present to our readers as valid?"

Does this make sense? I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. And do parodies, fourth wall breaks and r4bp fulfil that question?

Perhaps a more useful question would be "What ought validity to be?"