User:SOTO/Forum Archive/Inclusion debates/@comment-5545417-20150725190725/@comment-188432-20150922125224

By virtue of the unanimity of the responses — and not just votes, but long-form responses — WeLoveTitans strips are definitely outta here. They may not be used in the writing of any in-universe portion of articles.

Clearly the backup strips are the more contentious area, with those wishing to include them being matched by the number of people on the opposite side.

However, if you dig beyond the vote and look at rationale, those in favour of including the backup strips make a better case. At least some of the backup strip creators have unambiguously stated they believed they were writing DWU stories. And as has been pointed out by both OS25 and PicassoAndPringles, the main strip does at least once refer to incidents that occurred in the backup strip.

Conversely, arguments against the backup strip rest mainly on artistic style or absurdity of content. I haven't actually read any argument that could disallow these strips while still allowing us to include Polystyle strips. Absurdity in the 2010s is not somehow more disallowable than absurdity from the 1960s. Newfound settings on a sonic screwdriver to allow someone at a football match to see every game ever played are no more offensive than the Second Doctor being a celebrity panelist on a game show — or being a candidate for President of the United States!

Indeed, PicassoAndPringles' comments from July get directly at the heart of the matter: I think you are confusing humor with parody. A story can be humourous without being parodic; just look at anything by Gareth Roberts. In The One Doctor, for example, there is a port-a-potty version of the TARDIS that makes flushing noises when it materialises. Despite obviously comical elements, the story is still intended to be a part of the Doctor Who universe.

Therefore, the backup strips are in.