User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon/@comment-6032121-20190830190237

So there's this "non-fiction template" used on some pages on the Wiki. It currently reads:


 * ''This is a work of non-fiction.


 * Unlike other fictional universes, the Doctor Who universe is created solely by fiction. To us, this is not a valid source. Information from this source can only be used in "behind the scenes" sections, or on pages about real world topics.''

It's used, for example, on The Writer's Tale, where it serves a useful purpose; point out that it isn't a novel, and remind editors that as such, any in-universe info that happens to be packaged in it isn't counted as valid by Tardis.

But I also see it popping up on a lot of pages which would be better-served by the "Invalid" tag, unless the wording of the template is significantly changed. AHistory. Adventures in Time and Space: The Roleplaying Game. Aliens and Enemies. All that kind of thing.

And… look, Tardis long ago decided that in-universe info presented non-narratively didn't count. (As far as I can tell, this is due to worries that if we start copying down informations from other Doctor Who encyclopedias, we're liable to just repeat mistaken readings of TV stories and the like, which would eventually garble the Wiki's coverage of full-blown narratives, as if Lance Parkin misunderstands a plot point about The Evil of the Daleks, we'd now be forced to repeat it as though it were an alternative and equally valid account. Fair enough, though thereby forbidding new information released non-narratively has always seemed a bit like throwing out the baby with the bathwater to me.)

But that doesn't change the fact that a non-narrative but in-universe encyclopedia, or a roleplaying game set in the Doctor Who universe, or what-have-you, are fiction. They are non-narrative, but they are not non-fiction, and it's simply wrong to tell our readers that Adventures in Time and Space is not a work of fiction.

So I propose that either the “Non-fiction” template as it exists should stand, but be confined to pages that are genuinely about works that are not works of fiction (i.e. The Writer's Tale), or we should replace it with a “Non-narrative” template that fixes the error.