Board Thread:The Panopticon/@comment-27280472-20160606210324/@comment-20607870-20161128230619

Shambala108 wrote: DENCH-and-PALMER wrote: I do however find it very rude when people don't answer the question straight away and just start with "There is no canon" maybe not here, but if there was no canon then everything would be valid - just another word for another. Nothing rude about it. The thing you don't understand is that we got a lot of users here on these forums that don't know much about the wiki. The "There is no canon" comment is almost always put first to emphasize that, well, "There is no canon", and that our discussions on valid sources are not meant to tell people what they can and can't include in their own personal canon, it's just what we decide to cover on our in-universe pages. The comment is meant to educate people who might be coming from other franchises and not realize that there isn't really a canon for DW.

Don't assume that the only people who edit/read this wiki know all the details about wiki policy. Personally, most of my posts include a lot of extra information to educate people who are unfamiliar with how we do things.

It sounds like you don't understand what we mean by "There is no canon". I suggest you read Tardis:Canon policy for its explanation of why there isn't canon and how we as a wiki choose to deal with that fact. Your statement "if there was no canon then everything would be valid" is flatly contradicted in that policy.

I know what validity is on this wiki but to individual readers, they probably think "Well the Pertwee era and the Dark Eyes are "canon"." But they're also thinking "That one with EastEnders and that one with Mr Bean are "non canon".

Again, I appreciate what validity is here to the editors, but we don't really edit for ourselves. We edit for the readers.

And when I open up a discussion and (I only used the term decanon as a way of not using devalidise - but that's beside the point) someone says "There is no canon" - I don't know about you but that will tee someone off, passing the Wiki's (100% brilliant) opinions as fact.

I think just pointing out that, by our policies, there is no canon. (Which is in my opinion, now after reading it, the next door neighbour of canon) Would be much better.

I'm not having a dig at anyone, I'm just helping you understand that it comes across as quite rude - and when one is typing it can be read differently to how another will read it. The latter is why I use my "best wishes" after messages, so no niceties will come across as nastiness.