User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon/@comment-24894325-20171027202334/@comment-24894325-20171112173133

Now regarding T:DAB OTHER. Yes, it is because of this we need to invent names for the universes. And yes, we are both arguing against (parts of) the current policy. NateBumber suggests to abandon the whole policy, whereas I propose to drop the idea of inventing a descriptive in-universe name that is not given in the story itself.

Let us talk about the idea of putting versions of the same person from different universes/timelines onto the same page. First of all, I believe this is a principal choice that everybody makes for themselves. It cannot be fully argued: it is largely a preference. Judging by what NateBumber wrote, he thinks it's better to keep all versions of the same person in one place, which certainly makes it easier to refer to them.

I, on the other hand, prefer to have a separate page for each of the versions. It should be noted that an (unwritten) rule (of thumb) that was explained to me at some point is that we put things onto one page if Thus, The Last Centurion is a redirect to Rory even though he was an Auton in an alternative timeline. And thus Oliver Morgenstern only has one page even though he is also mentioned in the alternative timeline of Turn Left: there is some part of his life that is common to the two timelines.
 * the split in the timelines happened after the person was born, or
 * the person retains memories of the other timeline.

But barring these cases, where it can be argued this is (to some extent) the same person, the typical use of parallel universes is to contrast two completely different versions. The Brigadier is a stark example. It seems to me that putting opposite versions onto the same page is very often antithetic to the very idea of using parallel universes/alternate timelines device.

It seems profoundly unfair to assign the Third Doctor to the Category:Tyrants just because of the Third Doctor (Inferno Earth) or to assign the Brigadier to fascists because Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart was. More generally, if two versions have little in common, putting categories to their combined page becomes somewhat useless since it is not clear which category applies to which version. The same may apply to actors playing them and any other global characteristic from the infobox.

Further, there are various Remakes and Reprises of famous people who lived in wrong places and/or times. Putting corresponding "nth century individual" category onto the original's page is confusing at worst and unhelpful at best. Yes, this is not directly related to alternate universe versions, but it reinforces my internal belief that there should be one page per individual, unless some kind of continuity of conscience can be established.

I understand these arguments are not decisive. Rather they are a pragmatic side of my principal position. As I said, a matter of taste.

It would be interesting where others stand in the question of putting mirror-universe images onto the same page as the original.