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

Very few universes/dimensions have pages in Category:Universes and dimensions and established names. However, T:DAB OTHER requires to use names of other realities for disambiguation purposes. So having well-established names is necessary for naming characters, in addition to pages for universes giving readers the benefit of explaining what kind or reality it is. In addition, interestingly enough, several of the well-established universes are currently under rename tags. So maybe it makes sense to discuss this and develop a policy.

I'll start the discussion by listing cases I looked at. Please add more realities you think need names and pages. Many examples can be found, for instance, at Parallel universe.

Sometimes we are fortunate and the reality is given an in-universe name, like the Divergent Universe, which is consistently used throughout the namesake arc, or Pete's World, which is explicitly christened this way by the Tenth Doctor in Doomsday. It is when the universe is not (immediately) named in-universe that the questions begin. Looking at these examples, my first impression is that the cases when the name of the universe is not well established in-universe cause disagreements over what should be the best descriptive name for it: "Inferno Earth" or "Inferno universe", "Yssgaroth's universe" or "Spiral Yssgaroth", etc.
 * Inferno Earth is never used but makes sense both RW and in-universe. RW-wise, it references the name of the episode it first appeared in, while in-universe it refers to the Inferno Project. Interestingly enough, this universe was once named "Inferno universe" in The Quantum Archangel, which prompted Steed to suggest a rename.
 * The Infinity Doctors universe is named after the novel it is featured in. To the best of my understanding without reading the novel, this is an exact match: the universe is only featured in the novel, and the novel happens wholly within the universe.
 * Yssgaroth's universe, which I do not know much about. But NateBumber suggests renaming it to "Spiral Yssgaroth".
 * Parallel universe (Sympathy for the Devil) is also named after a story, but under a different scheme. This is the well-known dabbing-by-first-story-of-appearance method, which fits well with this universe that appears in multiple stories. The obvious benefit of this scheme is that it's easily applicable to most cases. The problems, however, remain when two or more universes are introduced in the same story. I used this scheme when naming Universe (The Infinite Astronaut) even though it only appears in one story.

So my initial instinct was to apply the standard naming scheme with a dab term. Unfortunately, it doesn't work because sometimes these universe names are to be used as dab terms themselves. It wouldn't do to put something like Creator (Universe (The Infinite Astronaut)). In fact, it is impossible technically since a name can include at most one pair of parentheses. And here the example of The Infinity Doctors universe comes to the rescue: why don't we name the universe by with the retitling making the name of the story in italics as is done for The Infinity Doctors universe. Then it is clear that the name derives from the story name. That will produce the following names:
 * (Name of first story it appeared in) (type of reality)
 * Sympathy for the Devil universe
 * The Pit universe
 * The Infinite Astronaut universe
 * and, possibly, Inferno universe

Full disclosure: the reason I started thinking about this is an as-of-yet unnamed universe that is called ""real" universe" at Dead Romance. I fear that my proposal might do little for that case. However, as follows from Talk: Christine Summerfield ("real" universe), that case is complex. It would be better if it would be explained by someone who actually read the novel. It seems that the term "Real" universe is in-universe but there is currently a suggestion to rename it to Bernice Summerfield's universe by TheChampionOfTime.

I didn't want to pose a problem without any hint at a solution. However, I would be more than happy if another, better solution is proposed. My main objective is to converge on a naming policy for universes that is applicable in most cases, instead of agonising over each case separately. I half suspect that part of the reason many parallel universes don't have their own pages is the hesitation over what they should be called.