Board Thread:Inclusion debates/@comment-1506468-20190827123101/@comment-24894325-20190827234038

This is a unique junction in the wiki's life. We have an inclusion debate dominated by authors, and by authors directly involved in the stories under consideration. James Wylder (Arcbeatle) argues why his stories should be valid. Nate Bumber (NateBumber) and Niki Haringsma (Nikisketches) argue why their copyrighted concepts loaned to Wylder should expand their presence on the wiki. And Revanvolatrelundar, an author-admin (whose level of involvement with the 3 discussed stories is not publicly known) violates T:BOUND to help other authors expand their presence on the wiki by creating pages for their stories and characters before this thread is concluded.

What remains to be seen is whether these authors are interested in the opinions of their readers and how all this author self-promotion squares against the purpose of FANDOM as the site for fans.

James Wylder volunteers helpful facts about himself and his company in defiance of the letter and spirit of T:NO SELF REF. Nate Bumber describes some unspecified helpful facts as "hard-to-find." Revanvolatrelundar does not disclose whether he is involved in these three stories, or 10,000 Dawns, or Faction Paradox, and whether he personally might benefit from the inclusion of these three stories.

Their proposal is that sharing some copyrighted elements should provide a key to including a story on the wiki, apparently without so much as an inclusion debate. Meanwhile, James Wylder offers his copyrighted elements from the 3 stories discussed for free to anyone.

So what will happen if these three stories, which, according to Wylder, are "[s]et in the same universe as [Wylder's] popular novel 10,000 Dawns" (= not in DWU), what will happen if they become valid? Apparently, anyone will be able to get their story on the wiki by asking Wylder to borrow his character. I can see how it will benefit authors. Whether it is desirable for fans, or even simply reasonable, is a separate question.

There used to be another safeguard: books were expensive to make, and one had to persuade a publisher to invest in their book. Nowadays, technology made self-publishing cheap and easy. Some people argued upthread that simply posting a story on your website (or in your blog) is a publication. Some suggested that creating a pdf file makes it a publication. James Wylder claims that if he prints such a pdf, staples it nicely and sends it by mail or sells it to you at a convention, then it is a publication. And somewhere around March 2020, he promises, he will finally produce a real book with these 3 stories (judging by his previous books, printed via something like CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, i.e., Amazon self-publishing services) from the imprint which he owns and operates.

All of this is self-publishing and can be done by absolutely anyone. And Wylder already promised to lend his characters to absolutely everyone. Which means that allowing such self-published stories onto the wiki would mean that anyone would be able to become a "DWU" author for a very reasonable price.

Self-publishing is fan fiction. It may be legal fan fiction (in fact, some authors, e.g., J.K. Rowling allow almost any fan fiction). Fan fiction may be sold (like fanzines, which are often distributed exactly the way James Wylder described the current "publication status" of the three stories).

However, self-publishing remains fan fiction. And according to T:NOT, "The administration of the wiki reserves the right to remove fan fiction or art — even from your user page — at any time, for any reason." I do not know any examples on this wiki of stories by a company formed to publish works of its owner.

This last step of persuading somebody else to publish your story is a crucial safeguard against a free-for-all and cannot be dropped.