Forum:Temporary forums/Subpage policy

For a long time, the "Policy" section on my user page has listed a broad array of my concerns and suggestions. Over the months and years, I've come to realize that many of these could be addressed by a singular proposal: the establishment of a proper use of subpages on this wiki.

Tardis:Changing policy specifies that the forums are required for changing policy, so given their longstanding absence, our admins might be inclined to put this proposal on the back burner. But this is not a change to how we do things; it is merely a clarification of another, existing option – the longstanding precedent of Doctor Who Magazine/1985 – in a way that allows it to be applied to more pages. In fact, not only does this proposal detract nothing from our policies or precedent, it will allow us to enact existing policies which are currently not enforced!

As a result, forums are not necessary to enact this proposal. Given how it will clearly bring us into much closer alignment with FANDOM best practices and our goal of serving readers, my hope is that it will be swiftly approved to open these possibilities for our editors and readers.

Proposal
Below is my proposal for what T:SUBPAGE could look like. How closely this resembles the final text is up to our admins, but this draft expresses the core ideas which I think such a policy should encapsulate.

What is a subpage?
Well, you're on one! Because of the slashes in the URL of this page, it's a subpage of both User:NateBumber and User:NateBumber/Sandbox, and as a result there are links to those pages at the top of this one, just below the title. This is great for navigation. Fandom's Editor Experience team explains,

Additionally, a subpage can also be linked to from its parent page with only a partial title: if you're on Twelfth Doctor, the link  will take you to Twelfth Doctor/List of appearances. It's even more powerful than the pipe trick!

If subpages are so useful, why aren't they used on wikis more widely? In 2001, a lengthy debate on Wikipedia resulted in a new rule: This was to avoid fights like whether to create History/Algeria or Algeria/History. Because subpages had provided a home for material about fictional universes – for instance, Doctor Who/Sonic screwdriver – this presaged a slow exodus of that content away from Wikipedia.

Tardis Data Core was part of that exodus, and ever since then we've had a rule saying that we're Wikipedia's evil twin. This means we're free to reconsider Wikipedia's decisions with fresh eyes, including the rule about subpages. The conclusion is that with our finite set of standardised section names, we can avoid the confusion that caused Wikipedia's ban in the first place!

How big is too big?
According to the Editor Experience team,

A softer version of this guideline was established as a local rule in Thread:264489. When an article egregiously exceeds these length standards, rather than flat-out deleting the extra material, split the page into subpages or separate pages instead. While Fandom's above guidelines describe the best standards for every page, it's less of a concern on subpages; we can assume that (for instance) a reader who clicks through to Tenth Doctor/Biography is ready for a much deeper level of detail than the summary in Tenth Doctor.

When to use a subpage
Subpages are usually only meant to be linked to from their root page and navigation templates. To use the example mentioned above, Twelfth Doctor - list of appearances is only linked to from Twelfth Doctor and, making it an obvious candidate for a subpage.

Subpages should be named after section headers, usually those with headings formatted with ==, such as "Biography" or "Plot". Subpages should never have in-universe titles: for instance, if the subsection Twelfth Doctor were deemed too big, we would move it to a section on Twelfth Doctor/Biography, not Twelfth Doctor/Continued adventures with Clara.

Here's a sample of other potential subpage names:
 * BBC New Series Adventures/Covers
 * The Daleks' Master Plan (TV story)/Plot
 * Twelfth Doctor/Appearances
 * The Doctor's TARDIS/Gallery
 * Sixth Doctor/Other realities
 * Ace/Non-valid sources
 * David Tennant/Spoilers (if we ever change T:SPOIL!)

When not to use a subpage
Alternately, if you think some material represents a self-contained idea that other articles might want to reference as well, consider splitting it without using a subpage. For instance, when conflicting accounts of the Doctor's origins on First Doctor became too unwieldy, I created The Doctor's early life. Other examples include pages for specific arcs, like Exile on Earth, or pages for specific events, like Operation Mannequin. This is an art, not a science, and experienced users should use their best judgment to decide how to group content into logical topics.

Here are some examples of when not to use a subpage:
 * Third Doctor/Exile on Earth – instead create Third Doctor/Biography or Exile on Earth
 * The Doctor/Sonic screwdriver – instead create The Doctor's sonic screwdriver
 * Aliases of the Doctor/Theta Sigma – instead create Theta Sigma
 * Last Great Time War/Origins – instead create Origins of the Last Great Time War
 * The Master/Missy – instead create Missy!

Moving material
Once you've identified a lengthy section and the new page or subpage that will hold it, cut the section's contents and paste it to the new location. Include any subheadings, images, galleries, footnotes, and infoboxes that are inside that section. Subheadings should be adjusted upwards: for instance, === subheadings should become == s.

Look through Special:WhatLinksHere to update any redirects to the sections you've moved. Similarly, look through the original page's templates and "Behind the scenes" bullet points for any which are more relevant to the new page. One of the biggest advantages of subpages is that they provide more room for not just ordinary coverage but also specific templates and sections. Subpages like Tenth Doctor/Appearance could have their own "Behind the scenes" sections discussing real-world information related to the topic.

Most importantly, Tardis:Plagiarism requires that you credit the content's original authors per CC BY-SA 3.0. When you're moving material to a subpage, it's usually obvious where it came from, but you should still link to the original page in your edit summary so later readers know where to look for the edit history.

Writing a summary
After moving material to a subpage, you have to fill the gap on the root page. The Editor Experience team explains the  method in this way:

In other words, replace the copied text with a shorter summary of the new subpage's contents and a link to the new page. Just as a lead paragraph summarises the contents of its page, this summary should give a broad-strokes overview of the subpage's contents, with a particular emphasis on the details most relevant to readers. A general rule of thumb is to mention all major appearances as well as any notable minor appearances. The line between "major" and "minor" is up to editors' discretion.

For instance, take Tenth Doctor. If it were moved to a subpage, the summary left behind might cite all of the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones' major adventures, such as their televised ones, but not all of their minor adventures, such as PROSE: Wetworld or COMIC: The Skrawn Inheritance. Similarly, it would mention the Tenth Doctor's companions Gabby Gonzalez and Cindy Wu from the multi-year COMIC: Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor arc, but maybe not his minor companions such as Emily Parr or Rok Ma.

Tenth Doctor is another lengthy section. It details each of the Tenth Doctor's various clothing and hairstyle changes. If this information were moved to a subpage, the summary would describe his major outfits – for instance, those worn on television or for an entire comics run or Big Finish boxset – and any particularly notable minor outfits, such as his lei from The End of Time.

Note the Editor Experience team's emphasis on a summary being "spoiler-free". While this may not be possible in some circumstances, ideally a new fan should be able to read the summary of a character's biography without having the experience of the stories being totally spoiled for them. For example, a summary of Twelfth Doctor/Biography might mention that his travels with Bill, Nardole, and Missy concluded in TV: The Doctor Falls during an encounter with, without explicitly spelling out that enemy's identity or the specific details of Bill's fate. Like a lead paragraph, a well-written summary should "lead" its readers to want to learn more, whether that means clicking through to the subpage or actually experiencing the stories in question.

Applications
There are many disparate problems that this proposal will solve. Below I discuss those problems and the motivations for this proposal.

Subpage-like pages
Many articles on this wiki are already written like subpages. Our 1000+ lists of appearances are perfect examples of subpages in both purpose and execution: The only problem is that … well, they're not actually subpages! We've been using a dash instead of a slash for no reason. Twelfth Doctor - list of appearances, to name of one of many, should be moved to Twelfth Doctor/List of appearances.
 * 1) when a page section (the infobox list of appearances) grows too large and unwieldy, it's moved to a separate page;
 * 2) the new page is titled in reference to the core page (Character name - list of appearances); and
 * 3) the core page retains a summary of the most important information (first mention, first appearance).

These aren't our only subpage-like pages. We also have almost 100 "galleries" which function just like subpages; most of them are even already linked from story or series pages with. Their form should follow their function: BBC New Series Adventures covers should be moved to BBC New Series Adventures/Covers without hesitation. Standardising gallery subpages and creating them for major characters and concepts will also for rescue our thousands of orphaned images.

As another example, consider Aliases of the Doctor. The vast majority of links to this page come through redirects to specific sections, like Theta Sigma, which is already a strong hint that the page should be chopped up! According to the principles in the policy proposal above, we should follow the method to split the article into separate pages for major individual aliases, such as Time's Champion and Time Lord Victorious, then move the remaining overview page to The Doctor/Name and aliases. This precedent will also unlock improvements for many pages like Chris Cwej's Superiors, which shoehorns all of the topic's once-used alternate names into the first sentences. Instead, the lead should only mention the two or three most prominent names, while the rest can go in a "Name and aliases" section.

These are just a few examples of low-hanging fruit unlocked by this subpage proposal. I'm willing to bet that there are many more out there!

Plots and summaries
Tardis Wiki is notorious for its lack of plot descriptions. A vast, vast majority of story pages have plot sections that say to be added. This is understandable: few editors actively enjoy typing out these lengthy breakdowns, and those who do often hold themselves to extreme standards of detail. But these to be added tags, many of them 15 years old or older, are a problem: according to the Editor Experience team,

Subpages offer a way out. Rather than marking thousands of story pages as stubs just because they lack lengthy plot breakdowns, we should put these breakdowns (when we have them) on "Plot" subpages. This won't even require a change to our preload templates! It will look something like this: Summary A brief, non-spoilery teaser that someone could use to check if they're interested in a story. If a publisher's summary is provided, this is where it goes, in which case the section is called "Publisher's summary". In rare cases where publishers have given many different summaries, such as Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, this section may have a  link.

Plot

A short synopsis that someone could use to get a gist of a story or remind themselves of the plot. For an example, see Silver-Tongued Liars (short story). Unlike full plot descriptions, which tend to provide enough detail that one could experience the story without actually experiencing it (!), these shorter plot synopses could be written from memory without any editors needing to pause or relisten to take notes on every aspect of a story. Not only will synopses make our pages less likely to appear unfinished, their length will also make it easier for readers to scroll and access other sections on the page. All the while, readers interested in the nitty gritty details can still easily access that information when available by clicking to the subpage via.

Other realities
As Tardis:Merging policy describes, our longstanding precedent regarding alternate versions of characters – whether they're from alternate timelines, parallel universes, palimpests, simulations, or so on – is to split when possible. This has had two results:
 * 1) many pages with strange dab terms and very little actual content, such as Waterton Street (Pete's World), Sash of Rassilon (Barusa's universe), and Moira (Shadow World).
 * 2) many articles with  below their infoboxes, increasing the glut of obscure material past which mobile readers must now scroll to find a page's actual contents.

Both of these are problems for usability, and T:MERGE itself contains the seeds of the solution by clarifying that not all alternate versions of characters deserve separate pages:

Tenth Doctor/Other realities – not, as the section is currently called, but a title also inclusive of parallels, palimpests, simulations, and so on – would provide the space for this coverage. It would have room for separate sections discussing the alternate versions of the character, linking to separate pages with when separate pages are justified. Such a subpage would also provide a more suitable home for specialized templates like.

This type of subpage won't remove the need for or existence of separate pages for many alternate versions of characters, but it will go a long way towards alleviating the pressure which has caused so much sprawl in the first place!

Corollary: Clarifying in T:MERGE that the alternate timelines "rule of thumb" extends to subpages. New precedent for "Other realities" section header where applicable, rather than "Alternate timelines" specifically.

Other validites
NOTVALID: Death Comes to Time depicts an alternative fate of the Seventh Doctor and Ace following TV: Survival. We're meant to recognise these names: within this story, Ace is the same character who we met in TV: Dragonfire, and her actions are shaped by her experiences in TV: The Curse of Fenric and other stories. This background is assumed as understood.

Now read our article for Ace (Death Comes to Time). There's no mention of her shared roots with regular Ace; in fact, there's no citation of any story besides Death Comes to Time itself. If you read the page in a vacuum, you could come away thinking she was one of Dan Freeman's original characters! To an extent, this is understandable: it would be very silly to duplicate half of Ace on two pages. But there's a better way.

Many pages for characters and concepts which appear very briefly in non-valid stories, like George W. Bush, feature a "Behind the scenes" subsection called "Information from non-valid sources". This is better than the Ace (Death Comes to Time) approach, since it establishes a clear link between the valid and non-valid topics, but we understandably haven't chosen this route when it comes to more major characters, since it would be cumbersome to cover that much material in a behind-the-scenes section.

You should know what's coming by now: in this case, Ace/Non-valid sources, decorated by a helpful new template tentatively called (naming suggestions welcome!).

In Ace, a subsection called "Information from non-valid sources" will briefly list or recap Ace's more prominent non-valid appearances, with a link to the subpage covering Ace-related material in these non-valid sources in maximum detail.

also unlocks a new solution to another old problem: our coverage of concepts with licensed appearances in non-valid stories. Right now we either shove most of these pages' material in their "Behind the scenes" sections, like on Canisian, or we jam our fingers in our ears and pretend we don't understand the obvious connection, like on Man with a bent nose (The Tomorrow Windows). Using the above template on pages like these – not on a subpage, but on the original thing – will enable much better coverage of not just Canisians but also licensed crossover concepts like the Vivaldi inheritance and Gwanzulum.

Corollary: Editing Tardis:Valid sources to say that licensed appearances of valid concepts in non-valid sources can be covered on relevant pages and subpages when marked with.

Biographies and leads
In Thread:264489, Shambala108 ruled that the biography sections on pages of "highly-recurring characters" should only have 2-3 sentences per story. This ruling was widely ignored – it hasn't been enforced on any page anywhere – and I believe that many, myself included, did not understand it at the time. But I have come to see the wisdom in Shambala's approach.

In the proposal text above, I quoted the Editor Experience team's guideline that articles should be "somewhere between 1000 and 2500 words (not bytes). There are legitimate reasons for individual articles with 4000–5000 words of prose if they engage the reader and stay on-topic; beyond 5000 words, contributors should review a body of text for opportunities to summarize and break out potentially independent text into new articles."

- FishTank

Currently, we fall hilariously short of this standard. Our pages Tenth Doctor and Eleventh Doctor are both over 60,000 words long, requiring (according to WordCounter.net) over 3 hours of reading time each – and it's hard to argue that their prose is especially engaging. No person is sitting down and reading either of these pages start to finish. And don't even mention The Master!

If Shambala's decision was implemented properly, we would see a dramatic reduction of these page lengths, but two problems would remain:
 * 1) the matter of what to do with all the material we'd be removing; and
 * 2) the fact that such a reduction would be nowhere near drastic enough to meet best practices!

Subpages would solve both problems. Biographies which are too long by Shambala's standard can be moved to subpages, rather than deleted outright; and the  method would unlock far larger potential reductions in page length.

As described in the policy text above, the information in a summary should be chosen for its relevance to the not we. I've received some pushback for this part of the proposal, but in actuality, it satisfies both the spirit and the letter of Tardis:Neutral point of view. Our entire purpose as a wiki is to cover DWU-related stories and concepts in whatever way will best serve DWU fans, and the reason we have T:NPOV is to serve that purpose, not to promote non-TV content. A neutral point of view does not prevent us from realistically assessing what information is most relevant to our readers: otherwise it would be against the rules to use the "Main actor" variable in infoboxes!

This guideline has implications for lead paragraphs, as well. Peter Capaldi himself had such a hard time finding relevant information in our article on The Beatles that he ultimately gave up! I've since fixed the issue with that specific page by moving information about TV: The Chase from its 14th paragraph to its 2nd. Applying this approach more widely across the wiki will greatly improve general usability.

Comments
If you have any feedback on this proposal, please feel free to add comments here or embed them in the text above with  '' tags. I reserve the right to incorporate, reject, and/or remove anything added to this page. – n8 (☎) 15:41, 19 September 2022 (UTC)''