Forum:Temporary forums/Non-narrative fiction and Rule 1

Opening post
Alright. So. I'm going to be approaching this in a bit of a weird direction, attempting to build a historical case for a re-examination of this rule, where some of the history, is uh, not precisely available to us because it's in the deleted forums. With that said I think most of the relevant history takes place before the switch, so there's not much of a barrier here.

T:VS. The four little rules. At the end of the day I think no rule has caused more controversy than Rule 1. Perhaps there's some disagreement as to precise implementations of Rules 2-4, a la primary vs secondary rights holders, the, uh, Arcbeatle stuff, or our recent Rule 4 discussion. But no other rule, to my knowledge, has had people fundamentally question the very necessity of its existence. There are at least three proposals in these forums that touch on it, more, depending on how you count. It's a mess. And its history is just as messy. If you wish to move past that history and on to the argument built on the history, feel free to do so. But I think the historical analysis is important to understand how Rule 1 came to be, why it uniquely rankles so many, and why jettisoning it or reforming it would not be as radical a proposal as it first seems.

Historical background
The earliest relevant discussion is the original 2005 creation of the canon policy, which specifically disallowed the FASA roleplaying game (among others) on the basis that they "contain histories and other information which conflicts with the television and prose stories"). It also specifically disallowed websites, unless sourced from a valid source, though this policy doesn't seem to have considered the idea of in-universe websites given the phrasing, and stated that
 * The relevance of the Doctor Who Technical Manual, The Terrestrial Guide, The Doctor Who Monster Book and similar items and their suitability for use in creating and contributing to articles in the TARDIS Index File is unclear at this time, and up for discussion. [emphasis mine]

This was a proposed draft, (as stated at the top of the page), and discussion began at the original inclusion debates, but there simply was never discussion of this section. User:Boblipton brings it up 6 years later to subtly change the wording, and that's it. (OS25 else brings up discussion about reference works as a general category, but this too is ignored.) (I note that there's some ambiguity here, as User:Freethinker1of1 referenced discussions taking place at Tardis talk:Canon policy, which... seems to be redirected to these discussions during this time frame. So if there were other discussions we've just lost them?)

A small but interesting side note takes place in 2008 when someone asks about Search for the Doctor and it's clear that at this point interactive fiction isn't considered "non canon".

User:Scrooge MacDuck has pointed out that in late 2008 Forum:Canonicity of Dalek Annuals has some discussion on the relevant lines, as it expresses incredulity about specific facts in the non narrative sections of the work. But this thread closed either without clear resolution, or with a resolution that the Annuals were "canon", and the distaste here wasn't in any way based on a narrative/non-narrative distinction, but rather that the specific facts presented were outlandish and seemed to contradict other established fact. It seems similar as the above, a side note in the history.

In June of 2010, Forum:We need a policy on videogames attempts to nail down specific policies on games, noting that at this time Attack of the Graske is still canon, with User:CzechOut arguing that the policy at the time doesn't clearly explain why the FASA games aren't canon. There isn't clear consensus by the end of this discussion a year later, though it's important to note that a final postscript discussion includes the observation by User:Victory93 that the FASA game manuals aren't narrative, but the games are.

In March of 2011 User:Tangerineduel brings up the issue of the three works mentioned as being "unclear" in the canon policy since its very invention. Czech's response:
 * They're unclear because they contain material which could potentially be used on in-universe articles, but probably shouldn't be. That is, they contain information about, for example, the technical specs of K9 or the operation of the TARDIS, or details about the sonic screwdriver — a substantial amount of which has never been confirmed in any narrative. They also contain, in the case of The Terrestrial Index, the author's opinion as to the narrative history of the DWU, in much the same way that AHistory or The Discontinuity Guide will throw out pearls of "wisdom" about how certain in-universe things fit together. All these reference books are one step removed from the source material, the episodes themselves, and therefore make for potentially dangerous resources for in-universe articles. It's fine if you want to include information from these sorts of books in a behind-the-scenes section or on a story page. But I can't see the rationale for including the Technical Manual 's ideas of what makes the sonic screwdriver tick in the main body of sonic screwdriver. Primacy must be given to narrative works on in-universe pages.

This is later stated as the official line by Tangerine in 2011, that you need narrative sources. I am unable to find an actual discussion that enshrines this as policy, it simply seems to be how the statements from the original 2005 first draft were interpreted, even though User:CzechOut admitted that this isn't the actual reason for FASA being disqualified.

In early 2012 discussion about another video game commences. (This one is interesting for a variety of reasons, many parts of it have aged very poorly.) Interestingly, Czech insists that RPGs were thrown out years prior, and as stated, while this is true, at the time T:CANON still reflected that it was because they conflicted with the tv show or prose works. User:Tybort points this out, and they discuss whether RPGs should be covered generally. Search for the Doctor is discussed again, and there's disagreement as to whether or not it's similar. Tangerine makes the following comment:
 * I believe the origin of the FASA ban was that kinda like other in-universe non-narrative reference books it was believed that the FASA stuff was made up just so there'd be enough content for the FASA game. [emphasis mine]

(I note that I've not been able to find evidence for this in my dive through the forums, but it could well be true that this was the concern. But it's interesting to see how the slow marriage of non narrative in universe fiction and nonlinear storytelling came to pass in these discussions.) The next two comments from Czech are illuminating as well, and while they're too long to replicate in full, some choice bits:
 * To me, it's more that it's a lack of consistent narrative. [...] What I'm saying is that RPGs encourage and allow for fanfic, which is clearly not allowed. [...] More than that, you don't have to choose the missions (called rather stupidly "interventions") in a particular order, by and large. Which means for you, the game may progress from intervention a, to intervention d, to invervention c. For someone else, it might go in alphabetical order. Thus your "plot" is scrambled. I think that to include a particular story, i must be a story that progresses in the same way for everyone experiencing it.
 * The real reason for the ban must surely be that RPGs are internally unstable narratives. They don't come out the same each time you play them. So anything which happens differently each time you play it shouldn't be considered a part of our tardis.wikia.com canon, because we don't know which outcome to go with. This would mean things like the DYD and FYF books would also be slapped with a notdwu warning. I don't see anything wrong with saying: Only those narratives with a consistent narrative, experienced in the same way for all those that consume that narrative, may be considered a valid source for the writing of articles.

Eventually the discussion closed without clear resolution on larger policy concerns, though even the staunchest defender of the game sort of accepted that deeming the particular game non canon wouldn't be awful.

It gets a little weird here, because we need to look at a thread that seems to have nothing to do with our discussion. Forum:Inclusion debate: Death Comes to Time takes place beginning in May of 2012, and involves the following snippet from Czech:
 * For this reason, a process — which, incidentally, I did not personally invent — emerged whereby we occasionally examine a story or range to see whether it should be considered a valid source for the writing of in-universe articles. If there's evidence that the creators/copyright holders did not intend for the story to be a part of the DWU, or if there's a question about the story's legal status, we exclude it. Even though, again, I'm not the author of this process, I do approve of it. We have to have some mechanism for defining the wiki's scope, or we'd have no defense against fan fiction, obvious parody, and things which are explicitly meant by the author and/or copyright holder to be viewed as extra-continuous. [emphasis mine]

Here we see two of the four rules in T:VS, arguably three. Rule 1 is obviously absent. And, indeed, the first version of T:VS is written the next day. User:Josiah Rowe voices his approval for this rewrite of the canon system on that same day. Over the next two days the policy construction continues, first in the form of the 3 little rules and then the 4 little rules, adding in Rule 1 as the final rule. However, there's no discussion in said forum thread about Rule 1, the only discussion taking place being around a semi-narrative approach to validity, which is, again, very funny in hindsight.

In October of 2012 Forum:Decide Your Destiny and Find Your Fate are NOTDWU from here on out shifted the branching path stories to being not valid based on Rule 1 on the discussion of Czech and Tangerine alone, and that's the final relevant thread in the old panopticon to the issue of Rule 1.

Most everything else that could be relevant is in the deleted forums, but there are some bits of interest at Tardis talk:Valid sources, namely, Tardis talk:Valid sources and Tardis talk:Valid sources. I invite those interested to peruse, but it's the obvious criticisms that continue to be made to this day.

Recap
So what precisely happened? A draft of the canon policy was proposed, and it disqualified FASA because it contradicted other sources, and left other non narrative fiction in a weird middle ground. It was never discussed. At the time it wasn't trivial that interactive stories were at all similar. Discussion occurs concerning The Adventure Games, and there is no clear consensus. Even after this there is confusion as to how to interpret these passages in the canon policy, with User:Tangerineduel asking for clarification before adopting the "narrative primacy" stance. (Again, I note, with no discussion cementing this policy.) User:CzechOut attempts to clarify why the FASA books are invalid, suggesting that it's because they're interactive narratives, but there is no clear consensus. Finally, when T:VS is created, the four little rules spring into existence, and there is no discussion of any of them save Rule 4.

By no means am I suggesting wrongdoing here. Very much the opposite, I think Czech's attempt to pin down the precise reason for why FASA was ruled invalid was the correct call, even if I ultimately disagree with his reasons the entire way through. The creation of T:VS was a herculean effort, and should be applauded as a great step forward in how we approach discussions on this wiki. And it's important to realize that under T:BOUND he was actually codifying the rules of the wiki!

But at the same time it's a rule that nobody actually ever really agreed to. It just sort of congealed out of a few other bits of policy that went unquestioned for far too long and were, quite frankly, bad. It's time to re-examine Rule 1 with fresh eyes.

The case for repeal
Quite frankly, I don't think that User:Vultraz Nuva's concerns at Tardis talk:Valid sources were ever adequately addressed.
 * [elsewhere] reference works are treated as valid sources depending on their content--in-universe or behind-the-scenes. The aforementioned books contain both, but it shouldn't take a well trained person to distinguish the two where they're together [...] I also take the tie-in websites to contain canon information (Whoisdoctorwho.co.uk implies where and when the Ninth Doctor traveled before he met Rose), even if they might also contain behind-the-scenes data.

Czech's response suggests that in order to mediate this issue admins would have to buy every work. But this just isn't true. As will be discussed below we've had similar situations concerning Rule 1 as is, and moderators have not been forced to buy the books in question. As for the idea that many of the non narrative pieces of fiction are crap, this isn't for us to adjudicate. It's neither here nor there. And, indeed, T:VS notes as much.

The reality is that Rule 1 isn't as practical when it comes to the demarcation between narrative works and non-narrative works as Czech has contended in the past. TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual is the example that started this entire discussion 2-3 years ago. The Monster Vault is an example that proves Czech's fears were unfounded, where on the talk page we discussed precisely this issue, and it demonstrates that Rule 1 as it stands is leading to precisely the confusion that Czech's response to Vultraz contends won't happen. Indeed, the line between narrative and non narrative fiction is blurry, and some brave souls have argued that the wiki has been covering works on the wrong side of it as valid for quite some time.

"Story" on this wiki, for the purposes of Rule 1, simply means that things must happen, there must be a series of events with a ing. However, it should be clear that there are obvious fringe cases where we have a series of statements that might or might not fit into a preordering. Not just from the perspective of the difficulties in establishing such a po, but if you're mixing multiple types of facts, some events and some simple statements of fact about the world, only some of these fit into this structure, and you have to make a choice at what point the structure stops being an actual story and simply becomes a recitation of facts.

Moving forward
One obvious solution is to simply remove Rule 1 as it exists altogether, or replacing it with the rule: And attempting to re-consider other parts of T:VS in light of this new rule, given the constant references to narratives in other sections. (Option 1) This is a possible solution, and even one I'm somewhat amenable to. But it has some rather significant logistical difficulties. Unlike non narrative fiction, video games were extensively litigated in the now deleted forums, and while much of that discussion was predicated on accepting Rule 1, that doesn't mean that the points made therein, albeit, ones we cannot see, are invalid. This would be a rather large discussion, and I don't believe it would find consensus within a three week period. Nevertheless, I expect some people to take this line of tack.
 * 1) Only works of fiction count.

Another option is to replace Rule 1 as above and simply leave video games and other forms of interactive storytelling in the "specifically disallowed" section. (Option 2) I think the historical case I've laid out is sufficient to prompt reconsideration on these sorts of stories at some point in the future, but it would be a nuanced discussion that would take quite some time on its own merits, even without discussing non-narrative fiction. And the two discussions together would make it more difficult for an admin to read the threads and synthesize a closing post. (I note that this is the option I support, at least in the interim.)

The third option is attempting to formalize Czech's above idea of "internal inconsistency" into policy. It would be something like But the wording isn't something I'm fixed on, and don't think much of the idea, to be blunt. Unreliable narrators are a well known staple of writing, I think this specific form of policy is too broad.
 * 1) Only works of internally consistent fiction count. (Option 3)

With that said, a fourth idea is suggested by User:Scrooge MacDuck's update to T:VS which slightly generalizes "internal inconsistency", if there's an in-universe explanation for internal inconsistencies within a work we're perfectly content. Perhaps a wording like I'm not married to this wording, and I think this approach also gets too far into the weeds of discussing other issues aside from this proposal though, but I figured it was worth bringing up. Najawin ☎  16:02, 31 January 2023 (UTC)
 * 1) Only works of internally consistent fiction count, or works that give in-universe explanations for their own contradictions. (Option 4)

Discussion
Holy hell that is one mother-trucker of an OP. 😂 I think I’ll counter that by simply saying: I agree. Danniesen ☎  22:05, 3 February 2023 (UTC)


 * A great opening post, @Najawin. As it happens, I had also been drafting up an opening post for this thread, so I'll leave it below as it covers a lot of things I believe are important. 22:06, 3 February 2023 (UTC)


 * I support the proposal to change Rule 1 to say that "only fiction counts." Yes, this includes RPGs and video games. Quite frankly, the way this wiki views video games is incredibly misguided and deliberately ignores the concept of gameplay and story segregation, something that's a universally accepted concept in pretty much every fandom. Pluto2 ☎ 22:24, 3 February 2023 (UTC)