User:SOTO/Forum Archive/Inclusion debates/@comment-43874324-20200319180118/@comment-6032121-20200319183351

Palmirinha (from the same dub) was, on the other hand, deleted by User:Shambala108 with the somewhat puzzling rationale "only appears in Brazilian version; this is the English wiki".

I am glad this thread was opened because that definitely seems a bridge too far.

Precedent is unclear on how to handle altered versions — The Five Doctors Special Edition is valid as a story in its own right, for example, as are comics which are reprinted with the art edited so that it now features a different Doctor. But on the other hand, coloured reprints of comics aren't valid. Sometimes altered versions get pages of their own (the special editions with "improved" CGI effects), sometimes they don't (animated reconstructions).

When it comes to whether they're valid, I feel like it could therefore swing either way and have no strong feelings on the issue. But I definitely think material from dubs and localizations should be covered, albeit with an tag if need be. I frankly don't know what to make of Shambala's statement that since the info is Portuguese-only, it doesn't belong on the Wiki. Surely if there were licensed, original Doctor Who stories printed in foreign languages, and never dubbed/translated into English, we would still cover those?!

This might be a good moment to step back and look at how other Wikis handle this. Sure enough, the Harry Potter Wiki and the Disney Comics Wiki both document information original to foreign printings of their material, and even consider the information "canonical". (Of course, we don't use the term "canon", but note that the latter Wiki's understanding of the term is very close indeed to our "validity", conflicting accounts and all.)

That we are the English Wiki means we should give information in a format English-speakers can understand, but that hardly means we should limit the scope of what we cover on the Wiki to English-language media. If new, licensed information about the DWU was put out in a foreign production such as a dub, that is something that I, and I assume many other English-speaking fans, will want to know about.

Again, I am of two minds as to whether, to accord with current policy, dub-only information should be valid. But I insist that it should be covered.