Board Thread:Inclusion debates/@comment-28349479-20161216221639/@comment-28349479-20161221044703

Shambala108, I agree with your technical points: the presence of Simon Bucher-Jones and Philip Purser-Hallard is indeed potentially questionable in this thread. However, unless we're to suppose a multi-year conspiracy dating back to before either were particularly public figures, the posts by Stuart Douglas (who runs all Obverse social media accounts) and Andrew Hickey are undoubtable. And even then, Purser-Hallard's post cites several pieces of in-text supporting evidence that can be used to establish his opinions on this matter. While the PPHF and SBJ posts could possibly not be by who they claim to be, the facts they contain still constitute evidence for the purpose of this thread.

And while self-reference is reasonably disallowed for instances of autobiography or self-promotion, I think a more technical reading of the self-reference clause allows for these comments to be relevant:

"Extreme caution must be exercised with respect to information that comes from the subject of a page. David Tennant's opinion, given to Doctor Who Confidential, about the filming of 42 is perhaps of interest at the page 42 (TV story). However, Tennant's tweet of his age or hometown or other biographical information absolutely cannot be used at the page David Tennant."

Note that these authors are not trying to convey factual information about themselves, nor are they trying to edit the articles about their own work. And the argument isn't about whether the writers have licenses (for ideas originating in their own stories, nonetheless)! They are simply conveying their opinion about their stories, which should be allowed right alongside David Tennant's opinions about filming 42. This is especially relevant since, as you yourself cited earlier in the thread, the main reason for excluding Faction Paradox depends on the authors' opinions. For this reason, not only does self-reported authorial opinion fall under the "Tennant's opinions on 42" clause, any expression of intent is directly relevant and key to the discussion at hand.

PS: Thanks for the input Josiah! :)