User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon/@comment-4028641-20151008222758

Moved from previous thread.


 * To avoid starting yet another thread, I wanted to bring up the issue here that it is apparently in our policy to not include invalid stories in appearance lists. I find this extremely bizarre, as those lists are blatantly out-of-universe and we have no reason not to list stories that we as a site deem invalid mostly for technical reasons. I see absolutely no reason not to list the Graske's first appearance as Attack of the Graske, or to include all appearances of Zog, Crystal, or Jason on their separate pages. The Ainley Master still appears in Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror no matter how we decide to look at it. Since appearance sections are, by definition, a list of stories, they're all out-of-universe and thus should include all stories regardless of weather of how this site deems them to be.


 * I find it very ironic how this wikia currently works very hard to clarify that "validity" is what we care about, and that it's a separate concept from "canon," yet we stick pretty close to the system based off the later instead of preaching the gospel we preach.

The majour problem here is that we're removing info from pages for little reason and thus alienating readers. We should include all stories because most readers won't give two cents about if Attack of the Graske is a coherent story by our policy, or if we thing Worlds in Time just really let you choose too many names in your adventure, or because we think that the VHS Shada is a bit underdone, or if we just have trouble justify narratives in those role playing books from the '90s. Those stories all still exist, and the characters still appeared in them. We have no reason not to include them in out-of-universe listings.