User:SOTO/Forum Archive/Inclusion debates/@comment-1506468-20190827123101/@comment-30881616-20190910053852

I do think the issue is a lot simpler than that, actually.

With the Lil' Doctor Who argument having demonstrated itself to be fallacious, we are back to the state of the conversation before it was introduced. To wit: Amorkuz wrote: It surprises me that this is being supported at all, with all the consequences being waved away as if we would not be responsible for them by creating this policy. But it surprises me even more that this policy is being pushed through and fast-tracked for the sole purpose of delivering three stories to the wiki approximately half a year earlier than would happen ordinarily (when they are published commercially in a book). In other words, by that point—post #52 in the discussion—the consensus has been reached that these 10,000 Dawns crossovers unambiguously pass the rest of the “four little rules” of T:VALID enough that an official release would automatically allow them to pass Rule 3 and be qualified as valid in-universe sources (and that Arcbeatle Press is a legitimate enough publisher that an official release of these stories by Arcbeatle Press would automatically allow them to pass Rule 3). If anyone has changed their mind since post #52 and would like to rescind their words, please let us all know, but as far as I can see the the only point of contention left since post #52 has been which, if any, of the releases of these stories at present counts as an official release by Arcbeatle Press.

Now, T:OFF REL says (italics in the original): "We consider something officially released when it is made available to the general public, in venues that are ordinarily and legally used for that particular medium."

That web-based venues are considered appropriate for the official releases of stories in the medium of writing—not only by this Wiki, but also by a non-negligible number of content creators and rightsholders working with the DWU—is clearly demonstrated by the many valid in-universe sources in Category:WEB_short_stories.

That Arcbeatle Press considers jameswylder.com to be one of the venues through which it officially releases its publications—and, by extension, that Arcbeatle Press considers the releases of these 10,000 Dawns crossovers on jameswylder.com to be official Arcbeatle Press releases—has been a fact beyond doubt at least since the latest edits to the relevant info sections on both jameswylder.com and Arcbeatle Press’ website (the section on jameswylder.com has been quoted in post #107 above; out of a desire to stay on-topic, I shall, for the moment, make no comment on how evident the status of jameswylder.com as an official Arcbeatle Press venue might or might not have been before that point).

In other words, the 10,000 Dawns crossover stories that constitute the topic of this discussion have, indeed, been officially released by Arcbeatle Press, and as such they have passed Rule 3 of the “four little rules” on T:VALID. Given that, as stated above, the consensus has been reached on this thread that these stories have also passed Rules 1, 2, and 4, this means they all qualify as valid in-universe sources for this Wiki, according to the same standards used on other valid in-universe sources on this Wiki.

(Sidenote: seeing as the Wiki has not audited the licensing contracts and other relevant legal documents regarding other stories currently considered valid in-universe sources, it is clear that We have to rely on the statements by the publisher/on the publication’s Copyright info section does not qualify as sufficient evidence to declare a story invalid according to our standards. If anyone is not satisfied with this policy, they are free to propose changes at Board:The Panopticon in accordance with T:CHANGE; for the purpose of the present discussion, however, T:BOUND applies.)

Furthermore, the actual wording of relevant part of T:OFF REL is that

"For prose fiction, release date is whatever is given by the publisher as the release date."

I can see no actual clause here saying that these terms only apply to paper prose fiction. And with regards to these 10,000 Dawns crossovers, Arcbeatle Press has already included release dates on the relevant jameswylder.com pages, so I believe this aspect of the discussion has been settled as well.