Talk:Iris Wildthyme (series)

multiple publishers

The "Publisher" field in the infobox currently only says "Big Finish Productions." It should link to Big Finish Productions, Obverse Books, and Snowbooks Ltd. But it seems it only accepts one value. Does someone else know how to do it? Fwhiffahder ☎ 20:13, December 20, 2016 (UTC)

Very simple: you add a publisher2 and publisher3.
× SOTO (☎/✍/↯) 20:15, December 20, 2016 (UTC)

Ok. Thanks! Fwhiffahder ☎ 20:20, December 20, 2016 (UTC)

List of stories

Although I myself rather have it as a list, rather than a table, I'd understand why a table is more useful than a simple list. However, if we are to stick with a table, I think that audio and prose should definitely not be on the same table. They are very different forms of presenting stories, and it should be enough to separete these already.

However, the fact that Big Finish Productions has published both novels and audios means it would get a bit more difficult to keep track of what's audio and what's not.

Moreover, look at the # column of the table: we have two entries for 5. How are we to be able to keep track of what is what when the numbering cross between different media? OncomingStorm12th ☎ 20:55, December 20, 2016 (UTC)

This way the releases are put in the correct order regardless of publisher, which means the page is actually useful. Before, when they were split up by publisher, you had to check all three to figure out what the correct order was for reading/listening. Fwhiffahder ☎ 21:43, December 20, 2016 (UTC)

I see where you're coming from. But, I believe, most readers would be searching trhough the order of stories released by each publisher (to have some sort of continuity between products).

For example: suppose sees the page Iris: Abroad and wants to know what comes after it (through the Iris Wildthyme (series) page). This person would see Aboard is numbered 4. Obviously, this person would search for #5. But would this number 5 be "Wildthyme in Purple" or "Wildthyme Reloaded"? Yes, I know that the one by the same publisher as Aboard would be WiP, but it is very weird and confusing to have two different things having the same number, on the same table.

I don't think everything related to Iris WIldthyme (series) need to be put in chronological release order. Having it listed through the release order of each publisher seems just fine for me. OncomingStorm12th ☎ 21:50, December 20, 2016 (UTC)

I know for certain that release order makes it easier to go through the series, because I did it myself, and the wiki was no help. I had to collate the dates and make my own list. I understand that there are some people interested in the order of a specific publisher. So the table lists the publishers. They can skip the ones that aren't that publisher. I've also edited all the release pages so that they say both the order of the series as a whole, and the order for the specific publishers. The release numbers are slightly confusing, but it's not hard to work out that they correspond to the publishers. And some releases (Wildthyme on Top, The Claws of Santa) don't have numbers at all. I'm not sure that the Obverse ans Snowbooks ones are official numbering either, so it might be better to remove them and only list them on the individual pages. Fwhiffahder ☎ 22:03, December 20, 2016 (UTC)

I think at the very least audios and books should be broken out into separate lists. As it stands, this is confusing to anyone not familiar with the series. There's no way to tell, for example that Wildthyme on Top is a book while The Two Irises is audio. P&P talk contribs 23:30, December 20, 2016 (UTC)

The whole point is to combine audios and books. And it is possible to tell — it explains at the top that Wildthyme on Top and the Obverse ones are anthologies, the other Big Finish ones are audios, and the Snowbooks ones are novels. But I'll see about changing the table so it's more specific. Fwhiffahder ☎ 00:54, December 21, 2016 (UTC)

Separate pages

As another approach to resolving the table issue, may I suggest we split this into three pages: one for Big Finish (both audio and prose), one for Snowbooks Ltd. and one for Obverse Books. I mean, just because they're all stories about Iris Wildthyme, doesn't mean they should be on the same page. After all, it is what we do for Bernice Summerfiel: same character, different publishers, different pages. OncomingStorm12th ☎ 23:33, December 24, 2016 (UTC)

Are you serious? That would be even worse. All three are the same series which is just called "Iris Wildthyme." Those two Benny series are split because one is called "New Adventures" and the other is called "Bernice Summerfield." I don't see why you're making such a big deal about this, anyway. It explains perfectly well which ones are in which format right at the top of the page, and this way you can actually tell that The Two Irises comes before Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus, which is important if you want to understand the latter when you read it. Fwhiffahder ☎ 23:47, December 24, 2016 (UTC)

Yes, I am being very serious. If a table needs a whole paragraph to make sense, it isn't very useful at all. And about "All three are the same series which is just called Iris Wildthyme.", well, there have been two or three comic series called simply "Torchwood", and dozen comic series called simply "Doctor Who". And guess what? Each gets a different page. You know why? Different publishers telling different stories about the same character(s).

If we were to merge all series named "Torchwood" into one page, it would be a mess. It would contain audio stories, TV stories, novels, and even more. Tell me one case (except, obviously, this one) were we merge publications of different companies in the same page. This is the reason I am "making such a big deal about this, anyway". Becuse the table,as it is now, looks confusing and messy. OncomingStorm12th ☎ 23:57, December 24, 2016 (UTC)

The thing is that the narrative switches between publishers in release order. The other cases of series with the same name involve an originator series and subsidiary tie-ins in other media. This is all one series with parts published by different companies, but with the same storyline and often the same authors. But the table can be simplified. The author/editor column isn't really necessary. And what do you think of merging number and publisher into one sortable column (e.g. "Obverse Books 7") so that sorting by that column divides it by publisher but keeps the publisher order? Fwhiffahder ☎ 00:23, December 25, 2016 (UTC)