Talk:EBay

Merger

Given that this is only parenthetically mentioned in Mrs Frimbly's Festive Diary, surely it can be merged into eBay? If we're to interpret T:DAB OTHER this strictly, we'll need separate pages for anything that's even mentioned to also exist in other realities: Great Depression (Inferno Earth), Tibet (Inferno Earth), 1938 (Inferno Earth), Decolonisation (Inferno Earth)... – n8 (☎) 22:21, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

Hm. In the story, the alternate dimension Ebay was implied not to be an alternate universe analog to eBay-the-auction-website, but perhaps a place, or the dimension itself.

Epsilon📯 📂

22:26, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

While plausible, the wording of the page currently doesn't suggest that. It does suggest it's an analogue. Najawin ☎ 22:36, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

It's funny you should mention T:DAB OTHER, Nate, because as its name implies, it is a dabbing policy. If we are applying T:DAB OTHER to this eBay, then first off, even assuming it's to have a page of its own, then that page is misnamed. Per that policy, we should make a conjectural name for the parallel universe, and use that as a dab term rather than the story title.

At any rate, I don't believe parenthetical mentions should be the deciding factor, but rather ontological differences. I outlined a more detailed explanation at Talk:Dalek (The Master's Dalek Plan), but in short: if "decolonisation" means the same thing in the Inferno universe as it does in N-Space, one page will do. But if the history of Tibet in the Inferno universe is significantly different from its N-Space counterpart (even if this were established through an off-hand comment like the Brigade Leader mentioning "the Papal Autocracy of Communist Tibet" or whatever), then it does deserve its own page, however brief.

In fact it's much like the rules about when we make pages for the {{invalid}} versions of valid concepts. The Doctor is certainly very important in “the Pilot Episode”, but he does not, therein, differ much from many other 1960s portrayals of Hartnell's Doctor, so he can be a footnote in the BTS section of First Doctor. Conversely, Eighth Doctor (The Next 20 Years) is a mere cameo, but of a unique version of the Doctor, so he gets his own page.

All of this is purely academic of the Mrs Frimbly "eBay" is not any dimensional variation of the online service provider at all, as Epsilon alleges. In that case it's just a straightforward case of "a Zodin" not being the same thing as "the Terrible Zodin". Could you elaborate on that, @Epsilon? Scrooge MacDuck ☎ 22:49, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

Here's the quote from Mrs Frimbly's Festive Diary:

[The robot dog] showed some interest in the old books my Master keeps in his study. Those lurid books he had delivered from Ebay. ‘Ah, not just ordinary Ebay, Frimbly,’ he beamed at me as the curious-looking postman came up the garden path. ‘Ebay in a different dimension, slightly tangential to this one.’

– n8 (☎) 22:53, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

I'm decidedly not getting that Ebay is supposed to be a place from this. Perhaps there's other references? But this specific quote doesn't support Epsilon's earlier claim. Najawin ☎ 22:59, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

Eh, I could see it. The fact that it's spelled as "Ebay" rather than "eBay" means that the phrasing "it's from Ebay" does kind of sound like "It's from Cairo" or what-have-you.

I do agree there's no strong reason to think this is the case over the more common-sense interpretation, however. So we're just left with the question of whether this analogue-of-eBay is distinct enough from the N-Space version. I'm honestly inclined to say yes? The whole point of the quote is to highlight that "other-dimension Ebay" is somehow much more important and special than the "ordinary" N-Space eBay. Scrooge MacDuck ☎ 23:07, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

... I'm not sure if this helps or hurts my case for a merger, but for what it's worth, one of the ordered books appears to be Doctor Who Annual 1976, so the referenced dimension seems to be ours. – n8 (☎) 02:34, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

Oh, and I can confirm that the quote is the only reference to Ebay in the story. – n8 (☎) 02:40, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

While I love that Doctor Who exists as a TV series in-universe, this alternate dimension Ebay where the unnamed Doctor Who annual came from could easily be a meta-fiction universe.

Epsilon📯 📂

02:52, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

I have further thoughts on this, but it's part of a larger conversation about T:DAB OTHER, so I'll wait until the forums are back. – n8 (☎) 02:06, 17 March 2021 (UTC)