Tardis:Forum:Temporary forums/Archive/Subpages 2.0/Other realities

As Tardis:Merging policy describes, our longstanding precedent regarding alternate versions of characters – whether they're from alternate timelines, parallel universes, palimpests, simulations, or so on – is to split when possible. This has had two results:

1. Many pages with strange dab terms and very little actual content, such as Big Ben (Pete's World), Sash of Rassilon (Barusa's universe), and Moira (Shadow World); and
2. Many articles with {{counterparts}} below their infoboxes, increasing the glut of material past which mobile readers must now scroll to find a page's actual contents.

Both of these are problems for usability, and T:MERGE itself contains the seeds of the solution by clarifying that not all alternate versions of characters deserve separate pages:

"As a rule of thumb, if there's no more to say on the separate page than what can already be stated on the prime version's "Alternate timelines" subsection, it's not worth creating a separate page for the alternate-timeline version."Tardis:Merging policy

Tenth Doctor/Other realities – a title inclusive of not just alternate universes but also parallels, palimpests, simulations, and so on – would provide the space for this coverage. It would give enough room to discuss the alternate versions of the character, either in separate sections or in a single section with {{anchor}}s, and linking to separate pages with {{main}} when separate pages are justified. Such a subpage would also provide a more suitable home for specialized templates like {{Tenth Doctor counterparts}}.

This type of subpage won't remove the need for separate pages for many alternate versions of characters, but it will go a long way towards alleviating the pressure which has caused so much sprawl in the first place! – n8 (☎) 20:37, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Corollary: Clarifying in T:MERGE that the alternate timelines "rule of thumb" extends to subpages. New precedent for "Other realities" section header where applicable, rather than "Alternate timelines" specifically.