Forum:Temporary forums

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference

Due to the current lack of a proper forum system, this temporary forum system has been created as a stand-in to allow essential community discussions to take place. This system will be used until the regular system is re-instated by those with the power to do so.

To propose a thread for discussion, add it to the bottom of the table in the proposed threads section below. If you would like an already created thread to be discussed, you can sign your name next to the proposed thread to show support.

To maximise the number of topics and issues that can be discussed in as short a time as possible, there can only be 6 active threads at once, each with a timelimit of 3 weeks. This is to encourage people to focus on a small number of issues rather than try to tackle too much and lose focus. If no consensus has been reached in this time limit, the thread will be closed as unresolved and may be discussed further at a later date. Threads closed as unresolved will be added to the bottom of the proposal table where they must regain signatures to be discussed again. When a current thread is closed, the thread idea with the most support (tiebroken by precedence)[1] will be selected from the proposal table to be discussed next. A discussion space for it will then be created by an admin in one of the slots listed below.

When proposing threads, please bear in mind that they should be actionable within the timelimit and that they should affect a large number of pages or otherwise have a significant impact on the wiki and its readers. Proposed threads that don't meet these criteria may not be selected for discussion, at least until other threads that do meet these criteria have been discussed. Note that this does mean that, while you may still propose and support these proposals, specific validity debates about specific stories or series may not be selected for discussion in the immediate future as they generally do not have a wide enough impact on the wiki as a whole.

Current threads

Only 6 threads can be open at once, each with a timelimit of 3 weeks.

Thread slot Thread topic Deadline for consensus
Slot 1 Currently unused
Slot 2 Replacing {{docpic}} 12th February
Slot 3 Redoing the main page transmats and theme to bring it all up to date with the current era and branding and highlight more non-televised media. 17th February
Slot 4 Changing the Spoiler Policy 14th February
Slot 5 Currently unused
Slot 6 Currently unused

Proposed threads

To propose a topic to be discussed, please add it to the "thread topic" column of this table, alongside your name (see below for how to add it easily).

To support a pre-existing proposal, add your name to the "support" column by entering "~~~" (note that this is only 3 "~", not the usual 4, as the date your signature was added is not important) as a new argument in the {{PS}} template: in short, before "}}", type "|~~~".

When an admin has decided to greenlight the proposed thread, they will indicate this in the "verdict" column, and the thread can be opened in one of the "slots" in the above section.

You don't need to have prepared a full opening post before your proposition is greenlit, but it can be a good idea, particularly for complex proposals. You can type out such a "draft OP" as a sandbox, and link to it in your proposal on the table. If you go this route, when the admin greenlights your thread, they will move your sandbox directly to the relevant slot's namespace.

Thread topic Support Verdict
Validity debate: Scream of the Shalka
MrThermomanPreacher
Finding an alternative to using "(TV story)" for episodes that do not actually constitute a story, e.g. The Empty Child and The Halloween Apocalypse
Jack "BtR" Saxon
3 supporters
General validity debate for "commercial stories" such as DWBIT Dalek Wars and Big Finish Productions webcasts.
MrThermomanPreacher
Validity debate: Dermot and the Doctor
MrThermomanPreacher
Re-examining and discussing how the wiki understands "valid sources" and a potential proposed major change to T:VS to eliminate bias and arbitrary restrictions, hopefully preceding any validity inclusion debates. (Note: this itself does not intend to change the validity status of any sources, but is for when they are discussed.)
Chubby Potato
Validity debate: An Adventure in Space and Time
MrThermomanPreacher
General validity debate for "non-narrative fiction".
MrThermomanPreacher
Validity debate: Doctor Who: Legacy
MrThermomanPreacher
Validity debate for the "alternate reality" online games (The Last Dalek, K9: Deja Who, Daleks v Cybermen).
MrThermomanPreacher
Validity debate: Introduction to the Night
MrThermomanPreacher
The usage of galleries on in-universe articles in the same vein as Memory Alpha (example).
MrThermomanPreacher
Standardizing dab terms for in-universe counterparts of things related to the real world Doctor Who franchise. Currently (N-Space) is the proposal, but an alternative is to change completely to (In Universe).
Najawin
Validity debate: Biographies of Authors in The Book of the Enemy. Should be easy to solve within three weeks, but needs a thread.
Najawin
Formalizing some language into T:BOUND relating to how "policy" also means on this wiki "the way we currently do things".
Najawin
Formal rules regarding navboxes, similar to T:IBOX.
Najawin
Discuss conflict of interest rules regarding relatives/close friends editing wiki pages. See Russell McGee.
Najawin
"Splitting" UNIT. The UNIT page shouldn't cover info that really belongs on UNIT-UK, but there is more naunce to this I can't explain briefly here.
Interpreting the "neutral" in Tardis:Neutral point of view on in-universe pages.
Chubby Potato
Changing/tweaking of the Tardis:Image use policy.
Danniesen
Changing/tweaking of the Tardis:Video policy.
Danniesen
Creating a "Content Warning" template to warn users of potentially sensitive material in articles (subjects that may cause distress, et al.)

WaltK

Validity debate: Doctor Who? and The Daft Dimension.

WaltK

Changing/tweaking of the Tardis:Guide to images.
Danniesen
Adding "unproduced" to dab terms of unproduced stories: for instance, Creatures of Habit (unproduced comic story)
n8 ()
Allowing character names from novelisations in page titles
n8 ()
Applying Tardis:Romana to other Time Lord incarnations, such as moving First Morbius to Morbius I. See Talk:First Morbius for details and clarification.
n8 ()
Differentiating between unproduced and unreleased stories (e.g. Absent Friends)
WaltK
Determining whether LEGO Dimensions trailers, spotlight videos and the like that only contain DWU links via gameplay footage (as opposed to specially-made footage) actually qualify for pages.
WaltK
Using the "Support/Oppose/Neutral/Lukewarm" structure to organize these forum discussions.
n8 ()
How exactly do we treat the Casanova crossover?
MrThermomanPreacher
Changing/tweaking of Tardis:Don't over-wikify.
Danniesen
Working out the most optimal way to cover alternate reality games. As they typically comprise of one narrative, and virtually every other resource on the internet treats each ARGs as a single story, we should not split it up in the way we have with FindTheDoctor (series), for example.
In/validating information that only appears in foreign language translations (see GoldenEye 007)
WaltK
Loosely related to the above: creating a series of "DWU around the world" pages, that go in depth about DWU media as it is presented in non-English-speaking regions (stuff like when it first arrived in that region, what has and hasn't been localised there, listing any notable translation quirks, et al.), with it being emphasised that no info from these pages should spill out onto the rest of the wiki unless editorially justified.
WaltK
Splitting the Doctor's sonic screwdriver
MrThermomanPreacher
Validity debate: Attack of the Graske
MrThermomanPreacher
Discuss creating a proper footer navbox to link all incarnations and versions of the Doctor (as opposed to the tiny, limited navbox currently seen under the infobox).
PintlessMan
Discussion on further reduction of pages related to derogatory language/slurs, with relevant information being reformatted and consolidated into Racism and Homophobia, where it can be presented in its fullest context.
JDPManjoume
Invalidity debate: The Curse of Fatal Death
Najawin
Validity debate: Fourth wall-breaking sources such as COMIC: Pugwash Ahoy!, especially as episodes of Doctor Who itself break the fourth wall (e.g. "The Feast of Steven"), and are unquestionably valid.
Cookieboy 2005
In contrast to the mere validity discussion User:Cookieboy 2005 is suggesting, I suggest we open up a larger discussion about how this wiki handles varying levels of metafiction in general, such as Life-Cycle or The Editor.
Najawin
1 supporter
Discussion of "Quickstart" guides and "cliffsnotes" recaps in preparation for the 60th and beyond, either in their own namespace, or in the theory namespace. (See discussion on updating our main page theme.)
Najawin
Figuring out the exact context of the jokes in the Knock! Knock! Who's There? joke book.
WaltK
2 supporters
Discussion of how best to cover lost media with missing narrative details, and a new set of templates a la {{unprod}} and {{unproduced stories}} to go alongside. This also covers unreleased stories, depending on how we decide to interpret "lost media".
Overhauling our citation system, including citation templates and clarifying prefix policy.
n8 ()
Clarifying the exactr nature of The Trial of a Time Lord and Flux
Jack "BtR" Saxon
Creating guidelines to determine which characters should be considered companions in story infoboxes
Jack "BtR" Saxon
Validity Debate: Children's Ward
Tellymustard
Validity debate: The Dr. Men series.
WaltK
1 supporter
Clarify T:DON'T COPY to reallow Timewalkerauthor's story summaries, which were removed because he had also posted them to his blog.
n8 ()
Reopening discussion, that was taking place in the deleted forums, of replacing "etc" with "et al" in sourcing.
Najawin
The introduction of unnamed individuals (and potentially other objects) pages in the same vein as Memory Alpha.
MrThermomanPreacher
1 supporter
Discussion regarding the reduction of human anatomy pages in favour of more consolidated pages. Along with discussion about potential page protection & what constitutes a 'reasonable' inclusion for such pages.
JDPManjoume
Discussion on what to do with certain previously-highlighted pages of a mature nature, in terms of potential consolidation.
JDPManjoume
Reconsideration of Doctor Who Guide as a valid source for casting information (on grounds of direct Wikipedia & IMDB lifts, and their unclear verification on their open-submission acceptance of biographies.)
JDPManjoume
Renaming Children in Need Special (TV story) to Born Again (TV story) or Untitled (CiN TV story), while establishing that pages named [[Untitled ([SERIES] [SOURCE MEDIUM])]] are placeholder names and should ideally be named with the first — or most widely accepted — name given.
Renaming Tenth Doctor (Journey's End) to Meta-Crisis Doctor on the basis that a. the name has been used in valid sources and b. the Fugitive Doctor and Unbound Doctor precedents.
Discussion of Category:Non-heterosexual real world people and Category:Non-cisgender real world people - we need to have a real discussion on these two since a lot of the arguments used against them explicitly violate T:BOUND and we need to work out how to proceed. (This can also discuss the proposed category for POC real world people.)
Najawin
Validity debate: the letters from the Doctor at the beginning of Doctor Who Adventures issues.

WaltK

1 supporter
Standardising "(disambiguation)" as a dab term for all disambiguation pages, to avoid confusion on whether a given dabless page e.g. Abby is a primary topic or a dab page, and thus, reduce rampant incorrect linking.
Scrooge MacDuck
Inclusion debate: The LEGO Batman Movie, as it featured licensed usage of the Daleks, and seems to have originally been specifically discluded due to people falsely believing it to be unlicensed.
Cookieboy 2005
2 supporters
Introducing subpages for plot summaries.
Bongo50
Potentially changing the fine text of T:VS (and, more specifically, the "four little rules") away from requesting stories be set in "THE Doctor Who Universe", and towards the stories being set in "A Doctor Who Universe". This minor change would help us enforce T:CANON more consistently, as we would no longer insist a story be consistent with the BBC Wales incarnation of the show for it to be counted as valid.
OS25🤙☎️
Creating a real world page about this very Wiki and reviewing our T:NO SELF REF policy due to some obvious issues it'll cause.
Determining the exact nature of Dimensions in Time's validity, i.e. the possibility that it was actually all a dream.
WaltK
0 supporters
Changing Rule 2 of T:VS to allow certain unlicensed content, for example The Cushing Books
Danniesen
0 supporters
Expanding subpage usage to include the non-controversial elements of the original proposal: /Plot; /Other realities; /Non-valid sources and {{NCmaterial}}; /Gallery; et al.
n8 ()
Italicising story titles within disambiguation terms. E.g., Ninth Doctor (Scream of the Shalka) instead of Ninth Doctor (Scream of the Shalka). This could easily be done with a bot.
Utilising promotional pictures of the Doctor for {{docpic}} — or the tabbed gallery that @Bongo50 proposed — instead of relying on bad, low-res screenshots. Images like File:Docpic15.jpg is horrendous. We could use Jeremy Enecio's illustrations, for example. Changes to Tardis:Image use policy to allow promotional images may need to be discussed.
Validity of the 10,000 Dawns crossovers (Rachel Survived, White Canvas, The Gendar Conspiracy, Birthdays are Made for Memories and Sonnenblumen)
Borisashton
Converting {{you may}} and {{dab page}} into a Hatnote a la Wikipedia's, considering... certain formatting issues it's creating.
See how bad this is?

3 supporters
Formalising/codifying a deadname policy (which could also be inclusive of personal identity in general) that also overrides T:NO RW, as currently our policies would force us to deadname any in-universe counterpart of a real world person who was mentioned/appeared prior to their real world transistion, which is harmful.
A Wookieepedia-style overhaul of how we source things, in particular the use of "ref name" (example).
MrThermomanPreacher
0 supporters
The incorporation of mentions/references and archival footage appearances in Appearances pages.
MrThermomanPreacher

Archived threads

Main article: Tardis:Temporary forums/Archive

Once consensus has been reached and a thread has been closed, or once a thread has reached the 3 week limit, it will be moved by an admin to a subpage of Tardis:Temporary forums/Archive. An index of archived threads can be found on this page.

Footnotes

  1. In the case of a tie, the thread proposed earliest generally gets priority. This should be the thread higher up in the table as threads are ordered by date added.
  2. If, and only IF, we don’t include them amongst all other actual appearances.