Talk:Intergalactic War (Blake's 7)
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[edit] The infobox
Real-world infoboxes are not for fictional subjects. This is because such infoboxes are designed to describe their universe (the real one!) without reference to any other. Because of this, this infobox has no reference to the real world whatsoever. WP:WAF#Infoboxes and succession boxes sugggests a number of ways infoboxes might be useful for fictional subjects. "For entities within fiction, useful infobox data might include the creators or actors, first appearance, an image, and in-universe information essential to understanding the entity's context in the overall fiction." This infobox does none of these things.
This is a canonical example of why infoboxes for real-world subjects are not useful for fictional ones. If I were to add an example diff of the kind of infobox WP:WAF#Infoboxes and succession boxes advises editors not to use in fictional subjects, that diff would be removing this infobox. - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 07:56, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
- Real world infoboxes? Where does it state that the infobox is only for RL events? Matthew 08:06, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
- That doesn't materially respond to anything but the first sentence of my comments above. The infobox is only for real-world events because it doesn't make any provision to describe any universe other than the one in which the battle occurs. That's fine for real-world events, but not fictional ones. - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 08:09, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
- "The infobox is only for real-world events", so prove it. Matthew 08:12, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
- That doesn't materially respond to anything but the first sentence of my comments above. The infobox is only for real-world events because it doesn't make any provision to describe any universe other than the one in which the battle occurs. That's fine for real-world events, but not fictional ones. - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 08:09, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
This is because such infoboxes are designed to describe their universe (the real one!) without reference to any other. Because of this, this infobox has no reference to the real world whatsoever. WP:WAF#Infoboxes and succession boxes sugggests a number of ways infoboxes might be useful for fictional subjects. "For entities within fiction, useful infobox data might include the creators or actors, first appearance, an image, and in-universe information essential to understanding the entity's context in the overall fiction." This infobox does none of these things.
This is an infobox that describes the fictional universe without any reference to the real world. That's the problem. It doesn't matter what the creators of {{Infobox Military Conflict}} intended; the problem is that this is a really bad infobox for fictional subjects. - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 08:16, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
- It's bad in your opinion. WAF clearly doesn't support you. Matthew 08:17, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
- WP:WAF instructs us to use infoboxes that make reference first to the real world in fictional subjects. This infobox doesn't make any reference to the real world, so it isn't appropriate.
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- Would you care to explain what mistake I made in that very simple line of logic? - A Man In Bl♟ck (conspire | past ops) 08:23, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
As the guy who compiled the infobox in the first place (and restored it a week ago), I'm inclined to think that Man in Black is right on wikipedia policy. The infobox is a little too "in universe". Hate to see that work go to waste, but there you are. - Hal 10000.0
