Making it compulsory to list sources for multi-work series

[QuasiYuri]

"It is strongly advised to use references for multi-works series as an equivalent of scans, especially if said series is a multimedia ones, since the feats are spread across a lots of different works with varying popularity. It is nearly an obligation for series running for decades such as Marvel or DC comics, because of the sheer amount of iterations, retcons and retelling in said franchises"

 

[Antvasima]

Hmm. The text probably needs a bit of a rewrite, but I am very tired now, so it will have to be done later, unless somebody else is willing to help out.

 

[Bobsican]

Bump.

 

[Antvasima]

@AKM sama @Promestein @Ryukama @DontTalkDT

I would appreciate your help with writing appropriate draft texts for this.

 

[Flashlight237]

Okay, managed to get permission to comment here. Okay... So, many here covered the issues of dealing with fictional verses, but I believe The Real World (the verse, not the actual real world) would be affected worst, mainly because unlike fictional verses, the Real World is unbelievably complex. Like, with any fictional verse, there's usually either a dedicated source or sources tagged under the same IP or whatnot. With the Real World, however, that is not the case.

See, the Real World takes up nearly everything available. I'm talking books, movies (i.e. documentaries), journals, periodicals, videos, you name it, it's most likely there. Heck, the Real World is practically used as a baseline for all of our stats. I'm talking both facts (Usain Bolt's speed and the Speed of Light) and hypotheticals (things like our rating for Town Level). Only problem is we don't effing know how human stamina works.

Because of this, the Real World is also very touchy. There's no one single medium, series, or franchise for real-world stuff unlike literally every work of fiction we can think of. Realistically, everything in real life is divided into who knows how many different studies (what the heck is osteology?). Instead, we have loads of material of varying availability. This is noting that unlike any fictional verse currently, citations are semi-mandatory as opposed encouraged/preferable.

As someone who had spent their time focusing on The Real World, I personally found finding sources to cite for things ranging from feats to stats to be a challenge. Wikipedia is usually the easiest place to find information, and despite the fact that the education system disdains Wikipedia, it always made sure to cite its sources, which varies from web sites to books. Youtube videos also serve as firsthand experiences because, well, duh! You filmed the lion eating a zebra yourself.

Web sites are easy to go to (I usually prefer gov, org, and edu sites). Beyond that, it's pretty annoying. Currently websites of periodicals (such as news sites, journals, and National Geographic) are using this system where you only have 3 free articles before you get PAYWALLED, and God forbid you use an Ad Blocker to deal with their questionable advertisement practices because they use anti-adblock while at the same time littering ads like careless beachgoers. If you actually went out of your way to tackle a book source (which requires you to know their DOI number), it's a complete gamble as to whether the book is online or physical, let alone whether they allow you to preview the book or make you buy the book (IF you can buy it; I've found books that can't be viewed OR purchased). Let's not forget that academic documents exists that are either paywalled or forbidden to anyone who isn't a university student.

Why are paywalls a problem here? Well, with fictional works, you can always view a secondhand source like a Fandom wiki, but if you wanna see the media for yourself, you can easily subscribe to whatever service its on for -insert cheap price here- or even ask scans from someone who does support a series, bearing in mind that you can always go back to it whenever you wish because you enjoy it. Granted shady websites exist, but we know Fandom's views on that. With academic documents and other real-worlds sources, well, tough shit. You have to buy individual PDF documents in many cases with paywalled academic documents, which stinks as you're just going to take a few cursory glances for the thing that you want to use and never look at that document again, which means you've wasted your money just to cite a document, sucker! If you can't, well, better hope you can sign in from your university, because otherwise you're screwed. Because I personally refuse to buy a PDF document just because I wanted to find the actual speed of a Pteranodon (the 67 mph figure was actually Quetzalcoatlus' speed, so I had to fix that), I was stuck with abstracts that don't provide anything remotely close to an answer because of how unhelpful Google was. I had to settle for the Pteranodon's takeoff speed for its speed rating, sourcing the one abstract that provided it as well.

To sum it up, while many people used obscure works or works that they're not interested in as a reasoning against forced citations (especially with such a ridiculous time frame as 8 months for 26k articles), the real world tops all those since it provides situations where citations (reliable ones at that) are just not possible due to heavy roadblocks, making it worse for forced citations than any fictional work. At least fictional verses are easier to find information from. This coming from a guy who doesn't approve of Roachman40's approach to real-world topics.