Re: JMS: Can we PLEASE get an oficial ruling on EU canonicit
Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 7:09 am
The problem with having a site-wide canon policy is that the question of the rules of evidence is both too important and too trivial to resolve by fiat.
Ultimately, the question of whether or not to include EU is a minor one. On the whole, if you're handling the EU well, it's not actually going to be that terribly far off from the movies; and even if you believe that the EU continuity is genuinely distinct from canonical Star Wars of Lucas, there's still that separate continuity that people could debate within.
If someone wants to compare Thrawn to Picard, there's no way to do that without talking about the EU, and people will want to compare Thrawn to Picard. If someone wants to pit Zak Kebron against Chewbacca, so what if Brikar don't ever show up in the Star Trek canon? It's still an interesting question.
In that sense, having a site canon policy is trivial. It only applies for some types of debate. In another sense, determining what the rules of evidence should be - including both what materials are considered at all and how conflicts are resolved between them - is too important to be left up to fiat. It needs to be an active part of the discussion. Some people will be right; some people will be wrong.
If you like, you can refuse to debate with people who don't play by the rules you think are right. Just reply to what you feel is relevant, cut off the rest of their reply and say "Well, as far as I'm concerned, that's all apocryphal material, and if you'd like to debate me about that, go make a thread in RoE and I'll debate you about that there." And if there's nothing for you to reply to, you might not even bother with saying that.
There are quite a few things about the way I set up the forum rules here at SFJ that people have told me wouldn't work. People told me that there was no way we could actually maintain polite discussion. People told me there was no way we'd ever get anywhere without having rules about debate etiquette and fallacies. And you're not the first person to ask me to lay down a site-wide canon policy. But as far as I'm concerned, the forums here have been a pretty successful experiment.
Ultimately, the question of whether or not to include EU is a minor one. On the whole, if you're handling the EU well, it's not actually going to be that terribly far off from the movies; and even if you believe that the EU continuity is genuinely distinct from canonical Star Wars of Lucas, there's still that separate continuity that people could debate within.
If someone wants to compare Thrawn to Picard, there's no way to do that without talking about the EU, and people will want to compare Thrawn to Picard. If someone wants to pit Zak Kebron against Chewbacca, so what if Brikar don't ever show up in the Star Trek canon? It's still an interesting question.
In that sense, having a site canon policy is trivial. It only applies for some types of debate. In another sense, determining what the rules of evidence should be - including both what materials are considered at all and how conflicts are resolved between them - is too important to be left up to fiat. It needs to be an active part of the discussion. Some people will be right; some people will be wrong.
If you like, you can refuse to debate with people who don't play by the rules you think are right. Just reply to what you feel is relevant, cut off the rest of their reply and say "Well, as far as I'm concerned, that's all apocryphal material, and if you'd like to debate me about that, go make a thread in RoE and I'll debate you about that there." And if there's nothing for you to reply to, you might not even bother with saying that.
There are quite a few things about the way I set up the forum rules here at SFJ that people have told me wouldn't work. People told me that there was no way we could actually maintain polite discussion. People told me there was no way we'd ever get anywhere without having rules about debate etiquette and fallacies. And you're not the first person to ask me to lay down a site-wide canon policy. But as far as I'm concerned, the forums here have been a pretty successful experiment.