Forum:Articletype: one more?

Recently, I was considering a personal project going through references from time travel eps to add articletype templates (which are still missing in a lot of articles). As you may know, apart from realworld articles, there are templates for two alternate realities, the STXI timeline and the Mirror universe, and one for stuff that has been seen in more then one reality. But going through the articles it occured to me there's one other type of article which seems (at least to me) an obvious candidate for having its own template within this system. Stuff that was seen in some alternate reality or timeline, and only there. It would contain articles like Melanie, USS Rhode Island or MacIntyre. But note that articles like Sela would still be classified "multiple realities"

Anyone thinks this is a good idea? As for an image, I haven't really thougt about that yet, but I'm sure something suitably iconic might be found. Actually, now that I think of it, the AGT Enterprise-D might be cool. Though I'm sure someone will come up with a better idea. -- Capricorn 22:07, February 10, 2011 (UTC)


 * There isn't really a good shot of the anti-time Enterprise-D, so how about this one?
 * I suggest "at" for the option, as in alternate timeline, so it would be . Also, if we are going to do this, we might want to fix up the alternate timeline article first, since right now it's in shambles.-  13:16, February 11, 2011 (UTC)


 * Both "AGT Enterprise-D" and "Borg earth" would be nice images - however, they are misleading if the idea is to present objects that do exist solely in another timeline (and not in the main one). -- Cid Highwind 14:21, February 11, 2011 (UTC)
 * Earth may exist in the main timeline, but the Borg structures don't. If we can't use Earth though, the only iconic image I can think of that works in that case is the "future" combadge and uniform, and that's not very eye catching. - 14:58, February 11, 2011 (UTC)


 * They did exist in the main timeline. Even if only briefly before the Ent-E zipped back in time. -- sulfur 15:01, February 11, 2011 (UTC)


 * That, and "Borg structures on earth" is not really an article... ;) Perhaps we could start listing more examples of where this template would actually be used. That way, we could both find possible images and at the same time see whether the suggestion is really useful. -- Cid Highwind 15:02, February 11, 2011 (UTC)


 * Re:sulfur, that just illustrates the problem with deciding what constitutes an alternate timeline, as that couldn't be the "main" timeline, as it isn't the one "we" know.
 * Re Cid - Morn's, Year of Hell, Krenim weapon ship (maybe), Linnis Paris, Andrew Kim, Bio-temporal chamber, Interspatial parasite, Korena, Subspace flux isolator, most of stuff that starts with "anti-time", Marin County Starfleet Yards, USS Pasteur. That's all I can think of right now. - 16:49, February 11, 2011 (UTC)

I don't think we should obsess too much about philosophical questions about what's the alternative timeline too much, but rather go for a practical and intuitive approach. I would suggest just drawing a line representing the "final" version of the history of the universe from beginning to end (the one a writer on a 25th century series would regard as the "right" history), and anything existing in a timeline which isn't part of the final one would be an alternate timeline, regardless of which was the original. Also, I don't get why the Borg assimilation of Earth is different from any other alternative timeline, it's just that the enterprise accidently got shielded from being overwritten along with the rest of the Federation. -- Capricorn 18:20, February 11, 2011 (UTC)

To better explain my point about the Borg Earth - In this system the battle of sector 001 would be main timeline, and so would be the 2063 events seen in the film (albeit possibly overwriting a never-seen Borg-less original launch, depending if you believe in stable time loops), but the Borg succeeding in assimilating Earth in 2063 would be an alternate timeline. -- Capricorn 18:28, February 11, 2011 (UTC)


 * The important point about the "Borg earth" image is not whether it is or isn't an image from a "true" alternate timeline - the point is that the image depicts an object (Earth) that is not seen "only in an alternate timeline" (which is what the banner is supposed to describe).
 * That said, I wonder if this template wouldn't easily be misinterpreted as if it explicitly stated that "this object does not exist in the main timeline": The USS Pasteur, for example, has a registry much lower than the latest "main timeline" starships - so perhaps, although we don't know it, it actually did exist in the main timeline since the 2350s? What would the wording on the template be to avoid this misinterpretation? -- Cid Highwind 12:50, February 12, 2011 (UTC)


 * "Covers information from an alternate timeline" should do it. That doesn't preclude the idea that it existed in other timelines, including the main one, it just states that the information as we know it only comes from an alternate timeline.
 * As for the image, why not upload a few more options Cid? - 13:15, February 12, 2011 (UTC)

Cid, I missunderstood your argument, but in any case I don't think that's so important. The new timeline template already contains an image of the Kelvin being attacked, which sans the attack presumably also exists in the main timeline. And I doubt anyone would have gotten confused if we had taken an image of a bearded Spock for the Mirror universe template, despite a somewhat differently looking Spock being in the main timeline. As for the Pasteur, yes it most likely also exists in the main timeline, but it only canonically exists in the alternate timeline. At least for me personally that seems good enough. @Archduk3 - this might help : Time travel episodes (though at least seems to be missing). Check the image categories corresponding to those eps, and you'll find plenty of ideas. -- Capricorn 18:12, February 12, 2011 (UTC)
 * Best banner ever? I think so. - 18:52, February 12, 2011 (UTC)

That's pretty awesome. -- Capricorn 23:25, February 13, 2011 (UTC)
 * I've added this to the template, since the image is easily changed and what articles this will be on can still be discussed. In fact, it might just be easier to tag them now and take a look at the total number that use it, if numbers is a problem. A bot could always remove them afterward if we wanted, and it's much easier than listing every page here first and then deploying this. - 19:32, February 17, 2011 (UTC)

Cool, I'll start adding adding it to pages. As four your "if numbers is a problem" remark; note that I never claimed that there would be huge numbers of such articles, only that it's more then just an isolated handful, enough that it makes sense. -- Capricorn 05:32, February 18, 2011 (UTC)

Just my personal opinion, but it I'm really happy with the way it now clearly marks pages like this one. -- Capricorn 05:39, February 18, 2011 (UTC)