Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25626-20160713190836

We've kicked around various ideas about how to handle those off-the-cuff references to historical figures and events that HT makes in his works. These people aren't characters in any sense-they don't appear directly nor are they contemporaries. Most died long before the POD. The clearest example is the murder of Thomas Beckett and Henry II's role in it: we have articles for both, but they are broad literary comments.

I think the model we've used for the lit references (and music and movies references) can be applied to historical people and events. We could eliminate some of the articles of dubious value that tell us nothing substantive about the TL, but maintain the "annotative" purpose that likely prompted the article in the first place. It would also help eliminate some of the more dubious bits of categorization. For example, the Andrew Jackson article is justified by his role as Governor-General of the North American Union; even as a quick posthumous reference, it says something about T2G. However, there are subsections dedicated how both Jake Featherston and Joe Steele paraphrased Jackson's line: "Judge Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it." Those subsections have led to Jackson's inclusion in the Southern Victory Characters and Joe Steele Characters categories, which is rather overstating his role in those works.

If we create the historical references page, then the Jackson page would lose all info pertaining to JS and 191 (including templates and categories), the subs-sections would be edited and moved to the new page, and a "see also" would left at Jackson's article.

Thoughts? 