Talk: Died Under Unknown Circumstances (Fictional Work)

The purpose of this was originally for people dying "off-screen" without a cause given during the course of a work. Lately Jonathan has been adding people who are alive at the end of their story but would have died from old age when the next chapter takes place, specifically from the A Different Flesh collection. I believe this is not the intention of this category. What do the rest of you think? ML4E (talk) 17:57, November 17, 2015 (UTC)

"This category is for people who died in one of the works ..." From the description, emphasis added. ML4E (talk) 17:59, November 17, 2015 (UTC)

I freely admit that in certain works, like ADF, I've played a little loser with the category, given the passage of time within the stories. But I think you are right, we should probably tighten things up a bit in the definition, lest the category become so broad that we wind up catting the entire wiki.

I feel much the same. Turtle Fan (talk) 19:51, November 17, 2015 (UTC)

Also, I notice several "Before the Beginning" characters have made their way here, such as OJ Simpson and Charles Manson. I don't recall the authors specifying that either were dead, and the timeframe was sufficiently loose that we don't know when the time-viewer was invented or when the story is actually taking place. TR (talk) 18:57, November 17, 2015 (UTC)

The last part of BtB takes place 300 years after the main story.JonathanMarkoff (talk) 19:53, November 17, 2015 (UTC)

It had slipped my mind but Jonathan has started mucking around with this again. My proposal is that a character, whether historical or fictional, not be placed here unless their death is referenced in a Turtledove work and cause is not mentioned. This means that even if we have someone appear in HFR, they nevertheless are not cat'ed here unless their death is mentioned later in the series. Almost every adult in 1880 would be dead by 1945 but it makes no sense to cat them here. Off the top of my head, we have Samuel Clemens mentioned, by I think Dowling or maybe his daughter, as having died just before the Great War but cause not mentioned. He would be cat'ed here but none of the other newspapermen since their deaths were not mentioned.

I agree with this course of action. TR (talk) 00:30, December 4, 2015 (UTC)

We currently have 1147 minor characters, most of which would have logically died by the end of their respective series. What point in cataloging them here unless they are explicitly mentioned as dying? ML4E (talk) 18:16, December 3, 2015 (UTC)

I think we should include this point as part of the rule in the category. TR (talk) 00:30, December 4, 2015 (UTC)

I agree as well. Turtle Fan (talk) 04:52, December 4, 2015 (UTC)