When in doubt...?

[a_reader2003]

--- In HPFGU-Catalogue at yahoogroups.com, "corinthum" <kkearney at s...> 
wrote:
> How conservative or liberal are we being when accepting or 
rejecting a
> post?  
> 
> For example, I just looked at a post that introduces the "Lily's
> family might have all been wizards, and Petunia a squib" theory.  It
> doesn't provide any real canon for the idea (just comments that
> Petunia seemed jealous of Lily).  I don't know if this was the first
> time the idea was presented, but I know it's been discussed in much
> more detail since; this post wouldn't be very useful to someone
> looking into this theory in detail.
> 
> So, accept, since it does suggest a valid theory?  Or reject, since 
it
> doesn't really contribute anything significant to said theory?
> 
> Thanks,
> Kelly

Carolyn:
Yes, this is where it gets tricky. What I have been doing whenever 
this sort of thing comes up is decide how interesting the point 
is..where I know its been done to death later, with canon, I reject 
and code to 'nothing new'. But, for instance, there was a short 
little post I found speculating that Tom Riddle was an early proto-
type for Harry, but went bad. Nothing to support it, but it was such 
an interesting idea, and IIRC not widely discussed, that I coded it 
into Voldie, Harry & Dumbledore.

I think the perspective to take is to think of trawling back through 
the posts coded to a particular topic and anticipate what you, 
personally, might hope to find. This might consist of long threads 
thrashing out a particular point, with loads of canon; examinations 
of set-piece theories; plus lots of little short, sharp ideas that 
stand on their own, have no back-up, but could just be true, 
especially with hindsight.

Do you agree ?

Carolyn