Talk: Personal article policy

Revision as of 03:47, 2 July 2010

Template:Archives1

Alternative policy

I was the one that initially proposed this policy, and in the wording I was trying to highlight a particular philosophical distinction between personal articles (which fan fiction or other creative works inherently are) and standard wiki articles. Revisiting it now, though, I think I just made it needlessly confusing. What would people think, in principle, of the following? The effect is much the same, but I think it's a clearer approach.

Policy

Personal articles are welcome in WoWWiki, but must be located as subpages of the author's user page. Personal articles include:

creative works such as fan fiction, observations, and player character biographies,
player biographies, and
guides where the author wishes to receive credit for the work, such as Aletto's Guide To Azeroth.

Objective articles on notable subjects in the Warcraft community are excepted from points 1 and 2. For example, Sword of a Thousand Truths (South Park), Leeroy Jenkins (video), and Thottbot all properly belong in the main namespace. Fame or infamy within a single realm or battlegroup does not qualify as notability.

Enforcement

Creative works in the main namespace will be moved to a subpage of the initial creator's user page. Guides credited to one author will have the credit removed; if the initial author wishes to maintain the guide as a personal article, he or she may move it out of the main namespace and restore the credit.

Reasoning

Q: Why can't my fan fiction or player character biography be located in the main namespace with the other articles?

A: WoWWiki is primarily an encyclopedia of information on Warcraft, and most visitors will be looking for information from official Blizzard sources. While fan works are welcomed here (unlike at many wikis), it is extremely important that we keep fan-created content separate from official content.

Q: What if I want others to edit my fan fiction?

A: You have control over your own subpages, but others can still edit them, and so you are free to invite collaboration or comment. While others are allowed to edit your work, they are doing so on the terms you have set, so you retain control over the article.

Q: Why can't I have control over a page in the main namespace?

A: In the main namespace, readers are invited to be bold in editing anything they see. If an article is not satisfactory to a reader, he or she is encouraged to completely rewrite the entire thing to make it better. It is very important for the ongoing growth and improvement of WoWWiki to maintain this atmosphere. Obviously it does not make much sense to have anyone who comes along replacing your player character's backstory with something completely new.

Q: Why can't I receive credit for the guide I worked so hard on?

A: You can, but such an article should be located as a subpage of your user page, to make it clear that you are the author and wish to receive acknowledgment for it. Giving credit to a specific individual within an article puts a proprietary stamp on it that discourages collaboration, and particularly discourages large-scale rewrites. This is contrary to the spirit and strength of a wiki, in which everything is always changing and being improved upon by many different people. It is the nature of collaboration that one's work, as good as it may be, is subject to change.

--Aeleas 23:53, 1 January 2007 (EST)

Player Characters

I think that player characters should be sub articles for the server they are related to. There are a ton of PC articles that are created by users who do not own them and then it causes problems when they reject having that PC article under their username. I propose that PC articles be separated from fan fiction designation, fan fiction will almost always have a WoWWiki user associated with them. --GRYPHON^tc 22:52, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

Vote results moved to WW:PC

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Adopted}}
-{{Policy/Vote}}  <!-- Possible tags:  Policy/Vote  Ratified  Adopted  Rejected  Recalled  (or remove)-->
+{{Archives1|22:47, 18 May 2007 (UTC)}}
-== Policy ratification vote ==
-<div style="margin: 1em 0em 2em 3em;">
+== Alternative policy ==
-{{infoline|The '''Yes''' side is currently winning with a vote of 14:1. This policy will become '''Ratified''' on October 15 unless the situation changes.}}
+I was the one that initially proposed this policy, and in the wording I was trying to highlight a particular philosophical distinction between personal articles (which fan fiction or other creative works inherently are) and standard wiki articles.  Revisiting it now, though, I think I just made it needlessly confusing.  What would people think, in principle, of the following?  The effect is much the same, but I think it's a clearer approach.
-;<font color="#44CC44">Yes</font>:   <!-- Add: {{vote|Yes|~~ ~~| ...notes/leave empty... }} (recombine the "~"s)-->
-{{vote|Yes|[[User:Aeleas|Aeleas]] 12:51, 3 September 2006 (EDT)|}}
-{{vote|Yes|-- [[User:Kirkburn|Kirkburn]] <small>([[User talk:Kirkburn|talk]])</small> 08:44, 13 September 2006 (EDT)|Sounds fair to me}}
-{{vote|Yes|[[User:Malakim|Malakim]] 15:25, 16 September 2006 (EDT)|A good move for a wiki allowing fictional content}}
-{{vote|Yes|[[User:Ted|Ted]] 20:22, 2 October 2006 (EDT)|}}
-{{vote|Yes|[[User:WhiteBoy|WhiteBoy]] 11:26, 7 October 2006 (EDT)|Seems good}}
-{{vote|Yes|[[User:Tinkerer|Tinkerer]] 16:10, 8 October 2006 (EDT)|Maybe we will hit actual WoW articles when pressing Random Page now ;)}}
-{{vote|Yes|[[User:Tsark|Tsark]] 11:54, 10 October 2006 (EDT)|Helps tidying up the wiki}}
-{{vote|Yes|[[User:Kirochi|Kirochi]] <small>([[User talk:Kirochi|talk]])</small> 15:38, 10 October 2006 (EDT)|As I put my own fan fiction on a User/ page, I guess it's how I see things.}}
-{{vote|Yes|[[User:Adys|Adys]] 06:06, 11 October 2006 (EDT)| Aye, agree on that}}
-{{vote|Yes|[[User:Cynra|Cynra]] 17:31, 11 October 2006 (EDT)|Absolutely.  It's of benefit to those who want to post personal content and those who want to find only lore.}}
-{{vote|Yes|[[User:TM41|TM41]] 05:23, 12 October 2006 (EDT)|Sure, sounds like a good idea to me.}}
-{{vote|Yes|[[User:Morlok|Morlok]] 11:25, 13 October 2006 (EDT)|Makes sense for personal content}}
-{{vote|Yes|[[User:Sam Weber|Sam Weber]] 16:33, 13 October 2006 (EDT)|}}
-{{vote|Yes|[[User:Weremagnus|Magnus]] 21:41, 13 October 2006 (EDT)|Sounds fine to me.}}
+:'''Policy'''
+:Personal articles are welcome in WoWWiki, but must be located as subpages of the author's user page.  Personal articles include:
+:#creative works such as [[fan fiction]], [[observation]]s, and [[player character]] biographies,
+:#[[:Category:Players|player biographies]], and
+:#guides where the author wishes to receive credit for the work, such as [[User:Aletto/Guide To Azeroth|Aletto's Guide To Azeroth]].
+:Objective articles on notable subjects in the Warcraft community are excepted from points 1 and 2.  For example, [[Sword of a Thousand Truths (South Park)]], [[Leeroy Jenkins (video)]], and [[Thottbot]] all properly belong in the main namespace.  Fame or infamy within a single [[realm]] or [[battlegroup]] does not qualify as notability.
-;<font color="#CC4444">No</font>:    <!-- Add: {{vote|No|~~ ~~| ...notes/leave empty... }}  (recombine the "~"s)-->
-{{vote|No|[[User:Idwarf|Idwarf]] 12:36, 13 October 2006 (EDT)|I like being able to have a seperate charachter page}}
+:'''Enforcement'''
+:Creative works in the main namespace will be moved to a subpage of the initial creator's user page.  Guides credited to one author will have the credit removed; if the initial author wishes to maintain the guide as a personal article, he or she may move it out of the main namespace and restore the credit.
+:'''Reasoning'''
-=== Comments ===
-*You will still be able to have separate character pages, Idwarf, they will just be located differently.  For example, instead of creating a player character page for my alt at [[Isobella]] in the main namespace with all the other articles, I would locate it at [[User:Aeleas/Isobella]].--[[User:Aeleas|Aeleas]] 16:28, 13 October 2006 (EDT)
+:Q: Why can't my fan fiction or player character biography be located in the main namespace with the other articles?
+::A: WoWWiki is primarily an encyclopedia of information on Warcraft, and most visitors will be looking for information from official Blizzard sources.  While fan works are welcomed here (unlike at many wikis), it is extremely important that we keep fan-created content separate from official content.
+:Q: What if I want others to edit my fan fiction?
+::A: You have control over your own subpages, but others can still edit them, and so you are free to invite collaboration or comment.  While others are allowed to edit your work, they are doing so on the terms you have set, so you retain control over the article.
+:Q: Why can't I have control over a page in the main namespace?
-</div><hr><br><!-- END OF VOTING BOOTH AND COMMENTS -->
+::A: In the main namespace, readers are invited to be bold in editing anything they see.  If an article is not satisfactory to a reader, he or she is encouraged to completely rewrite the entire thing to make it better.  It is very important for the ongoing growth and improvement of WoWWiki to maintain this atmosphere.  Obviously it does not make much sense to have anyone who comes along replacing your player character's backstory with something completely new.
+:Q: Why can't I receive credit for the guide I worked so hard on?
-== Implementation Details ==
+::A: You can, but such an article should be located as a subpage of your user page, to make it clear that you are the author and wish to receive acknowledgment for it.  Giving credit to a specific individual within an article puts a proprietary stamp on it that discourages collaboration, and particularly discourages large-scale rewrites.  This is contrary to the spirit and strength of a wiki, in which everything is always changing and being improved upon by many different people.  It is the nature of collaboration that one's work, as good as it may be, is subject to change.
-* Move the majority (if not all) articles in [[:Category:Fan fiction]] and [[:Category:Player Characters]] from the main namespace into the appropriate user's namespace.
-* Add notes to this policy on:
-**[[WoWWiki:Policy/Naming]]
-**[[WoWWiki:Policy/Writing/FanFiction]]
-**[[Help:Fan fiction]]
-*Create policy reference shortcut, [[WW:PA]]
-*Remove notice from {{tlink|player}}, {{tlink|PC}}, {{tlink|fanfic}}
+--[[User:Aeleas|Aeleas]] 23:53, 1 January 2007 (EST)
-== Example ==
-So for example, I would need to move my [[Engineering Guide]] to [[User:Tinkerer/Engineering Guide]]? Seems fair enough :)--[[User:Tinkerer|Tinkerer]] 16:13, 8 October 2006 (EDT)
+== Player Characters ==
-: No, not the way I see it. It's general-use and useful to all engineers; not restricted to a particular server or a particular guild or what have you. &nbsp; --[[User:Mikk|<span style="border-bottom: 1px dotted; cursor: help;" title="Mikk is a WoWWiki Admin">Mikk</span>]] <small>([[User talk:Mikk|T]])</small> 15:17, 9 October 2006 (EDT)
+{{Ratified}}
-::The criteria the policy sets out is whether you want to keep the guide as Tinkerer's Engineering Guide, in that you maintain control over it, or make it into a standard, anonymous, collaborative, be-bold-in-editing wiki page.  It can still be linked to in the same places and added to the same categories, having it in your namespace just serves to clarify that distinction.--[[User:Aeleas|Aeleas]] 15:46, 9 October 2006 (EDT)
+I think that player characters should be sub articles for the server they are related to. There are a ton of PC articles that are created by users who do not own them and then it causes problems when they reject having that PC article under their username. I propose that PC articles be separated from fan fiction designation, fan fiction will almost always have a WoWWiki user associated with them. --{{User:Gryphon/Sig}} 22:52, 18 May 2007 (UTC)
-'''Question:''' how is this policy enforced? The wording is fuzzy enough to allow leeway ("... where the author wishes to retain primary control"), which in and of itself is not a bad thing, but it seems to me like it can't really be '''forced''' upon someone? (And maybe it shouldn't be; maybe we really should refrain from doing anything else other than hinting about this option?) &nbsp; --[[User:Mikk|<span style="border-bottom: 1px dotted; cursor: help;" title="Mikk is a WoWWiki Admin">Mikk</span>]] <small>([[User talk:Mikk|T]])</small> 15:22, 9 October 2006 (EDT)
-:: Well, I'd say anything like your own character biographies, guides from the forums, stories that you made up yourself are all personal articles. Oh, and enforcing? Click "Move" ;)--[[User:Tinkerer|Tinkerer]] 15:24, 9 October 2006 (EDT)
-:::I think it's safe to assume that the author would wish to retain control over any fanfic works; by their nature artistic works, as opposed to objective encyclopedia articles, tend not to be collaborative efforts.  Even where the original author specifically invites collaboration on a work of fiction, he or she is still essentially exerting control over the content of the article.  The second criteria the policy lists is "receiving credit", which is more clearcut, where the author specifically demonstrates a proprietary interest in by tagging it, e.g. ''Aeleas' Guide to the Auction House''.--[[User:Aeleas|Aeleas]] 15:46, 9 October 2006 (EDT)
-:::: Okay. How about player pages? The majority are edited by the players themselves but some are actually created by completely different people. &nbsp; --[[User:Mikk|<span style="border-bottom: 1px dotted; cursor: help;" title="Mikk is a WoWWiki Admin">Mikk</span>]] <small>([[User talk:Mikk|T]])</small> 19:17, 9 October 2006 (EDT)
+: '''Vote results moved to [[WoWWiki_talk:Policy/Writing/Player_character_pages#Player_Characters|WW:PC]]'''
-:::That example is actually one that I had in mind in trying to set out the criteria to make this distinction.
-:::If I were to create a player character page with an RP biography for one of my characters, there would be an implicit understanding that I would retain editorial control over that page. Other wikians would not be likely to contribute their ideas on my character's fictional history, and I wouldn't likely welcome any such additions.  Such a page would qualify as a personal page, and would be located under my namespace.
-:::On the other hand, there are a few articles on players such as [[Thott]] and player characters such as [[Leeroy Jenkins]], which are neutral articles on notable subjects, and not the province of any individual author.--[[User:Aeleas|Aeleas]] 22:04, 9 October 2006 (EDT)
-So the Fanfics and Player character pages will all go onto User page. Will the catergory page still be active in that case? I hope we will still have easy access to the fanfics instead of searching for them individually. Its a good idea but I need some clarification. --[[User:InvincNerd|Invin Dranoel]] 10:44, 10 October 2006 (EDT)
-: Of course. Categories ftw. &nbsp; --[[User:Mikk|<span style="border-bottom: 1px dotted; cursor: help;" title="Mikk is a WoWWiki Admin">Mikk</span>]] <small>([[User talk:Mikk|T]])</small> 11:02, 10 October 2006 (EDT)
-:: Seems clear enough. *flexes fingers* I'm up for it ;)--[[User:Tinkerer|Tinkerer]] 11:07, 10 October 2006 (EDT)
-== Which User? ==
-How about something like [[Sword_of_a_Thousand_Truths]]? Which user space would that be under? It is a fictional item however it a general factoid. Which user would it be under? -- [[User:Gryphon|Gryphon]] 13:42, 10 October 2006 (EDT)
-:It is not personal, at all. It is for fun, and it has to do with Warcraft. So it should be categorized under Silly, which it is. --[[User:Tinkerer|Tinkerer]] 13:43, 10 October 2006 (EDT)
-:: Silly needs a banner, when first looking at the page without the fanfic banner, the one single word Silly at the bottom may not be enough to distinguish from other items. -- [[User:Gryphon|Gryphon]] 13:47, 10 October 2006 (EDT)
-::: Hmm, I take that back as Dancing is categorized as Silly however is non-fiction. Silly isn't a great category upon reflection. -- [[User:Gryphon|Gryphon]] 13:48, 10 October 2006 (EDT)
-:::: [[:Category:Silly|Silly]] is a great category! Unless it isn't silly. Then it doesn't belong there. --[[User:Fandyllic|<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted; cursor:help;" title="Fandyllic is a WoWWiki Admin">Fandyllic</span>]] <small>([[User talk:Fandyllic|talk]])</small> 1:17 PM PDT 10 Oct 2006
-I've made a [[template:silly|silly]] banner. [[User:CyberSkull|Dread Lord <font color="FF0000">C</font><font color="EE0000">y</font><font color="DD0000">b</font><font color="CC0000">e</font><font color="BB0000">r</font><font color="AA0000">S</font><font color="990000">k</font><font color="880000">u</font><font color="770000">l</font><font color="660000">l</font>]] [[User talk:CyberSkull|✎☠]] 01:40, 11 October 2006 (EDT)
-: I like it! Now we need a silly icon, a perhaps a clown or three? -- [[User:Kirkburn|<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted; cursor:help;" title="Kirkburn is a WoWWiki Admin">Kirkburn</span>]] <small>([[User talk:Kirkburn|talk]])</small> 06:14, 11 October 2006 (EDT)
-:: On it :-P &nbsp; --[[User:Mikk|<span style="border-bottom: 1px dotted; cursor: help;" title="Mikk is a WoWWiki Admin">Mikk</span>]] <small>([[User talk:Mikk|T]])</small> 06:38, 11 October 2006 (EDT)
-::: There we go. [[:Category:Silly]], [[Template:silly]] :-) &nbsp; --[[User:Mikk|<span style="border-bottom: 1px dotted; cursor: help;" title="Mikk is a WoWWiki Admin">Mikk</span>]] <small>([[User talk:Mikk|T]])</small> 09:32, 11 October 2006 (EDT)
-:::: You sir, are a genius. --[[User:Fandyllic|<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted; cursor:help;" title="Fandyllic is a WoWWiki Admin">Fandyllic</span>]] <small>([[User talk:Fandyllic|talk]])</small> 10:54 AM PDT 11 Oct 2006