Took a stab at a Wiki editing help guide today...

@Guided_By_Tigers said:

@Hailinel said:

You weren't involved, as far as I remember. If LordAndrew is thinking of the same event I'm thinking of, it was the decision by moderators and users to start deleting any and all game compilations from the database. A good number of such were either deleted or marked for deletion before Jeff stepped in and told those involved to stop it. A lot of pages then had to be re-added.

I want to say Marino was the one who coordinated that.

Lets get out the pitchforks then? It's been dealt with, let's leave it at that.

@Baillie: Dude, I wasn't trying to start anything....don't insinuate that my statement had malicious intent, and let's leave it at that.

@Baillie said:

@Guided_By_Tigers said:

@Hailinel said:

You weren't involved, as far as I remember. If LordAndrew is thinking of the same event I'm thinking of, it was the decision by moderators and users to start deleting any and all game compilations from the database. A good number of such were either deleted or marked for deletion before Jeff stepped in and told those involved to stop it. A lot of pages then had to be re-added.

I want to say Marino was the one who coordinated that.

Lets get out the pitchforks then? It's been dealt with, let's leave it at that.

It was a history lesson and a recollection, not a call to arms. Chill out.

@Baillie said:

@Guided_By_Tigers said:

@Hailinel said:

You weren't involved, as far as I remember. If LordAndrew is thinking of the same event I'm thinking of, it was the decision by moderators and users to start deleting any and all game compilations from the database. A good number of such were either deleted or marked for deletion before Jeff stepped in and told those involved to stop it. A lot of pages then had to be re-added.

I want to say Marino was the one who coordinated that.

Lets get out the pitchforks then? It's been dealt with, let's leave it at that.

It was a history lesson and a recollection, not a call to arms. Chill out.

@Guided_By_Tigers: Sorry, I wasn't totally sure. I didn't mean it in a bad way, now guys please put the pitchforks down, I didn't mean to ruffle feathers. :P

I swear I've seen an Operation Wolf and Duck Hunt comparison somewhere before on the site. More likely I just need sleep.

Anyways, since you've got the iPhone and Neo-Geo miniguides in there, you may as well add a section on the whole PSN/PSNV distinction you made a thread about way back when.

@Jeff:

Hey Jeff, thank you very much for doing this. It really helps a lot to have some of the general style and practices laid out like this.

I think the kind of Wiki guidance the site really needs is even more basic than this though, things like

• what sections a game/character/page/concept should have
• how much info is too much or too little on a page
• What the suggested minimum and maximum each section of a page should be.
• what content belongs on a game page what doesn't.
• When to use tables and when not to (Some first person shooter weapon tables in particular are just enormous, I really hate to see what it would look like if someone made one of JRPG weapon and armor sets on here)
• whether to include game critic scores, reception, public controversies and things like that of a slightly more subjective nature on the page.
• how detailed pages should go into a game's plot and how to use spoiler tags on plot/characters if need be
• Grammar things, like what tense to use in describing plot details, what person to write etc. (FWIW I completely agree with @Mento on second person and subjectivity)
• How to address appearances by characters in games, whether each game gets it's own subsection of teh character page or just included in a brief overview
• and other things I'm sure I haven't thought of

that's the kind of stuff that seems to me to be all over the map in the wiki in terms of quality and standards. And as far as I can tell there isn't a thread or guide that outlines, that (if there is I apologize I've looked and never found it). The closest I've seen is @Hamz 's wiki FAQ.

These guidelines don't have to be exact, but even if there were some general ballpark guidelines (e.g. "Every game page should have these following sections, theses sections are optional, these sections belong on games of this genre and these deatils go on other pages) I think it would go a long way in telling people how to construct good pages and what to try to fill in on pages. Also if there are a couple example pages in the wiki that you think are great prototypes.

I guess is other words, just a bit guidance on how to construct each type of page.

I think it may also behoove you guys to lock a page, if it becomes basically complete to your standards. A lot of these old games, probably aren't going to have new details very often.

And lastly in the site redesign I hope these existing guides you've made are very very easy to find. As it is now you pretty much have to look for them to know they even exist.

Anyway thanks again.

@Jeff said:

If writing in a spot where you need to call emphasis to a title to help the reader understand that you are talking about some other work, yes, italics make sense. If you are writing on a game site where games titles are not special and are going to be understood by the reader, there's no need for emphasis. So movie and TV titles get italics, games don't.

Gotcha. All good. I was just getting confused.

well, you did make a mistake. you said that the Team Fortress classes aren't characters despite having character. that's not true. they have names outside of their class decription, and are given their own backstories and even appear in other games. didn't you read the comic? jk.

long story short, maybe back at the game's launch the were just concepts with lively characteristics, but they are their own characters now.

@Jeff: I just came across a character page with this issue and didn't see it called out, but there should probably be a section on not including spoiler warnings in wiki articles. If you read a page on a game or character or whatever, you shouldn't need to be warned that spoilers are probably present.

@Hailinel: I agree that would be really helpful. At least knowing which way it should be.

I don't personally care which way it is, but I do care that it's done the same way throughout the site so that wiki readers can make their own decision whether to navigate to the page or not.

@Slag: Technically, it's always been the case that spoiler tags aren't necessary for wiki articles. It's just never been called out in any formal form, to my knowledge.

@Hailinel said:

@Slag: Technically, it's always been the case that spoiler tags aren't necessary for wiki articles. It's just never been called out in any formal form, to my knowledge.

That's good to know.

I've never used one, but there have been times I've thought about it.