Difference between revisions of "Paragon Wiki Archive:Article Guidelines"

Revision as of 22:54, 3 May 2012

Subject Matter

The subject matter of The Paragon Wiki is NCsoft's games City of Heroes and City of Villains. Articles in the main namespace should be about City of Heroes/Villains and other topics that are of an official nature. Examples of appropriate subject matter include:

• Game mechanics (such as archetypes, powersets, enhancements, exemplaring)
• Game content (such as mission text, NPC descriptions)
• NCsoft staff information (such as information on developers, community representatives)
• Official events (those sponsored by NCsoft)
• The actual game as sold (such as the Good Versus Evil Edition)
• Official material relating to City of Heroes/Villains (such as the comic book)
• Player-created guides for the game (such as a guide about slash commands)

Player-specific content should not be published in the main namespace. Users may put such information on their userpage, or in some cases, on the Community Portal. Examples of subject matter that should not be in the main namespace include:

• Player characters
• Supergroups
• Player-created fiction
• Player-initiated events
• Player-developed software or utilities
• Player-developed websites

Note that this only covers subject matter, not linking. For example, it would be inappropriate to have an article discuss the various badging websites. However, it is quite permissible (and encouraged!) to link to such a badge site's article on a specific badge from that badge's page.

Note also that player-created guides are okay, assuming they're about the game (for example, The Incomplete and Unofficial Guide to /bind). This is because they are still intrinsically about the game itself, rather than about the player or the players' creations.

Future Content

New content and features are often announced prior to release on the live servers. Such new information is generally incorporated into the wiki in advance of the content's release. Such information should always be explicitly noted as being future content using one of the templates in Category:Future Content Templates until it has been released to the live servers.

The Paragon Wiki only documents information that has been publicly announced by NCsoft. Information that has been leaked or otherwise determined via unofficial channels is generally not included on the Paragon Wiki. There are a few reasons why the Paragon Wiki takes this stance:

• As noted in Subject Matter above, Paragon Wiki's focus is topics of an official nature. Unofficial information falls clearly outside our scope until it is made official.
• Unofficial information also has a tendency to change before becoming official. It's also not uncommon for unreleased information to never end up making it to release.
• Unofficial information also often requires EULA-violating actions to initially discover, typically involving the PIGG files. The Paragon Wiki and the Titan Network wishes to continue to maintain a positive relationship with the City of Heroes development team and thus tries to avoid sharing unreleased information derived exclusively from the PIGG files or that has the appearance of being derived from the PIGG files, or from other discouraged means.

Here are some examples of future information that are permissible to include on the Paragon Wiki:

• Anything explicitly announced by NCsoft staff on any official communications channel, including the official website, the official forums, Facebook, Ustream, and public meet-and-greets or conventions
• Anything that can be determined through normal gameplay during an open beta
• Anything that can be determined through perusal of the Paragon Market on the live server or in an open beta

Here are some examples of future information that are not permissible to include on the Paragon Wiki:

• Anything determined solely via examination of the PIGG files
• Anything publicly leaked by anyone other than NCsoft staff
• Anything that requires knowledge from unofficial channels or from guessing in order to pull information from an open beta, such as guessing power or powerset names that have not been released
• Anything that is revealed under an NDA (including closed betas)
• Anything that is explicitly removed from the official forums by the moderators when posted by users, unless it very clearly falls within the bounds of what's noted as permissible above
• Anything that NCsoft staff explicitly requests be removed from the wiki

Any information posted to the Paragon Wiki that is not permitted should be removed. In some cases, this may simply mean editing a page to remove the information. In other cases, this may involve page deletion or selective deletion/restoration of a page's history.

Speculations about future content are generally not allowed on the wiki. However, on rare occasions a topic of future speculation becomes notable for inclusion, such as the Moon Zone or the player speculations in the trivia section on the Ouroboros page. These are handled on a case-by-case basis as needed.

Once future content is released to the live servers, the articles referencing such content should be revised to reflect that it has been released, which includes the removal of the Future Content Templates.

In-Game Text

Many articles copy text as it appears in game. This section applies to such text.

• When a character's name is mentioned in the text, it should be replaced with the {{Character}} template. ^[1]
• Misspellings and grammatical errors should be fixed. ^{[1] [2] [3]}
• Factual errors should be corrected or noted. ^[2]
• Story arc clues that give the "story so far" and have the same title as the arc should not be added on a mission by mission basis as the text they provide is also largely found in the arc's souvenir. ^[4]
• Abbreviations should be expanded the first time they appear in an article. A person new to online games will not know what AoE, DoT, etc. stand for. ^[2]
• Effects should not be capitalized. Instead of "Disorientation, Immobilization, or Hold effects," it should be "disorientation, immobilization, or hold effects." ^[2]

Headings

• Links should not be used in headings. ^[2]
• Every article should have an Overview section that provides a high-level summary of the article's topic. In some cases, the Overview may be the only section in an article.^[5]

Direct Links Vs. Redirects

When editing an article and linking to another article, an editor may be presented with a decision regarding whether to link directly to the destination article or link to a redirect. For example, the following links will both take a reader to the same final destination:

Note that in the first example, the reader is initially taken to a redirect page which reroutes them to their final destination and displays the following message at the top of the article:

(Redirected from Patrol XP)

The guidelines for linking to other articles using redirects on Paragon Wiki are as follows:

• Targeting a redirect rather than directly linking to an article is generally permissible, so long as the redirect linked is not provided as a search aid in order to correct a common misspelling

Link Category	Markup	Resulting Text	Allowable?
Direct	This badge is awarded for completion of the [[Dr. Kahn Task Force]].	This badge is awarded for completion of the Dr. Kahn Task Force.	Yes.
Redirect	This badge is awarded for completion of the [[Dr. Khan Task Force]].	This badge is awarded for completion of the Dr. Khan Task Force.	No. "Khan" is a misspelling of "Kahn". This redirect is only provided to correct misspellings in searches.

• Changing the target of an existing link from a redirect to direct is allowed, so long as the article's text does not lose clarity or meaning as a result.

Link Category	Markup	Resulting Text	Allowable?
Redirect (original)	Visiting this spot earns the [[Nimble Mynx]] badge.	Visiting this spot earns the Nimble Mynx badge.	Yes.
Direct (edited)	Visiting this spot earns the [[Nimble Mynx Badge|Nimble Mynx]] badge.	Visiting this spot earns the Nimble Mynx badge.	Yes.
Direct (edited)	Visiting this spot earns the [[Nimble Mynx Badge]].	Visiting this spot earns the Nimble Mynx Badge.	Yes.
Direct (edited)	Visiting this spot earns the [[Nimble Mynx Badge]] badge.	Visiting this spot earns the Nimble Mynx Badge badge.	No. Repetition of the word "badge" makes this edited sentence more awkward.

• Linking to a redirect in certain templates (e.g. navigation templates) is not allowed under any circumstances.

Link Category	Markup	Resulting Text	Allowable?
Direct	[[Paragon Wiki:Article Guidelines|Article Guidelines]]	Article Guidelines	Yes. This link targets the page on which it resides. Therefore, it does not appear as a link.
Redirect	[[Article Guidelines]]	Article Guidelines	No. This link targets a redirect, appearing to link a new page. The redirect, however returns the reader to this same page, creating a self-referential link.

While both forms of linking are allowed, Paragon Wiki has historically shown an overall preference for use of direct links over redirected links.^[6]

Pronouns

• The use of first- and second person pronouns in articles should be avoided. Instead of "I think you get ambushed upon leaving this mission," use "An ambush may occur upon leaving this mission." ^[2] (However, direct quotes from external sources with first- and second- person pronouns are acceptable.)

Mission Articles: Scope and Naming

• The conventions that should be used for mission articles, describing the scope and naming of mission articles, are covered in a separate policy document: Mission articles.

Article Names for Slash Commands

• Articles for slash commands should not include the leading slash and should be followed by "(Slash Command)". Example: The article name for the /team slash command is Team (Slash Command).

User Pages

Out of common courtesy, any User Page is generally considered to be a small personal space for that User to place personal information, post examples of an article they may wish others to view before moving to the main project space, receive messages from other Users (on their Talk Page), etc. As such, it is typically left to the User who owns that space to maintain the content of that page. However, on occasion, an editor or admin may modify another User's User Page. Examples of when this might occur are as follows:

• An editor modifies a template that in some way breaks the content on a User's Page and out of courtesy makes a small modification on the User's Page to fix the error.
• A User misuses a template (commonly copying the template code instead of using {{TemplateName}}), which often results in the User being placed in inappropriate categories.
• A User posts links, images, or information on their page that includes inappropriate content (i.e. RMT sites or pornographic content.) (In these cases, it is best to contact an admin and ask them to handle the situation.)
• A User posts unreleased/unofficial content. While Userspace is quietly exempted from many of the general wiki's policies, the guidelines about Future Content above are still applied to Userspace.

Any time a User modifies another User's User Page, it is a good idea to leave a message on their Talk Page to let them know why the page was modified.

References

1. ↑ ^{a b} Character names in mission entries on Paragon Forums.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Paragon Wiki Forums discussion: A few starting items
3. ↑ Paragon Wiki Forums discussion: Spelling, grammar, typographical, and continuity errors
4. ↑ Paragon Wiki Forums discussion: Mission sections
5. ↑ Paragon Wiki Forums discussion: Overview heading
6. ↑ Titan Network Forum discussion: Direct Vs. Redirect Links