GuildWiki talk:Article retention

I believe this policy article somewhat accurately reflects the growing consensus in GuildWiki talk:Criteria for deletion. As I think the issue being discussed is significantly different from the topic in criteria for deletion, the discussion might be better suited to this talk page. &mdash;Tanaric 16:03, 3 September 2006 (CDT)


 * Good idea Tanaric.  &lt;LordBiro&gt;/&lt;Talk&gt; 17:24, 3 September 2006 (CDT)


 * We've needed this article for ages anyway, regardless of the historical argument. &mdash;Tanaric 18:51, 3 September 2006 (CDT)


 * I was willing to drop the discussion there, because after having repeated all my arguments twice, I dont see the point in repeating them a third time, however I would not call blanking the page "growing consensus" seeing how of the 5 people active in the discussion in the last week, 3 are opposed. For something as important as a policy article, I feel consensus should be more strictly interpreted. --Xeeron 05:23, 4 September 2006 (CDT)


 * My apologies Xeeron, I clearly misread or confused the arguments on that talk page. I will reread and rewrite this proposed policy. &mdash;Tanaric 18:36, 4 September 2006 (CDT)

Unverifiable?
What about screenshots? I've still got screenshots from the Halloween 2005 event. And there's enough witnesses to corroborate the existance of Rift Warden battles. None of the holiday pages are protected, and it appears that this "no new eddits after a week" thing is pulling a policy out of thin air. I'd be okay with "no new information unless you can back it up with a screenshot or N witnesses". -- Gordon Ecker 21:02, 3 September 2006 (CDT)


 * You hit the nail on the head&mdash;this is, in fact, pulling a policy out of thin air. Hence the big box that says "this is a proposed policy." :)


 * My theory is that GuildWiki has reached a certain critical mass. For every time-limited event from now on, it will be completely documented within a week after the event ends. Most are fully documented before the event concludes! I personally don't think it's worth the hassle to deal with ancient information. I don't want to have to decide whether your screen capture of a Fury rune is real or duped&mdash;there's little, if any, benefit to retaining that information anyway, since nobody in-game even remembers the damned things anymore.


 * If you disagree with my stance on retrodocumenting ancient history, please explain why. &mdash;Tanaric 21:33, 3 September 2006 (CDT)


 * Yeah, I didn't notice the proposed tag at the top of the page. As I understand it, the purpose of category:unfavored builds is to serve as a sort of build scrap heap for people to rummage through and salvage some workable ideas out of. One solution might be to split unfavored builds into viable but sub-optimal or excessively narrow builds which are retained and unviable and generic builds which are deleted. As for ancient history, I don't see any problem with letting the historians argue about Runes of Fury, evil Gwen and Rift Wardens as long as it doesn't spill over onto the rest of the wiki. Wrathful Storm is missing a screenshot, so we haven't reached critical mass yet. -- Gordon Ecker 02:51, 4 September 2006 (CDT)


 * I don't think we should allow ourselves get into a situation where certain content on the site is impossible to verify. Taking refund point as an example, if someone were to come to the site today and say "this isn't actually how refund points worked, they were very similar but you may not have noticed that they are affected by X", they may well be right, but unless another person can verify this then we will never know for certain.  &lt;LordBiro&gt;/&lt;Talk&gt; 04:59, 4 September 2006 (CDT)


 * As a quick wrap-up of what I already argued at GuildWiki talk:Criteria for deletion:
 * The legacy tag should be big and clear enough to disencourage edits to legacy articles
 * Therefore we should not blank the articles but leaving the information to be easily reached
 * I still disbelieve that the issue mentioned above will be grave enough to justify blanking of articles. Among the possible remedies short of blanking, protection or allowing only edits backed with screen shots have been mentioned. --Xeeron 05:23, 4 September 2006 (CDT)


 * To reiterate my points, while I am in favour of a summary of the previous content of the article, I am not in favour of protecting pages unnecessarily. The history of the article would be linked from the legacy tag, so users who are curious as to the previous content of the article should be able to see what used to be there. I wouldn't even mind if we linked to a particular entry in the history.


 * Regarding edits only backed with screenshots, I think that's a strange one. With events that's fair enough, but what screenshots could you take to prove the behaviour of refund points? One showing before reducing an attribute? One showing after? Before this feature was removed few people would have that this worthy of taking a screenshot, and even now those people who have could easily reverse the order of the screenshots and say "every time you increased an attribute you would be given a refund point, see, look at the screenshots?". Screenshots are unreliable for all but the very simplest of removed features.  &lt;LordBiro&gt;/&lt;Talk&gt; 05:42, 4 September 2006 (CDT)


 * The point I was trying to make is that the claim that there is "no way for us to verify the information so long after events occur", which is the only argument the proposed policy uses against the creation of new articles on old legacy content, is based on a false assumption. Screenshots can verify information after the fact, and, in the specific case of refund points, the prophecies manual, which can now be downloaded from the official guild wars site, can also be used as a source. -- Gordon Ecker 20:39, 4 September 2006 (CDT)

Gordon, I think there is a difference between existing articles and creating articles. If someone say edited the Wrathful Storms article to say that they used Breath of Fire, with no proof. Or edited to remove Meteor Shower. And all he had was his word againt the existing article. Well, then we can have a policy that the article pre-Legacy is proof against all unproven edits. But for an article created from scratch, how can we verify such things? Yeah, for refund points and what not, that's fine. But what about articles that do not provide proof? Articles that say things that have proof and other things that don't? What do we do when such articles are disputed? --Karlos 21:34, 4 September 2006 (CDT)


 * We could maintain a policy of extreme skepticism with regards to any new, post-legacy information. This would mean that when partially supported new information is added to legacy articles, only the supported parts of the new information would be retained without overwhelming concensus, while completely unverified new legacy articles would not be retained. -- Gordon Ecker 00:52, 5 September 2006 (CDT)

Legacy articles
I don't get all the extra restrictions you guys are doing. Blanking and protecting. This is absurd. If you are going to keep legacy content (which I am against), then you should just keep the article as is and tag it with Legacy. If an article (like any article) becomes the target of repeated useless edits, then protect it, otherwise it is just an article on the wiki. Again, I want to note my disdain and dislike for this whole "use protection to indicate article is complete, we don't want your edits" approach. Please revise this approach. We have not even tried to see how the legacy tag by itself will work. As you guys have already said, make it clear in the tag that editing the article other than for correcting mistakes or adding important content is highly discouraged. --Karlos 16:27, 4 September 2006 (CDT)
 * I didn't know blanking and protecting were proposed ideas but I agree with you, awful ideas! Since when do we protect stuff just because it is finished? This is totally against the idea of the wiki and is sure to upset people! Blanking, what is the point of that? Either keep it visable or not at all! I delete blanked articles if there is nothing valuable underneith and I wouldn't see this as any different!


 * I do agree that we should keep legacy stuff but with just a clear notice stating that it is legacy and if possible a link to the game update that removed it &mdash; Skuld 16:41, 4 September 2006 (CDT)


 * To clarify, the argument for blanking and replacing with a summary is a seperate argument to blanking, replacing with a summary and protecting. I condone the former but not the latter.  &lt;LordBiro&gt;/&lt;Talk&gt; 16:59, 4 September 2006 (CDT)


 * Again, I apologize. I actually agree that protection in this sense is probably unnecessary. I clearly did not read the other talk page clearly enough, and I've embarassed myself as a result. &mdash;Tanaric 18:36, 4 September 2006 (CDT)


 * I don't really see what worst case scenario people are trying to prevent with restrictions on the creation and editing of legacy articles. -- Gordon Ecker 20:39, 4 September 2006 (CDT)


 * Although the protection stuff is pretty irrelevent to me, it seems that most here have understood it in the wrong way. It was suggested that the article is protected if we blank it and replace with a legacy tag. If we leave the article as is, just adding the tag, then ofcourse don't protect. --[[Image:Gem-icon-sm.png]] (talk) 09:41, 5 September 2006 (CDT)

Builds
Written build evaluation is a guide article to help authors avoid common mistakes while creating builds. I will replace the link with Builds on the wiki which is a proposed policy article on builds (of course the link should be reverted if build on the wiki does not become policy). --Xeeron 05:23, 4 September 2006 (CDT)

Rewritten
I've rewritten this to better express the middle ground between "don't keep legacy" and "lock legacy down." I hope this makes up for my earlier asshattery. &mdash;Tanaric 18:52, 4 September 2006 (CDT)


 * Support. I am pretty happy with the current version of the article and would agree to that becoming policy. --Xeeron 09:52, 5 September 2006 (CDT)
 * I like retaining the data, and adding a big header to the top marking it as old data. LordKestrel 13:35, 5 September 2006 (CDT)


 * Strongly Oppose. Actually, the current "compromise" is a pointless joke. Current de facto policy is to delete.  The new "compromise" is to add the tag, add a summary, AND keep the original article?  That is no compromise; that's a 100% reversal of existing practice.  The original policy, and any attempts at compromise were thrown out the window, and the concept of keeping the content remained. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 10:48, 5 September 2006 (CDT)


 * I agree with Barek andoppose the current wording. There were some people who wanted to have all legacy articles kept, and others who wanted all legacy articles deleted. I'm sure you can appreciate that calling "keeping all legacy articles" a compromise seems inaccurate! :)  &lt;LordBiro&gt;/&lt;Talk&gt; 13:12, 5 September 2006 (CDT)
 * It does look like a compromise, if you look at it in a black/white scenario. If you look at it as one side wanting to delete and purge, and the other side as leaving it intact, leaving the article, but putting a header on it showing it's legacy would be considered a compromise :) LordKestrel 13:35, 5 September 2006 (CDT)


 * Well, yes and no LordKestrel. The reason we delete articles is because "we don't document how the game was, only how the game is", which I agree with. The main argument against keeping all articles on historical subjects is that it would be difficult to confirm the details of such an article. The main argument for keeping all articles on historical subjects is that we should document everything. Personally I feel a fair compromise would be to say that we keep a summary and point the users to the history of the article.


 * Basically, I think that if we'd kept historical data from day one then we would have created a legacy tag some time ago and used it on every historical article, so I don't see how it can be classed as a compromise. I hope that makes sense :)  &lt;LordBiro&gt;/&lt;Talk&gt; 13:53, 5 September 2006 (CDT)


 * P.S. Hi again LordKestrel :D  &lt;LordBiro&gt;/&lt;Talk&gt; 13:58, 5 September 2006 (CDT)


 * I can see the point of those claiming this is not a compromise. One side wants the articles gone, the other wants to keep them, there is hardly a middle way (no having some summary what the article was about does not count for me, how would that help people wanting to read up on GW history). That being said, blanking all articles can hardly be called a compromise either. --Xeeron 14:34, 5 September 2006 (CDT)

Every possible compromise between a black and white set of positions will be called a pointless joke. Honestly, this argument has gone around in circles for far too long, and there are an equal number of good comments on all sides.

I, personally, am in favor of deleting all historical content... but that is not de facto policy, despite what Barek says. Look at Wintersday 2005 for proof of that. We've maintained historical content since the first time-limited event.

Because we currently maintain legacy information and because there is a significant body of editors who wish to continue maintaining legacy information, it seems clear to me that we must continue to maintain legacy information, despite my personal feelings on the subject. My initial write up of this article contained too much personal bias, considering the charged feelings on both sides&mdash;I'm personally in favor of removing whatever we can. This version is considerably watered down, from my perspective, but it also poses no threat to the wiki, which is my primary concern around here.

I purposely limited the scope of this proposed solution&mdash;it's about article retention, not information retention. I don't expect a patch history in every skill article defining how it's been tweaked over the years. I don't think anybody is advocating that (and if they are, we appear to be wholly ignoring them, thank goodness). This is specifically about content and terms that were once used every day and no longer are. I think that I can stomach keeping the information around, as long as it's clear that it's no longer relevant.

I still think the best solution would involve replacing the article with what the concept used to mean, and removing details that are no longer relevant from a utility perspective, but I got just as much ire from the other side when I suggested that.

Since apparently the word "compromise" is what's pissing everyone off, please replace it in all cases with "Tanaric's Version-o'-Policy so we can all move on with our lives." &mdash;Tanaric 15:47, 5 September 2006 (CDT)


 * Hahaha. :D That's a good one! Seriously: This discussion was far closer to a consensus before my school started and I had to leave the wiki for some time. What's the problem if we originally were almost okay with this? --[[Image:Gem-icon-sm.png]] (talk) 15:51, 5 September 2006 (CDT)

External Websites
It is my understanding that we do not maintain articles on external websites (such as Photics). Not only is ther no need (just link to the site and let the reader figure out what it is), but it opens the door for shameless advetizement as well as haters. I edited that section to reflect this. --Karlos 23:11, 4 September 2006 (CDT)