Minecraft Wiki talk:Wiki rules/Revision 1

A Rule about Deleting pages?
What about a rule for the wiki admins about deleting pages? It seems as if the talk pages have some fairly consistent complaints about how users content can seemingly disappear at the whim of an admin, with no (easy?) way to look back at the history and retrieve it, and little to no explanation as to why it was deleted. Additionally, it looks to me like a lot of deletions happen to pages that are independently created, suggesting that a segment of the community would find that information useful. Why contribute to a wiki when at any second your contributions will be erased with no chance to make improvements?

--Jonnay 05:58, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Proposed Rule deletions:

 * ...This includes pages about so-called "games" that are played in Minecraft. The only exception to this rule is Spleef as this is widely played and recognized by the community and Notch himself.
 * Minecraft is built for metagaming. Why not invite contribution here?  TotemQuest being a great example of something cool.  Again, we can categorize and throw them into sub-articles to keep them separate from the main content.
 * If I understand correctly, this was a problem in the past because this just led to so many made up entries with varying degrees of relevance to the community. If we're to allow this kind of content on the wiki, I think we should come up with a strict set of criteria and guidelines, especially if they're to have their own page (under a category like, say, Category:Game terms). --Gnu32 09:45, 17 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Pages about servers are not allowed.
 * Why not? Why not make a servers subarticle, and make sure server pages are properly categorized?
 * Again, I think this was an issue in the past because of the volume of server pages being made for various servers, some of which wern't even that well known in the community or were dead within a week. If this was controlled with a strict set of criteria (i.e. permanently established servers or servers with a massive historical significance in the community) then server pages would be a good idea. --Gnu32 09:45, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
 * This point and the last point (in my opinion) are related.   It basically comes down to a question around how much content the wiki should support.  My vote is to err on the side of too much, rather then not enough.  If someone makes a page about a little known server that is never up, why not post a warning on the page, leave it up for a bit and then delete it.  This gives the creator a chance to work on the page, and make it better.   --Jonnay 05:58, 18 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Pages about fancommunities are not allowed due to advertising issues and stuff like that.
 * Again, Why not? We could set up subarticles for them.  Why not be a part of the larger community?
 * I think this is a tricky issue for this wiki as it's hosted by the Curse Network, but something should be worked out to allow pages for significant community sites. --Gnu32 09:45, 17 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Do not directly copy over articles from other wiki's that discuss Minecraft.
 * That would depend on the license of the content on that wiki as to how legal it is. Maybe that brings up a larger discussion on copyright.
 * Articles regarding custom servers are only allowed when the server is either:
 * See points above.
 * Articles containing information about client mods are only allowed when the client mod cannot contribute to cheating or griefing in multiplayer.
 * We are not a file-hosting service. If an image is uploaded and not integrated into a useful article soon after, we reserve the right to delete it without notice. Using our hosting for GUI screenshots, userspace images and general wiki-related images is allowed.
 * Basicaly this rule says "Don't post unrelated content". Which is already said above.
 * As per my comments below, this should probably be clarified in a section for image guidelines. While it can be explained under a general "no unrelated content" guideline, it would help to explain what this means in terms of images and image use on the wiki. --Gnu32 09:45, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
 * {{c|Agree} --Jonnay 05:58, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Discussion around the changes
Obviously this discussion section would get whacked if/when these new rules were to be taken up. In general I tried to change the tone to invite more contribution from people. A Page full of 20 "DO NOT" rules doesn't make for an inviting wiki. Generally, people will want to contribute good things to the wiki, and gentle reminders and civil conversation is all that is needed.
 * I'd like to assist in this. But first, is discussion supposed to be on this page or on the talk page? Also, made some minor grammar fixes. --Gnu32 08:20, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the fixes! I figure since this is a first crack at some revised rules, lets have the discussion in page.  When everything is hammered out, we can archive the discussion on the talk page.--Jonnay 09:24, 17 February 2011 (UTC)Jonnay
 * Alright, thanks for clarifying. I've added my comments to various points. In general, I prefer this relaxed tone in the rules as it's less intimidating to the newbies. "Guidelines" is a good choice of word too as it allows for benefit of doubt. I think there should be different sections of guidelines, one for general articles, one for formatting, one for images and one for behavior. Something to that effect. Some of your guidelines are too wordy however, i.e. Number 4. should be simplified to "Link to homepages, try to avoid linking directly to files and file-sharing sites as it's more secure" or something to that effect. All the guidelines should try to keep a consistent language; one that's simple, concise and not too intimidating. --Gnu32 09:45, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Proposal page
Should include the list of rules you would like to see implemented. All discussion should take place on the talk page, so that changes to the proposed rules will be clearly identifiable in the page history.

Please do not expect this to happen quickly. The entire point of this is to get wider community input on the rules for Minecraft wiki. -- Wynthyst  talk  14:00, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Of course! --Jonnay 05:58, 18 February 2011 (UTC)