Guild Wars 2 Wiki:Article retention 2007-12-24
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This page is a suspended policy proposal. It has been superseded by a list of common wiki practices. The Guild Wars 2 Wiki has no policies. All former proposals are kept for historical preservation. |
Guild Wars 2 Wiki is intended to document Guild Wars 2. In order to keep the wiki focused on this goal, this policy describes the content that the wiki does and does not retain. This policy should not be taken as comprehensive. Content which is not described here is neither specifically permitted nor specifically prohibited; its retention should be decided on a case-by-case basis.
Note: This policy only applies to "primary content" namespaces. The User: namespace is unaffected.
Information we always retain[edit]
Our goal is to fully document the game of Guild Wars 2 in a way that assists the reader in playing the game well, or expanding their knowledge of the Guild Wars 2 world. Therefore, articles on NPC's, gameplay, mechanics and relevant lore in Guild Wars 2 should always be kept.
Notice the word "relevant". Guild Wars has an expansive background as far as lore is concerned, however not all of it is relevant to Guild Wars 2. For example, the Flameseeker Prophecies are an important plot element in Prophecies, however, they were fulfilled 250 years prior to the start of Guild Wars 2, and would be more in place on GWW than here. As a general rule, if it does not exist in the universe of Guild Wars 2, then it more than likely does not belong on the Guild Wars 2 Wiki. This will be expanded upon further in the next section.
"Original series" content[edit]
Content from the original Guild Wars game series (hereafter broadly referred to as Guild Wars 1) may be included on Guild Wars 2 Wiki only as it relates to Guild Wars 2. Many of the characters of Guild Wars 1 provide historical context for the world of Guild Wars 2, but others, regardless of their impact on Guild Wars 1, are irrelevant. For example, it would be appropriate to include information on Ventari's influence on the birth of the Sylvari. It would not be appropriate to provide to provide a map to Ventari's locations in Guild Wars 1, nor a copy of his dialogue in that game. As another example, there is currently no reason to believe the Flaming Scepter Mages will have anything to do with Guild Wars 2, so no information about them would be appropriate to Guild Wars 2 Wiki.
An interwiki link to the original Guild Wars Wiki may be used for Guild Wars 1 content that does not warrant direct inclusion in Guild Wars 2 Wiki. Use [[gw1:article name|]] (remembering to include the pipe) or [[gw1:article name|wikilink name]] to link to Guild Wars 1 content from this wiki.
Screenshots from Guild Wars 1 should only be used where no concept art exists for the topic that the screenshot would illustrate, or where all known concept art deviates so much from the final design of the article subject that the art would not accurately represent it. Screenshots should contain no Guild Wars 1 interface elements, and should be added to "Category:Guild Wars screenshots".
Rumors and suggestions[edit]
Future Guild Wars 2 content should only be included if confirmed by reliable sources, such as a published magazine article or directly by an ArenaNet employee on their wiki user talk page. Self-proclaimed alpha testers, a guy you know that heard it from an ArenaNet employee on Ventrillo, supposedly leaked internal documents, and other rumors are not reliable sources and should not be included unless they can be confirmed by ArenaNet.
Similarly, Guild Wars 2 Wiki is for content that will be included in Guild Wars 2, not content that you want to be included. If you do have suggestions for Guild Wars 2, you can send them to ArenaNet on their Guild Wars 2 suggestion page.
Guilds[edit]
Unlike GWW, Guild Wars 2 wiki will not have a guild namespace. This means that information on player guilds does not have a place here, and will be removed upon creation.
There are exceptions to this - examples include ZoS, the Basin, the Spearmen and world tournament winning guilds. But generally, if you are unsure about a guild's notability, then ask - it's better to ask and be told not to create a page than to end up with a deleted page and some irritated sysops who have to clean up your mistake.
Prices[edit]
Static prices for items or services are helpful to know and should be noted in a relevant article. Dynamic prices, including both game-managed prices that fluctuate algorithmically based on the state of the economy and player-managed prices commonly used in trades, should be omitted from articles. Dynamic price information is almost always wrong and provides a huge vector for abuse -- a malicious editor can edit the wiki and increase the price of an item he wishes to sell so that his price-gouging appears legitimate.
Copyrighted content[edit]
Guild Wars 2 Wiki content is licensed under GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) 1.2+. This means that content from other GFDL 1.2+ sources (such as the original Guild Wars Wiki) may be copied here only when the source is properly attributed. Guild Wars 2 Wiki may also use an uploader's own original work (which is released under the GFDL when it is uploaded), content copyrighted to ArenaNet, or public domain content. Use of any other sources, including content under incompatible licenses (such as GuildWiki which uses Creative Commons) or content copied from another copyright holder that has not freely licensed their work, is a copyright violation and will be removed. Unattributed GFDL content is also a copyright violation, but should be properly attributed rather than removed, when possible.
