Battlestar Wiki:FAQ/Content: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:03, 11 March 2008

This part of the FAQ deals with the content of the Wiki.

Why do you not cover fan fiction?

The Battlestar Wiki was created to chronicle all of the actual series themselves, including its spin-off material such as books, comics, and memorabilia. Basically, Battlestar Wiki is an encyclopedia of all officially merchandised materials relating to the show, which include the shows themselves, the books, and anything authorized under the merchandising license provided by the copyright holder. Fan fiction, fan art, fan videos, and other creations are not licensed (and not technically legal, even factoring in the fair use provision of the United States' copyright law) and thus aren't covered here.

Furthermore, fan fiction is often contradictory and open to various interpretations, not to mention the fact that most mainstream fans are mainly unconcerned with its presence. Therefore, the decision was made in its inception not to cover fan fiction or any content that the fans have created.

We have, however, created a means to create or post fan fiction, via our sister sites: BattlestarPegasus.com and Wiki Frakr (the satirical version of Battlestar Wiki).

Why don't you have more information on [this] or [that]?

Battlestar Wiki is voluntarily built by fans, like yourself, and people tend to edit or create what they like to create.

Beyond the desire to help the protect, people are not financially reimbursed for the time or effort they put into the website. Therefore, there are not people who edit the wiki 24 hours a day, 7 days a week... they edit when they can, adding or editing as much as they want.

As most people tend to stick with subjects that they like, it is logical, then, that people will doubtless edit articles on those kinds of topics. Each contributor has their own calling, and no two (or more) callings are the same, and thus the Wiki is built with the help of many people of different inclinations.

So if something is "missing" from our encyclopedia, and you'd like to see it added, then you are more than welcome to join us and add such information on this yourself. And don't worry about messing up, since there's a safety net in place to fix things as they were.

Why don't you just cover [this version of Battlestar Galactica] instead of [those other versions]?

Battlestar Wiki prime directive is to cover everything officially related to Battlestar Galactica, regardless of fans viewpoints on any of the series.

We are not interested in pandering to just one group of fans, and have found that most fans relish in being able to understand all the series, even if they themselves have certain preferences.

In other words, "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations".

And if you don't like content from certain versions of the Battlestar Galactica saga, then we've made it as easy as humanly possible for you to do so.

Why don't you report more news?

Collecting news and writing articles about it is a lot of work. We feel that doing so on a scale comparable to dedicated news sites would severely cut into the time needed to edit the Wiki and keeping it, and its affiliated sites, running. Moreover, there are already a lot of Battlestar news sites on the internet.

However, we acknowledge that many readers would like to read news here. There are tentative plans to run feeds to one or several news sites on Battlestar Wiki.

Why don't you include more spoilers in articles?

We do include some spoilers from reputable sources, but they can usually be found only on the individual season pages, episode articles for upcoming episodes, character articles and sometimes ship articles.

One problem with spoilers is that they are sometimes partly or even entirely wrong, or misleading, which makes their inclusion questionable. Even if they are true, the content later needs to be re-written to reflect what is actually shown on screen. Thus keeping the spoiler content confined to a few pages - instead of including them on all related articles - cuts down on the work needed to keep the articles up to date.

Table of Contents
- Battlestar Wiki:FAQ/Navigation|FAQs on Navigation
- Battlestar Wiki:FAQ/Content|FAQs on Content
- Battlestar Wiki:FAQ/Functionality|FAQs on the gizmos
- Battlestar Wiki:FAQ/Financial|FAQs on ads and other $$$

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 And if you don't like content from certain versions of the ''Battlestar Galactica'' saga, then we've made it as easy as humanly possible for you to do so.
+== Why don't you report more news? ==
+Collecting news and writing articles about it is a lot of work. We feel that doing so on a scale comparable to dedicated news sites would severely cut into the time needed to edit the Wiki and keeping it, and its affiliated sites, running. Moreover, there are already a lot of ''Battlestar'' news sites on the internet.
+However, we acknowledge that many readers would like to read news here. There are tentative plans to run feeds to one or several news sites on ''Battlestar Wiki''.
+== Why don't you include more spoilers in articles? ==
+We do include some spoilers from reputable sources, but they can usually be found only on the individual [[Portal:Battlestar Galactica (RDM)|season pages]], [[List of episodes|episode]] articles for upcoming episodes, [[Portal:Characters|character]] articles and sometimes [[Portal:Ships|ship]] articles.
+One problem with spoilers is that they are sometimes partly or even entirely wrong, or misleading, which makes their inclusion questionable. Even if they are true, the content later needs to be re-written to reflect what is actually shown on screen. Thus keeping the spoiler content confined to a few pages - instead of including them on all related articles - cuts down on the work needed to keep the articles up to date.
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