Talk:Attitude Indicator/Archive 1

This article, as with other articles with familiar gages and other sensors seen in Vipers, do not necessarily correlate with their function in the fictional world. I would rather have these incorporated into the Viper (RDM) article or combined elsewhere. Better, in my feeling, to dispense with them altogether unless someone notes a point in an episode's plot where the gage is used to aid or hinder a character, antagonist or protagonist. Else, it's a "telephone" article--having little need on our wiki. We also know that joysticks exist in Vipers--but there's no need to write an article here in detail about it. --Spencerian 17:35, 21 May 2006 (CDT)

Agreed. Get rid of it. --The Merovingian ^{(C - E)} 18:11, 21 May 2006 (CDT)

Why are you always so keen to remove good content from existence? I vote to merge. Its got a nice bit of information and some good pictures to go with it. It would be good on the Viper page--Mercifull 03:13, 22 May 2006 (CDT)

The reason involves several factors, as stated on three similar articles. (1) This device, despite its familiarity to aviators, is not necessarily performing the same functions as is earthly counterpart, especially not in space and because these humans are not from Earth. (2) The device has been shown once, was not referenced by a character or as part of an action that help define its actual "use." It's background fluff until then. (3) We already have a detailed section on the avionics of the Viper based on aired content. These articles might be deleted, but what constitutes as relevant material will be merged into either Viper (RDM) or Computers. Don't get me wrong, Merciful. I love to make articles on the inner workings (I authored Computers) but as an admin I also have a responsibility to help identify articles that appear redundant or seem counter to the wiki's purpose. That's why I also note in Talk for consensus before making such changes just in case someone else has a sufficiently valid point to keep this information as a distinct article. My apologies if I didn't make it clear; this would generally be a "merge and delete" action rather than a pure "nuke the page" action. --Spencerian 11:51, 23 May 2006 (CDT)

I think Mercifull may have been referring to Merv regarding being keen about content removal (though your reply is still relevant). My only thought towards "Deletionism" is that I am extremely grateful that we do have people looking out for the Wiki like that. I'm something of a packrat, especially with regards to information. However, if we kept every scrap, everything would get cluttered rather quickly. The entropy of the wiki, being a closed system, would increase over time. Merging and deletion helps keep the disorder at bay. Hopefully with both the voices of inclusionists/archivists/packrats as well as the deletionists/purifiers, a balanced consensus will form that doesn't keep unnecessary or redundant information without cutting into potentially good stuff.

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

- Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery"

Regarding this article, I agree with the merge/delete. It is unlikely that some of these specific controls would be referenced in dialogue or plot summary individually, so they might as well roll up into the appropriate parent article (possibly Viper, since it's the only article that links to it). The odds of somebody typing "Attitude Indicator" into the search box on this wiki SHOULD be poor (unless/until it gets some major screen time).

I may take a look at the Orphan list and see if there's enough pages there to merit creating a box on the RDM portal for people to try to identify articles to either link to them or merge them with.--Steelviper 12:16, 23 May 2006 (CDT)