Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 06:53, 16 September 2007

This page documents an English Misplaced Pages notability guideline. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page.

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This page in a nutshell: Articles about topics within a fictional universe are notable if they provide sufficient real-world information in well organized units. Non-notable information should be deleted only when all other options have been exhausted.

This guideline has recently been updated. If you have been familiar with this guideline in the past, then you may wish to review the page.

Misplaced Pages:Notability (fiction) covers the notability of fictional characters, items, places, and other elements within a work of fiction. For notability guidelines on works of fiction themselves, see one of the following: Misplaced Pages:Notability, Misplaced Pages:Notability (books), Misplaced Pages:Notability (films), Misplaced Pages:Notability (web).

From Misplaced Pages:What Misplaced Pages is not#PLOT:

Misplaced Pages articles on published works (such as fictional stories) should contain real-world context and sourced analysis, offering detail on a work's development, impact or historical significance, not solely a detailed summary of that work's plot. A brief plot summary may be appropriate as an aspect of a larger topic.

From Misplaced Pages:Notability:

A topic is presumed to be notable if it has received significant coverage in reliable secondary sources that are independent of the subject.

This guideline defines notability for fiction by elaborating on the above excerpts.

Defining notability for fiction

For articles about fictional concepts, "reliable secondary sources" (a major factor in the general notability guideline) cover information such as sales figures, critical and popular reception, development, cultural impact, and merchandise; this information describes the real-world aspects of the concept, so it is "real-world content".

Based on this reasoning and the above excerpts, articles about fictional concepts are notable if they contain substantial real-world content from reliable primary and secondary sources. These topics are also organized into complete articles instead of numerous small ones. To ensure that our articles are adequate for inclusion, notability must be established within a reasonable time of the article's creation. After notability is established, the article is presented correctly.

Dealing with fiction

The following sections use the term "article" to encompass articles, sub-articles, and lists.

Notable topics

Topics within a fictional work (characters, places, items, concepts, etc.) are covered in the article on that work of fiction, with two exceptions:

• If these concepts are by themselves notable (meaning they include substantial real-world information as mentioned above) and an encyclopedic treatment causes the article on the work itself to become long, then the concepts are split into succinct sub-articles that maintain such an encyclopedic treatment; this shows that the information is notable enough to stand on its own. However, the material should be well organized; excessive sub-articles lead to disorganization and unbalanced coverage.
• Although the sub-article may be kept if is there is a clear availability of real-world information, please do not create sub-articles until this material is added.

Non-notable topics

Articles that do not show notability can be kept for a short time, merged, moved elsewhere, or deleted.

• The article can be kept if an obvious potential for notability (i.e. an availability of real-world content from reliable sources) is shown, or such information is added to the article. If this obviousness is challenged, the sources should be shown or included.
• Parts can be merged to a notable article to provide better context. If material is merged, the article is not deleted per the GFDL. In-universe information should be condensed and removed as necessary, and meaningful real-world content should not be deleted. If the article becomes too long and a split would create a sub-article that does not establish its own notability, then the content should be trimmed.
• The article is transwikied to a suitable Wiki (such as Wikia or its Misplaced Pages Annex) if the above options are unavailable. The article is then redirected to the most relevant article to preserve edit history for the transwiki.
• The article can be deleted only if the above options are either redundant or unavailable.

Articles that have potential to show notability should be given reasonable time to develop. To avoid this problem, do not split or create content unless the new article includes substantial real-world content (and ideally an out-of-universe perspective) from the onset. Editors must prove that there is an availability of sources covering real-world information by: providing hyperlinks to sources detailing real-world information about the topic; outlining a rewrite, expansion, or merge plan; and/or gaining the consensus of established editors. Otherwise, the article will be subject to the options mentioned above. Place appropriate clean-up tags to stimulate activity and mark the articles as sub-par (but with potential).

Articles that are too small or narrow in scope — even if they are notable — should be merged into a larger article to avoid disorganization and a potential overload of plot summary.

Fanfiction and unreleased fiction

Fanfiction is seldom notable, unless the work has significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject. Examples of fanfiction include: anything self-published, put on fanfiction.net, or done by vanity press; information about a player's character in roleplaying or MMORPGs; and unofficial computer game modifications ("mods") or custom maps.

Fiction not yet written will often be considered speculation, which is grounds for deletion because Misplaced Pages is not a crystal ball. This includes not-yet-released books, movies, games, etc., unless there has already been substantial press coverage about the to-be-released item.

Examples

For examples of high quality fiction articles, see the articles that have been rated as Good and Featured.

• Superman is widely known beyond the original work he appeared in, with plenty of information available, including newspaper coverage and literary analysis.
• World of Final Fantasy VIII, Characters of Final Fantasy VIII, and Clone Wars (Star Wars) were evolved from lists of terms, characters, events, and concepts into articles with both real-world content and an out-of-universe perspective.
• The article on Prince Hamlet contains significant real-world information about the character; he has his own article.
• The 1st Battle of Sarapin summarized a portion of the plot for the game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. Relevant information was merged into the plot synopsis of the Galactic Battlegrounds article, and the 1st Battle of Sarapin link now redirects there.
• Alyosha Karamazov is a major character from the novel The Brothers Karamazov. He is covered comprehensively in the Brothers Karamazov article, and the Alyosha Karamazov link redirects there for convenience due to lack of real-world content.
• The Xenosaga lists on planets, terms, and organizations had no chance of showing notability, so they were transwikied to the Xenosaga Wikia and redirected to the main Xenosaga page.
• List of Star Destroyers was deleted because it failed to include the substantial real-world information required to show notability. The information was already available on Wookiepedia and a merge was considered unnecessary, so deletion was the suitable option.

Relocating non-notable fictional material

Wikibooks, Misplaced Pages's sibling project, contains instructional and educational texts. These include annotated works of fiction (on the Wikibooks:annotated texts bookshelf) for classroom or private study use. Wikisource, similarly, holds original public domain and GFDL source texts. See Wikisource:Wikisource and Wikibooks. One possible action to consider is to make use of all of the Wikimedia projects combined: to have an encyclopedia article about the work of fiction on Misplaced Pages giving a brief outline, a chapter-by-chapter annotation on Wikibooks, the full source text on Wikisource (if the work is in the public domain), and interwiki links joining them all together into a whole. However, Wikibooks opposes in-universe books, so it is not an appropriate place to transwiki large quantities of in-universe material.

Fictional material unsuited or too detailed for Misplaced Pages can be transwikied to the appropriate Wikia, such as Final Fantasy Wikia and Wookieepedia. Other sites, such as Gaming Wiki, may also accept material. Transwikied material should be edited to meet the guidelines of specific wikias; do not just copy and paste. The Wikia Annex is a staging area for transwikied material and a place for non-notable fictional material that does not have another home; the original Misplaced Pages versions will also be stored there.

See also

• Misplaced Pages:Guide to writing better articles#Check your fiction
• Misplaced Pages:Television episodes
• Misplaced Pages:Fancruft
• WikiProject Novels guidelines on plot summaries
• WikiProject Films guidelines on plot summaries
• WikiProject Soap Operas guidelines on character articles

• Misplaced Pages notability guidelines