WikiNarnia talk:WikiNarnia Format

Re-constructed Policy Page

 * The policy page isn't quite up-to-date. It hasn't been significantly edited since 2006, and there have been many discussions and decisions made since then. During the most recent wiki chat (see The Chronicles of Narnia Wiki/chat), it was decided that we should update both the clean-up page and the wiki policy page with our conclusions. This is the preliminary outline I came up with for the new policy page. Section I is essentially a more categorised version of the old wiki policy; Section II is mostly concerned with the decisions discussed on The Chronicles of Narnia Wiki/chat; and Section III is an introduction to using the wiki. This last is just my idea, not a result of wiki community discussion, and it may or may not need to end up on the final policy.
 * Although most of the policies expressed herein are the result of wiki community discussion, they are not set in stone, so please feel free to discuss them here. Also, my way of organizing the policies into sections has not been discussed as a group at all, so feel free to critique those. Once again, this is a preliminary version, and it's here to be discussed before we actually do anything more final with it. This discussion is open both to longtime contributors and to new members. If you're new to the Wiki, you can especially help by commenting on whether the definitions in Section II are confusing. (Please discuss changes in a separate section below--not in the "Suggested Re-organization" section--for readability. Thanks!) Lasaraleen Tarkheena (talk) 22:26, February 18, 2013 (UTC)

Current Policy Summary

 * Definition of Narnianization/introduction
 * Section 1: British English
 * Section 2: Write in-universe (and intro movie template)
 * Section 3: Past Tense
 * Section 4: Encyclopedia=>no opinions, with 5 exceptions
 * Section 5: How to deal with OOU stuff—brackets for a sentence, “Trivia,” “Notes,” or Behind the Scenes” for a section, OOU Template for article
 * Section 6: Don’t mention book titles
 * Section 7: Grammar and no fan-fic
 * Section 8: Quote template
 * Examples
 * Adapt template

Suggested Re-organization
(Note: I will use lettered/Roman numeraled, not numbered, sections, in order to distinguish suggested new sections from old sections. We may well want to change the letters to numbers later; this is just for clarity as we discuss the two different policy page organizations.)
 * Definition of Narnianization/introduction/adapt template (essentially unchanged from current version)
 * Section I: In general, articles should be written as if Narnia Wiki were a formal encyclopedia about actual historical events. (This section contains essentially the same information as the old policy page. I haven't fully typed out the information, because we can just use what's on the page already for the most part. I suggest we use good/bad examples throughout, instead of the big one at the end on the current policy page.)
 * A: Historical Point of View
 * In-universe (Old Section 2)
 * Past Tense (Old Section 3)
 * How to deal with OOU stuff (Old Section 5)
 * B: Formal, Encyclopedic Style
 * British English (Old Section 1)
 * Quote Template (Old Section 8)
 * Try to avoid book titles (Old Section 6; slightly modified)
 * Grammar (part of Old Section 7)
 * Awkward, unnecessary phrases to avoid (not in Old)
 * “Nothing else is known about ___.” This can be simply left off the end of an article. It can be assumed that if there were more information to be had about ___, you would have put it in the article.
 * “He was described as being ___.” Although this is technically an in-universe perspective, it is awkward, wordy, and informal. Instead, use “He was ___.”
 * Others?
 * C: Things that don’t belong in articles
 * Opinions (Old Section 4)
 * Fan-fic (part of old section 7)
 * Section II: What is IU, OOU, Canon, Deserving of article? (This section is entirely new, and reflects recent discussion on various talk pages (especially Prince Caspian movie) and wiki chat (see The Chronicles of Narnia Wiki/chat).)
 * A: Definitions
 * In-universe (abbreviated IU): “In-universe” describes anything that exists in the fictional alternate reality in which all of the Chronicles are factually true. All of the places, people, and events described by the books are in-universe. Also, it is possible for a thing to be both in-universe and real. For example, Lewis and the Chronicles are IU because, in the fictional alternate universe in which the books’ events occurred, Lewis actually wrote the books.
 * Movie-universe: This one's more complicated. Movie-universe describes anything that exists in the fictional alternate reality in which all of the movies are factually true, but NOT in the fictional alternate reality in which all the books are true. For example, Lucy Pevensie is NOT movie-universe, because she exists in both the books and the movies. The Green Mist is movie-universe because it exists in the movies and not in the books. Any article about something movie-universe should have the Movie template. (See Section III, Templates.)
 * Out-of-universe (abbreviated OOU): If you understand IU and Movie-universe, this one’s easy: Anything that is not IU or Movie-universe is OOU. (Movie actors, for example.) Any article about something OOU should have the Out-of-universe template. (See Section III, Templates.)
 * Canon: “Canon” applies to anything that describes in-universe things. For example, the books are canon because all of the events, people, and places described by the books are in-universe. (That is, they exist in the alternate reality in which the books are factually true.)
 * Movie Canon: "Movie Canon" applies to anything that describes movie-universe things. For example, all of the movies are movie canon. (In other words, Movie Canon is to Movie-universe as Canon is to in-universe.)
 * Deserving of an article: This is distinct from all of the previous terms. There are IU, OOU, and Movie-universe things that do deserve their own articles, and there are things from each category that don't deserve their own articles. For example:Lucy Pevensie (IU), Ben Barnes (OOU), and The Green Mist (Movie-universe) all deserve articles, but Zebras (IU), individual creatures seen only in movie concept art (OOU), and Pig People (Movie-universe; see Beast) do not.
 * B: Books
 * IU: All facts about book publication are IU. Treat them like history books.
 * Canon: All events described in Lewis’ text are IU.
 * Deserve articles: Each book deserves an article
 * Things described deserve articles: All events, people, and places directly referenced in Lewis’ text (as distinct from the illustrations) may be given an article.
 * C: Movies
 * OOU. Facts about the making of the movie are not IU or in the movie-universe.
 * Movie Canon: Things described by the movie and not by the book are movie canon.
 * Deserve Articles: Each movie deserves an OOU article.
 * Things described deserve articles: All named characters, all events, and all places not in the book but seen in the movie deserve Movie template articles. Species seen in the movie, none of whose members have names, and which are not mentioned in the book, should be added to the Adaptions section of the Beast page.
 * Special Note: Things described differently by books and movies deserve: IU articles about the thing as described by the book with an “Adaptions” section detailing the differences between book and movie from an OOU perspective.
 * D: Video games
 * OOU
 * Non-canon OR Partial movie canon—DECISION (Are characters described in the movie but only named in video games IU? I suggest not: it draws a cleaner line between canon and non-canon and is less confusing.)
 * Deserve articles: Every mass-produced, Narnia-based video game deserves an article.
 * Things described do not deserve articles, although they may be given re-direct pages to the video games to which they pertain.
 * E: Book Illustrations
 * IU: In-universe, Pauline Baynes and all of her illustrations exist.
 * Canon: Baynes’ illustrations are considered factually reliable in-universe.
 * Deserve articles: The illustrations as a whole deserve an article; so does Pauline Baynes.
 * Things described DO NOT deserve articles, unless they are also in the text. For example, one of Baynes’ illustrations portrays a zebra, but zebras are not mentioned in Lewis’ text, so zebras do not deserve an article. They are in-universe (because the illustrations are canon), and may be mentioned in articles, but they do not deserve their own.
 * F:Movie Concept Art
 * OOU
 * Non-canon
 * Deserves an article
 * Things described do not deserve articles, although they may be made as re-directs to the movie concept art page.
 * Section III: How to use the wiki (I haven't done much with this section yet, and I think I am not the best person to do it. Storyseeker1, you do more with putting pictures on the wiki; do you want to take over this section?)
 * To get to source mode
 * Creating Headings
 * Creating Links
 * Creating links with display different from destination
 * Adding Pictures
 * Templates (adapt, OOU)
 * Delete template and protocol
 * Re-direct pages
 * For extra help
 * Section 4: How to properly construct a page (This is not something I've done much thinking about, and it's definitely not something that has been directly discussed. It doesn't have to be extremely prescriptive, especially at first, but I do think we need some standardization in this area. Below are a couple of ideas for specific regulations, but these are just my own thoughts and still need to be discussed as a community. Also, their current organization is in order of which one I came up with first, so this section--if we decide to keep it-- will need to be re-organized once we have a firmer idea of what to say.)
 * Characters: Character pages should contain the following: a brief (one sentence) general introduction followed by the headings Physical Description, Personality, and Role in the History of Narnia.
 * Places?
 * Events?
 * Actors?
 * Books?
 * Movies?
 * Citations section: All pages should include a "Citations" section, with references from movies (use the abbreviated movie title) and/or books (use the abbreviated title (LWW, PC, VDT, SC, HB, MN, LB) and the chapter number), if appropriate. Other sources may also be cited here. This section should always be the last section of the page.
 * Adaptions section: If the subject of an article is IU but represented differently by movie canon, the thing should be discussed as a normal IU character, place, or event according to the books' description. An additional Adaptions heading should discuss the differences between book and movie from an OOU perspective.
 * Behind the Scenes section: This section is optional for any IU or movie-universe page. It may discuss from an OOU perspective OOU trivia, facts about the making of a movie, connections between the story and real events, etc. For example, a Behind the Scenes section of the Lucy Pevensie page might reference Lucy Barfield (a Lucy Lewis actually knew).
 * Anything else?

Discussion
Discuss changes, both to this organizational strategy and to the policies it describes, here. Lasaraleen Tarkheena (talk) 22:26, February 18, 2013 (UTC)