Forum:Amendment to Trivia guidelines (complexity)

This is a closed discussion about an accepted proposed change on SmashWiki. It remains for archival purposes. The closing administrator adds: "Line will be added to SW:TRIVIA and the guideline will now be a policy."

During most of my time on this wiki, there's been a lot of people, IPs in particular, that try to inflate trivia sections with overly specific items, such as this, or this, or this, or this, or this. Many of these get reverted anyway, or in the case of the latter one, rewritten and simplified, but my main argument is that not restricting the level of complexity allowed on trivia, which by the way should be something that can just be skimmed through anyway, people will be able to add all sorts of qualifiers to make trivia out of literally anything. I feel like we should probably amend SW:TRIVIA to include a item on complex trivia for "What makes bad trivia". It should probably go something like this:

• Complexity. "Roy is the only playable character who debuted in the Super Smash Bros. series worldwide, debuting in Melee. Outside Japan, though, he shares this distinction with Marth and Corrin, which had their first games released overseas in 2009 and 2016 respectively, plus Lucas, that never had his game released outside Japan." Adding qualifiers to trivia points or adding sub-notes in brackets will only serve to dilute what constitutes notable trivia. Trivia needs to be detailed, but it also needs to be simple and easy to understand.

Let me know what you think, as well as how to improve on this. Black Vulpine of the Furry Nation. Furries make the internets go! :3 04:32, 6 August 2018 (EDT)

Support

1. Alright I believe this is a great idea that'll greatly benefit SmashWiki, after all my first edit was on a trivia section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by CaptainDabsalot (talk • contribs) 08:16, 6 August 2018 (EDT)
2. If you have to be extremely specific to get your point across, then there's not really a point in putting it down. Some pieces of trivia do have to be long and complex, but in those cases, it's only because they cover a lot of content, not because they have specifics that make them valid. Aidan, the College-Bound Rurouni 19:45, 6 August 2018 (EDT)
3. This will definitely improve the quality of trivia. Awesomelink234, the Super Cool Sonic Fan Leave a message if needed 19:48, 6 August 2018 (EDT)
4. "Simple and easy to understand" is what trivia is supposed to be for. It's not supposed to force the reader to hunt down the part that actually matters. Serpent  King 19:50, 6 August 2018 (EDT)
5. Works for me, although because, as Aidan cited, there are some cases that it's necessary, the inclusion of a "usually", "most of the time", or "with few exceptions" might be necessary. TheNuttyOne 19:54, 6 August 2018 (EDT)
6. Some of the example edits you listed don't make sense anyways and are hard to understand so I agree. MHStarCraft 13:44, 7 August 2018 (EDT)
7. I think this is a great idea, as trivia sections tend to be some of my favorites. This will definitely make the trivia sections more neat and even accessible in some ways. Dakota 952 02:31, 12 August 2018 (EDT)

Comments

On this note actually, I'm curious. How many of you think that SW:TRIVIA should be a full policy instead of a guideline? Serpent  King 19:50, 6 August 2018 (EDT)

Historically, I've often been calling it a policy instead of a guideline, and had to be careful not to do that here. I honestly think it should be a policy. Black Vulpine of the Furry Nation. Furries make the internets go! :3 19:52, 6 August 2018 (EDT)

...It's not a policy?

It definitely should be. TheNuttyOne 19:55, 6 August 2018 (EDT)

I always thought it was a policy? I believe making it a policy would benefit it alot. Dakota 952 02:37, 12 August 2018 (EDT)

Anyone else have anything to say on this? I feel like we will need to extend this discussion to decide on whether or not SW:TRIVIA should be converted into a policy, as per SK. Black Vulpine of the Furry Nation. Furries make the internets go! :3 20:40, 11 August 2018 (EDT)