It has come to my attention that this Project M thing is getting pretty big: it already has recognition and equal standing to the three real games on SmashBoards and in tournaments. And now, multiple people are requesting that we do the same here.
At present, SW:NOT defines that we should keep away from fanon and fan games due to the impossibility of defining a notability criteria. However, Project M has a few properties that make it hard to fit into this generality:
- It defines its own notability criteria by being the only Brawl hack to reach widespread public recognition and tournament participation.
- It is only ambiguously a fan game, as it is a hack and not a bottom-up recreation. Highly notable hacks do have a place on-wiki.
The current policy on notable hacks (including Project M) is to contain all info about the hack on a single page and refrain from mentioning it on other pages. This debate is to determine whether we should change this policy, and in what way.
Process
This page has several sections. Read every section before you vote in any of them; some are mutually exclusive. The rules of voting are as follows:
- Place your vote in each applicable section. Make sure to sign your votes.
- You may include a reason with your vote, or you may not. If you do choose to include a reason, do not argue with what others have already said, as this is sure to be a controversial subject and arguing doesn't help anybody. Instead, put your entire opinion on the table. Express your reasoning as completely as possible, preferably without referring to anyone else's reasons, so that you will not need to elaborate in the future.
- If what you want to see has no option, vote in whatever's closest and state what you want to see as your reason. If enough others decide to side with this option it may be added for real.
- You may change your votes and/or reasons at any time, ensuring that it still conforms to the above.
- Votes that are unnecessary (a "no" in a subtopic where the user already voted "no" in the parent topic) will be deleted. Unsigned votes will be deleted, as will those with incorrect formatting. Reasons that break the given guidelines will be removed; the vote itself will remain. You can re-vote later if you do it properly.
- As with everything on the wiki, winning the vote does not guarantee winning the decision. Weight is given to arguments and voters' on-wiki experience. Recruiting new users from offsite to vote for your side will not help.
Topic: Allow Project M to have independent character pages
Note: A "Yes" decision here implies that relevant images, templates, and categories will also be allowed.
TCP: YesPlace your vote here if you would like to see
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TCP: NoPlace your vote here if you think Project M character info should remain on the hack's main page.
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Subtopic: Allow Project M to have moveset subpages
Note: If you voted "No" for individual character pages, do not vote here (your vote here is assumed "No").
STMS: YesPlace your vote here if you would like to see the moveset subpage project extended to PM.
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STMS: NoPlace your vote here if you think the effort required to extend the project is not worth it.
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Topic: Allow Project M to have other independent pages
TOI: YesPlace your vote here if you would like to see pages for other things that are PM-exclusive, such as stages and techniques.
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TOI: NoPlace your vote here if you think Project M stage and technique info should remain on the hack's main page.
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Topic: Give Project M equal standing with the real games
Note: "Equal standing" does not mean "part of the Smash Bros. series". The series itself will always be only the official games; the phrase "the Smash Bros. series" does not and will not refer to PM.
TEQ: YesPlace your vote here if you would like to see things like PM information in game-agnostic articles and PM links in infoboxes.
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TEQ: PartiallyPlace your vote here if you are okay with PM information in potentially any article, but only as a subset of Melee or Brawl information.
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TEQ: NoPlace your vote here if you think info about Project M should not be visible on any page that is not directly related to the hack.
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Subtopic: Usage of Project M article icon
STAI: EverywherePlace your vote here if you would like to see the PM article icon on any article that mentions it.
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STAI: LimitedPlace your vote here if you think the PM article icon should only be on PM-exclusive pages.
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STAI: NonePlace your vote here if you think PM should not even get an article icon.
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Votes: Delete notable hacks such as Project M from the wiki
Finally, there will be those who do not believe that even the most notable of hacks deserve representation on a wiki whose mission statement is to document the Smash Bros. series as unbiasedly as possible. This section is for those people to post their votes. If you intend to vote here, do not place a vote for the other topics.
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Preliminary verdict
As of this time it appears the community's opinions have become mostly clear:
- Project M is too big to ignore, and with the widespread character changes and much-hyped additions, the project should get independent character pages if nothing else.
- Moveset subpages are not currently of importance; the effort required to create and maintain them during active development is not worth the benefit.
- There isn't currently enough notable changes aside from characters to warrant independent pages for other elements.
- Important PM notes can be noted in non-PM-exclusive articles, but as a whole should remain cordoned off in the main article.
- Using a PM article icon is acceptable for PM character pages and tournaments.
Should the discussion close now, this is what would happen:
Character (PM)
pages would be created for all Brawl characters plus PM additions. They would be placed inCategory:Characters (PM)
and the like, and given the PM article icon.- Tournaments holding PM events would get the PM article icon.
- Categories such as
Screenshots (PM)
would be created as necessary. - Pages can have minor PM-related notes added, such as putting something like "In PM, the detection angle is reverted to Melee's range, so spikes exist" in the Brawl section of the meteor smash article.
- Policies such as SW:NOT would have exceptions added for PM.
If you have a serious problem with going forward with this as written, and you feel like you need to say something you haven't said above, speak now. Remember to only state your full opinion and not argue with others'. Remember that like all wiki policies, this can change in the future if enough support arises, but as of this time this is what would happen. Toomai Glittershine Le Grand Fromage 12:26, 3 November 2013 (EST)
- The only capacity in which character pages for Project M should go forward is as clear subpages to the Project M subpage itself. I repeat that it should not even be mentioned in the mainspace outside of articles specifically about hacking/mods and pages for tournaments that include Project M events. SmashWiki should keep its mainspace emphasis quite strictly on the actual official games of the series, regardless of Project M tournament play. Miles (talk) 12:32, 3 November 2013 (EST)
Point number two: As long as there are people willing to write the moveset subpage articles (which there will be), I don't see what's wrong with having them, and the information can be changed as the game is developed (which shouldn't be hard to do). Awesome Cardinal 2000 18:07, 3 November 2013 (EST)
Point #3 - I don't think we should always put P:M notes onto pages if it's not important. If it's something new that P:M adds, like input buffer control, there could be a mention of it on a related page that discusses how Brawl has the 10-frame buffer. However, for spikes, it's already assumed that P:M reverts it back so we don't necessarily need that information. --Timson622222 (talk) 00:02, 9 November 2013 (EST)