Forum:POV and verifiability policies
I will make this as brief as I can. I would like to draft up a more in-depth explanation of TSW:NPOV and emphasize the importance of that policy for TSW. Right now it reads as a guideline, which is to say that NPOV is a mere suggestion and not a bedrock principle of the wiki. I believe that we should be clear to edit that policy with a great amount of leeway (so long as we keep within the meaning of the policy) since it is an already-established principle and practice on the wiki.
Additionally, I think we are long, long overdue for a discussion regarding the verifiability of facts and observations on the wiki. It's important to appreciate, first off, that any sort of citation/reference expectations that a wiki like Wikipedia would have simply wouldn't work here. Nevertheless, I believe it is important that all facts stated on TSW articles be able to be verified, even if verifying them would involve a player loading a game, digging through game code, or looking at things through the use of a mod or 3rd party program like SimPE. A policy regarding venerability and references would clarify how editors should cite their sources when making factual claims in articles, as well as what to do when information can't be verified or when the factuality of a particular piece of information is in doubt.
I am aware that this sort of topic is by its very definition somewhat "dry," but I hope that we can get a good discussion going here, even if just focused on the principles of NPOV and verifiability. My ultimate goal is to get some policies drafted that will either clarify TSW's current standards on the matter, or else establish the new standard going forward. In order to do this, however, we would need community consensus, which necessarily involves community participation. -- LostInRiverview talk · blog · contribs 05:59, February 15, 2018 (UTC)
- What type of edits were thinking of making to the NPOV policy? Otherwise, I agree with the point about factual information on the wiki. I would support a policy overhaul to strengthen such measures. Ѧüя◎ґ (talk) 06:22, February 15, 2018 (UTC)
- I don't have any sort of changes drafted (yet) but basically bringing it more in-line with Wikipedia's write-up. Not copying their write-up explicitly, but giving a more in-depth explanation of what NPOV is, how to ensure that articles are following NPOV, what to do if there is disagreement about particular facts, etc. Our NPOV guideline right now basically says "make sure the articles are neutral" but doesn't go into much detail as far as how to determine whether something is neutral or not, or how to address a lack of neutrality. Neutrality is one of The Sims Wiki's "5 pillars" (shamelessly stolen from Wikipedia) - the five pillars are "the fundamental principles by which The Sims Wiki operates" - so it seems to me that more elaboration on this particular pillar is in order. -- LostInRiverview talk · blog · contribs 06:36, February 15, 2018 (UTC)