Board Thread:News and Announcements!/@comment-7971816-20180719095547/@comment-30952017-20180725162523

Janus100 wrote: The point of this wikia is The 100 series. Thus we should give priority to in-universe content. The majority of content on cast pages tends to be unrelated to the series. With so many in-universe pages needing help, I find it difficult to justify focusing on out-of-universe content.

Empty pages don't help the wiki. My general opinion for any sort of page creation is that the person creating the page should put enough content to justify the need for the page. An infobox plus default lead sentences is insufficient. For out-of-universe pages, the burden to prove the need for the page is even greater.

Specific examples: To be honest, I'm not convinced any of those pages are beneficial to this wiki's goal of covering The 100 series.
 * Shannon Kook: Character hasn't been mentioned, much less appeared. We don't even need a character page yet, much less an actor page.
 * Barbara Beall: While the actress has appeared in four episodes (co-starring), the character plays a minor role. Furthermore, the actual page is empty.
 * William Miller: Actor has appeared in eight episodes so far (guest starring). Page has bio copied from Wikipedia, however, it completely lacks content related to the series.
 * Chris Shields: Actor has appeared in eleven episodes (co-starring). Bio was copied from IMDb. Page has existed for over a year, is still a stub, and completely lacks content related to the series.
 * Raymond J. Barry: Actor has appeared in nine episodes (guest starring). Page has bio copied from Wikipedia and has one unique line related to series.
 * Imogen Tear & Lina Renna: Each actresses appeared in one episode (co-starring). Bios were copied from IMDb.

Going through these cast pages, the biggest benefit they provide is links to people's IMDb, Wikipedia, Twitter, etc. pages. If that's what's lacking from this wiki, then it can be achieved by creating a single "Cast" page. The "Cast" page can have table with cast member name, what character they portray, plus external links. Trivia like who's worked together before can be also added there (including for cast members who've appeared in less than x number of episodes). This way we don't lose any of The 100 related info without spamming this wikia with dozens of out-of-universe pages. (rough draft: User:Janus100/sandbox-Cast)

I'm also not convinced by the argument of if character played big role, we need a cast page. We only "need" a page for when there's good content for the page.

Issues with cast pages:
 * Content is unrelated to The 100.
 * Pages are often created and then left near empty.
 * Pages tend to get out of date with no one caring to regularly update them. (Having age in infobox basically guarantees this. Age problem can be fixed if editors used a template, but that's still ignoring the bigger issue of biography section and other information becoming out of date.)
 * Copyright infringement issue with copy-pasted text from IMDb & other websites (more on this below).
 * Editing & keeping these pages up to date shifts attention from in-universe pages that need help.

TotallyTinkerbell wrote: @Janus as far as content goes, there was a prior discussion about that somewhere on the wiki if I recall correctly? I remember taking particular note of the copyright issue with the wikipedia-reference at the bottom. Then again, I personally don't know much about American copyright so I let my co-admins handle that one. Do you think we're in trouble if we keep the content as it appears on most pages? Yes, it's fine to copy from Wikipedia as long as we include wikipedia reference at the bottom. This is because Wikipedia makes all their text available under CC BY-SA 3.0 license, which allows copying text as long as it's attributed back to Wikipedia.

Under US laws, text is generally copyrighted by default, so copy-pasting this text is copyright infringement. Unless a website specifically allows the use of their text (like Wikipedia does), text should not be copied (though segments can be quoted, i.e. put in quotation marks plus attributed).

IMDb is copyrighted and I don't see any exception to people's bios – that means that copy-pasting from IMDb would be copyright infringement.

Trouble is relative. Will IMDb or others go after us? Unlikely but not impossible. Is it technically copyright infringement and something we should try to avoid? Yes.

tangential discussion of character pages Often times a single-episode guest starring character has more impact then a 3-episode co-starring character. I think there's a good argument for "a very crucial role" character getting a page even if it's their first episode appearance. Though this is almost certainly a starring or guest-starring character, not co-starring. Co-starring characters, almost by definition, don't have a "a very crucial role".

I completely agree with this wiki providing in-universe content. Pages with good content, regardless of "black & white" rules, have never been deleted. As I stated above, my general opinion for any sort of page creation is that the person creating the page should put enough content to justify the need for the page. However, I think we're getting off-topic & should focus on cast pages for this discussion. It's true. Many pages are lacking content because people are too focused on making new pages for minor things, from what I've seen, many pages need help.