Board Thread:Wiki-Related Discussion/@comment-5679696-20150105234331

Hello everyone! Are you excited about the second half of Season Four? I deinetely am!! Anyway, there are lots of things we still need to figure out here at the Once Upon a Time Wiki, and Applegirl and I thought it was right about time we asked you all about a topic that has never been properly established: what makes an element of the show important enough to have an article of its own in the wiki? I apologise beforehand for the tediously long thread, but please, read the whole thing before you answer. Well, here we go: =3 Possible Points of View= I am going to make a list of all the possible points of view regarding this matter trying to be as objective and unbiased as possible, and I will separately give my opinion on each of them. Feel free to disagree with me: your opinions are as valid! :)

Extremist Page Creators
Some wikis adopt this kind of policy. They create a page for every single thing that could have at least a sentence written about it. To quote a wiki of this kind: [...] there's no such thing as an article that's "too small" or "too insignificant". If a noun appears in a narrative we cover, it almost certainly deserves its own article here. [...]

For instance, you might not think there is an article called Glasses because it's such a mundane word. [...] Sure enough, we do indeed have an article called Glasses.

My Opinion on Extremist Page Creation

 * Killian Jones says: I think this is not the solution we are looking for. Would you imagine, having a page for every single thing that appears on the show? Dog-necklaces, lunch-boxes and cutlery? Nope. I believe that is not what we are looking for. Next.

Pages for MAJOR stuff ONLY
Some users argue that we should not have pages for some elements because they only appear in one episode or two. Arguments have taken place in regards to this kind of thinking for cases such as the Cheshire Cat, Silvermist, or Midas' Castle. According to this point of view, only major elements deserve pages.

My Opinion on Pages for MAJOR stuff ONLY

 * Killian Jones says: I am firmly against this. For one, let's bare in mind that the Once Upon a Time Wiki is an ENCYCLOPEDIA, which leads me to the third option:

Encyclopedia
For the sake of that term, I'm going to quote a definition from Dictionary.com: Encyclopedia: a book, set of books, optical disc, mobile device, or online informational resource containing articles on various topics, usually in alphabetical arrangement, covering all branches of knowledge or, less commonly, all aspects of one subject. Exactly. All aspects of one subject is our case. Key word: all. This is not to be confused with the Extremist Page Creator side, but rather sticks to the very escence of Wikia: to be a online community driven encyclopedia. This means we should have pages for every relevant element of the show. This includes characters/locations/items which take place in on screen interactions with other characters/locations/pages importantly enough for a regular view to remember, but NOT background elements.
 * Relevant Elements: these elements include major elements (Emma, Snow White, The Enchanted Forest, Storybrooke, the Dark Curse, Henry's Book, etc.), elements of varying importance (Red Riding Hood, Archie Hopper, Neverland, Storybrooke Library, Arendelle, etc.) and minor elements. Minor Elements are relevant to the show. They might not appear on every episode nor be of extreme importance, but without them everything would be different. Examples of Minor Elements are the Cheshire Cat (without his interactions with Alice, the Knave would still have stolen her wishes somehow and not help her rescue Cyrus), Midas' Castle (without it Snow would have never stolen the enchanted ring /in the alternate reality/ and Emma would've never had her first ball), etc. etc. According to this point of view, Minor Elements DEFINITELY deserve a page.
 * Background Elements: these elements are those who add nothing to the show. The storyline could work just fine without them. This characters are good left in the Lists of Characters, where they ALL the information that can be provided about them is given due to it not being enough for a page. Examples of background elements are Trish (that girl who Regina killed in "The Doctor", you probably didn't remember her), the Ogre who didn't even speak in "The Thing You Love Most"

My Opinion on the Encyclopedia
=Chosen Option= I clearly think we should clearly root for the Encyclopedia option. Let's be true to our purpose, and strive to be as good an encyclopedia about Once Upon a Time as we can! =YOUR TURN!= Are you still with me? Have I bored you to death already? I hope not! Please share your thoughts regarding this matter, and thank you for your time. 
 * Killian Jones says: I agree completely with acting as the encyclopedia we are, and having pages for all relevant elements (major, debatably important and minor), but not for background elements.