User:J.J.Sagnella/RuneScape Fansite

Two sites currently listed
Currently two fansites are extremely close to each other in terms of Alexa rank. In order to remain balanced, contributors to this article have agreed to include both as external links. This is a temporary measure and an attempt to be even-handed - once a clear lead is established the situation will revert to normal with a single site listed, whichever it may be. This paragraph will then be removed. Please see below for JJ's reasoning on keeping at one link, which will once again come into play. QuagmireDog 05:44, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

On the main page there is a single fansite and I know some of you may be wondering why this is so. Well I will now tell you how we got to the current solution, and why it isn't getting changed.

History
Back off in January 2006, I made a new solution of how to sort out Runescape's umpteen links and we eventually decided to get them down to 5 fansites-RuneHQ, tip.it, sal's realm, zybez and runevillage.

So everything was going well for the fansites.The top 5 were there and although there was a little bit of vandalism, we changed it to say Selected Fansites which countered most of the vandalism.

Unfortunately we ran across a problem. At 5 fansites, what was there to say we couldn't have more. Some fansites clearly outdid RuneVillage and could be used and we had a hard time trying to tell them, we can only have 5 fansites when there was no rule for 5.

Unfortunately this plan was destroyed on the Seventh of May as an adminstrator decided that there were too many.

But Then a new idea came up. And so, despite a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_talk:RuneScape/Archive01#My_proposal_for_fansite_links. small argument] it was decided as a very stable idea. An adminstrator also decided the idea was good. So we settled down as of June 12th 2006 that the current situation is best.

Reasoning
Now, I'm suppose you're wondering is why we chose that fansite and not any other decision. Well if you click on small argument you'll see the full reason, but it is certainly in-depth and I understand some people don't have the time to read it. So I will now sum it up.

Wikipedia has a rule saying that one fansite may be included on the terms of the fansite added being the highest traffic around. "On articles about topics with many fansites, including a link to one major fansite may be appropriate, marking the link as such. "

RuneHQ is the highest traffic fansite and hence may be linked to. The current decision is final and will not be changed.

Helping Your Fellow Contributors - by QuagmireDog
The fan-site debate has caused a lot of discussion, which is great since that's what WP is about, but this discussion has explored all avenues. Please consider these points and the above text before bringing up this subject:

1) If you are thinking "It's unfair that RuneHQ gets all this traffic" then stop right there. What's fair to a RuneScape fansite is of absolutely no concern or consequence to WikiPedia or WikiPedians. The purpose of WikiPedia is to provide its readers with valid and concise information, the readers of this site are where our loyalties lie, not anyone's favourite fansite. Make sure you are crystal clear on what WP is and what WP is not before you start getting blinkered by loyalties to a fan site.

2) Fan-sites are game-guides and meeting places for players to discuss the game. In terms of providing useful, relevant and concise information to non-players, their impact is low. Quality and format take second place to quantity. Adding a slew of game sites to the bottom of the page is the same as someone asking "what can you tell me about the Ford Escort?" and having a stack of Haynes Manuals dropped in their hands. It's one form of very specific information delivered in one format, a bigger stack of manuals means more of the same with minor differences, providing no great amount of new material and not helping if the information is in the wrong format in the first place. Fan sites are to help players, Wikipedia is here to inform non-players of exactly what RuneScape is. If you check out WP:EL you will see how low a priority it is for fansites to be listed underneath articles at all. The subject of WP:IGNORE has arisen. This policy is designed to stop WP rules from throttling the encyclopedia and to preserve WP's aims - to provide as much valid, non-biased and useful information as possible for everyone to use. It's a straightforward aim and WP:IGNORE has a straightforward purpose - that purpose is not to allow those with an agenda to switch the fan site or compromise the article as they may wish.

3) WikiPedia is one of the most popular and regularly used websites in the world, the WP article for RuneScape is one of the most heavily editted articles on the entire encylopedia, out of more than 1.4 million articles. Think about that for a second. Every time this subject comes up (and it has come up many times), time is spent away from working on WP and is instead spent talking about an open-and-shut and incredibly minor aspect of the article. Remember that for all this talk, we are discussing a single link at the bottom of this