User:Verdatum/FICT FAQ

This is a list of Frequently Asked Questions relevant to Wikipedia's Notability (fiction) article. This page was created in response to certain topics being brought up again and again on Wikipedia talk:Notability (fiction), wasting many editors' time and energy by forcing them to respond repeatedly to the same issues. The FAQ serves to address these common concerns, criticisms, and arguments.

In general, this is currently a "FAQ" in name only. The purpose of this page is to summarize controversial issues of WP:FICT. This page has been designed with similar intent as Talk:Evolution/FAQ and Talk:Muhammad/FAQ.

Spinout
The idea of this article to give consent to spinout articles has been under debate for quite some period of time. This information is presented as an attempt at a concise list of the arguments and key points made by various parties on the issue. It is an attempt to summarize the argument and serve as an archive of the arguments given in hopes to avoid needless repetition in the discussion. It is not meant to be a generalization of philosophies or beliefs of anyone as an individual or a group. Agreeing with one claim does not imply agreement with any other claim.

Editors are encouraged to edit this list; to add claims and arguments that have been overlooked, to add new claims and arguments as they are voiced, and to adjust claims and arguments that have been misinterpreted. It should go without saying, but edit-warring or gross nitpicking on the order of information should be avoided.

Claims by opponents of broad consent for spinout articles

 * Notability is not the only criteria for inclusion.
 * The criteria for inclusion of content and articles in Wikipedia is WP:NOT and is reinforced through WP:CONCENSUS.
 * Guidelines are designed to reflect consensus, not shape it.
 * Consensus (as evidenced by AFDs) is that articles on fiction that do not establish notability through verifiable real-world content from independent sources are often deleted.
 * Because almost all articles on fiction can be attributed to a notable parent-topic (Namely, the Topic of the fictional source), Allowing spinout articles by default gives a large loophole to allow all fictional articles to avoid deletion through AfD.
 * WP:N describes the notability of a topic, but there is/should be a one to one relationship between topics and mainspace articles, including sub-articles.
 * Spinout should only occur for subtopics that can also be established verifiable independent real-world notability
 * Removing content without removing the article just leaves it open for the content to be reverted by novice editors or fanatics.

Claims by proponents of consent for spinout articles

 * Notability is a signifigant criteria for inclusion of topics on Wikipedia.
 * Notability is not a criteria for content of articles on Wikipedia. (WP:NNC)
 * Articles and topics are not the same.
 * Per WP:SPINOUT, When the main article for a topic becomes too large as defined by WP:SIZE, sections may be split off into separate articles
 * There is not, nor has there been documented policy or guideline that these articles be notable topics by themselves.
 * Merges are cheap, so are redirects. They allow the continued exposure of the history of an article, which is normally hidden from regular users after an article is deleted.
 * Allowing spinouts is in no way an exception to policies like, WP:PLOT. However, AfD is WP:NOTCLEANUP.  Cleanup is a Surmountable problem that can be taken care of by being WP:BOLD.
 * Just because an article can be viewed as a subtopic of notable topic does not make an article a proper sub-article (aka spinout article in the course of this discussion). Only articles referenced by the parent article according to WP:SUMMARY should qualify for WP:NNC.
 * WP:FICT should likewise not govern content. Guidelines related to the content of articles about fictional topics are the scope of WP:WAF.
 * The directives described concerning sub-articles of fictional topics is really nothing new, and not at all unique to WP:FICT. It is merely the only place that explicitly states what ammounts to a logical synthesis of the afforementioned guidelines (SIZE, SPINOUT, SUMMARY, NNC).  (Note that synthesis of guidelines is not the same as WP:SYN which relates to Original Research in the main article space)

Generally undisputed points

 * No one participating in the discussion seems interested in Wikipedia being overrun with insignifigant in-universe detail about fictional topics.

Nondirected issues related to spinout articles

 * The term "Spinout article" is basically an invention of this article. Other guidelines use the term "Subarticle" to refer to articles created according to WP:SPINOUT.  Within the relm of this discussion, spinout article, subarticle and sub-article should be considered synonymous.

List articles
One given compromise is (and has been) to allow list articles. for enumerable content related to fictional content. This is considered preferable to individual small articles for each of the entries in such a list. There is question as to the allowed scope and notability requirements to create and maintain such list articles.