Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24081824-20160718235446/@comment-23.122.217.39-20160816163136

My thoughts on the proposed problems and solutions:

1. I would not link to them through the wiki as they are now. They are too poorly written and translated and in their mistakes directly contradict several facts of the series. However I am interested in a method using disclaimers.

I am sure this would be seen as going out of our way a little but I would actually suggest a separate article altogether which could be used to link to and recommend/warn against fan translations of the series (something similar in form to the Vocaloid wiki's recommended/unrecommended translator list I would think). This way fans who think "better than nothing" can still easily find them to read, and they can know what they're getting into. I think this would also go a little way towards increasing translation transparency, by showing the translations that are being drawn from for information and article writing and their estimated reliability.

Translations like Cloture would be put on there with disclaimers such as "unofficial, done as a translation of a translation by a group with largely undisclosed skill level at least one of whom was not fluent in any of the languages involved and another only basic knowledge of Japanese, very little creative writing fluency".

Translations like Price Check's would be put on there with disclaimers such as "unofficial, still prone to some mistakes and awkward wording due to inexperience, very very far from complete".

A little underdeveloped as an idea I think but just a thought.

2. I'm in favor of all of these proposed methods. None of them seem mutually exclusive to me.

3. I wouldn't cut down to a brief summarization of a character's history. I think it might have gotten a little lost in the discussion but my position is more a matter of cutting down conversations in articles that go like (as a fake example) "Mariam went to talk to Ney, who said that she was feeling a little under the weather, to which Ney added contritely that it was probably all the bleu cheese she ate yesterday, which made Mariam laugh and gently pat her on the head before saying she should get a little rest and heading out of the room again". We don't need to know what exactly was said in the conversation and the precise wording used if not all of it is plot relevant. Such a section could be written instead as "Mariam went to see Ney, who explained she was feeling a little sick from eating bleu cheese, and so Mariam told her to get some rest before leaving". Like I said in the previous discussion thread, whether or not Gallerian stretched his legs before putting the book down after reading it is not relevant to anything at all, and I don't see how extraneous facts like that are useful to anyone. The wiki is NOT a primary source, as much as some of us here would like to use it as one.

I don't want to make this a case of "we either cut it down a LOT or not cut it down at all". I think there are legitimate writing criticisms to be made with the current method, which to me has always felt like "put as much in the article as possible to pad it out", which shows up in more than just the History section. I said it a while ago too but for example Gallerian's personality section fabricates entire personality traits based on a single encounter and makes three paragraphs on his behavior that essentially say the same thing three times but worded differently.

If nothing else though, yes we should have tabs. I just don't want to make this a case of "who cares if the writing is terrible because it's in another tab".

4. I don't know much about coding tabs so don't have anything to say on this.

5. Seconded. I think there also needs to be a page for clear writing and translation standards when it comes to working on articles on here. Things like when to add certain information, how and when to add citations, standards on interpreting information, expectations on grammar, writing style, as well as how to handle re-translation votes and such. Stuff like that has been a little nebulous on here, and while not all of it needs saying I think there's a tendency for people to stagnate without an admin's go-ahead. Having a list of rules like that might make it easier for wiki members to do more than spelling corrections autonomously.

I also think we should have an easily accessible checklist that everyone can use to see what still needs to be done on the wiki, similar to the personal checklists a lot of users have.