Kerbal Space Program Wiki:Discussions/Fiction

The subject of this poll is the presence of fictional material on this wiki: whether it should be allowed, and, if so, to what extent. Currently there is no consensus about this topic and multiple pages containing fictional material exist.

Non-fiction can be defined as any information directly given by the game, any real-world physics information that applies to the game, or any information about the in-game universe that can be reasonably assumed from the game itself (i.e., the reference to IKEA in Category:RKEA Inc. or to MPEG in Category:Moving Parts Experts Group). Names of craft may also be included in the descriptions of screenshots without being considered fiction.

Whatever the result of this poll, the use of fiction will not be prohibited in userspace, (any page beginning with User:… or User talk:…), tutorials, of campaigns. Listing names of fictional craft in screenshots, or in fiction in userspace, tutorials or campaigns, won't be prohibited if the results of this poll favor a ban on fiction. As in the Wikimedia projects, such as Wikipedia, any user may put almost anything in their userspace (provided, of course, that it is appropriate and legal).

Arguments

Pro fiction

1. Fiction could provide new players with mission ideas, such as a flight sending Bill Kerman to the Insular Airfield.
2. The presence of fiction helps promote the exchange of fan ideas and the growth of the KSP fan universe.
3. By allowing fiction, people can get both fictional and factual details about the KSP universe from this wiki. (See "one common place" below).

Contra fiction

1. It can be hard for readers to distinguish between non-fiction and fiction. (See 'Distinguishability' below).
2. As of now, there is no consensus on the KSP wiki about which users, if any, are permitted to invent fiction about the KSP universe. This could lead to internal inconsistencies and disputes.
3. Other places for KSP-themed fanfiction (e.g., the "Fan Works" board of the KSP forums) already exist.
4. Some people may prefer to invent their own mission ideas.
5. Some wiki users may be annoyed by the presence of information on the wiki which is not actually confirmed in the game, and may only want to see factual information from KSP itself.

One common place

The wiki creates a single, shared space in which many users can write their own fanfiction. Although there are other places in which KSP-themed fanfiction may be found, many new (and even some veteran) KSP users, especially those who prefer to use the KSP wiki as their sole source of KSP-related information, are unaware of them.

Distinguishability

For an inexperienced reader it can be difficult to distinguish between non-fiction and fiction. Since this wiki is one of the primary resources for new users seeking to learn about how KSP's game mechanics work, this may create confusion.

Although it is possible to use templates like {{Fiction}} to mark articles or sections about fiction, this cannot be applied every time; for example, some image captions and sub-areas of sections may be fictional, while the larger section or article remains factual. For example:

“

Bill Kerman as happy as a kerbal should be in Eva outside the Reco Space Station in the good old days when he worked for Insular Inc. — Article, about Bill Kerman as of 02:44, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

”

Another problem is when linking to a section of a fictive article. For example, previous revisions of Crew had sections about all three default kerbals. Now, when someone wants to link to Bob Kerman, the author would use Crew#Bob Kerman to link to Bob. The problem here is that this will jump over the fictive warning. A reader might not notice it and think the information there is factual.

A possible way to circumvent it is to use a special name space like “Fiction”. The current timeline article then can be placed in Fiction:Timeline. Furthermore, fictional information can then be separated there from the non-fictional articles. Of course the reader then needs to be aware of the "fiction" namespace, so linking to fictional articles, like [[Fiction:Bob Kerman|Bob Kerman]], should only be allowed from other fictional articles.

Authorship

Another issue with fiction is that this is a wiki. Obviously, there is no single author, and all users are free to edit pages. This could easily lead to arguments about whether or not fictional stories and information ought to be left intact. Edit wars caused by these arguments could possibly be worse than those occurring on factual articles, since there is no official "correct" version of the original information.

While this problem can be a tricky one, if more than one person imagined different things about the same subject, then the subject page could just contain links to the different people's imaginings, or have a 'like' system for (registered?) users, with the most liked imagining appearing on the page & the others with their links at the bottom of the page.

Votes

This poll hasn't started yet so votes previous to the start might get ignored.

(Suggestion:) Each user on this wiki, if eligible, has two votes. A simple superiority, meaning contra or pro reach more than 50 % of the votes, is required.

Eligibility

To avoid using sock puppets only users with an account created prior to the 16th January 2014 00:00 UTC are eligible. Accounts created since are eligible if they made at least non-fictional edits in two different articles.

Pro fiction

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Contra fiction

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My two votes to keep it factual. --Brendan (talk) 02:23, 11 July 2014 (CDT)

Do not accept this poll

This poll hasn't started yet so votes before the start might get ignored.