Forum:Essays

''Feel free to treat this like a talk page and use : to reply with comments on specific sections. This one is going to be a fairly long discussion with many various things that will need to be discussed as we head towards some sort of consensus.''

Considering the recent outbreak of Essays that has happened we need to quickly start putting together some thoughts on how to handle them. While the Essay Template is a good start, I really think that all essays must be required to add something to the community.

Examples of what Kitsu feels is suitable & Unsuitable
Below are examples, including why I think the way I do, about essays

SUITABLE
 * Eu's essay on BloodClan's Future is my example of the suitable end of essays that we should permit. While I'm not sure I agree with the idea of lumping all essays by a user into a single subpage of their user space (linking individual essays would be harder), Eu has selected a topic to explore, and does while discussing the content of the books. Perhaps some formating for clarity would be nice, but for a first draft it's not bad at all.

UNSUITABLE
 * 75.178.72.194's essay on Brambleclaw, Warrior of ThunderClan. Between the fact that it's written by an IP user who will never be able to properly take credit or be held accountable for the essay, and the fact that it simply re-iterates information about the character with a few adorations from the user sprinkled through it... Well.. it simply dosen't add anything of note to the Wiki.

Number 1 : Policy or Guideline
I know we need at least a guideline that can be used in deciding when it is and isn't appropriate when essays come up on AfD. And we have to accept that Essays will frequently come up on AfD, even if it's just once we have a better nomination process in some of our younger community members use AfD to attempt to silence Essays that are counter to their point of view on the subject. Kitsufox ( Fox's Den ) 16:31, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Number 2 : Where should essays be stored?
I don't really feel that the Mainspace is appropriate for eassys, which are personal work. But I also feel that a single page (as Eu is currently executing it) isn't appriate either. Particularaly depending on the answer to the next item. Kitsufox ( Fox's Den ) 16:31, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Number 3 : Should Essays be linked from articles?
I think this could be very beneficial to the Wiki, but we're going to want to be careful about when we permit it (to ensure that the focus is still on development of main articles). Perhaps open Essay link sections in "See Also" on characters would be appropriate on Bronze or Silver level articles, but definitely nothing lower than Bronze. It would encourage new editors to join, and encourage them to focus on getting main articles relating to topics of interest to them up to the point where they can add their essays. Kitsufox ( Fox's Den ) 16:31, 14 November 2007 (UTC)