Forum:Policy Overhaul pt 1: The Essay Policy

Alright, many of you know that last February I started this forum about overhauling the policies. However much interest I got initially, the forum petered out before anything was done, half from my own forgetful nature and half from trying to undertake a task that was too large for a single forum. And so I'm splitting this up into individual forums, one for each policy.

Herein I start the wiki-wide discussion on the overhauling of the essay policy.

Alright, I've personally been upholding what the essay policy is meant to represent, and I've even written a blog about it that has since been linked in the essay policy. However, I feel it'd be best if my blog were basically... transferred into the policy.

Not without the input of the rest of the wiki first, of course.

Honestly, the biggest problem with the essay policy is that it doesn't directly mention blogs at all. A user that gets his/her blog deleted could get the deletion revoked simply by pointing this out, even if the policy does cover blogs in spirit. I think if we take steps to alter the essay policy to specifically mention blogs, we'll go a long way to making it much more relevant and solid than it is at the moment. For now, technically it could be said that it only covers essay subpages that users can make and not blogs.

In any case, this is what's in my aforementioned blog:

What Can and Cannot be Made Into a Blog
The simple way to know what can and cannot be made into a blog would be just reading the essay policy, because said policy also refers to blogs, but here I'll specify.

Here are some examples of what would be a good blog that I'd never think to mark for deletion:


 * A discussion of the pros and cons of SkyClan's attack on Shrewtooth's former Twoleg.


 * A discussion about whether or not Erin Hunter should include homosexual characters in their books.


 * A review and discussion about Midnight.


 * A discussion about Sorreltail's life.


 * A discussion about the likelihood of the badger attack happening again.


 * A discussion of the books in general.


 * An important announcement (i.e, you found out that one of the Erins uses this website, or this website is being featured by Wikia)

Note that almost all of these examples have the word "discussion" in them. Keep that note in your head, it'll be important later.

And now onto the more common types of blogs I find that are deleted without a second thought when I point them out to admins:


 * What would x and y's kits be named?


 * What would x's name be if they became a warrior instead of dying/ leaving their Clan?


 * What would be a better name for x?


 * Pick your favoruite character/shipping/etc!


 * Pick your least favourite charcter/shipping/etc!


 * Who is the most evil cat?


 * Pick your favourite X from this list of X's.


 * I think this list of names is weird.


 * What would happen if X had never died?


 * Any discussion not dealing with Warriors and only Warriors (i.e, nothing about Survivors or Seekers or any other book series unless you're using it to compare to Warriors, and even then the main subject of the blog must be Warriors)


 * Any blog complaining about the wiki or wikia (Take it somewhere else. We do care about any complaints you might have, but blogs aren't the place to make them).


 * Anything that isn't canon (no fanfiction or roleplay whatsoever in any place on this wiki, period)


 * Any blog attacking any individual or group. (writing such blogs will get you banned as well as getting your blog deleted)

Just to name a few.

And then it's just down to how your blog should be written. A poorly written blog is just as likely to get deleted as a blog that violates policy.

Tips on Writing Blogs

 * Always be open for discussion. Like I pointed out above, these blogs are here for discussion of topics only, not just for statement of your opinion alone. If you want to just put out your own opinion, make an essay page, not a blog.
 * Actually discuss your topic of choice. Don't jot down one or two sentences and leave the rest to comments, because that is also a violation of the essay policy. Your blog should look like an essay. If you're unsure of that, just look at some of the blogs I've put out. Unless you're just making an important announcement, your blog should at least be the length of a paragraph or more.
 * Use proper grammar and spelling. Don't expect people to take you seriously if you can't, and it's against this wiki's policy to do otherwise in any case. Proper grammar and spelling needs to be used in all parts of the wiki, including blogs and comments on blogs. The occasional spelling mistake is understandable, but when every other word is misspelled or you're trying to type in 1337 language, you'll get nowhere fast.
 * Do not use excessive caps. TYPING LIKE THIS ISN'T A MATURE WAY TO GET YOUR POINT ACROSS. If you must emphasize a point, make it bold or italicized, but not in all caps.
 * Respect the opinions of others. This does apply to comments more than it does to blogs, but this is important. Don't insult anyone for having an opinion that conflicts with yours. Don't act childishly by calling someone a "meanie" or "stupid" or any other insulting thing you can think of for having an opinion different than yours. This is the planet Earth, with over 7 billion people on it. People are going to have opinions unlike your own. Get used to it and respect people.

Of course, this blog is a bit informal and could use some tweaking if anything in a policy is to be made resembling it.

So let's work together on this, shall we? 04:01, July 17, 2012 (UTC)

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