Forum:Discussion on Including Links to Elected Blogs in Articles

Welp, my intent is as clear as the title of this forum, but let's explain it anyway.

I think we should elect relevant, well thought-out blogs and essays to be included in articles. I believe that doing so will benefit the wiki, providing opinions without presenting them in the article as fact, turning this wiki into not only a source of information, but a place of scholarly discussion as well.

I thought of this when, as I was browsing through Bulbapedia, I saw this linked on the page about Ash's Charizard. It's a link to an article on their BulbaNews site, yes, but when you click the link there's a disclaimer at the top informing the reader that the article is based on the author's opinions, not fact. And the article is about Charizard's progressing personality and development throughout the anime series.

Which is something you can see in a lot of blogs. In depth examination of certain characters and aspects of the series that we cannot include in articles. Heck, I can think of a few blogs right off the top of my head that could be included in Spottedleaf's page that could never be added to the page itself. But, at the same time, these blogs add something to the encyclopedia, a new layer of insight that, yes, can be biased sometimes, but that's the point usually. It also provides a place for discussion that we cannot have elsewhere, save for the chatroom. But then anons cannot enter the chatroom, while they can participate in discussions on blogs.

This idea could also benefit the wiki by encouraging users to actually adhere to the essay policy and write out original, thorough discussions on various topics. Which is something a lot of us want to see, I think.

And, keep in mind, as I stated above only blogs and essays nominated, voted on, and passed by the community (or at least the projects in charge of the pages the blogs would go on) would be allowed to be linked in the mainspace.

I realize this might not be a popular idea, but I firmly believe in it and I wanted to share it. Thank you for your consideration.

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