User:Vassyana/fiction

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a rant; it contains the ranting and raving of User:Vassyana. It is not a policy or guideline, nor an essay, and editors are not obliged to follow it. Discuss it on the talk page, if you have comments.

Fiction on Wikipedia is one of the worst examples of laziness over good standards.

Contents 1 Justification 2 Plenty of sources 3 Problems with being lazy 4 Just ... sad

[edit] Justification

The citing of the fictional material directly is most often justified by the supposed lack of sources addressing the topic. Like nearly all such complaints about a general lack of sources, this is just not true. (And regardless, if we don't have enough independent sources for an encyclopedic article, we shouldn't have the article.)

[edit] Plenty of sources

For any given show, even short-lived and relatively unpopular programs, there is a mountain of periodicals that explain the show's principal characters, plot and so forth. Such publications come in both mass-market and industry-orientated varieties. For popular shows, the coverage is intense within those periodicals and also includes numerous books dedicated to the program.

[edit] Problems with being lazy

There are OR elements of interpreting character traits and plots involved in directly citing artistic works. There are additionally NPOV concerns regarding what elements of the story and characters are important to cover that cannot ever satisfied by directly citing the primary material.

[edit] Just ... sad

To be honest, I find this appeal to laziness to be one of the most pathetic and disheartening aspects of the Wikipedia community. We're supposed to make a high-quality encyclopedia, accommodating those who cannot or will not access quality sources is not the route to take.