MarioWiki:Proposals

Writing guidelines
None at the moment.

New features
None at the moment.

Removals
None at the moment.

On ancient unsourced statements
This month's Shroom of Spotlight contains yet another unsourced statement that cannot be proven true or false. Such statements are very common on this wiki thanks to Nintendo's horrible habbit of removing everything that stops making money. Ancient unsourced statements sit in a permanent limbo: we cannot remove them and yet we also don't want them on the page. The next proposition will NOT apply for names in other languages or dead links. It will also not apply for relatively recent unsourced statements, they'll also be dealt with just as usual.

If despite all the efforts no source was found. If we know it is impossible or extremely improbable a source to a statement will ever be found, then any editor can just copy the unsourced statement, add a new message to the talk page with a template, and then delete that ancient unsourced statement for which we cannot find a source. This way if a source does surface, we can not only easily reinstate it, but we can also easily find these removed statements (a template adds a category to the talk page).

Example of a talk page message:

Couldn't find any evidence Nintendo has ever said this. -- 13:23, July 8, 2023 (EDT)

Proposer: Deadline: July 15, 2023, 23:59 GMT

Support

 * 1) Per proposal.
 * 2) This sounds like a terrific idea!
 * 3) Per proposal, the template idea is a great way to have the best of both worlds by getting rid of likely false information on articles while also still keeping it easy to access in case anything does come up.
 * 4) Per all.
 * 5) As Hewer says this is the best of both removing it and keeping it in case a source is found later.
 * 6) Having some proper protocol and place to put these weird edge cases definitely feels preferable to either nixing them entirely or potentially shoving them somewhere they don't belong, and honestly, we're a little shocked this wasn't already a thing considering how vast the Mario series is and how many of these weird little improperly-cited tidbits inevitably exist. Better late than never!
 * 7) I would prefer if the text was always placed below the template rather than inside it, but overall I agree.
 * 8) There's tons of random blurb and stuff Nintendo has long gotten rid of, with no way to access it again. See the argument about Wario's Warehouse, where a whole website was doubted completely to exist. It's tough, because much (if not most) unsourced statements about old Nintendo stuff are actually true, but on a website that relies completely on stuff that still exists, I guess we gotta do what we gotta do.

Comments
I do approve of the idea, I'm just not sure I understand the execution and how exactly the information will be displayed on the talk page using the template idea. If I understand how templates work, would the removed text be displayed *within* the template box? And if so, wouldn't it be better to simply add a generic template and then have the text be displayed below it (and above the comment from the editor)? Particularly because I imagine we would need to keep the text unchanged when moving to the talk page and it could be rather lengthy. 20:14, July 8, 2023 (EDT)
 * If the text is too large, they don't have to add it as a part of a template, they can also just paste it below it. Spectrogram (talk) 05:05, July 9, 2023 (EDT)

Question: what would we do with pages about ancient, unsourced subjects? A few months ago, Wario's Warehouse had nearly fallen victim to deletion (or moved to BJAODN) because the sources for its existence (the articles) were deleted by Nintendo of Europe, only saved because someone else did some deep digging and found another source that proved its existence. This wasn't just a mere unsourced statement on an article, it was an entire unsourced article that was chock-full of unsourced statements. If we encounter a page based on an unsourced subject next time, what do we do then? Delete the entire thing and archive it in its entirety on the talk page? Not only could that possibly be rather lengthy as LadySophie pointed out about archiving the statements (possibly even lengthier since it's an entire article and not a mere statement), but the talk page could possibly be difficult to find, or perhaps completely forgotten about, with its main article deleted and unlinked from all pages. 05:05, July 9, 2023 (EDT)
 * Such cases are way out of the scope of this proposal, and honestly it's better to deal with articles like Wario's Warehouse on a case by case basis (not without a proposal, of course). Spectrogram (talk) 05:09, July 9, 2023 (EDT)

Miscellaneous
None at the moment.