Metroid Wiki talk:Quality Standards

1. All content is to be written in formal American English, not British English, Australian English or any other variation of the English language.
2. Even though the games of the Metroid series are originally published in Japanese, the translations and localizations of Nintendo of America are taken to be canon at Metroid Wiki.
3. Articles are to be named and written, and games quoted, using Nintendo of America’s translations.
4. Although the original Japanese can greatly differ from the English translations, these differences are not to be mentioned or noted in the main body of the article, however, significant differences can be mentioned in the trivia section of the article.

I don't see that these rules have any merit, or that they reflect the desires of the community.

For the first, leaving out or adding a u is not going to hurt anyone. Banning what comes naturally to a large number of English speakers, on the other hand, can drive users away. That's not something that we want to be dealing with from the get-go.

For the second, the Prime Games are originally published in English. Also, it's hardly logical for us to decide what constitutes "canon". We have no more insight into it than the average user will, so why not let them decide for themselves what to take as canon?

For the third, there are no NOA translations for any of the Manga.

The fourth is very problematic. Differences between different versions of a game are just as much Metroid info as anything else, and users may want to know about them. Furthermore, Metroid Prime has extremely significant storyline differences even between different English versions of the game released in the USA. Would this also be relegated to the trivia section? If so, what would go in the "plot" section, the original release, or the most recent release? And why?

Twentytwofiftyseven 00:27, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

I have to agree with Twentytwofiftyseven. We should not make rules that have little effect on the actual article, but might be taken offensive by potential contributors like the American Language enforcement (which, in my opinion, is fine for article titles alone).

Defining "canon" ourselves seems to be in conflict with the meaning of canon itself, as we can only assume that there is a specificly defined Metroid canon if Nintendo actually said so themselves.

I also agree that the Metroid Prime article should get an entire section devoted to the differences between the original and the newer story. - Cobold 00:31, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

I also agree with 2257. First of all, the purpose of this wiki is to provide all of the official Metroid information available; limiting ourselves and readers to American games has no meaning. As 22 and Cobold said, we can't establish what "canonicity" is by ourselves. In my opinion, any version of the same game, whatever language it uses, is just as "canon" as the other. And as for the fourth point, I don't see what can be accomplished by forbidding any Japanese differences to be written. If we do that, we're not providing all of the information possible to the readers. --Garlic Man 02:27, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Based on the fact that all of three of you are admins at SMW, I need to remind you that the policies of Metroid Wiki, are in unison with those of ZW.org, as per Nathan, the founder's, wishes. It may be more the fact that you aren't used to these policies, because in the use of them you may find they work, unlike how you state. In short, policy is something for the staff to decide, so we will take into account what you have mentioned. To briefly address the points. Wikis are about consistency. One of those things is language, and so, articles are written in American English. Simple. No that won't stop new editors; new editors don't really read the policies anyway in reality. It is the patrollers job to check such things, and as users become more experienced they adopt this. For the record, I don't use American English, so this is annoying for me too, but consistency is more important. That one is very unlikely to change.

In regards to what is canon, yes that is for fans to decide, but again, being a wiki based in the US we use those versions. Stories can differ across languages, so we want consistency. Are the Metroid games not made by, Nintendo of Japan, which would mean that the original versions are in Japanese. In articles you can mention differences in English versions and re-releases and so on, just don't base articles off Japanese versions. Yes, you can have sections on different versions, look at ZW, just don't go nuts on the Japanese. Anything to do with Manga has yet to be added to the standards and is yet to be decided.

In all, I don't think any of these are going to change immediately. Perhaps a rewording to clarify is in order. They have their groundings, like them or not. They have been used at ZW for years and are not an issue. They will nevertheless be discussed amongst the staff. -Melchizedek  ^talk 02:46, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Hey guys, so we actually discussed this in staff chat, and were presently making some changes that better suit everyone, I feel. We will be using a consistent language in text however, meaning since this is an american based Metroid Wiki, we will use american english in the context of the text of the articles. However, you will be able to note name differences, and other significant differences, between game localizations within the context of the articles. Some other big changes were made too, as I agree as the founder of this place that these rules in that of themselves were way too restrictive. I hope you find the new policies to be much better, and I would appreciate feedback on them. Nathanial Rumphol-Janc 03:41, 30 January 2010 (UTC)