User:Tark/Sandbox
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 | These guidelines are still under discussion Notability guidelines for community topics are still under discussion and a final decision has not yet been reached. |
 | This page in a nutshell:
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Community topics are pages about notable content related to the Team Fortress series but not directly published by Valve.
Because the Team Fortress Wiki is treated as a reliable source of useful information by players, all new page additions are subject to review by staff and any other editors to ensure that they meet minimum quality standards. This includes official Valve-published content, but Community topics are particularly scrutinized due to past issues with such pages.
A significant amount of TF2 playtime is spent on Community servers where players are likely to encounter many modifications and related content installed. Therefore, our aim with these pages is to find a balance between documentation that is useful to players but with notability requirements strict enough that it doesn't devolve into an all-inclusive sprawl or allow opportunities for spamming, self-publishing, or self-promotion. Content that has a known presence and user base in the community is preferred and should be prioritized.
To maintain this standard of quality and avoid moderator actions, please ensure that the topic of your page meets the general guidelines outlined above and within the content-specific sections below. If staff find a page related to a community topic that doesn't satisfy these guidelines, they may create a talk page section asking you to join the IRC channel to coordinate edits. Or ask for clarification and request edits to make it fit the community topic guidelines. Otherwise, the page may be moved to a subpage of your User space without a redirect. Please note that due to the inherent difficulties of deciding notability with certainty, the problem might be as simple as lack of significant community presence and demonstrated user base.
| Community topics covered encyclopedically by this Wiki
Community topics not covered by this Wiki:
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Contents
General rules
As with any article, incompleteness, poor grammar, inconsistent formatting, and other quality issues are completely separate issues from notability — low quality is not a reason to tag for non-notability. All notable topic pages with quality issues can and should be fixed by normal editing. Severely underdeveloped pages may be moved by authors or custodians to User sandboxes until improved to at least stub quality. Similarly, there is no requirement that any stub be completed; some Valve map pages languished as stubs for years.
Please do not self-publish. Generally, to neutrally reinforce notability, a Community topic page should not be written by anyone who developed the subject of the page or with any other personal connection to the production of the topic.
Notability is forever. Once a topic is notable, it is notable indefinitely; even if a topic can no longer be found hosted in the Community, or by Valve (e.g., Asteroid), it still retains its notability.
Mod notability
A Mod is a community modification of a Team Fortress series game, which is distributed and hosted only by community servers or websites. Team Fortress itself was a mod of another game.
Mods will only be granted an article if they meet the following criteria:
- Running on multiple servers: The mod must be shown to be in use on multiple servers, run by different entities (meaning that if there are a half-dozen servers being run by one group or person, it doesn't count). These servers also have to show a reasonable amount of player activity, and not simply be empty all the time. If a mod is truly notable in the community, then players will request that server admins run the mod and/or plugin, and it will see reasonable activity onthose servers.
- Discussion among the community: Discussion of the mod must extend beyond the thread announcing its creation and development. It must be shown that the mod is actively discussed by multiple users over multiple communities, in order to illustrate its popularity among players.
- Reported in game media (blogs, YouTube, etc): A very good marker of popularity is if a prominent YouTuber uploads a video of gameplay of the mod, or a popular Twitch streamer plays it (with or without fans/subscribers is acceptable). Simply showcasing the mod over the course of a few videos and a few personalities is proof enough of trending popularity; it does not have to be multiple videos over a consistent time period.
Coverage of Mods should not serve as the website for the Mod. The creators/owners of the Mod have the responsibility of supporting it online as necessary.
Total conversions
Total conversion mods are quite a rare case, and are seen more so as individual games rather Mods of any Team Fortress game; and as such, are better off documented on their own wiki. What would be considered a total conversion would be:
- A mod that completely changes the play style or art style of the game, to the point where it is unrecognizable as a Team Fortress game.
- The mod is dependent on third-party software repository clients for downloading assets.
Variant games
Variant games or fan games are such complete conversions that they are in fact their own games and cannot be played except outside of any Team Fortress game. There is a large variety of Team Fortress-inspired/fan games; it is simply not relevant for the Wiki to document their presence and they are better covered by their own wiki. This does not include topics that are covered better by other wikis or sites that were published by Valve, such as Garry's Mod and Counter-Strike, or part of a Valve game promotion such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Community event notability
Community events are significant, higher-profile events sponsored by organizations other than Valve, such as content competitions, special server activities, charities, tournaments, campaigns, or tours. Community events have been a source of many custom maps, items, and other content that have been added to the game. However, Community events can be significant areas of activity in their own right, rivaling the popularity of some activities on official servers.
Community events will only be granted an article if they meet the following criteria:
- Promotion by Valve: Promoted through blog posts, news, and/or promotional items.
- Promoted as a TF2 Event: As part of the Steam Library update, Valve introduced a way for developers to prominently display important game events through the Steam Library. This should not be confused with regular announcements mirrored from the blog's news section.
- Running multiple event servers
- Significant participation: Player count, players earning rewards.
- Perpetual event: Event content is still used after event ended (e.g., maps, mechanics, etc).
- Not region-limited: Available to players worldwide.
Coverage of Community events should be no more than encyclopedic and should not perform the functions of the host's webpage. To ensure historical records are not lost, coverage should start from Valve's announcement and continue beyond the event. The article should:
- … include at least as much linkage to important information and resources for the event as the Valve announcement does (e.g., Valve’s announcement of Operation: Digital Directive provided no less than 6 links into the host’s website).
- … include updates for important changes in the event, such as calendar extensions or rule changes.
- … include event outcomes, such as participation numbers, achievement levels, contest winners, and charity donations.
- … include navigation to similar past events run by the present host and other past hosts as relevant.
Custom map notability
Custom maps are maps created by community map makers. Custom maps have gained popularity on community servers and have influenced gameplay within the official game, and some custom maps have also been included in the game by Valve as Community maps.
Custom maps will only be granted an article if they meet two of more of the following criteria:
- Original version: A custom map that was later modified into an official event map by Valve is considered notable (e.g., Rumble).
- Used in a notable community event: Winning or placing in a reputable and recognized community event supports notability (e.g., Probed).
- Rivaled Valve servers / Significant use: Custom maps with high player count and popularity on community servers over a long period of time (in order to avoid recency bias) are considered notable. (e.g., Achievement Idle in all of its variants).
- History making / Originated or promoted new community activities: Custom maps that played a significant role in creating or promoting new community activities are considered notable (e.g., Walkway).
- Perpetual event: Custom maps that were part of a community event and continued to be used after the event ended are considered notable.
- The following are difficult to assess but may support notability:
- Reported in game media (blogs, YouTube, etc)
- Discussion among the community
The following do not count as factors for notability:
- "This is a really good map.": Notability should be determined by a competition or community consensus.
- "Obviously, someone put a lot of time and effort into this map.":If so, then enter it into a competition!
- "Such and such have pages and they aren't notable, so this one should get a page, too.": Notability should be determined by policy, not by comparison to other content.
Coverage of Custom maps must conform to all policies and styles applicable to official map articles.
Custom MvM missions
Custom MvM missions are Mann vs. Machine missions created for use in a custom or official Mann vs. Machine map. Custom missions have been used in notable community events, however, guidelines are in place to prevent an overwhelming amount of non-notable or incomplete content from flooding the Wiki.
Custom MvM missions will only be granted an article if they meet the following criteria:
- The article is fully developed and complete: The article for the mission and the map should both contain enough information and media to be considered comprehensive and not lacking in content. Articles should be fully written before being published in the main namespace.
- For any maps and missions associated with a notable community event, all map and mission articles must be completed and polished on user space before being moved the main namespace (e.g., Operation Digital Directive).
- Used in a notable community map or official map
- Used in a notable community event
Coverage of Custom mission must conform to all policies and styles applicable to official mission articles. Any media must conform to the naming schemes and categorizations, meaning that files are to be prefixed with the event name, e.g. File:Operation Digital Directive Blimp.png and categorized under Category:Custom Mann vs. Machine missions media. In addition, articles should be categorized under Category:Custom Mann vs. Machine missions along with the event name, e.g. Category:Operation Canteen Crasher missions.
Community assets
Community assets are packs of content created by the community for use in custom maps and maps added by Valve. While some packs have been widely used and promoted by Valve, such as the Swamp Theme, Construction Theme, and Bullet Crops Project, the Wiki does not need to deeply cover all of them. Priority should be given to those that have been notably promoted by Valve.
Other less notable are better covered on their mapping platform (e.g., TF2Maps.net) rather than using the Wiki as a separate webhost or simply mirroring a webpage, as in the case of The London Pack.
Community patches/Fan updates/Showcases
Community patches, also known as Fan updates or showcases, are unofficial content releases, some with fanfare and "update days" that mimic official updates. Most of their content is only usable on community servers or not usable at all.
To avoid concerns of bias and the usage of the Wiki as a vehicle for product advertising and vote manipulation, this type of content is not considered notable.
Tags and assessment process
Tags are applied to Community topics, first to serve notice that the page undergoing review/assessment for notability, then to indicate that the page has passed the assessment for continued inclusion.
- Community topic pages not yet discussed for notability should be tagged to prompt assessment by editors under a Community topics notability assessment project. The template should look something like this:
{{custom content notice|assessment=no}}. - Community topic pages assessed as notable are tagged as such with link in the tag to the subpage where the assessment was recorded. The template should look something like this:
{{custom content notice|assessment=yes}}. - Community topic pages assessed as not notable are removed from the main namespace.
