User blog:Lord Boots/Potential Problems and Solutions for the Dishonored Wiki

It has come to my attention in the writing of this Wikia that several inconsistencies, hypocrisies and hypothetical 'nails' exist within this wiki's administrative functions. Inconsistencies in page layouts, Manuel of Style guidelines, and an overall lack of an active user base threaten this wiki's ability to engage an active community of readers to ensure the competitive nature of this Wikia to become and remain an accurate and reliable source of information on the Dishonored franchise as a whole. It is not my intention to sound arrogant, bossy, or presumptive, nor do I intend to 'force' any of these possible solutions upon you, the administrators and users of this site. It is merely my hope that through the accurate listing, presentation and collection of various possible future difficulties for this wiki to remain not only relevant, but exude a certain aura of 'professionalism' that inspires a certain confidence in users about this wiki's individual standing within the Wikia community, that real and lasting change can be made to improve the ease of management and ability for the creation of new pages to this nexus.

I do not intend to list 'personal grievances' or 'feelings' on this post. But to present various problems faced by the community in general that attain to this wiki's immediate ability to remain relevant in the face of the soon-to-be massive expansion of the Dishonored franchise.

This post is not intended as an attack on the administration of the wiki, nor is it intended to be a 'one-size fits all' solution to any of the potential problems listed here. Please do not interpret this post as a personal insult against the functions of this wiki, nor as an attack on any specific individual. As they say at the end of movies, "any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental."

Definitions of Terms
Throughout this post, various terms will be and shall be used that may not be familiar to various users of this community. In addition to vocabulary or 'slang' that to some may sound foreign or be unfamiliar with, a list of terms that may cause some difficulty for the understanding of this text and its message shall be provided below. In addition, any word that holds a double meaning, or may mean different things and be interpreted differently from person to person shall also be listed.

Various snippets of text shall be borrowed from Wookieepedia, the Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia for clarity and sentence structure in a way I could not fathom writing. (To address concerns over my undoubted bias towards the Star Wars wiki, please see the Sentiments Against Implementation & Conclusion section at the bottom of the page.)

In-Universe
If something is in-universe, or is described as such, it belongs to the Dishonored universe exclusively and not to the real world. Characters, for example, are in-universe, but the actors who play them are out-of-universe. Another example is that the correspondent in-universe term for the Gregorian calendar is the unique Calendar, which is the common timekeeping method in Dishonored. Pseudohistory is an integral part of in-universe treatment of canon material.

Out-of-universe
Out-of-universe refers to the perspective in which an article is written; it is the opposite of in-universe. Something written from an out-of-universe (OOU) perspective is written from a real-life point of view. It will refer, for example, to real-life publications, actors, authors, events, and so on, acknowledging that its subject is fictional. In contrast, an in-universe perspective will strive for verisimilitude; that is, it will be written as though the author existed within the Dishonored universe. Articles about any in-universe things, such as characters, vehicles, terminology, or species, should always be written from an in-universe perspective. If a section in the article is not, such as the listing of a character's published appearances or behind the scenes details, it should be tagged as such. In contrast, articles about books, movies, games, or other real-life Dishonored material should obviously be written from an out-of-universe perspective, but should still be noted as such. Basically, in-universe articles should never refer to Dishonored by name, or any other real-life things such as publications, actors, or the like.

As such, an in-universe article should never link to an out-of-universe article unless the link was provided in an out-of-universe section of an article that contains both in and out-of-universe information. For example, Trivia is considered being written from an out-of-universe perspective, while the history or Dunwall Tower, for example, is not.

Section 1A: Lack of Categorization

 * Throughout my tenure on this wiki, it has come to my attention that there is a chronic lack of categories and subcategories for various articles and topics. For example, major events such as the Siege of White Cliff are listed simply under the main category "Lore," and the sub-category "Timeline." Additionally, things from Audiograph Players to Tallboys are simply mentioned under "Technology." With another game coming out along with the addition of three novels and a comic book series, these categories will soon be overcrowded.

Section 1B: Lack of Page Guidelines

 * While viewing various pages on the wiki, it has come to my attention that various pages on a similar topic (For example, the individual islands within the Empire of the Isles) each present information in a different format. For example, the page on Morley has the headers "People," followed by "Culture" and "The Morley Insurrection." While the article on Gristol is formatted "Industry and Trade," then "Culture" and then "International Relations." The same goes for game abilities and items the player can acquire. Thus, it is obvious that this lack of cohesion in the presentation and formatting of pages is not only confusing, but counter-productive to creating a professional wiki.

Section 1C: Lack of the Past Tense

 * When Dishonored was released, it took occured in one place, at one time. Now. However, Dishonored is no longer a singular game occurring within a singular year, but a multi-media franchise spanning an entire timeline well over 5,000 years long. As such, use of the present tense is no longer feasible, nor practical. For example, we know that the upcoming comic books take place within the fifteen years between the original Dishonored and Dishonored 2. Likewise, a series of novels shall be concurrently released in an unknown time period concurrent with the then released game Dishonored 2 alongside the comic book series. As such, there will be three separate stories spanning three different points in the chronology, thus the use of "is" and the present tense would be inappropriate, for when the "now" is will be different for each character in each of the three upcoming stories.

Section 1D: Lack of English Punctuation

 * The Manuel of Style dictates that this wiki shall use the U.S. English spelling of words, (i.e. Theater instead of theatre) however it also dictates that the wiki shall use British punctuation, (i.e. "Finished". Instead of the U.S. "Finished.") This is not only confusing, but also not widely followed by the community. If one were to take a look at the punctuation usage of almost every page on this wiki, almost every article uses the U.S. English form of both punctuation and spelling.

Section 1E: Use of 'The' in Article Titles

 * As Wikipedia states:

"Convention: In general, a definite ("the") or indefinite ("a"/"an") article should be included at the beginning of the title of a Wikipedia page only if at least one of the following conditions is met:

If a word with a definite article has a different meaning with respect to the same word without the article, the word with article can be used as the name of a page about that meaning, and the word without article can be used as the name of a separate page.

For example, "crown" means the headgear worn by a monarch or other high dignitaries, while "The Crown" is a term used to indicate the government authority and the property of that government in a monarchy.

If the definite or indefinite article would be capitalized in running text, then include it at the beginning of the page name. Otherwise, do not (except in the case of musical groups; see below).

For example, The Old Man and the Sea includes the article "The" because sentences such as "Ernest Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea in 1951" are written with a capitalized "The".

On the contrary, United States does not include the article "The", because sentences such as "California is part of the United States" are written with a lowercase "the"."


 * Therefore, articles such as "The Academy of Natural Philosophy" should drop the "the," while the book The Academy of Natural Philosophy should keep it. This is for the same reason why the link to the Empire of the Isles is not "The Empire of the Isles."

Section 1F: Use of Unnecessary Plural Forms in Article Titles

 * As described in Section 1E, the use of inappropriate use of the 'The' in article titles is described. Likewise, the inappropriate use of the plural 's,' such as in Tallboys instead of the singular 'Tallboy' poses another irksome manner.

Section 1G: Lack of Italicized Article Titles

 * As stated in the Manuel of Style, "Game titles should be italicized." However, if one were to go to the page of the first game, Dishonored, they would find that the world "Dishonored" is both bolded and italicized, however the article title, that is, what appears at the top of the screen, is not. This is not only counter-productive, but confusing and presenting incorrect information. Furthermore, the names of ships such as The Undine (Which should drop the "The," as stated in Section 1F) do not have the "Undine" properly italicized for being the name of a sailing ship. For example, the RMS Titanic. (Owing to the numerous discussions about this topic in the past, a special section shall be devoted to it in the "Sentiments Against Implementation" section of this post.)

Section 1H: Mixing of In and Out-Of Universe Within Articles

 * The Definition of Terms at the beginning of this post describes the definition of in and out-of-universe. As such, this section shall assume that the reader is familiar with the terminology and does not require further clarification. As such, the mixing of the out-of-universe and the in-universe within articles is rampant across this wiki. For example, the page on The Void describes it as “an alternate dimension in the Dishonored universe that "hungers for a representational, godlike entity" Keyword, "in the Dishonored universe." Not only does that break the rule of in and out-of-universe information, but wouldn't be accurate considering that as each new game came out, it would have to be updated by saying "within the universes of Dishonored, Dishonored 2, the Dishonored Comic Book Series" and etc.


 * Furthermore, the page goes on to specifically mention real-life game director Harvey Smith, by saying "...according to developer Harvey Smith, "The Void sometimes has a divine entity, and sometimes does not. Some last for thousands of years. Sometimes the gap between them lasts as long. Each takes on the attributes of the time or process that made it." Furthermore, it also mentions gameplay info by stating, "Corvo Attano first visits the Void after the mission Dishonored, at which point he is marked by the Outsider and receives the Heart. Daud and Delilah Copperspoon visit the Void in The Brigmore Witches DLC during the mission Delilah's Masterwork."


 * Furthermore, this practice is frowned upon within the current Manuel of Style, which states that "Articles will be written from an in-universe perspective."

Section 1I: Lack of Appearances Section

 * An appearances sections' primary goal is to list an item, character, or object's "appearances" within differing works within the Dishonored franchise. As such, an appearances section for Corvo Attano would read Dishonored and Dishonored 2. Incidentally, the appearances section for the game Dishonored would mention Corvo Attano as appearing in it. This not only allows for a way for users to see what appears in a certain game, but also allows us to track when an item/object was first introduced into the canon. For example, when Dishonored 2 comes out, instead of the laborious task of creating numerous pages on various topics as they appear, a user could simply provide a redlink in the appearances section on the Dishonored 2 game page for an article that needs to be created. As such, it allows users to see what articles need creating relating to the game in question, and is a good way for determining the "article count" for various topics. (The appearances section, owing to its likely tendency to become "overcrowded," should be placed in a scrollbox and sub-divided into various sections, such as Individuals, Events, Missions, and etc. The appearances section is thus out-of-universe. Additionally, the use of a "first appearance" or "mentioned only" template could go a long way for indicating how something either first appeared in the game, or was only vaguely mentioned. For example, Serkonos was first mentioned in Dishonored, but made its first appearance in Dishonored 2.).

Section 1J: Assumptions and Speculation in Articles

 * It has come to my attention that in various articles across the wiki, assumptions and speculation occasionally appears as being placed within the "main body" of an article. For example, the article on Whale Oil Tank states how "They appear to be quite heavy, as guards are seen carrying full tanks over their shoulders." While mentioning how they are heavy is a good thing, they way in which the info is phrased is not. As according to the above sentence, we could also assume that perhaps the guards in question were relatively weak, along with a host of other ideas. Thus, rephrasing it to remove "speculation" and "assumptions" could read "The tank could be plugged into various magnetic sockets utilizing Sokolov technology, a task carried out by workmen or lower guardsmen with only slight difficulty owing to its heavy weight."

Section 1K: Lack of Stub Articles

 * This article often takes links for people, events and places to a part of another page. For example, the most known example is the Morley Insurrection being redirected to an entire section devoted to it on the page on Morley. Furthermore, any link to the title, Royal Protector, is linked to a book of the same name, and not to an appropriate page for the position, its etymology, and etc.

Section 1L: Need for an Active Community

 * It has come to my attention that a majority of the edits and changes to this wiki are made by a small group of a dozen or so individuals with close, personal connections to one another. As such, the danger of stagnation and a lack of an active user base threaten this wiki with inactivity and the possibility of vandal edits sneaking through.

Section 1M: Unprofessional Comment Section

 * If anything, this is more of a personal gripe, but not without valid, logical reasons to support it. While the comment section does foster a sense of user engagement, it also makes a page look unprofessional and can result in a long list that makes one's scrollbar become the size of a hypothetical peanut. In addition, many of the comments are of the "who's ur Fav character" and "What the #1 weapon in the game" genre.

Section 1N: Lack of Infoboxes

 * Infoboxes serve as a way for the reader to gain pertinent and often-looked-for information on a subject quickly without scanning the body of an article to find what they need. As such, this wiki lacks infoboxes for almost everything save characters, missions, games, and governments. Without infoboxes, this wiki makes it harder for users to quickly find what they need, and reduces their experience while using this wiki.

Section 1O: Need for an Updated Main Page

 * The current Dishonored Wiki main page refers to the game as a singular entity, stating, "Weclome to the Dishonored Wiki. The wiki about Dishonored, a game developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks." It fails to mention Dishonored 2, the upcoming novels, comic books and etc. As such, it should read along the lines of, "Welcome to the Dishonored Wiki. The wiki focused on covering all of Bethesda Softwork's Dishonored franchise." Or something of that sort. In addition, the 'content' box only lists content from the first game. Instead, it should include links to the games, comics, novels and etc. And provide links to major characters and topics within those respective products.

Section 2A: Creation of Additional Categories

 * As stated in Section 1A, more categories should be created to improve the behind the scenes administrative organization of the wiki, and to prevent category overflowing. While it may be presumptive to create a plethora of categories at this immediate moment, categories for major things such as "Conflicts" and "Vehicles" and etc... Should be created.

Section 2B, (Addressing 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 1G, 1H, 1I, 1J): Expansion of the Manuel of Style

 * As stated in Section 1B, page layout guidelines should be added to the Manuel of Style to ensure consistency across pages on the wiki. For example, a page on an island/landmass could read:


 * -Article Title
 * -Infobox
 * -Geology and topography
 * -History
 * -Society and culture

Additionally, with the soon-to-be release of Dishonored 2 just around the corner, placing all "gameplay" information for Dishonored and Dishonored 2 under a new, coherent formatting guideline would be beneficial to the site. While the existing formatting guide specifically mentions to place game-related information under the header "Dishonored," I personally feel that making Dishonored a sub-header underneath the header "Gameplay" would be more beneficial to users of the site, since they would now know that all "lore-based" information is above the section entitled "Gameplay," and that the Dishonored and Dishonored 2 sub-headers refer to how the item/character appears in the respective game. As such, it would look something along the lines of this:


 * -Gameplay
 * --Dishonored
 * --Dishonored 2

Of course, each header/sub-header could be subdivided as needed into various other categories.

Likewise, the existing character template should be expanded as well, such as in adding a section called "Equipment" or something of the sort underneath "Personality." This would allow for on pages such as Corvo or Daud to mention how "Corvo had access to an advanced crossbow, which could be loaded with crossbow bolts, incendiary bolts, and sleep darts." (Had access to, since the player could technically play the game without using it.)


 * As stated in Section 1C, the past tense should become standard where appropriate throughout the wiki.


 * As stated in Section 1D, U.S. English punctuation should become the standard on this wiki, owing to the majority of visitors to this site coming from the United States, along with the fact that virtually every article on the site uses the U.S. English standard. Not only will this reduce confusion by not using two differing writing methods at the same time, but remove the arduous task of single-handedly going through every single article page to correct the punctuation.


 * As stated in Section 1E, the 'The' should be dropped in article titles where it is appropriate.


 * As stated in Section 1F, the use of unnecessary plural forms should be avoided.


 * As stated in Section 1G, article titles where italicization would be appropriate should be italicized.


 * As stated in Section 1H, the mixing of in and out-of-universe info should be avoided.


 * As stated in Section 1I, an appearances section should be added wherein a scrollbox (if necessary) would be added under a new section entitled "Appearances" above the "References" section.


 * As stated in Section 1J, assumptive statements an speculation should be avoided when writing articles. Additionally, saying things such as "What happened to Corvo after that is unknown," and, "It is assumed that he had training in hand-to-hand combat," or "Whale Oil appears to be heavy since when people carry it they struggle" should be avoided.


 * Additionally, as with all wikis, mentioning that all articles should be written from a neutral point of view should be written into the Manuel of Style.


 * Furthermore, unnecessary capitalization should be avoided. For example, the Sleep Darts article title is capitalized, however in the article body, the item is called Sleep darts, with a lowercase d.

Section 2C: No Limits on Page Creation

 * As stated in Section 1K, there should be no limits on page creation for various topics on the Dishonored franchise, no matter whether or not there is "enough information" to warrant it its own page. It has come to my attention however, that there seems to be some hypocrisies within whether or not an article "deserves" its own page. For example, pages such as the Morley Insurrection are instead redirected to the page on Morley. This makes no sense. One-sentence articles exist for cities such as Meya, Alexin, Caltan, Pradym, Alba, Arran, Caulkenny, Wynnedown, Driscol, Old Lamprow, Poolwick, Potterstead, Redmoor, Bastillian, Saggunto, along with events such as the War of Four Crowns and etc. which all have their own articles, yet the Morley Insurrection, an article with more information than all those other articles combined does not.


 * Additionally, linking titles such as the Royal Protector to a book called The Royal Protector is not a good practice. For example, in another piece of Dishonored media, we could find out that the term Royal Protector was actually used in a precursor government to the Empire of the Isles in antiquity, however if the link to Royal Protector led to a book, we'd have no place to put such info if an individual article for this seemingly "trivial" position was not created in advance. While some may say that articles should be created as information on them become available, this seems to be only half followed on this wiki with numerous stub articles with "not enough info" already existing.


 * Furthermore, isn't that why the [stub] template exists in the first place? To state the the article doesn't have a lot of info, and should be expanded as needed? Likewise, links to various High Overseers of the Abbey are instead redirected to the page Notable Clergy, and businesses to Businesses. Some may say that this makes it easier for users to find info sorted onto a single page. Having pages for each business, city, or individual Rulers of the Empire of the Isles would be too bothersome and disorganized. It would take "too many clicks to find what you want." I however, posit the inverse. By not having pages for each individual business, industry, person and etc. One makes it harder for the user to find what they want, as they firstly have to find the page that has the info they need, and then scan the entire page to find a brief mention of what they sought to find. For example, Saggunto is a city in western Serkonos. If a user who didn't know a lot about Dishonored wanted to find out about what this "Saggunto" that their friend was talking about was, the obvious thing to do would be to go to the Dishonored Wiki and type in the term "Saggunto." However, if Saggunto did not have its own page, where would the user start? He has no idea about anything in Dishonored, so looking at the page on Serkonos would most likely not be his first destination. After stumbling around the wiki, the user would become frustrated, and eventually, give up. Likewise, if the user ever came upon the page on Serkonos, they'd have to scan it in its entirety to find the one sentence mention of Saggunto as being a city "in western Serkonos."


 * Others may posit that unrestricted article creation would lead to a disorganized mess owing to an over-abundance of pages. I however, would argue the opposite. It could only become a disorganized mess if the only means of keeping track of such pages was through other pages such as Businesses, which would become overcrowded and need constant updating. That is where categories come in. Everytime an "unnecessary" article would be created, it would be instantly put into its respective category without need for manual updating. Thus, a user could look on the Category page for all "businesses" and find what he/she needs in an alphabetically organized list without the need to waste hours of scanning through a most likely outdated article.


 * Lastly, the barring on page creation deters new users from expanding the wiki and creating new articles, indirectly leading to editor decline and stagnation.

Section 2D: Expansion of the Forms

 * As stated in Section 1M, an unprofessional comment section often results in a long list of relatively poor grammar that can seemingly stretch on for an eternity. The solution: the forums. Currently, the Dishonored Wiki forms are underutilized and barely have any activity. By creating a section of the forums for comments such as "Who's ur Fav character" and "I really hope guy X comes back in Dishonored 2!" Not only could we solve the problem of having comment lists that stretch on forever, but also have an easier way to manage the questions and postings and respond to them more efficiently. Additionally, it would also help to make the wiki seem more 'professional' and reliable to outsiders. There is a reason why Wikipedia doesn't have a comment section at the bottom of its articles, after all. Could you imagine a Wikipedia that did?


 * Perhaps more importantly though, it would allow an easier way to discuss site-wide changes or offer new ideas and suggestions to the management of this wiki in one easy, convenient place. I have noticed that there seems to be numerous discussions about site-wide policies occurring almost daily, and that many of them are hidden across a wide variety of pages scattered around the site. By revitalizing the forums, not only will we allow ourselves the ability to more actively discuss the future of this wiki, but allow random users and editors to discuss changes to various articles in an organized list.

Section 2E: Creation of Additional Infoboxes

 * As stated in Section 1N, infoboxes are an easy way for the user to gather information about a relevant topic without needing to scan the entire body of an article. As such, this wiki would do well with the creation of additional infoboxes for battles, cities, and expand upon and improve existing infoboxes for things such as characters to mention eye color and etc. Along with removing the "First appearance" section within the character infobox owing to it being out-of-universe and mentioning Dishonored by name, whereas that would be more appropriate in the trivia/appearances section.

Section 2F: Creation of a "Behind the scenes" section.

 * While I have no personal qualm with the current trivia section, it occurred to me that what constitutes "trivia" is often discussed on the site, such as whether or not mentioning that Dunwall Tower is based on Big Ben is considered assumption or not. Furthermore, the article on Dunwall states that "The population of Dunwall is 202,900. The city spans an area of 19.65 sq mi, and it sits at an elevation of 125 ft." However, this info is placed in the trivia section. Why? Well, I suppose that knowing the exact population of Dunwall isn't really necessary to know for the purposes of the game Dishonored, and that its sq mi and elevation is also more of an "interesting" fact. Yet what constitutes the difference between trivia and important information? For example, if the exact population of Dunwall is deemed as "trivia," wouldn't the fact the the City Watch was formed on the 1st Day of the Month of Timber 1809, under the rule of Emperor Euhorn Kaldwin also be considered "trivia" as well? In fact, wouldn't all the Emperor's minus Emily and Jessamine be "trivia?" Wouldn't others cities across the isles, wouldn't the "Siege of White Cliff" and Morley be considered "trivia?" In essence, wouldn't everything that does not impact the player directly in a gameplay sense be considered trivia? If one looks at this wiki as more of an "IGN game guide," wouldn't everything not relating to how much health an item heals you, how much damage X enemy can deliver within Y seconds, where Z items can be found in [insert map name here]. Wouldn't that mean all our "Lore" articles and information attaining to them be "trivia?"


 * As such, I feel that the title "trivia" is misleading, and since all gameplay-related info would be placed under its own gameplay-related section, I feel rebranding trivia as "Behind the scenes" would be more appropriate, and clarify each section better for the user. For example, Gameplay deals with gameplay-realted things, while the "behind the scenes" section would deal with the creation for an object/item. Ex: "During the design phase for Dishonored 2, Karnaca was intended to house a 'Mediterranean' climate, with an art style that made it look like what Harvey Smith described as a 'moving painting.'" Additionally, a behind the scenes section would allow for multiple paragraphs that could build off one another instead of short, bulleted blurbs. This would work best on The Void page, where everything after the first paragraph could be put under the header "Behind the scenes," owing to it being comprised of out-of-universe info and deign-related material.

Section 2G: Updating of the Main Page

 * As stated in Section 1O, the main page should be updated to reflect the newest additions to the Dishonored franchise.

Section 3: Implementation of the Solutions
In order to implement said changes if said changes are acted upon, a vast 'army' of users will most likely be required to conform existing articles unto the new Manuel of Style's standards, along with create new pages to accurately reflect various subjects across the Dishonored universe.

Additionally, new categories will be required to stay on top of such changes, along with active user engagement and clear communication to implement such designs.

Section 4: Possible Problems with the Implementation of the Solution
While the above solutions to the problems listed in this post are numerous, it should not go without saying that such changes will undoubtedly pose immediate or long-term complications to the administrative functions of this wiki. As such, this section will deal with potential problems created through the implementation of Section 2 and its proposed solutions.

Overflowing of New Pages

 * While definitely not a bad thing, if the various solutions above are implemented, it should go without saying that the sudden influx of new pages may overwhelm or overfill existing categories, thus advance care should be taken to ensure such occurrences do not happen, or at least that the impacts of such occurrences are minimized.

Overfilling of NavBoxes

 * If new articles are created on almost every topic, it will go without saying that existing NavBoxes may get overcrowded with information. Thus, limiting the amount of information to put into a NavBox to the most important events, characters, locations and etc. Should be considered.

Possibility of Vandal Edits

 * If this wiki were to expand, the possibility for vandal edits sneaking through increases as the amount of pages that could be vandalized conversely increase. As such, increasing the userbase of this wiki would be a top priority.

Section 5: Arguments Against Implementation & Conclusion
It goes without saying that not all problems listed above may be in fact problems, and that the above solutions may or may not be the best solutions. For we all deeply care about the future of the Dishonored Wiki, and love the games each in our own special way. As stated in the introduction to the post, I do not mean to offend, demean, or deflate the importance of anyone or any one thing, nor do I wish to sound like an arrogant know-it-all from the outer space. I really don't! After all, it goes without saying that I only have twenty edits on this wiki; and that I joined only a few days ago!

Now on to more important things, such as that burning question I know you must be asking in the back of your mind. Why would I, a relative newcomer, bother to write this long, exhaustive, and lengthy post for over three days? I often wonder the same thing myself. I will admit that at times while writing this, I often felt as if I was taking this "too far," and that my efforts would do better elsewhere. (Example: Getting a life.) But then I realized an important point. While it sounds like the most average, generic and bland answer imaginable, I can only say that I like Dishonored, and find the world interesting. Since it would appear that I'm not the only person who writes about this fictional world, at least I can feel comfortable in the knowledge that my madness is not without company.

Notwithstanding, I suppose that I should address other concerns that I have mentioned that I would adress in the beginning of this article. The most prevalent being my undoubted bias towards Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki. It goes without saying that I have a very non-subtle and brazen bias towards Wookieepedia owing to much of my previous wiki-editing experience having been within its annals. As such, many of my proposed changes and formatting techniques are already widespread on Wookieepeda, and that many of its formatting techniques are borrowed from Wikipedia.

I understand that many users on this wiki are reluctant to implement such wide-reaching changes, preferring a softer and more 'subtle' approach. Taking things 'slower,' and not 'rushing' to make hasty, brash decisions. I couldn't agree more. Just as it is important to initiate change, it is also important to know when not to. As such, upon writing this post with the generous help of various users answering various questions about the way things are run on this wiki in the chatroom (A special shout out to all of you!), I realized a couple of the rationales behind some of the decisions made on this wiki.

First and foremost, the question of whether or not to italicize article titles seems to revolve around what MDGeist has stated, "No other wiki (that I know of or go to) has the title of the actual pages in italics. That just looks weird. Then again, I haven't seen ANY of the regular wikis that I attend have anything like this..." This is a fair point. Not all wikis do italicize article titles. However as I have pointed out in Section 1G, Wikipedia does in fact italicize article titles for articles where it would be appropriate. Despite a vote, this seems to still be an issue of contention among editors of this wiki.

Yet this would raise another point that seems to be the main reason why such changes are not implemented. In my time researching this topic, it has come to my attention that there appears to be two sides to this argument. The first side generally agrees with what MDGeist has stated, "...we aren’t emulating Wikipedia, as the Wikis stand on their own. There are things they do, that we do not and vice-versa." (Source) The second side in retrospect, seems to revolve around the idea that while we are not Wikipedia, we are still a wiki, and should abide by common rules.

This makes sense. As since all wikis are technically "offspring" (if you want to think of it that way) of Wikipedia, it goes without saying that some influences in formatting, categorization and etc. Should find themselves embedded into the many thousands of other wikis across the globe. As such, not all wikis may find that the methods Wikipedia uses for administrative purposes work well for them. As such, the diversity within the wiki community should be celebrated, not shunned. As PikovajaDama has stated, "...ours is this wiki, not wookipedia or whatever. Wikis don't need to look all the same."

Yet while I have noticed that this wiki "doing its own thing" appears to help it in certain cases, I cannot help but notice other areas where it would seem to harm it. Again, this is in no way the 'correct' or 'only' answer there is, and I do not mean to sound offensive. But we shouldn't not do something just because we can. Rephrased; just because other wikis do it, doesn't mean that we shouldn't either. It is like boiling water. If we're lost in the woods and need a clean source of drinking water, we shouldn't 'not boil the water' to kill the germs because 'that's what other people do.' By drinking it, not only will the water most likely taste bad, but in the long run, get oneself sick. Likewise, just because we're our 'own wiki,' doesn't mean that we should do certain things just because we can. Not only will refusing to implement some of these proposed changes most likely result in this wiki looking visually 'unappetizing,' but also make it 'sick,' and unusable in the long run.

Again, I do not mean to 'force' these suggestions upon any of you, nor do I mean to 'impose my will' upon the users and administrators of this wiki. I merely wish to provide what I, and most likely some others, have noticed and/or felt, and offer my suggestions for the improvement and betterment of this nexus of knowledge on Dishonored. Afterall, we're all socially awkward nerds who take a fictional world much too seriously.

I do not mean to sound childish, evasive, or coy, but I personally cannot continue contributing to this wiki unless some of these suggested changes are taken seriously. I really do wish to see the Dishonored Wiki become known for both its professionalism and reliability, and only hope to see it become even better than it already is today. Among all the wikis I have seen, this wiki is among one of the better ones.

Please take these suggestions as possible solutions to any of these sections, and discuss the proposed changes below.

Phew! My hand is tired right now. Now is as good a time as ever to open that bottle of whiskey I've been saving... And where did I put those cigars?

(P.S. I don't support smoking. Don't smoke!)

- Lord Boots