User blog:Random-storykeeper/Citations guidelines

I've been meaning to bring this up for a long time, but I kept forgetting. Now that I finally remembered, let's get to the point!

Citation guidelines
Few users, I would say, have been making in-line citations or citations in general. When we do, there seems to be different ideas and confusion on how to cite a source. The aim of this idea is to create a page for guidelines on how to make citations. Note that I say guidelines and not policies - I always think of guidelines as more of advice than rules.

I don't have a plan of what exactly I'm going to write, and of course, I would like to hear what ideas and thoughts you have about citations - or if you don't care about them at all, that's fine. =D

What to cite
One issue we face with citations is what counts as a "reliable source". Is it the Nitrome blog? Email? What if the only information comes from in-game, such as the case when writing about hazards, for instance?

Reliable sources, in our case, should be official Nitrome sources. This includes, but is not limited to:


 * 1) Nitrome blog
 * 2) Official Nitrome interviews
 * 3) Official tweets from Nitrome's Twitter page.
 * 4) Official posts from Nitrome's Facebook page.

Examples of what shouldn't
I also composed a short list of what I think should not be used as a source. I've seen some users use them for citations before, but here are some examples:


 * 1) Nitrome Wiki pages - Should be self-explanatory, I think. This would also include screencaps uploaded on Nitrome Wiki. That doesn't mean you can't put them on the page, but uploads shouldn't be used as a source when writing a citation.
 * 2) Emails - I'm tentative on this one, considering that some users do take initiative to try and get more information for the Wiki through email. In my opinion, emails are closed, personal sources only limited to the receiver to view the direct information. When quoted, no one else can verify if the content is correct. A source should be immediately verifiable, as in the case of email, Nitrome may not reply to all emails and it is a lot more difficult to determine the verifibility of an email source.
 * 3) Fansites - Again, pretty much self-explanatory.

Issues to be resolved

 * 1) Comments - Nitrome makes comments on their Facebook posts sometimes, and while it is easily linkable, the concern here is how to put it into a citation.
 * 2) In-game - If a page is based off an item, for example, that can only be found within a particular game, does it really need to be cited?

I know this isn't an official draft, but I did want to address this because I feel it is important for the Wiki to provide accurate information with good, reliable sources. And it is also important to get some community involvement in this as well. I may add to this post as further thoughts and ideas develop and come to mind. For now...

HAI!