Forum:Sourcing articles

This wiki is coming along, however, there is an awful lot of speculative (to put it kindly) information on the site that I personally feel has no purpose existing on site. I made a point a while back of removing any mention of Vidic, Al Mualim and Borgia being related based on a users belief that they "looked similar" and this was supported. Unfortunately, I have recently spotted new and equally made-up fanon creeping into the articles of this site. Examples include;
 * "Al Mualim is likely based upon a real life figure named Rashid ad-Din Sinan, a.k.a. The Old Man of the Mountain, who led the Syrian Assassins and died within Assassin's Creed's timeline. However, this is unconfirmed." [src]
 * "At the end of his life, Giovanni seems to have also been a stronger sword fighter than Ezio. Ezio fought with Rodrigo Borgia several times over the years; but Giovanni was such a fearsome adversary that Rodrigo fled from his first confrontation with him, after nearly getting his throat cut, and never engaged him in direct combat again. Giovanni also seems to have been more agile in combat, being able to perform various kinds of flips as opposed to simply dodging." [src]
 * Alan Rikkin's article shows the face of one of the Abstergo bosses, and presents him as a possible representation of Rikkin.

These are just a handful, based mostly from just the trivia sections of the articles; however the speculation can be found throughout many of the articles, as well as some editors own personal opinions which most definitely do not belong on the wiki. Because of this, I would like to propose a policy for sourcing articles be adopted by this wiki, with the purpose of ensuring all information on our articles is sourced correctly, and efficiently. Not only would this aid us in clearing up the rubbish that pollutes a great number of our articles, but it would also allow users to find out where the information has been taken from, and improve the reputation of the wiki in the eyes of the reader and critics.

Attribution policy proposal
Now, a lot of this is going to be similar to the attribution policy that can be found on Wookieepedia, a site I formerly contributed to and an excellent example of a strong sourcing policy, so credit sent where credits due. Now, onto the policy.

Point number one: The AC wiki does not publish original thought. Original thought refers to material that is not attributable to a reliable, published source. This includes unpublished facts, arguments, ideas, statements, and personal opinion; any unpublished analysis or synthesis of published material. All information on an article must be attributed to a reliable source (see Point 2).

Point number two: Reliable sources. Due to the rather limited amount of media currently existing within the Assassin's Creed universe, in order to be classed as a "reliable source", a medium must meet the following criteria;
 * 1) The medium must be published by, or endorsed by, Ubisoft and relate explicitly to the Assassin's Creed series.
 * 2) Information given on an official Ubisoft forum should only be considered canon (see Point 3) when it is published by an administrator of the forum, and subsequently an employee of Ubisoft, and confirmed as fact in said post.
 * 3) Information given in any medium must explicitly indicate a view before it is entered into the article; for example, the assumption that an an unknown individual is xxx is not permitted based on ambiguous data.

Point number three: Canonicity. Even though there is a limited amount of material covering the Assassin's Creed series, as mention in Point 2, the possibility of conflicting information is present. As such, the following assumptions should be made before information is entered into the article;
 * 1) The videogames Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed II are the highest tier of canon. If any information given in another videogame or medium explicitly contradicts that given in these two games, it is considered non-canon. For example, if Assassin's Creed: Renaissance says it took an individual tree days to travel from Venice to Florence, whilst Assassin's Creed II clearly indicates it only took two, the article will cite the game over the novella.
 * 2) The canonicity of the mediums is tiered; the highest tier being the aforementioned game. The second highest is the videogames Altaïr's Chronicles, Bloodlines and Discovery. The third, the Assassin's Creed: Lineage short-film and Assassin's Creed: Renaissance novella.

Point number four: Quotations. Quotations must be sourced.

Citing a source
Once a source is found for the information to be added, the user who wishes to add the information must also cite it. However, a few key points must be observed.

Point number one: Introduction. Do not cite sources in the introduction; most, if not all of the information in the introduction is mentioned again later in the article and should be cited within the main text. This helps to limit congestion of the introductory text and keep the overall presentation respectable. If, however, a sourced piece of information is not mentioned again in the main text, cite it where required.

Point number two: Positioning. Citations go immediately after punctuation and outside of quotation marks, with no space between the end of a sentence and a reference tag. It must be made directly after that which is being cited, so as to prevent confusion to the reader.

Point number three: Format. Citations must be inserted as follows;
 * For the single insertion of a citation, proceed as follows. On the Edit page, enter:
 * For multiple insertions of the same citation, proceed as follows. On the Edit page, this is placed at the first insertion point:
 * This is placed at the second and all subsequent insertion points of citation:

Point number four: Reference list. At the bottom of the article, just before categories and appearance templates such as the following must be inserted;

Vote upon proposal
Well, that's my proposal. Although this is an initial draft, I do believe it adequately covers the needs of the wiki for the time being; all that's left is the vote. Just a simple "yay" or "nay" will do, but the vote will end on the 1st March, 15:00 GMT.

Yay

 * 1) As the one who proposed, and main proponent of, this policy, I vote yes. User:Jasca Ducato Council Chamber Assassination record 15:29, February 22, 2010 (UTC)