User:Mikado282/Sandbox/Community content notability guidelines

Community content notability guidelines

Because the Team Fortress Wiki is treated as a reliable source of information by players, all new page additions are reviewed by staff to ensure that they meet minimum quality standards. A significant portion of Team Fortress 2 player time is spent on Community servers where Community content is common, and it is useful for this wiki to cover such content where practical. The same quality standards and editing policies apply to Community content articles; however, in order to maintain that standard of quality, certain notability requirements also have to be met.

There are several areas of Community content covered by this wiki:

• Fan updates: unofficial content releases, most of which is usable only on Community servers
• Community events: unofficial content competitions, special server activations, campaigns, charities, or tours, sponsored by Community organizations
• Community Mods: unofficial Team Fortress game modifications running only on Community servers
• Custom maps: specifically, Community-made maps not Patched into the game, and so, hosted only on Community servers

The goal is not to cover every Community-developed item, but restrict ourselves to notable content. This notability can be a measure of the popularity of the Community content or its significance to the continuing success of the game. Before creating a new page for a Community content subject, please ensure that the subject generally satisfies the following notability criteria. Be prepared to show evidence of notability to staff should the need arise. The notability of the subject may be discussed on the IRC prior to creating the page, or may be placed on the talk page for the article when it is created. This evidence should be stated in the article's Talk page under the heading Notability for public review and comment as well as for historical record. Beware that if consensus determines that Community content page is "not notable", it may be removed.

It is recognized that specific thresholds are not defined, meaning that there is some judgement to be made in the consensus of notability, and exceptional strength against one criteria can counter relative weakness in another.

• Running on multiple servers: A mod or map in question 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. Exceptionally full occupation of several servers over a sustained period can also establish notability even where the operator is a single entity. If a Community content is truly notable in the community, then players will request that server admins run the map, mod, and/or plugin, or there will be reasonable activity in those servers that host it.

• High participation: Hosting of specific mods, maps, or events that cause observable increases or shifts in player participation can be considered notable. Participation can be measured though statistical services (e.g., teamwork.tf) and, where provided, host tracking of participants (e.g., records of numbers of players signing up for a tournament, or completing lengthy Community contracts, campaigns, or tours.)

• Vetting: Community maps or other content should be at least of Valve-published quality and completeness to be considered notable. Such content achieve a degree of vetting through judged selection and play-tested competition, which can attest to quality and completeness, at least relative to the pool of candidates.

• Valve support: Valve can indicate some notability of an event or map by authorizing cosmetic content as encouragement for participation. But this alone does not assure full notability or success.

• Discussion among the community: Discussion of the Community content must extend beyond the thread announcing its creation and development. It must be shown that the content or event is actively discussed by multiple users over multiple communities, in order to illustrate its popularity among players.

• Exposure via YouTube: A very good marker of popularity is if a prominent YouTuber uploads a video of gameplay of an event, map, or mod, or a popular Twitch streamer plays it (with or without fans/subscribers is acceptable). Simply showcasing the subject 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.