Team Fortress Wiki:Community topics notability guidelines
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Community topics are articles about notable content related to the Team Fortress series but not directly published by Valve.
Because the Team Fortress Wiki is regarded as a reliable source of useful information by players, all new page additions are subject to review by Staff and other editors to ensure they meet minimum quality standards. This also includes official Valve-published content, but Community topics are particularly scrutinized due to past issues with such articles.
A significant amount of playtime in Team Fortress games is spent on Community servers, where players are likely to encounter many modifications and related content enabled. Therefore, our goal with these articles is to find a balance between providing documentation that is useful to players and enforcing strict notability requirements to prevent opportunities for spamming, self-publishing, or self-promotion. Content that has a recognized presence and user base within the Community is given priority.
To maintain this standard of quality and to avoid moderator actions, please ensure that the topic of your article meets the general guidelines mentioned above and within the content-specific sections below. If Staff find an article related to a Community topic that does not meet these guidelines, they may open up a discussion on its talk page (or reach out to the author) to seek clarification. They may also request additional edits to be made in order for the article to conform with these guidelines. Please bear in mind, that if there is no attempt at coordinating with Staff from the author's side, the article will be subject to deletion. Otherwise, the article may be moved to a subpage of your user space without a redirect.
Contents
General rules
 | Community topics covered encyclopedically by this wiki
Community topics not covered by this wiki:
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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 articles with quality issues can and should be fixed by normal editing. Severely underdeveloped articles 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 articles languished as stubs for years.
Please do not self-publish. Generally, to neutrally reinforce notability, a Community topic article should not be written by anyone who developed the subject of the article 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 on those 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 be no more than encyclopedic and should not perform the functions of the host's webpage.
Total conversion mods and variant games
Total conversion mods are a somewhat rare case for Team Fortress games, and are seen more so as their own individual games and far exceed the scope of normal mods. As such, these type of mods are better off documented on their own dedicated wiki. A mod is considered a total conversion if:
- It completely changes the play style or art style of the game, to the point where it is unrecognizable as a Team Fortress game.
- It is dependent on third-party software repository clients for downloading assets.
Conversely, variant games or fan games are in fact their own standalone games developed outside of any Team Fortress game. There are a wide variety of Team Fortress-inspired fan games, and it is simply not relevant for the Team Fortress Wiki to document their presence, as such games are better covered on their own dedicated wiki.
Source mods on Steam
In the event of a Valve-endorsed or Valve-published Team Fortress-based Source mod being released on Steam, the Team Fortress Wiki will offer and provide full support for the mod, similar to how it covers content related to Team Fortress and Team Fortress 2. However, if the mod is already sufficiently covered by other sources, such as a dedicated wiki for the mod (as is the case with Fortress Forever), it may be more efficient to direct users to these existing sources instead.
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 Steam. These promoted events have distinct start and end dates and are displayed as "live" or "upcoming" in both the Library and Events section of Steam (e.g., Valve's promotion of Operation Voltaic Violence). This should not be confused with regular announcements mirrored from the blog's news section, such as the one for TF2 Coaching Central Newbie Cup.
- Note: For one-off events or events with a single reward, event coverage should be included on the article of its promotional item (e.g., Lo-Fi Longwave). For recurring events or events that have multiple rewards, a dedicated page should be created to list all relevant promotional items and provide comprehensive coverage of the event (e.g., TF2Maps 72hr Jam).
- Significant participation: Public reports on the total number of participants and rewards distributed.
- Not region-limited: Event must allow participants from all over the world to participate. Since Team Fortress has a global player base, hosting an event limited to a specific region would exclude over half of the players, making it irrelevant to cover.
- Running multiple event servers (in-game events)
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 all original links, as long as they comply with other wiki rules, to ensure the article has the same vital information and resources 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 official maps.
A custom map will automatically qualify for an article if it meets the following criterion:
- Original version: A custom map that served as the base for an official event map is considered notable due to its historical significance (e.g., Rumble, the original version of Gravestone).
Additionally, custom maps can be granted an article if they meet two or more of the following criteria:
- Used in a notable community event: Winning or placing in a reputable and recognized community event supports notability (e.g., Croissant).
- 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 notable 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 articles and they aren't notable, so this one should get one, 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:
- Comprehensive content: The article for the mission should be fully developed, providing substantial information about the waves, sub-waves, robots, and any other custom content, such as custom upgrades or weapons.
- Note: For any missions associated with a notable community event (e.g., Operation Digital Directive), all articles should be polished and complete before being published in the main namespace. This ensures fairness and prevents any mission from receiving special or unequal treatment compared to others.
- Used in a notable community map or official Mann vs. Machine map
- Used in a notable community event
Coverage of Custom MvM missions 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 community assets are better covered on their mapping platform (e.g., TF2Maps.net) rather than using the Wiki as a separate web host.
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 article is undergoing review/assessment for notability, then to indicate that the article has passed the assessment for continued inclusion.
- Community topics that have not yet been assessed for notability should be tagged with
{{custom content notice|assessment=no}}to initiate the review process through the Community topics notability assessment project. - Community topics that have been assessed as notable should be tagged with
{{custom content notice|assessment=yes}}and a link to the page where the assessment was recorded. - Community topics that have been assessed as not notable should be removed from the main namespace.
