Forum:War Room


 * This is not a replacement of the RfAs, AfDs or the forums itself. This is for things all other things that would need community discussion.

As discussions and votes on wiki-related topics can't always be found in the forums, which may result in an inaccurate result based on only some people voting, the War Room is an established page to vote on wiki things.

Personal Images
I think that profile/personal images should be allowed. There is no indication on this wiki that personal images are not allowed and I don't see why they shouldn't. I've seen wikis that strive to be "professional" but they still allow personal images (see the Half-Life Wiki for an example). There's no need to worry that personal images clogging up space and eating up bandwidth, as Wikia wikis have almost-unlimited space and bandwidth.

Support as nominator. Darkman 4 03:19, 8 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Just my comment, I'm okay with it as long as the image is not copyrighted and either is in the public domain or is owned by the user. Fair use laws don't allow for images to be used on profiles, so we cannot allow them to be used. Joey  -  Talk Contribs 03:24, 8 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I didn't know that. Would it be okay if someone used one of our already-uploaded fair use images on his profile, or would it have to be deleted off of the user page? Darkman 4 03:28, 8 June 2009 (UTC)
 * With fair use images, every instance of the images needs to be used to display educational non-profit information. Thus, it isn't actually allowed to be used as a symbol or profile for a user. However, it is important to note that if we want to comply with the Law, we must not start adding them to user pages, if we want to break the law (some wikis do actually do this) then we can go ahead with this. I know on Avatar Wiki we're close to using a bot to get rid of all of the images on user pages due to this, which is quite inconvenient. I suggest we don't get into a bad habit by breaking the Law and adding them. Joey  -  Talk Contribs 03:32, 8 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Okay. If we do allow personal images, there should be a warning on the "Upload Image" page that says that only public domain and/or images owned by the user are allowed to be personal images. Darkman 4 03:35, 8 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Exactly. I'd vote support on that as long as we are limiting it to one. :) Joey  -  Talk Contribs 03:50, 8 June 2009 (UTC)
 * That's fine with me. Darkman 4 03:51, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Oppose - If someone wants to upload an image solely for personal use than they may use a site like Photobucket or Flickr. Having personal images just clogs the file list and makes it harder to sweep for unlicensed images.
 * Most people don't know that you can have images from an external website on your userpage. Instead of having to delete a personal image everytime someone uploads one and reminding them that they must put their personal images on an external site, just let them upload them here. It would save the admins a lot of hassle.
 * As for unlicensed images, get a bot instead of manually going through them. I'm sure there are a few on Wikipedia. Like I said earlier, who cares about clogging up the file list when we have almost-unlimited space on this wiki? Darkman 4 13:09, 8 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I have a bot that I used here a while ago (December?) to add licensing. Joey  -  Talk Contribs 07:17, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Oppose - We already have enough problems with licensing on the wiki. Now, that maybe an easy problem to fix for now, but it could get a lot worse with this. For all we know, people could upload personal images that are actually not in the public domain. Instead of allowing personal images, I think the focus should be on making a guide of how to use them from other sites. I just don't think it's a very good idea. We could be well in over our heads if we let this one pass. 15:58, 8 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Using them from other sites really makes no difference. With that, we're still using them. and unless they're in the public domain, we're in the same boat as if we had them uploaded. Joey  -  Talk Contribs 01:16, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Support - It seems that a lot of other wikias allow this, so by not allowing this it seems to be holding us back (kinda) 23:17, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Support - Halopedia actually does a great job of using personal images. If we were to implement the use of them, there should be a committee that approves or disapproves which personal images can be used on the wiki, instead of users uploading pics left and right. Chief z 12:57, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Support - I agree with Chief z Cod1 22:25, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Support - Uploading images for your own use makes the experience here more fun. If uploaded images aren't being used, they can just be deleted. Other standard procedures relating to images can be extended to be applied to personal images too. 06:42, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Support - I like the idea of uploading images because you could upload and share your experiences with other players. Lpmsly 14:28, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Support - having Personal Images makes expressing yourself much easier. I have seen other wikis do it, and they work out quite well.

Neutral- I don't agree or disagree, I personally think it's just preference. I personally wouldn't put a picture on the wiki for various reasons, but I don't see anything wrong with it.

Minimum Edit Count for voting
To prevent sock puppetry and uninformed voting, I propose that we limit all voting, except in the case of Featured Articles, to registered users with an edit count of 50 or more. Recently, our influx of new editors have been rushing into a vote headlong without even getting a feel for the wiki. Something they may think is good now may be bad for them later on as they start to get more involved in the wiki.

Support - As proposer -- 09:40, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Support - While their vote should not be counted, I think it's fair enough that they give their opinion as a comment. 14:26, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Support - 50 is acceptable, although I am usually against restricting users to vote with low edit counts (as edit counts don't mean anything), I think as long as we are talking about votes that would require in depth knowledge of the wiki (which new users wouldn't know) then restricting voting is ok. Joey -  Talk Contribs 14:29, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Neutral - I think that their should be a limit to be able to vote, but not as high as fifty. Maybe more like 20 or 25. The wikia doesn't have that many errors and missing pages. -Awesomeguy


 * Lol, perfect example. This guy only has 4 contributions and he doesn't even know the state the wiki is in yet he is voting on our policy.-- 23:19, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Support - The amount is certainty not very hard to reach, but will keep the serious, dedicated Wikians voting. It also helps with improving the wiki and gives something for new members to aim for keeping people into it. Perhaps as the wiki grows the amount will increase. 17:56, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

Conditional support - The point of a rule like this is to keep newer users from swaying the vote when they either don't know what they're doing, or are voting for stupid reasons.

From personal experience, it's really cold of a wiki to not make exceptions for a rule like this. I used to edit minimally over on Star Wars Fanon, accumulating just 101 edits since 2007. 250- that's over twice of what I have -are required to vote, leaving me with effectively no say in any community discussion. Though, across all of Wikia, I have over 13,000. Now, from getting over 10,000 edits, it's pretty obvious I'd know what I'm talking about if I contribute to a conversation, no?

Which is why I'd only support if COD:IAR applied to those who have proven that they know what they're talking about, but don't have the fifty edits. 06:42, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Support - I like it, but it should be applied to the "Featured Article" section as well. It seem to me that the "FA" section has been plagued by random IPs appearing and giving shit reasons ("Hunted sucks!") for nominating an article. However, we could have a discussion about that later. Darkman 4 14:49, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Neutral - I think that the idea is good but the number is not. I think the number should be about 20 or 25. Lpmsly 14:36, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Neutral - I would like to see people expressing their freedom, but remember, there are dangers that come with giving people this kind of liberty.--Represent this shix. 21:20, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

support - I think this is perfect to enable people that are serious in helping the wiki voting privileges while people that just spam are kept out, Look at me, I'm new but once i get 50 edits i might understand the wiki's condition a little more - Falcon1996