Forum:Using Quotes

Something that's been more common in articles relating to COD4 and MW2 is the use of quotes at the beginning of articles, notably on Shepherd but also in every mission and major character. Some of these quotes have dramatic impact; others are just contrived (e.g. Victor Zakhaev).

I'm questioning the encyclopedic value of these quotes. Encyclopedia articles don't open with quotes. It doesn't present the right information in the proper format. Rather, the use of quotes is more artistic. There is no guideline on the use of quotes, and consequently editors are stuffing long and often irrelevant quotes to add the polish to an article. In addition, character articles also have quote sections, which also makes the opening quote redundant. When people read an article, they expect to find information about the topic, not a quote that is related to or by that topic. Otherwise, we're looking at a gimmick that only works on Uncyclopedia.

The selection of quotes is also arbitrary. There often is no "best" quote to describe an article (and we're not even talking about summarising), and editors tend to pick the most "obvious" quote, whether or not it has anything to do with what the article is talking about (e.g. Victor Zakhaev -- "Shit, kid's got some issues".)

I propose that we eliminate opening quotes in order to focus content on encyclopedic information (i.e. the subject of each article), and where relevant move the quotes to their respective quote section. --Scottie theNerd 09:44, January 8, 2010 (UTC)