Category talk:Inner Sphere Commands

"Empty" Command Articles

I started to re-name a the whole lot of the Word of Blake Commands, when I realized that the first five had absolutely no information within them, not even a reference for which Editors can seek to fill in the article. I'm one that believes redlinks are good, in that they indicate a need to an editor whom might just have the urge to scratch that itch. I also believe bluelinks that lead to empty articles are not good, in that they hide the fact that an article needs some information. Plus, my concern is if someone comes heres to research an article on their favorite command (say the 25th Word of Blake Division), they may come to the erroneous conclusion that the wiki is full of empty articles (and then not come back). (I say this from my experience with the ComStar Historical Archives, which seem to be filled with named, but empty, articles.) So, I'm requesting comment to reach consensus: do we want to be focus on blue-linking all redlinks or do we want to establish a policy that requires all articles to have content (or risk deletion)? (Edit: mis-spelling, less biased comment regarding bluelinking)--Revanche (talk|contribs) 14:34, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

I have myself created articles with little content before, often on minor subjects where only a single source of information is available anyways. That, I (obviously) have no problem with. Another thing I have occasionally done is creating "placeholder" articles to remind me of something I wanted to do.
But on the issue at hand, i.e. creating totally empty articles on barely noteworthy subjects with no intention to add meaningful content soon, I am of the opinion that this is bad for the Wiki for the same reasons Revanche has given above. There is even an additional issue I have with the way Military Commands are handled right now: At what organisational level do you think they warrant their own article? I came across this problem when I found that individual regiments of McCarron's Armored Cavalry have individual articles with no reference back to the main article. Should regiments not be covered within an article about their parent unit? I feel that regiment size should not in itself be a reason to divide up units into sub-articles - there are many multi-regiment units out there that should have a single article. Goes for MAC as much as for Wolf's Dragoons, the Lyran Guards or the Red Lancers imho. Frabby 15:00, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
I also work in another fan-wiki, where we had a similar problem with redirects. My suggestion is to delete these articles that are barely more than the template itself (especially if no source mentioned). A red link encourages to work. --Detlef 16:21, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
Personally I am pro bluelinking for two reasons. Firstly because it is easier for a relative newcomer to add a little info to a "placeholder" than create a whole new article and secondly because some units are so minor they will never have a redlink and thus almost never get noticed. In fact I think I am responsible for almost all such articles in the military commands section, but at least they are there on House (insert choice) Military Commands page for people to see, what I think we need instead is to find a way to get some more of the folk from http://www.ClassicBattleTech.com/forums/ to come over and develop an "itch". --Dmon 17:11, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
Empty Command Articles: Until I got a new job, I was steadily creating new command articles, but like Frabby, I tried to put a minimal amount of information in each article - generally composition and commanders (my intention was to come back and fill out each of the articles as time permits). This way, there was at least some information in each article I created. Empty articles are of no value. I suggest deleting them.
Level Of Organization Warranting Own Article: I think notability and information available should be the key here. For instance, I can't see both Regiments of the Dioscuri having their own article - it's just too obscure a unit. However, I can see the Black Widow Company having it's own article. With reference to Multi-regiment Commands like the MAC, Lyran Guards or the Avalon Hussars, there's enough out there for the umbrella organization to have its own article, as well as the individual units. -- Alkemita 20:30, 4 August 2009 (UTC)