Help:Mod Profiles

This article discusses Mod Profile articles - articles which give information about an in-development or already-released mod for the Source (or rarely, GoldSrc) engine. Included is information on when a Mod Profile is acceptable, and tips on formatting a mod article.

Before creating a mod article

Please read the following information before you create an article about any upcoming or released mod.

The Valve Developer Community is a development wiki

The main function of the VDC wiki is to contain facts relevant to the developing community. While this may stretch to include listing renowned third-party projects and mods that the community may already consider participating in or playing, it is not intended to contain personal or official pages for mods. If you are looking for a page to house a mod, you should consider posting it in the Mod DataBase instead, because that's what that site is for.

Remember that (unless you write an article as a subpage of your own User page) your article is subject to the terms of the wiki:

"Please note that all contributions to Valve Developer Community may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here."

The mod's tagline may contain subjective words such as "awesome", "amazing", "cool" or "fun", but please leave the description of the mod objective.

Proof of concept

Like any wiki, articles about things that do not exist, or only exists in the mind of a few people, are not allowed, and will thus be flagged for deletion for lacking what is called a "proof of concept". Please be aware that there are many millions of active Steam users (and that's just on Steam) and most of these have had some kind of idea for a mod, so just declaring that you want to make a mod, is simply not noteworthy enough. It lies on you to provide proof that a mod is actually physically under development, such as links to official sites or pages dedicated to the mod (such as ModDB pages), as well as screenshots of models and/or levels. Posting the mod's "awesome" or thought-out storyline, or just assuring readers by writing that the work on the mod is doing well, is not enough.

If an editor can not find any sites listing the mod, or get a hold of any screenshots for the mod, and can not tell whether the mod has ever existed, he should flag the article for deletion with the reason "Lacking proof of concept".

Simply stated, do not create a profile for a mod idea that you have, when you have literally nothing but the idea.

Checklist

Before writing a Mod Profile article, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you have proof of concept? (Can you (through links or screenshots) prove that the mod is more than an idea or a plan?)
• Is the mod widely known? (Has it been posted as news on other sites such as Planet Half-Life?)
• Are you prepared to accept that the mod article will be edited according to wiki rules and policies?
• Is it written as an acknowledgement of the mod, or a promotion for the mod? (Does it contain subjective wording, or unnecessary details?)

What a mod profile article is not

A mod article is not:

• The official website for your mod - You can add screenshots and update development information, but do not add dozens of screenshots or try to use the profile as a development blog. Likewise, the talk page is not a forum.
• Your official recruitment center - while a mod profile may let other interested developers know you are looking for more team members, you should not expect or attempt to recruit an entire team on this wiki. Of the countless mod ideas on the internet, only a small fraction are ever started and far less ever completed - experienced developers will be hesistant to attach themselves to a new mod. While you may list open positions for your mod, absolutely do not contact other users outside the mod profile to ask them to join your team
• An advertisement - While you may include the mod's tagline and screenshots, use an objective summary of the gameplay, story, and goals of the mod. It's good to highlight the important and unique aspects of the mod, but do not use marketing language you would see on a game's box or in a magazine advertisement.

Dead mods

Articles are not removed from the wiki just because the mod has died. The mods are instead flagged as dead in these articles.

A mod can be flagged as dead if there's cause to believe that development has ceased without a final or a near-final release.

Reasons to label a mod as "dead":

• A quote from a project member stating the mod is no longer in development
• A lack of news or updates over a period of twelve months
• The mod's official website and/or entries at a modding site seem permanently gone

Please do not blank (remove all contents) of a dead mod's article, even if you are the author. The information can be retained for archival purposes (or as proof the article should be deleted if it does not meet inclusion criteria).

Formatting a mod article

Todo: Expand this section

Aside from spellchecking the article, and not writing it as a promotion, a mod article should include a ModStatus Template that is as complete as possible. Note that this template automatically categorizes the article.

Links to ModDB entries have their own template, called Moddb.