Valve Developer Community talk:Avoid peacock terms

Is this really relevant to the VDC?

I understand how this is appropriate to Wikipedia, as the examples amply demonstrate. I'm not so convinced that it is relevant as policy here. We have two types of pages now on the VDC: pages that serve developers as development reference information, and pages about games and mods available. I can easily see that peacock terms are out of place on development pages (though I can't really see how they might end up on them in the first place).

But when it comes to games/mod pages, no one has yet answered the question of what these pages are for. Are they for dry factual reference and cataloguing, or are they for promoting these games/mods to potential players and team members?

I don't see what is achieved by striving for the former, since this is not an encyclopedia, whereas Wikipedia is (or aims to be). My instinct is that the latter is more desirable, since then the VDC is further fulfilling its role of serving developers.

If it is the latter, then I don't think the "peacock" policy justifies edits like this one. People should be allowed to write whatever copy they want when promoting their games/mods: Readers are bright enough to know when they are being spoken to in press release speech, but developers should be allowed to describe their games in whatever way they wish, bringing focus to whatever details they wish. In my opinion, page policy for mods/games should recognise this right and they should be exempt from "depeacocking", etc.

Others may disagree. I've noticed a few comments from others expressing discomfort at the marketing nature of these pages. Discuss ... --Giles 01:21, 7 May 2006 (PDT)

The "Avoid peacock terms" article (and template) in theirselves are useless, IMO, but I hate marketing-speak as much as the next guy. I've always thought of VDC articles on game titles as informative, not promoting or whatever. And for the record, I have also removed "peacock terms" from articles during may stay here. I think that as a wiki, VDC should strive for npov. Jupix 01:35, 7 May 2006 (PDT)

In my opinion, and as well of many others, this is (indeed) not an encyclopedia, but just an infomative piece of art, created by developers, fans, modders (in the way of a new MOD, not adjusting other MODs) and scripters, not bookworms (well, most of them are at Wikipedia ;) (Not all!)). I agree with Jupix with the Neutral Point of View, but again, this is not a strict informative encyclopedia, but more of a hobby (for most of us) --CrabbyData 02:30, 7 May 2006 (PDT)

Perfect example of how aimless and confused this community has become

I've been keeping myself from ranting about this for quite some time now, but I just have to. I do not want to offend anyone (if I do, I'd like to apologize already at this point) or make their work look less worth than it is. I'm also not saying that I am not guilty of it.

This whole article is irrelevant and totally misses the point of this wiki. Remember what it is about, in all it's simplicity:

Helping developers!

It's not going to make a difference whether the mods and games have a neutral view in their article or not. Players who want informations about these games don't come here, they go the the website, review-sites, meta critics, forums, whatnot. If you want to make a wiki about that, make your own and call it Valve Player Community. The mods and games are supposed to be listed, which is OK. Everything else is beyond the scope of this wiki imo.

Same thing goes for all these nitpick-edits in the last time. 99% of the changes I see here lately, while improving the articles, do not make the wiki significantly better. It doesn't really help a developer whether the formulation is 110% correct, the picture blends perfectly into the layout or the article is not named in plural (I mean no offense to anyone. Yes, your work does improve the articles, but it does not really add to usability in many cases. And yes, I've done so as well.). While it certainly is important to reach a certain level of quality for all articles, a lot of articles beeing edited have reached it and more important things are left to be done.

Take a look at the help forums (like VERC) to see what kind of help people need. In some cases, you can point them to an article on the wiki and everything is fine. In some cases, you can not. Let's focus on that, find out how articles can be simplified or complex issues be cleared with the help of pictures. Find out what kind of articles are missing or not explained exhaustively. Let's focus on the core of this wiki instead of the gadgets.

...and now tear me apart. --Vaarscha 05:55, 7 May 2006 (PDT)