Forum:Questions about revision

(Sorry if there's something I'm missing, I am very new to this! I've never really posted on a forum before, either)

Initially, I joined with the intention of fixing some minor grammatical, syntax, and punctuation errors I'd come across in some articles, but recently I've come across an article that I believe needs heavy revision. Citation links leading to pages which no longer exist, poor syntax and sentence structure, irrelevant details, information that is two degrees off from being correct, if not incorrect, etc. I don't want to disrespect or discredit the hard work and time put into the article, but it just is not of a very good quality as a wiki page.

I've read about the three revisions rule, and I understand it's wiki etiquette to say in the page's discussion tab what changes you make and why, but what would I do if the revisions I want to make span just about the entire article?

(Also, I have questions about how to go about some citations that I didn't see covered in the guidelines- if they're there, please direct me to the appropriate page/s! Say there are several instances of information that is found in a book, do I use the same citation for each instance? Do I create individual citations for the specific pages the information is found on? Should the citation include the quote containing the information? Is there a specific style/format used for book citations?)

--Bigpilgrimskey (talk) 01:02, 18 June 2021 (UTC)


 * Hi, a good place for start is checking Wowpedia:Editing policy and Wowpedia:Manual of Style. Sourcing is covered in Wowpedia:Citation. Adding specific pages or chapters certainly comes in handy, and citations may include quotes. You can also check other pages, like the Knights of the Silver Hand and Kirin Tor, which were recently checked and updated, so you can see how it works.


 * As you mention a page in this horrific state, I'm curious which one is it?


 * You can go ahead and simply start updating the page itself, but if there are some doubts with such a scope, which could potentially take some time and several revisions, a good idea could also be to create your own sandbox page under your namespace - User:Bigpilgrimskey/Sandbox. Here you would add anything and everything you want. When you are finished, and the content is good, then you could simply copy the sandbox page to the page in question. -- 09:03, 18 June 2021 (UTC)


 * Thank you! I am much more familiar making edits and proofreading on, say, paper, or individual documents, so this style is new to me.


 * The page in question is the page for Khadgar, particularly the introduction and "Apprenticeship with Medivh" sections, though I've seen errors and odd/clunky paragraph structure throughout.


 * --Bigpilgrimskey (talk) 23:06, 18 June 2021 (UTC)


 * Regarding links that no longer work, I did a pass of the citations on Khadgar's page and replaced links to defunct web pages with archived versions where possible.
 * Regarding book citations: when citing the events of an entire novel, it's fine to just cite the book title as the reference. However, if you're citing a specific detail, it's better to create a separate reference that specifies the chapter and/or page number, optionally with a quote. There aren't particularly hard and fast rules for how the latter should be formatted, but the way I usually do it is to put it in quotation marks, like so:
 * I added a whole lot of references to the dragon article a while back, so you can look at that as another example. -- 14:21, 19 June 2021 (UTC)
 * mordy's suggestion of a sandbox page is definitely the way i'd go for large-scale changes you're unsure of. for book citations, you might check out Template:Ref book. it is a few years out of date, but it's got a list of pre-formatted book citations; if the book you're using is on the list, you'd just copy its code & add page and/or chapter numbers & quotes (as needed, like DT said).
 * and i just wanna say hey, don't worry too much about disrespecting or discrediting anyone. it's in a wiki's nature that edits will inevitably get changed or even totally overwritten--especially with a wiki this big & old, about a game/world that changes so constantly. ^^ the game, the lore, and the wiki's standards have changed over the years, but there's so much to update & maintain that on bigger & older pages, even totally faulty info can go unnoticed. so a critical eye and a willingness to get in there and shake things up are honestly extremely helpful. Eithris (talk) 21:52, 19 June 2021 (UTC)