Forum:CT Archive/Using author blogs and comments as sources

Warning: Minor Crosscurrent spoilers may be revealed.

I think that time has come for us, as a community, to decide exactly how we are going to use author blogs as references within our articles. Recently, a blog post by Paul S. Kemp revealed the species of Jaden Korr, the principal character in the forthcoming Crosscurrent novel. This information was subsequently added to the character article, fully referenced to the blog post. However, that post was then undone, and an author's note was added stating that, since the book has not been released yet and could still be cancelled, its contents or the author's intent should not to be considered canon.

Now, I can see both sides of this. Firstly, the author has decided the species of the character, and would have presumably received authorisation from LFL for this considering the flexible nature of the characters gender and appearance in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. He is also writing the story under the assumption that the character is of the designated species, so adding the reference to the article is valid. On the other hand,, who reverted the edits is right to point out that information can change, and that we need to be cautious and stick to verifiable source material. Complicating the problem is the fact that the Jaden Korr article also uses a draft extract from Kemp's blog in the bio proper, fully referenced to the post.

So the question is this: do we consider author statements on their official blogs to be allowed as references within our articles? Should we allow comments from posts regarding future products to be put into the article proper or should they be relegated to the BTS sections until the product has been released? Do we allow comments on works that have been previously published into our articles as long as they are fully referenced?

The thing to consider is that we already, to some degree, allow comments on future works into our articles. The Essential Atlas is full of comments made by the authors as to exactly what is going to be included in the book. All well and good&mdash;until you consider that, if we only allow author intent to be in a BTS section until the book's release, then we may have to reorganise the article or even strip information from it altogether if we decide that blog posts and comments should not be considered as references. Another problem is that several articles related to the KotOR comics draw on the blog of John Jackson Miller for information, such as Celeste Morne (in the Personality and traits section) and Toki Tollivar (in the behind the scenes section). Removing these references may be to the detriment of the articles, the former of which is under FA review, while the latter is a current FA.

On another note, we currently have the article Monitor (carrier), claiming to be sourced to Before the Storm. However, the only source I can find for this is from the author, Michael P. Kube-McDowell's official website's FAQ section. Can this be considered as a source as it was part of the backstory the author developed, or should it be relegated to the BTS and deleted as an article?

I therefore open this up to the community to discuss how to proceed, and what "status" we give to author blogs, comments and intent, prior to any type of formal vote. - Cavalier One ( Squadron channel ) 12:04, 27 May 2009 (UTC)