Forum:SH:Policy on Discussing Ideologies

Hello everyone, I am posing this question because it has become a major issue on the Assassin's Creed wiki, of which I am a major contributor. I wanted to learn the stance that Wookieepedia has in regards to this issue so that I may better understand what is a good guideline. You guys may tell me that the Assassin's Creed wiki community should develop their own policies, but most of its contributors are inactive at this point, and even the administrators have not really dealt with this issue, so I feel the need to ask for the advice from a wiki community as experienced as Wookieepedia. I do have a bad habit of being long-winded, so please excuse me if I do fail to be brief.

Assassin's Creed is a very philosophically-charged franchise that can invite fierce debates on the ideologies of either sides. From its onset, it established itself as a series that revolves around perspectivism and moral ambiguity. (A lot of the principles of the Assassins, interestingly enough, are the exact principles that we as wiki editors uphold: namely NPOV and free exchange of information). As a result, there's a enormous expectation there that the ideologies of the two primary factions: the Assassins and Templars are thoroughly explained. However, I am conflicted because I found it difficult to explain their ideologies in a purely "objective" manner. I strove hard to cite each and every last sentence where I describe Assassin ideology, and even to ensure that I was speaking from the voices of in-universe characters: what they stated, not what I think while leaving out my own personal, further extrapolations from the Assassin code. Now, maybe I did a decent job and to the best of my ability in the end, but the issue extends far further.

One player, who thought that the Assassins, as the heroes, should have their moral ground "neutralized" created a "Controversy" section that was littered mostly with his personal rants rather than unbiased analysis. I requested that this section be removed, as I thought that it was based purely on personal opinion rather than objective reasoning or any citations, but the position of the other contributors is that the section should stand. Their perspective is that the Assassins, as the heroic faction, should have a section dealing with their errors to balance out their popular reception by fans, though I believe strongly that this mentality doesn't so much promote NPOV as two polarizing biased viewpoints. Since they desired for the section to be kept, I instead reworked it entirely such that it factually notes cases where the Assassins deviated from their philosophy or when an Assassin turned to the dark side while doing my best to remove personal opinions on those cases.

Nevertheless, I remain skeptical that I am approaching this correctly. I know that if the AC wiki community desires the "Controversy" section, then it shall remain, and I made the best of it, but even in spite of that, there remains debates over which cases should be mentioned, whether certain cases constitute abuses or deviations from their philosophy or not, and I am simply of the opinion that we are relying too much on our own personal interpretations.

So here is the question I wanted to ask. I have noticed that the Jedi articles either seem to lack ideology sections altogether, much less a "controversy" section, though the Sith article does include a Philosophy section, but not a section dedicated to their atrocities. I wanted to ask what is the policy and stance that Wookieepedia has on explaining the ideologies of factions? What are your perspectives on having a "controversy" section? And most importantly, where should the line be drawn in explaining factions' philosophies since it can become difficult for editors to not leak their own personal interpretations into the articles. I'm sure this issue was far fiercer in Wikipedia, but I think that it is better to ask of Wookieepedia as we are dealing with fictional factions with less sources, not real-life ones. I know it may be weird that I am asking for advice from Wookieepedia for an issue in a different wiki, but at the moment, I am practically the only one working on the articles of issue, and I'm not experienced enough to know what is the correct way to go about this. I'm fearful that I'm imposing my own personal judgments on something contentious. Sol Pacificus Telepathy 13:30, September 25, 2016 (UTC)