Forum:SH:Modernizing the Wookify guideline

General note: This SH discussion is about changing Wookify, not Wookify

The issue
I am proposing that we should take a closer look at the Wookify guideline. A brief history lesson: The guideline was first created back in 2005, when we were brand new. Most of our original in-universe Star Wars articles were taken from Wikipedia, a place that has its own set of policies and guidelines, of course. We established a Manual of Style to enforce "Wookification," the process of turning the Wikipedia articles into Wookieepedia articles.

(Eg: Wikipedia has Executor (Star Wars); Wookieepedia has Executor.)

I am not going to explain this more, since it is rather self explanatory, but we should know, by now, that we are not Wikipedia and we do not adhere to their article Manual of Style and formatting guidelines as of 2014. From 2005 onward, we have developed our own MOS, and today established users know how we properly format and shape articles.

(In a nutshell: Our MOS is well known on this site and Wookieepedia:Wookify should not reflect our early days of copying from Wikipedia's articles.)

2005 was nine years ago, 2006 was eight years ago, and 2007 was seven years ago. See the pattern? We are no longer a new wiki and we are no longer taking IU articles from Wikipedia, which were our main imports at the time. OOU articles, such as celebrities, are still being imported from Wikipedia, albeit to a lesser extent. I will explain the OOU situation later on, but for right now, please take a look at my proposal of modernizing the guideline:

What I'm proposing
Riff, back in 2007, added this sentence under the "Alternate use of Wookification" section: "As less Wikipedia articles were copied and more articles on Wookieepedia were made from scratch, the concept of Wookification now applies to creating appearances and sources sections, and adding categories." This should be the guideline's main focus as of 2014.

It should not be an "alternate use" but rather the guideline's main reason of why it exists. Wookify is a good template and its text lightly reflects Riff's point in Wookieepedia:Wookify. In my opinion, is not Cleanup but rather a template that should be used to highlight an article's abysmal state, be it missing infobox, no intro or no text, missing sections, or missing categories. I realize that we have specific templates for these issues, such as CatNeeded, but cuts down the number of tag templates in an article.

Those who are new to article writing are often unaware of our MOS and the proper procedures of "Wookifying" the article. links to both the MOS and Wookieepedia: Wookify. However, new articles are not the only ones that could tagged; old articles can likewise be tagged for the same reasons.

As for OOU: Here's a good opportunity to have an OOU section in the guideline itself. As I mentioned before, Wikipedia's celebrity articles often make their way here. We give credit to Wikipedia by applying this in the talk page: Wikipedia.

I hope I made everything clear&mdash;the guideline's origins, what we originally did, the current state of the guideline, and how to use. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below in the "Discussion" section.  JangFett  (Talk) 03:30, April 25, 2014 (UTC)