Forum:SH:Cut content template usage

Hey, everyone. I think we need a bit of clarity on how and where to use the cut content templates, Cutstart and Cutend. By my count, these templates are used in 19 articles, and not consistently. In some articles, the material contained within the templates is placed within the body (non-lead and non-"Behind the scenes") section of the article. It's worth nothing, too, that most of the articles that use the cut content templates in the BTS are status articles (FAs mostly), while those that do not are not status articles. Examples that use the templates within the main part of the article (not "Behind the scenes") include Bib Fortuna, Ki-Adi-Mundi, M4-78, Tanbris, Adalric Cessius Brandl, and Fex-M3.

In other articles, the cut content is placed in "Behind the scenes." This is done with the articles Nial Declann, Martio Batch, Miltin Takel, Octavian Grant, Rukh, Josef Grunger, Afsheen Makati, Peccati Syn, Deadeye Duncan, Rufaan Tigellinus, Osvald Teshik, Laigrek, Betl Oxtroe, and T'Charek Haathi.

Clearly, then, the de facto policy seems to be to use the cut content templates in the BTS, and to write the section as if it were in-universe and part of the main article. My guess is that this was done to follow the precedent set by, an FA machine and someone truly admirable, who was the first to nominate a Grand Admiral article back in 2008. But I'm not sure it's the best way to use those templates, which is why I've started this Senate Hall thread.

Basically, using the cut content templates in BTS and writing the prose within them as in-universe strikes me as jarring. Everything else in BTS is written out-of-universe, but with these templates, the reader is suddenly shocked back to in-universe style, and no effort is made (aside from the templates) to indicate what is going on. It seems far more sensible to me to use the templates in the main body of the article, as the first group of articles above have done. Or&mdash;and I think this is the better solution&mdash;it seems better to deprecate the templates and simply write about the cut content in an out-of-universe fashion from within the BTS section. In other words, rather than this paragraph, in Martio Batch, enclosed within cut content templates:


 * Shortly after being appointed Grand Admiral, Batch was given a direct order by the Emperor: create a fool-proof cloaking device or face execution. Batch made occasional appearances with his fellow Grand Admirals at New Year Fete parties or military fund-raisers; however, he knew his life hinged on the success of the project. Batch experimented with hundreds of new designs without success, with his flawed hibridium design being his most promising. Desperate to show the Emperor he was making progress, the Grand Admiral sent Palpatine prototypes of ships using his hibridium cloak, which the Emperor stored in his secret vaults inside Mount Tantiss.

We would write something like this, with no templates:


 * The original Gamer article, titled Dirty Dozen: The Imperial Grand Admirals, contained more information about Batch and was longer than the version appearing in Insider. According to a draft of the article, distributed as a Microsoft Word document by its author, Batch was given a direct order by the Emperor shortly after being appointed Grand Admiral: create a fool-proof cloaking device or face execution. The longer version of the article explains that Batch made occasional appearances with his fellow Grand Admirals at New Year Fete parties or military fund-raisers; however, he knew his life hinged on the success of the project. Batch experimented with hundreds of new designs without success, with his flawed hibridium design being his most promising. Desperate to show the Emperor he was making progress, the Grand Admiral sent Palpatine prototypes of ships using his hibridium cloak, which the Emperor stored in his secret vaults inside Mount Tantiss.

This style (by simply indicating in prose where the information comes from and reminding the reader from time-to-time that this is draft material and not canon) makes the templates unnecessary and doesn't jar as much from the vast majority of our BTS sections. In other words, BTS should not include material written as if it's in-universe in my opinion. It should all be written out-of-universe. And if we write all of it in such a style, the cut content templates become redundant.

What do others think? ~ Savage  17:29, May 26, 2012 (UTC)