Talk:List of pinball machines

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[edit] Redundant?

Is there anything that this page does that the category for the same does not? Seems redundant to me. Fractalchez 03:48, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes, this page provides a number of broken links that are a great jumping-off point for the creation of articles. The category only includes games that have articles. While they do have some overlap, they are both useful an necessary. We have many lists on Wikipedia that overlap with categories, for the express purpose as a repository of topics that should, but don't yet, have articles. — Frecklefoot | Talk 14:36, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

I read up a bit more and though I still have some minor concerns, there seem to be enough unique qualities to each approach that I'm more satisfied than I was before with seeing a dual-method approach. Appreciate the fast feedback. Fractalchez 20:41, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Editing instructions

After adding a line about how to add new entries the page was reverted back with these intructions from User:Frecklefoot: "(DO NOT put editing instructions in article, put it on Talk page if you must)"

Unnecessary shouting aside, Wikipedia is replete with pages that include on the page itself instructions on how to best edit the page. I believe this one needs some kind of instruction somewhere given the problem not only with machines that have different names than the common wisdom suggests, but also machines sharing the same name.

If the instruction you feel is out of place, how would you feel instead about something like:

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it. Please see the article's talk page for suggested guidelines.

I think giving some simple guideline will create much less work for us than having to move pages later will. Please let me know what you think. Thank you for the good faith, returned in kind. Fractalchez 01:57, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

I didn't shout for the whole comment. 0:) I don't think our articles should include, in the body, instructions for editing or creating articles. If we have articles with such comments, they should be removed. I know we have several with invisible instructions (i.e. they are inserted as comments in HTML — i.e. <!-- this comment is invisible until a user tries to edit the page -->), and these are fine. But if a user comes across an article for information, they shouldn't be blasted with information on how best to augment the article. That's what Talk pages, like this one, are for. I'd find it very odd, for example, to be reading the Encyclopedia Brittanica and come across a statement such as if you know anything more about this topic, send it to Encyclopedia Brittanica headquarters at....

I think what you need is a Pinball games WikiProject. With such, you could pass guidelines and criteria for article creation, naming and so forth. You could even create some cool templates for pinball articles to use. Then you could stamp this list's Talk page with a template saying it is part of the Pinball games WikiProject (like this one for the Computer and video game WikiProject). Then users could go there to find out what guidelines are in place and how to create a pinball article.

That being said, moving and renaming pages isn't all that hard. If someone misnames an article, it's usually pretty easy to fix. — Frecklefoot | Talk 17:02, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

I was actually considering making a Wikiproject out of this, and I think I'll take this disagreement as impetus, although the solution it would create of having a template link to the project on appropriate pages would work just fine for me. I will evidence with some amusement that one of the articles containing editing instructions at its top is the article on instruction creep.  :-) But this is fine for now. I'll not suggest any major design changes until we have a Wikiproject in place for consensus building (which in turn I won't jump at starting until I have a little more experience/confidence). Much thanks all around. Fractalchez 17:31, 9 October 2006 (UTC)