Morning, Afternoon, Evening... (That's another day gone)
I think it's best just to show these two little articles first:
Speculation, speculation, speculation. On article one there is only 144 words on non-speculative information and 529 words on speculation and theories. On article two there is only 145 words on non-speculative information and 431 words on speculation and theories.
That's insane.
These are two extremes of something that is present on this wiki, and from my opinion, I think we should get rid of once and for all..
Speculation
Don't get me wrong, I love speculating and theorizing about Silent Hill and it pretty much dominates my Silent Hill time, but I'm fed up of scrawling through pages and page of utter crap to find actual confirmed information, either from the games/films, developer interviews and the likes to be greeted with peoples opinions.
The ever present confusion that some of our users are probably experiencing, because they want to put speculation on pages, but instead it's removed, because to someone else "that opinion isn't valid", is more than likely causing users to stray away from the Wiki. And if they do stay, they probably feel they can't expand on the long list of "peoples opinions" with their own, because of fear of being persecuted again.
Then we have the issue that people just don't agree with what is on the pages already, either people disagree because "Twin Perfect told them so", the speculation itself most likely is a load of tosh, or they are just highly opinionated, does nothing but give the Wiki a poor reputation. And as you know we are always under scrutiny because of misinformation and the likes.
If we didn't have any speculation, and only had information that was sourced and referenced from the game, or additional developer information, then not only would the Wiki appear more professional, but also it wouldn't get half the negative feedback it gets, and not just from Twin Perfect fans either. I spoke with many a fan, who think that the Wiki leans towards certain theories and ideals, and it makes us look bad.
This is why I'm proposing we gradually remove all the speculation, and structure all the pages in such a way that the only information that is featured is backed up by sources and proof from the games/films, or additional dev information. For instance, I myself have been rolling in references to some of the Silent Hill 2 monster pages, either from developers (mainly Ito) or the Book of Lost Memories, so everything that may come across as pure speculation or as a theory is sourced.
Perhaps I've gone over my head, but I pay attention to how users behave, and how other users respond, and the general gist of it is. "I don't agree with the piece of speculation; therefore, I'm deleting it". Even if it's a perfectly sound theory. Getting rid of speculation/theories on pages entirely, will mean people can only ever argue over the facts, and the validity of the references... and well that's always difficult :) (Not that this doesn't happen with those who disregard anything after SH4 as non-canon)
~ Rob