This page is an official policy on WoWWiki. This policy has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow.
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A stub is an article which still needs improvement or that which is not complete. A stub template/tag is a placeholder indicator or marker for an unfinished article in a wiki.
Its purpose is to inform visitors that they've arrived at a very unfinished page (as opposed to a normal wiki page which simply never gets finished), and also to automatically classify the page to make it easier for contributors to find and fill out.
The other implication of a stub is that the editor who added the stub marker probably doesn't intend to fill out what they think is missing in the near future.
The policy[]
"Stubs shall be marked as stubs, using properly categorized stub tags from the list below."
However, please note the following:
- Do not mark empty pages as stubs (or create a page which is a stub but has absolutely no content; e.g., a page of an article management templates and empty sections). Stubs are for expanding info currently present, not a method for removing red (broken) links.
- Do not stub pages that cannot feasibly be expanded in the near future. If no more information exists, it's not a stub!
Marking a page as a stub[]
You can add the appropriate stub template to the top of the article. These are templates that add the article to a stub category so that they can be tracked down later for further addition and expansion.
The {{Stub/<sub-category>}}
tag can be used at the top of pages, as well as inside sections of the page.
If you're stumped (as to which category to use, use {{Stub/Other}}, but please try to use one from the quicksheet below and to the right.
Dealing with a stub[]
It's simple: Add information to the article! You can remove the stub template if you think the article or section has been sufficiently filled out.
Throughout WoWWiki are articles with little or no content that have been created with the intention of filling them in. These are referred to as stubs and are tagged specifically to tell visitors that they are, in fact, stubs, and to make it easier for other contributors to find them.
Finding stubs[]
If you created a stub previously and need to find it again, or just want to help fill out some stubs, start looking in Category:Stubs. It contains a listing of all the stub categories – each of the different stub templates place articles in their own category, e.g. "Stubs/Item", "Stubs/Quest", etc.
Fixing a stub[]
- If you see a stubbed article you'd like to work on, feel free to add to and edit it, but keep in mind the editing policy.
- Looking at the discussion page, or pages that link to the page ("What links here" link in the left hand toolbar), might give you valuable clues to what the page should contain.
- While working on the article, you should generally leave the
{{Stub/<sub-category>}}
tag in. - If you think the article you worked on is complete enough (has the basic information the article's title suggests), you can remove the stub tag.
Details on stubs[]
Stubs Quicksheet |
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WoW Gameplay |
{{Stub/Ability}} |
WoW Patches |
{{Stub/PTR}} |
WoW Community |
{{Stub/Guild}} |
Warcraft Universe |
UI |
{{Stub/AddOn}} |
Others |
{{Stub/Category}} |
Current stubs in use at WoWWiki: [edit]
- WoW Gameplay
- {{Stub/Ability}} - Any article about a class ability, spell, enchants, or anything that the user triggers with a button. Not to be confused with talents. Also includes NPC or mob powers.
- {{Stub/Achievement}} - Any article about an Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Inlinegfx/img_link_data.json' not found. achievement.
- {{Stub/Item}} - Any page about an item.
- {{Stub/Location}} - Any location in the Warcraft universe - dungeons, instances, cities, zones, continents, etc.
- {{Stub/Mission}} - Pages about specific Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Inlinegfx/img_link_data.json' not found. missions.
- {{Stub/Mob}} - NON-interactive, non-player characters or monsters (mobs).
- {{Stub/NPC}} - Interactive non-player characters (NPCs).
- {{Stub/Object}} - Any page about an object.
- {{Stub/Pet}} - Any page about a Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Inlinegfx/img_link_data.json' not found. battle pet, non-combat companions, or player controlled pets.
- {{Stub/Profession}} - A profession article that isn't an item or a recipe, such as a transmute or an enchant.
- {{Stub/Quest}} - Pages about specific quests.
- {{Stub/Strategy}} - A strategy or tactics stub for mobs, like instance bosses. Needed when there is a lack of strategies on a boss page.
- {{Stub/Talent}} - Any article about a class talent. Not to be confused with abilities.
- {{Stub/Tech}} - Article stubs related to game mechanics.
- WoW Patches
- {{Stub/PTR|<x.y.z>}} - Article stubs related to content currently on the PTR.
- As new patches are released, the text for this changes to "this is a patched article"
- {{Stub/PTR-section|<x.y.z>}} - Article stubs related to content currently on the PTR. (Smaller version)
- Stub/Updated - See {{Stub/PTR}})
- WoW Community (policy related - WW:FANFIC)
- {{Stub/Guild}} - Pages describing player guilds, role playing or otherwise.
- {{Stub/Player}} - Pages describing non-in-game player info.
- {{Stub/PC}} - Pages describing player characters, role playing or otherwise.
- {{Stub/RP}} - Pages related to roleplaying.
- Warcraft Universe
- {{Stub/Char}} - Pages describing any characters not in the game but in the lore (books or web) or in previous Warcraft games.
- {{Stub/Lore}} - Articles dealing with official World of Warcraft lore.
- UI
- {{Stub/AddOn}} - An AddOn stub.
- {{Stub/API}} - A World of Warcraft API stub.
- {{Stub/UI}} - Other UI-related stubs.
- Others
- Stub/Accuracy - See {{Accuracy}} and/or {{Stub/Other}}
- {{Stub/Category}} - For categories that need more pages using it or need some description.
- {{Stub/Other}} - Anything that doesn't fit in the above categories.
- {{Sectionstub}} - A stub for sections on a page.
Please do not use the uncategorized {{Stub}} tag on WoWWiki.