Character Specific Pages - misuse, and potential updated guidance

Hi all,
Character-Specific Pages have seen multiple examples of misuse over the past months, with tropers immediately using the 40k byte count (or sometimes less) threshold as a greenlight to split off characters who meet that count into their own pages without checking all other criteria (e.g. is the page Overly Long, and most importantly have other options been tried first, like splitting the page into smaller groups etc — both of which form part of the current existing guidelines). This has led to a plethora of rogue pages being launched, which need to be merged back and is time-consuming.

To firm things up, the working group at Cleanup Thread: Character Specific Pages have worked up new proposed wording to sit on the CSP landing page to help with compliance, and to ensure a smoother, less fragmented user-experience. Here is the newly worded guidance:

Here are the steps that should be assessed when considering splitting character pages:

• If the page has reached past or is close to reaching 250,000 written characters (this can be seen on the bottom left of the edit page in green), permission is given to split. If not, the page isn't in danger of being overly-long and no split is needed.
  Example: The Character Page for Alice Vs. Bob is over 250k written characters; this page should be split into smaller pages. If not, take no action.

• If the page has tipped over the 250k written characters mark, the first goal should be to split the page into smaller sections (i.e. sorting characters alphabetically, by group, or suchlike)
  Example: Several character folders fall under the group "Team Alice" and form the biggest portion of the page. A new page can be made called "Alice Vs. Bob: Team Alice" where these folders will a be moved.

• If Step 2 has been attempted, and there are no other practical solutions (e.g. in a situation where an already-split page also inflates beyond the 250k byte count) then splitting out a high-byte-count character (40k bytes+) into a CSP is the solution.
  Example: Team Alice's page has reached the 250k count. Alice's folder is the biggest one on the page, and it meets the other qualifiers for a CSP as seen below. A new page can be made called "Alice Vs. Bob: Alice" where this folder will go.
  
  

The steps for splitting and creating character pages (as written above) must first be followed.

• The character's page is cleaned up beforehand, fixing any Zero Context Examples, removing outdated/misused tropes, and making sure all tropes listed fall under Characters and its related indexes (exceptions can be discussed).
• The page is at least 6,000 words/40,000 written characters (with spaces). Here is a byte counter. Once a new Character-Specific Page has been created, be sure to add its byte count to this page.
• The page it's split off from should reach the same minimum count.
  
  

Edited by lexii on Feb 21st 2024 at 5:50:37 PM