WikiPaintball:Article inclusion
WikiPaintball article inclusion explains which subjects are suitable for inclusion in the WikiPaintball encyclopaedia.
WikiPaintball documents the history, people, teams, organisations, competitions, equipment, businesses and culture of paintball worldwide.
Unlike general-purpose encyclopaedias, WikiPaintball does not require subjects to have achieved widespread public recognition or coverage in mainstream media.
A subject may be included when it is directly relevant to paintball, can be clearly identified and has sufficient verifiable information to support an accurate encyclopaedia article.
General inclusion principles
[edit]Articles should meet the following requirements:
- Direct paintball relevance. The subject must have a clear connection to paintball as a sport, activity, industry or culture.
- Verifiable existence. Reliable evidence must establish that the subject exists or existed.
- Identifiable subject. The article must clearly identify the specific person, team, organisation, event, product or other subject being documented.
- Factual content. Enough verified information must be available to produce a useful encyclopaedia entry.
- Neutral presentation. Articles must be factual rather than promotional, speculative or written primarily as personal tributes.
- Distinct subject. The article should not duplicate an existing page or unnecessarily separate information belonging in another article.
Articles do not need to be long to qualify for inclusion.
Historical significance and notability
[edit]WikiPaintball exists partly to preserve subjects that may have been overlooked by mainstream historical records.
A team does not need to have won a major international tournament to deserve an article.
A player does not need to have competed professionally.
A manufacturer does not need to have achieved international commercial success.
A tournament does not need to have attracted hundreds of participants.
The relevant question is whether the subject forms a verifiable part of paintball history and can support a useful article.
However, inclusion should not be based solely on an editor's personal opinion that a subject is important.
Paintball teams
[edit]Competitive paintball teams are suitable article subjects when their existence and participation can be verified.
Evidence may include:
- Official tournament results.
- Team registration records.
- Contemporary paintball publications.
- Official team websites.
- Archived league records.
- Credible contemporary event reports.
Teams may be included regardless of their competitive level, country of origin or period of activity.
A regional amateur team may be just as appropriate for documentation as an internationally successful professional team.
However, a team name appearing once in an incomplete or ambiguous record may require further investigation before a separate article is created.
Contributors should distinguish unrelated teams that share a name and avoid combining their histories.
Players and other individuals
[edit]Articles may cover individuals whose documented involvement contributes to the history or development of paintball.
Examples include:
- Tournament players.
- Referees and officials.
- Coaches and team managers.
- Tournament organisers.
- Equipment designers and inventors.
- Field operators.
- Industry founders and other documented contributors.
Professional status is not required.
However, merely appearing in a single roster or photograph does not automatically justify an individual biography.
There should be sufficient reliable information to identify the person and describe their documented contribution or participation.
Articles about living individuals require particular care. Personal information, unverified allegations and irrelevant private details should not be included.
Biographies must not exaggerate achievements or historical importance.
Tournaments and competitive events
[edit]Paintball tournaments, leagues and competitive events may qualify for articles when their existence and activities can be verified.
Relevant information may include:
- Event name.
- Date or period.
- Location.
- Organising body.
- Competition format.
- Participating teams.
- Divisions.
- Published results.
It is not necessary for every item to be available.
A recurring tournament series may warrant an overview article, with separate articles for individual events where sufficient information exists.
Events that were announced but never confirmed to have taken place must not be described as completed tournaments.
Manufacturers, brands and businesses
[edit]Manufacturers, retailers, distributors and other paintball businesses may qualify when their connection to the industry is documented.
Examples include:
- Paintball marker manufacturers.
- Equipment and accessory brands.
- Clothing and protective equipment manufacturers.
- Paintball distributors.
- Paintball retailers.
- Field operators.
- Companies providing paintball-specific services.
Historical brands are suitable subjects even when they no longer appear commercially active.
However, contributors must not assume that a company has closed, ceased trading or changed ownership without supporting evidence.
Business articles must be encyclopaedic rather than advertisements.
Equipment and products
[edit]Individual paintball products and product families may justify articles when sufficient technical or historical information is available.
Examples include:
- Paintball markers.
- Loaders.
- Air systems.
- Protective equipment.
- Electronic control systems.
- Barrels and accessories.
- Historically distinctive equipment designs.
Articles should concentrate on documented specifications, development, commercial history and use within paintball.
Individual model variations should not automatically receive separate articles where a combined article would be more useful.
Unsupported claims that a product was the first, best, most influential or most successful of its type should be omitted.
Paintball fields and venues
[edit]Paintball fields, venues and facilities may qualify when their existence and connection to paintball can be verified.
Articles may document:
- Location.
- Established history.
- Types of paintball played.
- Tournaments hosted.
- Facilities.
- Ownership or operational changes, where documented.
A field does not need to remain operational to qualify.
Do not assume that an inactive website or the absence of recent activity establishes closure.
Organisations and governing bodies
[edit]Paintball associations, federations, clubs, governing bodies and other organisations may be included where their activities are documented.
Articles should explain the organisation's purpose, activities and verified history.
Official registration records, governing documents, event records and contemporary publications may be useful sources.
Where organisations have similar names or overlapping membership, contributors must establish their identities and relationships carefully.
Paintball culture and historical topics
[edit]WikiPaintball may also cover subjects relevant to paintball culture and development.
These may include:
- Historical formats of play.
- Significant rules and rule changes.
- Paintball publications.
- Historical equipment developments.
- Paintball-related media.
- Documented cultural practices and terminology.
Such articles should remain directly relevant to paintball and avoid general material that belongs in a broader encyclopaedia.
Subjects that should not receive separate articles
[edit]The following generally do not justify standalone articles:
- Subjects with no meaningful connection to paintball.
- Unverified teams, products or organisations.
- Rumours presented without credible supporting evidence.
- Proposed events or projects with no substantial documented activity.
- Individual players identified only by an unsupported name or nickname.
- Minor product variations that are better covered in an existing article.
- Duplicate pages about the same subject.
- Promotional profiles with no useful historical or factual content.
- Subjects for which no reliable information can be established beyond a name.
Information about a subject that does not warrant a standalone article may still be appropriate within a related team, event, organisation or equipment article.
Short articles and incomplete histories
[edit]Many historical paintball subjects have limited surviving documentation.
WikiPaintball accepts concise articles where their content is useful and verifiable.
For example, a short article about a historical team might identify:
- The team's documented location.
- The period in which it was active, where established.
- A verified tournament appearance or result.
- A reliable source supporting the information.
Contributors should not invent further details merely to increase article length.
Missing information does not automatically make an article unsuitable.
However, where available evidence is too ambiguous to establish the subject's identity or basic history, publication should be deferred until further research is available.
Avoiding duplicate articles
[edit]Before creating an article, contributors should search for:
- Alternative spellings.
- Former names.
- Abbreviations.
- Geographic name variations.
- Existing redirects.
- Related articles that may already cover the subject.
If the subject already has an article, contributors should generally improve that article rather than create a duplicate.
Where two distinct subjects share a name, follow Help:Naming conventions.
Neutrality and promotional content
[edit]WikiPaintball articles are not advertising pages.
Contributors should avoid:
- Unsupported claims of greatness or historical importance.
- Marketing slogans.
- Sales language.
- Excessive product promotion.
- Unsubstantiated claims about rivals or competitors.
- Personal opinions presented as objective history.
Businesses and teams may contribute information about themselves, but such contributions remain subject to the same editorial and verification standards as other articles.
Deciding whether to create an article
[edit]Before creating a new page, contributors should ask:
- Is this subject directly relevant to paintball?
- Can its existence and identity be verified?
- Is there enough reliable information to write a useful article?
- Does an article about the same subject already exist?
- Can the article be written neutrally without unsupported assumptions?
If the answers support inclusion, a concise and properly sourced article is appropriate.
If evidence is insufficient, additional research should be undertaken rather than inventing content.
WikiPaintball aims to document the full breadth of paintball history, not merely its most famous participants. Inclusion is broad, but factual standards remain strict.