Stubs are articles which are deemed too short to provide encyclopedic coverage of a subject and have not yet received substantial attention from authors. They have been created, but are incomplete and do not yet contain all of the information relevant to that topic. Stubs are not worthless but, rather, are the first step articles take on their course to becoming complete.
Not all short articles are stubs. The stub designation implies that the article needs to be worked on. If an article contains all of the information pertinent to a given topic, then the article is complete and is not a stub.
Note: The stub designation is only used for articles, while the {{Incomplete}} tag may be used for either an article or a particular section of an article. Furthermore, while stubs need substantial expansion to the article as a whole, pages with the "Incomplete" notice may only be missing data or statistical information.
Creating a StubEdit
To label an article as a stub, simply add the stub template on the bottom of the page. Note that sometimes you will see these tags at the top of the page; in the interest of standardization, any stub tags at the tops of pages should be moved to the bottom. To add the stub template to the page, type:
{{stub}}
This tag will add a message (customized according to the article's namespace) and automatically include the article in the appropriate category.
You may also add a subcategory to the stub by typing:
{{Stub|Creature}}
where "Creature" may be replaced by another appropriate subcategory, such as: Ingredient, NPC, Place, or Quest.
It is not necessary to add subcategories to stub templates already in place, but it is suggested to use appropriate subcategories when creating entirely new stubs.
Fixing a StubEdit
If you have added enough information to an article that you believe it is no longer a stub, you should remove the stub tag from the page so that it is removed from the list.
Keep in mind that a page should not necessarily have its stub status removed simply because it is lengthy; if the article still needs substantial expansion, it should still be considered a stub. A basic description or summary still counts as a stub. Before removing the stub tag from a page, you may wish to check to see if certain additional information is included:
- NPC pages: clothing, dialogue, inventory, schedule, and services
- Place pages: enemies or residents, related quests, walkthrough of each zone, and map
- Quest pages: quick walkthrough, detailed walkthrough, key choices, important dialogue, rare loot, and reward
These details are not always applicable to every page of their type, but are simply a guideline to show what could be expanded on for a page in the stub category.
Current StubsEdit
You can find a list of the articles currently identified as stubs in the stubs category, sorted according to the article's namespace.