Talk:Solar Realms Elite

Re: proposed deletion

Heading added for new topic by czar · · 16:04, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

I would say due to age of the game and the historic nature of bbs's this looks like a correct and accurate posting, I dont agree with any of the arguments for deleting it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Adricm (talk • contribs) 15:16, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

Yes, the game is old and BBSes have their place in history, but Wikipedia's standard for inclusion is notability. It doesn't mean the game is bad—it just means it isn't notable enough on its own for an encyclopedia. This is self-evident since this article cannot reasonably establish notability without using self-published sources (lacking independent, reliable sources), the result reads as original research. (I've suggested merging the usable parts into the BBS door article.) czar · · 16:04, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

I just want to point out that maybe the interpretation of notable is the problem here, not the supposed lack of notability of SRE. Anybody who ever played on BBS' knows about SRE. It is one of the big games that dominated at that time. If you played, you will never forget the epic multi-BBS wars that united players internationally. Just because nobody wrote a book about this doesn't mean it's not notable, or an important part of digital history. The fact SRE and other things are being forgotten is actually good reason to try to gather as much information together as possible. Let people add the details they remember, and leave it alone. What I don't understand is why you even feel the need to stick your nose into this corner of Wikipedia and make a decision about a topic you clearly don't have any experience with. Are you personally in charge of saving the Wikipedia foundation 0.00001 cents per year in harddrive and bandwidth costs?

The importance of third party sources is salient particularly around contested information, for example in politically charged topics, or in scientific topics. But it isn't that important when it comes to BBS history. If there are disagreements, let that emerge from the page and be decided by third party sources. It will come with time. Destroying the possibility of combining the memory and efforts of BBS historians damages Wikipedia as a reference, and doesn't improve it. Again, why are you even involved? I don't want to make this personal, but I can't see any other reason except you are some kind of aspy robot bent on applying rules everywhere, no matter the consequences. Don't you have something better to do that point to paragraph 456 subsection 21.5 of the Wikipedia Handbook and lecture us about notability and third party sources? 112.79.40.247 (talk) 16:22, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

I just want to add one thing. If the information on SRE is unsuitable for it's own page on the basis it is not notable and not well sourced, exactly what is your argument for inclusion of that material on the BBS_door game page? Wouldn't it also fail to meet your standards (sorry, the exalted standards of Wikipedia which you are nobly holding all Wikipedia to)? (Yeah, I'm annoyed at people who want to delete information the obscure regions of human experience on the basis of "uhh, it don't tick this here box, a'right, so uh, yuh gotta delete it.") 112.79.40.247 (talk) 16:33, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

I don't know if we'll get a response, but I left a message for the game's creator requesting that he share any references/links he has that might help. I haven't played it, but as a freelance writer, I find Wikipedia most useful for information on subjects that were primarily written about decades ago in periodicals that went under before reaching the Web; often those articles contain facts we can use to track down "real" references...so I lean in favor of doing that, with merging as much as possible into BBS-Door as a fallback if necessary. Xyzzy☥Avatar (talk) 01:39, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

Amit Patel discusses this game a fair bit on his website. Additionally many of his old usenet postings from the early to mid-1990s are still available in Google Groups. Kirkman (talk) 04:16, 14 December 2012 (UTC)

I have to agree with Jason Scott's interpretation of Wikipedia. Editors don't care about preserving information. They care about rising through the ranks, and killing articles for "notability" helps them reach their goals. Solar Realms Elite is a massively important BBS door game. Without SRE, there's no BRE and no SRGames company. It spawned dozens of clones. Heck, people are still writing clones of SRE *TO THIS DAY*. Kirkman (talk) 04:17, 14 December 2012 (UTC)

New interview with SRE author

FWIW, I have published an interview with Amit Patel, the first in a series of interviews with various door game authors. You are welcome to cite it in the SRE article if you're so inclined. Kirkman (talk) 03:19, 19 February 2013 (UTC)