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===Species stub=== | ===Species stub=== | ||
Like astronomical objects, the level of information available on species is highly variable. A preloaded topic outline is available for editors to use when starting a new article on a species. It includes an infobox, and suggests the following categories for use: biology, life cycle, technology, history, trivia and external links. However, a species article is not necessarily a stub just because it does not contain information about each one of those topics. Sometimes, the known details about a species do not readily fit into this pre-loaded structure. It's rarely important to a ''Doctor Who'' story, for instance, what the life cycle of an alien is. Nor does every species have readily-identifiable technology. It is only when there actually is information about these topics, and the article fails to include it, that a species article might be considered a stub. | |||
Each case is quite different. For instance, if the article on [[Cybermen]] had no information about [[Cybermat]]s, then it could well be considered a stub, as Cybermats were a fairly major piece of Cyber-technology. Likewise, if it failed to mention any societal structure, such the fucntional role of [[Cyber-Controller]]s and [[Cyber-Leader]]s, then it could well be considered a stub. Meanwhile the [[Optera]] don't have a lot in the way of technology, but we ''are'' able to say rather a lot about their culture. Failing to at least mention their linguistic system could potentially make the article a stub. | |||
Although not applicable to every species, the preloadable topic outline serves as a useful starting point for most species articles, and ones that don't at least have [[:template:Infobox Species|the infobox from that outline]] are likely stubs. | |||
Generally, a species article should be considered a stub if it fails to even ''mention'' information from each major appearance in the medium in which the species originated. For instance, if you were writing an article about the [[Robot Yeti]], the article would definitely be a stub if it gave details from ''[[The Abominable Snowmen]]'' but not ''[[The Web of Fear]]''. The article would be incomplete, but not a stub, if it ignored the minor appearance in ''[[The Five Doctors]]''. Nor would it be classed a stub simply because it failed to give details of the appearance in [[MA]]: ''[[Downtime]]''. | |||
A species article should also strive to do more than just report the encounters that species had with the Doctor, Sarah Jane, K9 or Torchwood. It should attempt to provide physical and cultural details about the race. The fact that an article is devoid of these elements, however, should not be taken as an automatic sign it is a stub. Just as there are many astronomical objects which are only incidentally mentioned, there are many species who are given short shrift by writers. | |||
===Stub=== | ===Stub=== | ||
