Please remember to follow the manual of style and code of conduct at all times.
Check the Bulbagarden home page for up-to-date Pokémon news and discuss it on the forums or in the Bulbagarden Discord server.

User:Memo326/Trivia Policy

From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.
Jump to navigationJump to search
Bulbapedia logo.png
 This article is a proposed policy for Bulbapedia.

Please discuss the proposed policy and suggest possible changes on the article's talk page.

The Trivia section in every article, I would argue, is one of the ones most edited, even though it actually is the least important (it is trivial information, after all). Many people add new trivia, sometimes notable and interesting, but most times not. Others edit existing trivia to conform to new information, which usually makes a specific trivia piece too convoluted and with too many exceptions to even be notable after a certain point. Some trivia isn't really trivia, but important (or maybe even semi-relevant) information about the subject that should be integrated in the main article, and some are just plain uninteresting. In short, we need guidelines to say what constitutes good and notable trivia, and how trivia should be handled when new information arises.

What trivia should be

I think trivia should be the following three things

  • Trivia should be trivial. It shouldn't be important information, not even semi-relevant information, all of which should be integrated in the article.
  • Trivia should be notable. To be notable, it should be the best (or worst) at its category. Not second best, or third best. Also, to be notable, the category should be sufficiently general. Example: The Normal-type Pokémon with the highest speed? Notable. The Normal/Flying-type Pokémon with the highest speed? Probably not.
  • Trivia should be interesting. The most subjective, but in my opinion, the most important. "Magnezone has the highest Special Attack of all Electric-type Pokémon" is boring, and could be found out by using a good Pokédex like veekun's. Now "Magnezone's role in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Darkness as a police officer is often thought to be a reference to Robocop" is a bit more interesting.

Guidelines

Here are some proposed specific guidelines for what constitutes good, notable trivia. It is by all means a work in progress. It deals, for now, with the most formulaic, arguably less interesting trivia (such as stat trivia) since it seems to pop up so often, and it's easy to delimit as I know its patterns.

Pokémon stat trivia

For clarity, [stat] could mean BST or each of the six individual Pokémon stats.

Notable

  • The highest or lowest [stat] of all Pokémon.
  • The highest [stat] of all non-legendary Pokémon.
  • The highest or lowest [stat] of all [type]-type Pokémon.

Maybe notable

  • The highest [stat] of all non-legendary [type]-type Pokémon.
  • The highest or lowest [stat] of all starter Pokémon. (as it is a relatively small group)

Not notable

  • The second, third, etc. highest or lowest [stat] of any category of Pokémon.
  • The highest or lowest [stat] of all [type1]/[type2]-type Pokémon.
  • The highest or lowest [stat] of all pure [type]-type Pokémon.
  • The highest or lowest [stat] of all [type]-type legendary Pokémon.

Category trivia

There are two types of category trivia:

  • All elements of a certain category share this characteristic.
  • This element is the only element of a certain category that has this characteristic.

The first type should only be on the page for the category, while the second, only on the page for that specific element. If it's not "only" or "all", it is not notable.


Take for example the following two trivia from the Bug-type page.

  • All mid-evolution Bug Pokémon are based on cocoons.
  • String Shot is the only Bug-type status move that can miss.

The first belongs in the Bug (type) page, while the second belongs in the String Shot (move) page.


Now, let's imagine Generation VI comes along and introduces both a mid-evolution Bug Pokémon that is not a cocoon and a second Bug-type status move that can miss. Usually, the trivia would end up like this:

  • All mid-evolution Bug Pokémon, except for [new Bug Pokémon], are based on cocoons.
  • String Shot and [new move] are the only Bug-type status move that can miss. OR
  • Before Generation VI, String Shot was the only Bug-type status moves that can miss.

The first is technically notable, but worded and located incorrectly. It has become an "only" trivia (as only the new Pokémon isn't a cocoon), and thus should be removed from the Bug-type page and put solely on the new Pokémon's page. The second one are both common modifications, but the reality is that the trivia is no longer notable as it is not "only" or "all" trivia. Masking it with exceptions or restrictions just makes the trivia more convoluted.

Retrieved from "https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/w/index.php?title=User:Memo326/Trivia_Policy&oldid=1693481"