Talk:404

How to handle fake articles
We had one or two people recently (most likely one, based on how close the IP addresses were and the writing styles were) that created several pages for episodes, songs and characters that are probably fake. I pointed them to the FAQ, but a couple of the newest ones from other anonymous IP users are intact and now have a notice at the top that says it's unverified and likely fake.

Some clues that a page is fake:


 * Premiere date is in the past on a channel where we know it didn't broadcast.
 * Mis-match between premiere date in the episode page and when it's in the list of all episodes for a season.
 * Claims to premiere weeks or months beyond what publicly-viewable TV schedules like TVGuide.com show.
 * Uses pieces from other episodes, like a song, picture or quotation, in an attempt to make an episode.
 * Lists out-of-universe characters, movies or books are appearing in the episode under those specific names. Example: Guest starring Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka in an episode called "Doofenshmirtz and the Chocolate Factory".
 * Actors for the episode do not have "Phineas and Ferb" listed amongst their credits on websites like IMDb.
 * The page was created by an anonymous IP user instead of a registered user. (Not a 100% indicator of being a fake, but it almost always is.)

It's probably better if we just redirect these kinds of pages here with  #REDIRECT 404  instead of going through the hassle of trying to get the person that created the page to admit that they made it up. I know that goes against the "assume good faith" values of Wikia, but I think it will be a better way of handling things. If we get it wrong, like I did when I thought Morty Williams was a fake character, we can easily fix it.

Leaving the pages here with a redirect gives us that opportunity to fix the mistake if it happens, plus it prevents the situation we had a while back where we'd delete a page and someone would create it again. Finally, if all of the fake pages are pointed here, maybe the people who are making the fake pages will get tired of it and go somewhere else if it's not fun for them any more.

Visit 404 Error Pages to see why that name was chosen. — RRabbit42 03:11, 24 March 2009 (UTC)