User:FacetsOfNonStickPans/Essay/A versus B; but B isn't here

When there is an article about A versus B, but B is not there on Wikipedia, there is a possibility that the article could start developing in ways that makes it increasingly difficult to adhere to policies and guidelines. A versus B could represent a conflict between countries, it could be a sporting rivalry, a competition between organisations or we could even consider human-animal conflict. This is easily addressed however not always obvious and directions that could be taken is helpful.

Take for example the article on human-animal conflict. There is no information on Wikipedia written by animals. There is no reference in the world which animals have created. Therefore in this case, humans will be the authors of all the sources, and only humans will edit Wikipedia. When this example is taken and compared to say sporting rivalries or conflicts between countries, it would appear to be an apple-oranges comparison. But in the context of Wikipedia, in the context of its policies and guidelines, it does have some explanatory benefit. It has to be remembered that a policy is applied to a diverse set of articles, it isn't the other way around.

Practically, it will rarely be the case that absolutely no content exists about B, see articles in the Category:Conflicts and see how many have no references for a particular party. However say if the content creation ratio for A to B is absurd ... There are multiple essays which give direction when such a situation occurs such as Wikipedia:Controversial articles and Wikipedia:Writing for the opponent. In some cases, a blank section is enough to sort things out.

What does it mean to say B isn't there on Wikipedia? edit

This means that in the article about A versus B, there is no content related to B. This could be due a number of reasons.

  1. Editors are only inserting what A is doing
  2. Editors cannot find any information about B from B
  3. Editors cannot find any information about B from A
  4. Editors cannot find any information about B from C, D or E
  5. Useable information about B is available but not in the article

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See also edit