User blog:Tesla Man/The Case Regarding the Expansion of Character Biographies

Hello wikians,

In this post, I will be presenting an idea for the administration of this wiki to read and consider. While I don’t intend for regular users to read this essay, if you believe it is your duty as a contributing member to the wiki to do so, feel free. I am presenting a problem coupled with an idea that tends to fly under the radar often without consideration. If you do read this, feel free to comment your thoughts regarding the subject. Please don’t proceed to do any “support” or “against” comments, as this creates opposing sides and teams which never helps when making a decision. Now on to the matter at hand.

Before I begin with my main point I will start with bringing up a small bit of wiki history and review it a bit. March 23rd of 2013, the event of the wiki revolution takes place. This began when Steeler locked the Babe Ruth page solely for Ynkr to edit, claiming that the page was reserved for Ynkr as he was a Yankee’s and baseball fan and that he should be the one to put the information in. As you can tell, this created some public upset which led to the brief revolution. The revolution is not the issue which I would like to discuss, but the events post revolution are.

So Ynkr returned and edited the page, filling it with information on Babe Ruth and the page was unlocked for users to edit. But members of the wiki complained that Ynkr added too much information. This event is what I would like to discuss- This idea off adding too much information.

This is a topic which I believe I have brought up once maybe twice on chat in times long passed. Now I’m going to make it a little more public because it’s something that bothers me a bit, and since there are no major issues that need to be solved at the moment and not much content editing going on, I think this presents an opportunity to promote a little more opportunity.

Nice Peter, when discussing the Epic Rap Battles of History often mentions how he wants to help people learn, and if he can just get one person interested in a subject because of his battles, then he did his job correctly. While Nice Peter does indeed do his job correctly, we fail to do ours in helping him. This wiki serves as a place that people go to after discovering the battles, and some of these people come here to learn. In their essence, besides entertaining, the rap battles are for education which is something Peter is passionate about, so why is it that a Rap Battle based wiki presents only one or two paragraphs regarding a character or individual?

Now I’ve heard before, “because this is a wiki based on the battles, not historical figures” but that is a concept which rationally makes zero sense to me considering that the battles are of HISTORY. The central focus of the battles are the historical figures, so why are we not providing a proper amount of information for them? If each character page provided sufficient information which covers all the topics and ideas presenting in the lyrics of the battle, there would practically be no use for Rap Meaning pages because all of the information that you would need to know would be in the character’s pages. I’m not suggestion the deletion of the Rap Meaning pages in favor of expanding the character biographies because they are very useful. I’m simply suggesting that the Rap Meaning pages need to serve as a follow up resource for some further and simpler explaining.

For an example, I’ll use a verse from Vader vs Hitler 3:

Let me paint you a picture, son.

Portrait of a bitch after World War I!

You were stirring up a fears of the German people.

Tellin' the world that the Jews are evil.

You wrote a little book, got 'em fired up.

Had a Beer Hall Putsch, got 'em fired up.

When your bunker started getting fired up.

You put a gun in your mouth and fired up!

You dumb mother fucker, didn't Napoleon let you know?

When you conquer Russia, better pack some fucking winter clothes!

While you're fighting off Valkyrie.

I got a million clones, they die for me!

My bounty hunters ride for me.

Yo homeboy, finish this rhyme for me!



From this verse, the information that should be provided in the Hitler page should encompass in relative detail:


 * Hitler’s art career before politics


 * His service for the German Army in World War I


 * His actions against the Jewish people and his supremacist beliefs


 * Mein Kampf


 * His domination strategies and the Beer Hall Putsch


 * His suicide, the causes behind it, and the manner in which it happened


 * His tactics and plans for Russia and why it failed


 * Operation Valkyrie

While this does seem to be a bit much, I believe that it is rather necessary is we want the make this place actually educational as the basis for the ERB’s suggest it should be. I recognize that taking action to do this will take a bit of time and research, but I know that it definitely would not hurt the users of this wiki to learn a thing or two when editing the pages which is also important.

I believe that we cannot call ourselves a database of information regarding the rap battles if all that we have regarding important historical figures that shaped humanity and play a key part in the rap battles is a meager 2 or 3 paragraphs that barely touch over their most commonly known aspects.

Please take this into consideration (especially the staff) because I know that it would not hurt this place in the slightest if a page reconstruction project were to happen to expand our information. It would absolutely benefit newcomers to the wiki who want to learn new information or include and share new information, and I think a very important part of this wiki is the newcomers and helping them out. While I absolutely love that this wiki has built such a community that connects people together, I believe the first priority should be pages and article information, and frankly, we’ve cheaped out a bit on it. I’m not one to decide whether that is a result of laziness or feeling of unnecessarity, but it is something that I believe should be fixed, and this is the perfect time to do it.

-Tesla Man