Sarkarverse:Article size: Difference between revisions

{{redirect2|WP:AS|WP:SIZE|information on the size of Sarkarverse|Sarkarverse:Statistics}}

{{subcat guideline|editing guideline|WP:SIZE|WP:LENGTH|WP:LIMIT|WP:TOOLONG|WP:TOO LONG!}}

* ''Readable-prose'' size: all viewable text in the main sections only, not including any viewable text in a table or a list, and not including any [[wp:footer|footer]] sections

* ''Wiki markup'' size: all viewable wikitext in the editable file, as shown in the character count of the edit [[wp:page history|history page]]

When an article seems to be the wrong size, five rule-of-thumb administrative responses are given here based on readable-prose size. The decision to divide a large article, break part of it out into a new article, or combine all or part of it into another existing article is an editorial decision that requires consensus. Other solutions for too-large articles, and guidelines on the size of articles, are provided below. The licensing policy mandates that any decision to "break out" or combine articles must be accompanied by an edit summary ''ala'' "''new content from the <nowiki>[[</nowiki>[[wp:page name|page name]]]]''".

{{Shortcut|WP:SPLITLIST}}

Lists, tables, and other material that is already in summary form may not be appropriate for reducing or summarizing further by the [[Sarkarverse:Summary style|summary style]] method. If there is no "natural" way to split or reduce a long list or table, it may be best to leave it intact, and a decision made to either keep it [[WP:Embedded lists|embedded]] in the main article or [[Sarkarverse:SPINOFF|split it off]] into a [[WP:Stand-alone lists|stand-alone sub-article]]. Regardless, a list or table should be kept as short as is feasible for its purpose and scope. Too much statistical data is against [[WP:NOT#STATS|policy]].

Total article size should be kept reasonably low, because many users edit from low-speed connections including [[dial-up]] connections, [[smartphones]], and low-end broadband connections. The text on a 32kB page takes about five seconds to load for editing on a dial-up connection, with accompanying images taking additional time, so pages significantly larger than this are difficult for older browsers to display. Articles of about 200kB (~30 pages) are not uncommon for topics that require depth and detail, but it's typical that articles of such size get [[WP:SPLIT|split]] into two or more sub-articles.

{{shortcut|WP:SPINOUT|WP:SUBARTICLE}}

To conform with [[WP:C|Sarkarverse's licensing requirements]], which permit modification and reuse but require attribution of the content contributors, the new page should be created with an [[Help:Edit summary|edit summary]] noting "split content from <nowiki>[[article name]]</nowiki>". ('''Do not omit this step or omit the page name.''') A note should also be made in the edit summary of the source article, "split content to <nowiki>[[article name]]</nowiki>", to protect against the article subsequently being deleted and the history of the new page eradicated. The {{tl|Copied}} template can also be placed on the talk page of both articles.

As browsers have improved, there is no need for haste in splitting an article when it starts getting large. Sometimes an article simply needs to be big to give the subject adequate coverage. If uncertain, or with high profile articles, start a discussion on the talkpage regarding the overall topic structure. Determine whether the topic should be treated as several shorter articles and, if so, how best to organize them.  If the discussion makes no progress consider adding one of the [[WP:SPLIT|split tags]] in order to get feedback from other editors.

If a section of an article is a magnet for unhelpful contributions (such as the "external links" section or [[WP:AVTRIV|trivia]] sections), be aware that while moving it to another article may help to clean up the main article, it creates a new article that consists entirely of a section for unwanted contributions.  If an article includes large amounts of material not suitable for inclusion in the encyclopedia, it is better to remove that content than to create a new article for it.

{{Shortcut|WP:SIZERULE|WP:TOOBIG}}

{{main|WP:Content removal}}

You can find the size of the markup of a page in [[byte]]s from its [[WP:page history|page history]] (near the bottom).  Also the [[Sarkarverse:Searching|search]] box entry: <code>intitle:Article title</code> will show both number of words in the article and the size of the article in kilobytes. In most cases these are not reliable indications on their own of whether an article should be split.