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Revert of edits[edit source]

Hi Vilka,

Quick question about the reverts. I understand these might have been reverted due to them being "speculation", but the sword is a 1-1 replica of the Sword from Unity, if you look closely.

I see why you reverted the changes, but why can't the line "Later, Eivor recovered another Sword of Eden from the Eden Ring Station" be on the general Swords of Eden page? It is basically confirmed that the retrieved sword is a Sword of Eden. Why not change the line to "Later, Eivor recovered another Sword from the Eden Ring Station" instead?

Mikeverwegen (talk) 13:19, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

It is not basically confirmed because there are many discrepancies, such as the fact that the blazing sword is described as being built to "channel and distribute energy" while we know that the swords of eden were designed for war by Hephaestus. Also, timeline-wise they don't match, with the one form the tombs being made in preparation for the great catastrophe and the SoE1 being made for the War of Unification, which comes before. Despite the appearance, the editors decided to consider them as separate until someone from the writing team says otherwise. - Soranin (talk) 14:22, 7 October 2022 (UTC)
Ah okay. Thanks for the clarification! - Mikeverwegen (talk) 22:02, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Hytham edits[edit source]

Hi there, forgive the edit war! I wasn't sure how to reach out to you on here.

I've removed your addition of Hytham's birth year because while it is a speculation in "Giermund's Saga", it conflicts with the timeline in "The Golden City" as it would make Hytham 12 years old in the book, which doesn't make sense.

While I understand the reasoning, He is like 12ish during Mirage. so simply changing the birth date to "850s" would've been fine. There's plenty of timeline discrepancies afoot the longer you look. VilkaIsBack (talk) 05:30, 27 October 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for understanding. I really wish Ubisoft made more sense of their timelines haha.

Exercising greater restraint on original research[edit source]

Vilka, we've had this conversation several times, and I find the need to remind you again to please exercise restraint when it comes to contributing content based on your cursory research on subjects you're unfamiliar with, often using non-authoritative sites like Wikipedia. For starters, the principle is that honest work entails that you contribute based on material you actually have access to. For another, I have already recently explained the parameters where using information from non-Assassin's Creed sources are allowed: when necessary to introduce the most basic information about the subject, when necessary to fill in gaps that result from exclusive reliance on Assassin's Creed sources, and when writing an article dealing directly with a historical event.

Your creation of the article on Huangdi was not necessary. As far as I know, you did not have access to the closed beta test of Assassin's Creed: Jade. Then, to write it without much access to the scant information Assassin's Creed has said about this character, you apparently referred to external sources, thereby relying on original research. But the articles makes it evident that you were unfamiliar with this subject and wrote based on quick searches about him online. In these 4 reasons: (1) no access to the Assassin's Creed source that mentions this subject (2) necessity of relying on original research to write the article at all (3) no familiar understanding of the subject, you were not qualified to write this article and so it would have been more reasonable for you to just refrain from doing so. (Now, if the subject was important to Assassin's Creed, it is valid to write what you can on it and let others pick up the work after you, but Huangdi is only a footnote in one or two flavour texts.)

I apologize if I sound harsh, but this seems to be a recurring issue with your contributions, and I am weary of the extra labour it puts on me to clean it up each time. Sol Pacificus(Cyfiero) 04:26, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

Apology[edit source]

Hello Vilka, I want to apologize for my strictness with you the other day. Because of my own challenges managing my health and time together, often times I easily get stressed and frustrated when I see mistakes that I feel the need to take time to correct outside of my official wiki work schedule. But mistakes are part of the natural wiki work process, where users are supposed to follow-up with one another in successive edits to improve someone's work, and it is unreasonable of me to expect flawlessness in an initial version of any article. I understand too that I may be putting heavy pressure on the wiki by simultaneously demanding everyone else to defer China-related articles to me but then also struggling to regularly provide those pieces myself. I also recognize that I tend to be a little possessive of China-related content and too anxious over the slightest errors related to it owing to my pride for my culture and academic background, when in reality, mistakes over a minor article like the Yellow Emperor really wouldn't kill the wiki because they were left up for a few days.

I know you are only doing the best you can to contribute to the wiki and that it is my duty as an administrator to support you in that, to help you grow as an editor, and to inspire your confidence in your work. I'm sorry if I made you feel like I was clamping down on your efforts instead and harmed your mental health. We really do like having you in our community, which is why we were all so happy when Fandom restored your account a couple of years ago. Sol Pacificus(Cyfiero) 22:40, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

Also want to add that the fact that you named the article Xuānyuán instead of the obvious "Yellow Emperor" showed thoughtfulness on your part about what our formatting standards are. It showed that you were being mindful about the unique naming policy of our wiki even if the title wasn't exactly correct. (For my part, I wanted to create the article and name it with his real name but lacked the boldness to do so since that's so unconventional for this figure! So your boldness actually took the choice out of my hands!) Sol Pacificus(Cyfiero) 22:46, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

Thank you. I did kinda of struggle with the naming of the Yellow Emperor's page not knowing what one of his many names to have used, so in all honestly I should have just asked what his correct name was. Also, if you blame yourself for my hiatus, please don't. Didn't help but definitely wasn't the cause. I'm still around though, lurking, watching. I might be back to full editing duties in the coming weeks. VilkaIsBack (talk) 02:27, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

"Skills and equipment" vs. "Equipment and skills"[edit source]

Hello Vilka, regarding your question about how the section is titled, I determined that the consensus in our forum discussion was to change it to "Skills and equipment". This is based on my request later in the thread to change it, with Lacrosse giving me assent, but neither you or Odey addressed my question. I also interpreted Sora's response as agreeing with the two of you in regards to the organizational approach, not to the titling of "Equipment and skills", since my request to change it hadn't been raised as an explicit question yet when you two gave your answers. I didn't feel certain in my determination of the consensus, but with no other response forthcoming about it, I based it on a technicality (+2 for, 3 unanswered) on my request. For my part, I do think "Equipment and skill" is more awkward because skills is more relevant to the topic of an individual's traits, equipment is a longer word, and equipment is less important information than skills. Sol Pacificus(Cyfiero) 13:29, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

Ok. Guess I just didn't see that final answer. Helpful explanation though, it still is "Equipment and skills" on many many many other articles so since all of them were never changed I assumed it was the same now. "Skills and equipment" it is. VilkaIsBack (talk) 05:05, 18 May 2024 (UTC)
I can ask our Fandom representative to use a bot to change all of them. Sol Pacificus(Cyfiero) 05:12, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

English dialect[edit source]

Hello Vilka, I thought it might be helpful for me to explain a little about the dialect choice of our wiki. We actually have never standardized a particular spelling variant. The history behind why this was the case is a bit complicated.

Before I joined the wiki, one of the old moderators apparently had decided upon standardizing American English spelling on the basis that "it is more globally popular", an argument that I personally think is flawed. This was not communicated to me well by an admin when I first began editing; I was told that the wiki had not made a definitive choice in favour of either American or British English and that both were fine. I personally decided to start writing in Canadian English, and for some time that became more normal for the wiki. When the old moderator returned, however, he was frustrated by this because apparently he had spent a lot of time previously changing many articles to American English spelling. At this point, there was an impasse regarding the choice of spelling standard.

My arguments against American English were as follows:

  • We have already standardized European dating format and normally use British grammar and punctuation rules. It is an inconsistent practice for the spelling to be American instead.
  • Out of all active editors then, I was the only one with an American background. The three admins were either of Dutch or Belgian background. Even the moderator arguing for American English was Scottish and normally uses British English spelling in his daily life. One of our most active editors, Odey, is Singaporean, and Singapore uses British English. In addition, two other moderators then were an Indian and another Scottish individual.
  • Our analytics show that most of our traffic comes from Europe.
  • The Scottish moderator from my observation didn't have a perfect grasp of American English spelling norms even while trying to implement it.
  • The argument that American English spelling is "more globally popular" is folly in my honest opinion because apart from being American-centric, our editors and readers alike had mostly come from Commonwealth realms or Europe at the time (although less true today).

I made an argument for Canadian English on the following reasons:

  • Ubisoft had not been consistent with the spelling standard in the series, but at the time, especially with the earlier games, I assessed that it is generally Canadian English (which uses a mix of American and British spelling norms). This makes sense because Ubisoft is a Canadian company. Syndicate obviously uses British English. Games after Syndicate do seem to favour American English more though.
  • If we had to standardize spelling, I thought it would be neat to parallel the reasoning of Wookieepedia and the Harry Potter Wiki. Wookieepedia chose American English because Star Wars was made by an American and an American company. The Harry Potter Wiki chose British English because J.K. Rowling is British. So on a consistent principle, we could choose Canadian English since Ubisoft is a Canadian company.
  • As mentioned above, there was inconsistent implementation of American English in the first place because it was being implemented by editors with a British English background. In lieu of this, I thought Canadian English made the most sense if we had to establish a standard because it is British grammar rules with some Americanized spelling.

In any case, the consensus reached was that all English spelling systems would be tolerated and that, to be courteous, editors should not go out of their way to "correct" the spelling standard used by another editor. Sol Pacificus(Cyfiero) 23:12, 29 May 2024 (UTC)

I see, thanks for clarifying that. Guess that makes it easy for me and I just write my articles using Australian English and not have to constantly double check that I've used American. VilkaIsBack (talk) 05:50, 30 May 2024 (UTC)
Cyfy's face when I start typing in AAVE. Lacrossedeamon (talk) 06:17, 30 May 2024 (UTC)
Then there's me. We bastard Canadians are even worse than Sol described – Darman (talk) 02:45, 31 May 2024 (UTC)
Janel Comeau (@VeryBadLlama) on Twitter "
Americans: I use miles and pounds
Europeans: I use kilometres and kilograms
Canadians: [snorting a line of assorted measuring systems] I'm 5'3, I weigh 150lbs, horses weigh 1000kgs, my house is an hour away and I drive 80 km/h to get there, I need a cup of flour and 1L of milk"

Gilles Beloeil[edit source]

He is credited in at least the Artbooks for AC II, Revelations, III, Unity, Origins, and Valhalla. I'm not sure about Brotherhood as I don't have that one or Black Flag and Syndicate since my copies are in Cyrillic. Beyond just being credited for art he has some quotes at least in the Valhalla artbook. Lacrossedeamon (talk) 04:06, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

Ok neat, I'll have to scource my digital copies for any mention of him and add to the article. Cheers bro. VilkaIsBack (talk) 04:12, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

Do not use Google Translate[edit source]

Vilka, I need to ask you once again to please refrain from editing articles by using Google Translate or another translation tool to "read" sources in a language you do not understand yourself, especially a source that is already not authoritative to begin with like Wikipedia. (Using Wikipedia is allowed, but we have to be mindful that it is an inferior source to scholarly sources and using a version of Wikipedia in a language you can't read makes this all even worse.) This is a violation of editing integrity because you're not contributing based on what you honestly know. Sol Pacificus(Cyfiero) 07:27, 2 June 2024 (UTC)

Which article is this for??? Only one I did was Fujibayashi Nagato for his birth name. VilkaIsBack (talk) 10:04, 2 June 2024 (UTC)
Yes, I was referring to the article on Fujibayashi Nagato, but even there youmade a few mistakes, translating 本名 as "real name" instead of "birth name", and correct me if I'm wrong, but the rōmaji Yasutoyo for 保豊 is also from the translator, right? Yasutoyo is probably correct, but Japanese names can have different ways of reading.
Even for relatively simple information, an online translator tool can get things wrong because it does not understand context. Previously, you had mistranslated 韓國 (Han state) as Korea because Korea happens to share the same name as the ancient Chinese warring state. Google Translate could not recognize that in the context of a Warring States era Assassin, the country being referred to was not Korea.
Now, 本名 (lit. 'original name') can mean either 'real name' or 'birth name'. In English, real name can also mean birth name in some contexts—but not all. In some cases, an individual may change their name or adopt a new one and consider their new name to be just as or more real than their birth name. We don't know the context for Fujibayashi's name Nagato, so we cannot say that his birth name is the "real" one. We can only say it was his birth name.
In addition, you also inserted a line that Nagato did not historically have a daughter, highlighting this as an inaccuracy of Shadows. This is far from being basic, indisputable information. It can add to controversy, and notwithstanding this, your source is a Wikipedia article in a language you cannot read.
Even with the birth name mistranslation alone, I would have to remind you of this yet again. There are no exceptions to the rule not to use Google Translate for your sources. You need to recognize that even with the most basic of information, you can and have gotten things wrong. This is maybe the fifth time I've warned you about this. Sol Pacificus(Cyfiero) 21:03, 2 June 2024 (UTC)

Apologies[edit source]

Hi Vilkas. Thank you for your feedback on the non-canon images of Kassandra, I will bear this and the UI rules in mind in future. 13aldicus (talk) 17:31, 13 April 2025 (UTC)

New pages[edit source]

I'd just like to quickly remind you to proofread before publishing new pages. From what I can currently recall, I've seen incomplete clauses as a "sentence", punctuation errors, and occasionally a more casual tone in the body that only vaguely describes necessary plot elements, e.g. "after all was said and done". Thanks. – Darman (talk) 04:00, 4 May 2025 (UTC)

Can do. VilkaIsBack (talk) 04:08, 4 May 2025 (UTC)

Shadows Incomplete Memories[edit source]

I could really use some help finishing these pages, please:

  • A Chance Encounter
  • Temple Stories
  • Restless Spirits
  • The Lost Envoys
  • Darkness Falls
  • The Peasant Who Would Be King
  • Topple the Traitor
  • Story of a Samurai
  • Story of a Young Boy
  • Story of a Shinobi
  • Out of the Shadows

MrWii000 (talk) 20:12, 5 September 2025 (UTC)

If I may intrude on Vilka's page, you have now posted this call for aid on six different users' talk pages and still give all-caps edit summaries, despite my recent message to you on your talk page to kindly stop such activity and to recognize that not every editor here is playing Shadows to add wiki information. Posting this on two users' pages was plenty enough the first time. I firmly request again that you cease this or Staff may get involved. Thank you. – Darman (talk) 20:40, 5 September 2025 (UTC)
You need not re-add the page links. We can find them just fine with the {IncompleteMemory} template's associated category as well as the fact that this list is pasted multiple times elsewhere. As stated before, we will get to them when we can; just because some players can speed-run games does not mean volunteer contribution site will have matched their pace. – Darman (talk) 03:30, 22 September 2025 (UTC)