MegaGlest:Policies
The Glest wiki has a few policies to ensure that all editors are treated correctly and to ensure that the wiki can be well maintained and optimal for its users and editors alike.
User Policies
All Editors Are Equal:
All editors, no matter how new, or whether they are Sysops, are equal. All editors get the same weight in consensus, and have equal rights on the wiki. The wiki is not a hierarchy, sure, being a Sysop let's you edit easier, but it's not a rank, but more of a responsibility. The editor still is equal to all other editors, sysop or not.
Always Assume Good Faith
Always assume that any edit a user makes, was made in good faith. Even if its a horrendously misplaced, useless edit, assume that the user made it in an attempt to improve the wiki. Only assume vandalization if it is completely apparent. Remember that new users may not know how to edit a wiki, and rather than yelling at them for that, consider cleaning up their edit and informing them on how to edit the wiki properly.
Do Not Feed the Trolls
Everywhere on the internet you go, there will be some people who purposely desire to interrupt and cause mayhem. As annoying as they can be, do not feed the trolls. They take pride in their disruption, and yelling and threatening them only spurs them on. Just report the troll to an administer and ignore them. Feeding the trolls only results in making things worse. However, remember to always assume good faith and do not assume that a mis-edit or two is necessarily a troll.
No Personal Attacks
Never attack another user. Yes, agreements come from consensus, and you may not agree with a user's ideas, but do not attack the individual! You're welcome to attack their idea, but under no circumstances should you attack another user, either by flaming, name calling, or poor behavior to other users. Most importantly, if attacked, do not counter-attack! That will only make things worse.
Respect All Users
Treat all others the way you wish to be treated. This includes even the trolls (see: Do Not Feed the Trolls). Making threats can end up a real-life criminal offense, so think before you act. If you are abused by another editor, you may contact an administer, who can review the case and possibly block the offending editor for a variable amount of time. If you are unfairly blocked, you may protest this on your Talk Page, and an administer may review the case, potentially unblocking you.
Article Policies
Don't Delete Discussions
Discussions (namely, the talk pages) should NEVER have any information removed. Sure, it may get outdated eventually, but we leave it up for a record of previous discussions. This can also prevent the discussion from being brought up again in the future. It is fine to reorganize discussions as long as its still readable and no data is removed (only rearranged). Some things, namely, flaming, personal attacks, or spam on discussion pages CAN be deleted, but if in doubt, leave it there.
Granularity
Don't be afraid of how small something is. If it's notable and glest related, feel free to make an article here. Even if it's just an article about the swordman, go ahead and do it (see: Be Bold).
Neutral Point of View
All articles should be written from a neutral point of view. This means that they should be unbiased and not focusing on any one side, right or wrong. The wiki does not take sides, no matter what sides the majority of editors may prefer, and articles should never reference them.
Protection
Pages that are frequently vandalized or very important can be protected. Semi-protection means you need an account at least four days old to edit the article, while full protection allows only Sysops to edit the page. For example, the main page or important files such as the main logo would be protected. You can request a page to be protected, but such should not be done pre-emptively because it let's less people able to edit the page.
Redirects
Redirects are pages that redirect the viewer to another page. For example, if you move a page to a new name, the old page will become a redirect to the new page. However, you should NOT try to make redirects blindly, as redirects only work once. YOU CANNOT POINT A REDIRECT TO ANOTHER REDIRECT. This will simply result in the viewer being stuck on the second redirect, as you are never redirected multiple times (to prevent possible infinity loops and to prevent the server load count from going out of control). Therefor, if you move a page, make sure you check what pages link to that page, and change any redirects so they link to the new page. However, also beware of creating pages simply for the purpose of redirection. You can create redirects for common misspellings, for better phrasing of words, or even different capitalization, but beware of making too many, for if you were to need to create an article in the future and the article of that name is a redirect, you will hit trouble.
For a list of Double Redirects, click here. To "solve" Double Redirects, either point it to the actual page to be redirected to, or delete it if the page is meaningless.
Three Revert Rule
No editor should perform more than three (3) reverts in one day. This is to prevent revert wars and stop overt vandalism. Reverts that are except from this rule are reverting one-time vandalization, removing copyright violations, etc; Remember to use common sense above all things (see Use Common Sense).
Use Common Sense
Over all rules, common sense has higher priority. In fact, you can justify breaking some policies with common sense, provided that it benefits the wiki. For example, if a user repetitively vandalizes a page, you can revert it multiple times. This may end up a violation of the Three Revert rule, but because it was for the good of the wiki and used common sense, that is justified.
Wiki Policies
Be Bold
If you notice an article missing something, add it in! Information is always wanted, and all editors are encouraged to be bold about their edits. However, also be careful. Avoid making a massive change without at least first discussing it on the associated talk page. For example, if you want to totally switch around the layout of page A, be sure to make sure that's what the community wants too (see: Consensus).
Consensus
The main decision making process on the wiki is CONSENSUS. This is not a democracy, nor a dictatorship. Consensus doesn't mean just voting, since that leaves no room for a middle ground or room for discussion. Bear in mind that all editors are equal, and everybody's opinion means the same in consensus. Consensus is not a majority vote. If 51% of editors support a change, that's not enough. Consensus should strive for roughly 70% or more of the users coming to an agreement. Consensus allows room for alternative proposals and changes. When striving for consensus, users should side either oppose (against the change) or agree (for the change). Alternatively, they can state their stance as neutral or just give a comment. Remember that consensus may change over time, and new consensus should be decided in that case.
Deletion
Pages may be deleted under extreme positions. The follow list is criteria for deletion.
- Vanity pages. For example, "I'm mike and I play Glest. I live in...." do not help the wiki at all.
- Advertising and spam. Posting random websites or things like "Google is awful; try Brand X Search Engine free for 10 days!" aren't contributing anything to the wiki.
- Pages that are filled with nonsense. For example, pages with titles such as "dahoshagohfoug" or content like "dafjkl;afjlstupiddkaf;jdsk" have no point in being on this Wiki.
- Redirects left behind when moving a page between different namespaces.
- Useless or duplicated categories, like a "poop" category.
- Pages in another language. This is an English Wiki, no other languages are allowed.
- Useless images, like "File:Lolcatz.jpg".
- Low quality, duplicate, or personal images.
Remember to always assume good faith, as well, to try to see if there is any way to make an article useful. Also, please do not delete short pages, stubs, or vandalized/blanked pages (which can be reverted).
Don't Edit User Pages
Please do NOT edit someone else's user page. If you wish to leave a message, etc, that's what the User Talk page is for. Do not edit it even to fix typos or to tidy it up.
Honesty
Keep things honesty. Purposely lying is vandalization. Lying hurts the wiki and does not contribute to the information of articles, so be sure to always use the truth and nothing but the truth. However, remember to assume good faith and assume that if another editor adds information that is false, he or she did so without realizing is was a lie. Accusing of lying is a personal attack.
Limit Profanity
Unless it's needed in the article, profanity should not appear in articles. While fine in discussions and on user pages, it shouldn't be overused and above all, should not be directed to another editor (see: No Personal Attacks).
This Is Not Your Webpage
The wiki is not to be used as a personal site. Even your user page is not yours, but belongs to Wikia. More-over, the wiki is not a place for your personal information, and your name should not be on a page with the exception of stating the creator of a mod, etc. For example, you should not state that you edited the page anywhere. That's not helping the wiki, but rather is personalizing it for you. Likewise, your signature (~~~~) should not appear on any articles (though you should sign all posts on a talk page).
Glest Wiki is Not...
...A Blog
It is not a webpage for you to post your personal information. Keep your userpage vague as well, and don't use the wiki as a personal site.
...A File Host
The Glest wiki is not a place for you to host your files. If it doesn't have an explicit use by the wiki itself, it doesn't belong. Please do not try to upload maps or any other glest mod to the wiki. Use a file sharing site such as Filefront or Mediafire.
...A Forum
The wiki is not a forum, and should not be treated like so. The talk pages are meant for relevant discussion concerning that article, not for asking for help. The Glest Forums are meant for that purpose.
...A Tabloid
All information should be honest and should come from reliable sources. While this isn't wikipedia, and quoting sources is hardly needed, you should still make sure that your facts are correct before you add them to the wiki.
...For Things Other Than Glest
This is the GLEST Wiki. If it's not related to Glest, it doesn't belong here.
...For Vandalization
The Glest wiki has no use for anything that promotes hatred, spreads hoaxes, or pornography, INCLUDING USERPAGES. This only hurts the wiki, and should never appear in any circumstance. Vandalization is treated very seriously, and will almost definately invoke a temporary block.
...Governed
The wiki is not overwatched by any, and there are no ranks. A Sysop is not above any other editor. The community is led by all it's editors working with consensus.
...Wikipedia
While the Wiki's software is based off wikipedia, and several policies, such as NPoV, are adopted from wikipedia, the wiki is not wikipedia, and should not be treated like so. Quoting sources is unnecessary (though, optional) and we are not limited by the strictness of wikipedia.
Style Guide
Abbreviations and Slang
Avoid using abbreviations, slang, 1337-speak, or any other form of communication. Proper english is required for proper readability. Abbreviations are acceptable as a second time (or more) that they've been mentioned in the article UNLESS they link to another page which will explain the abbreviation (ie: GAE is acceptable if the first instance of it links to the GAE page, which would explain what GAE is. Or, GAE could be used if the full name of 'Glest Advanced Engine' is used earlier in the article and it is apparent that it is what's meant by GAE).
Bold and Italic
Bold and italic fonts are both used to show emphasis, though you should take care not to overuse them, and they should be used primarily to help the viewer. Overuse is just distracting and difficult to read. In wiki code, italics are done with TWO apostrophes on each side, bold is done with THREE, and bold and italic can be done together with FIVE. However, there's few practical uses for both together, bold alone is more than plenty to stress a strong emphasis.
Dates
Because of the international affect of the wiki, dates should be added in international format, namely, DD MM YYYY, without commas. For example, use 30 May 2010, instead of May 30 2010.
Fonts and Colors
Except when necessary and/or helpful to the article, avoid using different fonts or colors. Not only do they serve to cause confusion, but they may not show up well against the wiki's background. As a general rule of thumb, if it doesn't help the article, don't use it. There's no need to have color just to try to make something 'look good'.
Links
The first instance of something that has an article on the wiki should have a link, however, more than one is not necessary. For example, if Magitech appears several times throughout an article, the first instance of it should be linked, while the rest should not. External links in articles may be used too, but use them sparingly, and only if absolutely necessary. When creating links to another article in the wiki, there's no need for capitalization or underscores. The wiki does this automatically.
Images
Images are a must for the wiki, and an image is worth a thousand words. However, all images MUST be related to glest and should be used in an article somewhere (barring user pages). Images not used in any articles are candidates for deletion. Images should generally be right or left aligned, except for large images that would serve a purpose being center aligned. Also, large images should generally be shrunk down, since the user can click the image for the full size. Images in articles should generally be captioned to tell the point of the image.
Page Titles
Page titles should be clear, meaningful, and short. They should be made with the first letter of the first word being capitalized, and all following words lowercase (ie: 'Dark magic'). Please do not use camel case such as DarkMagic, as that makes searching harder, causes improper page indexing, and is not neat. When disambiguating from articles that may have similar names, you should use another word in parenthesis after (ie: 'Military (Techtree)').
Sections and Headings
To make articles easier to read, as well as to allow the table of contents to function, articles are broken into sections with headings. The heading1 only appears at the top of the page, and cannot be manually inserted. Header2 is the normal level, such as Style Guide above. Heading3 would be after heading2, and so on... In wiki syntax, heading2 is ==My Heading==, heading3 is ===My Heading===, and so on...
