Approved References

The Harvest Moon Wiki combines many sources of information mixed with our editor's own experiences and knowledge to edit our 3,000+ articles here. Over the years, there have been many legitimate accusations of stealing content that does not fall under fair use. There have also been repeat offences of copy+pasting directly from a source. Neither of these practices are ethical or acceptable ways to add information to our wiki.
Over the years, we have tried to improve our practices and have begun doing things like providing references to the original material used when referencing a source. We also do not permit a direct copy+paste under any circumstance, as this classifies as plagiarism.
Below are a few resources that have granted the Harvest Moon Wiki direct permission to reference their materials. The Admin will work on reaching out to more sourced material used on the wikia, if they are not already on the approval list below.
==Permission Granted==
===Fogu.com===
In a long e-mail exchange with Cher (creator of fogu.com), she agreed to let the wiki use information from her site. This is with the understanding that anything we gather from her site is given CLEAR sourcing/referencing, and that the information is only taken in part. For example: using the trigger times for an event, but not copy/pasting the entire event word-for-word. Any information taken from fogu should be mixed with our own knowledge about the game taken independently through our own experiences. This is good practice for every article. 
I cannot stress enough how valuable a resource Cher's website is for Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons information. We have used the information from fogu.com across most games here on the wikia. Please be respectful of Cher's generosity in allowing us to use her information by always properly sourcing. Plagiarism of her content will not be tolerated and is unacceptable.
===Harvest Moon GBC===
*Guide and Walkthrough by JunoGem - Permission granted via email (even after 20 years) to use content from this guide, if we need to expand on our articles any.
===Harvest Moon: Back to Nature===
*Harvest Moon: Back to Nature FAQ by Sky Render - Permission granted directly from FAQ writer via email exchange. As long as any information taken from the guide is properly referenced, they are OK with us using their information (which has been done). Information for schedules, gifts and alternative birthday information used.
*Back to Nature Secrets - The website's legal page states that everything used on the website falls under fair use. The only thing the website owner claims ownership of is independently gathered screenshots, which they state do not need to be referenced back to them. Because the website is built upon fair use, it allows us to also use their content under fair use as well...since they claim no ownership. References have been added regardless.
===Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town===
*The Ultimate Harvest Moon Love & Friendship Guide - Permission granted directly from FAQ writer via email exchange. All information is properly referenced on the FoMT pages. Information used includes gifts, event trigger times, recipes gained from villagers through friendships and schedules. 
===Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life===
*ANWL FAQ/Walkthrough by Raserei Hojo - Managed to contact FAQ writer through GameFAQS and received permission to use whatever we may want to use from the guide, as long as credit is given. Only information used so far has been information on children and references have been added. Any further information added will also be referenced.
===Harvest Moon: DS===
*Harvest Moon DS Guide and Walkthrough by darkrangeresp - This guide's legal section states: You are welcome to take general information from the guide as long as you present it in your own format and words. If you choose to do so, your guide needs to have a section giving me credit for what you took.. Any information used in this guide for the wiki will be properly referenced back to the guide and FAQ writer. The FAQ writer was messaged regardless, but was unable to be reached.
===Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility===
*Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility Gift Guide by mister_jmp - The copyright section at the bottom of the guide gives permission to freely use and distribute the guide on other sites, in whole or in part. References to the guide have been added.
===Videos===
*Any and all videos that are posted from YouTube channel ch0colatemilk (http://www.youtube.com/user/ch0colatemilk is from admin Nixerix's personal YouTube page. The admin give full permission to use any video that relates to the Harvest Moon franchise in any way. Many of the videos have been added already (by the admin and others). A complete list of all Harvest Moon content available from this YouTube channel are on Nix's user page.
==Permission Not Granted==
*Ranch Story - We have had repeated issues of content poaching and plagiarism from RanchStory. As a result, several users have asked us not to use any information from their site, including photos and text. This includes the previous domain/website that Ranch Story used to be at before hosting on their current site. Stolen photographs and other content have been removed upon request. Some photo content has been granted permission to be used here on the wikia, with references/sourcing giving credit. The Crediting RanchStory Wiki page has some good information about good practices about referencing/sourcing. If Ranch Story content is to be used, please obtain written consent prior to using here on the Harvest Moon wikia. Even with written consent, proper referencing and sourcing would be necessary.
==Unable to Contact==
*Child FAQ by Nekoko - Email provided at the bottom of the FAQ contact information is no longer active. This FAQ writer is also no longer active on gamefaqs.com, so there is no point of contact. We will keep the information we have referenced for now, unless the FAQ writer contacts us specifically requesting us to remove all references to their guide.
*Harvest Moon DS Guide and Walkthrough by darkrangeresp - Was unable to reach this person to ask for *official* permission to use parts of their guide here. But as stated above, they do give permission in their guide as long as references and credit is given.
*Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar Gift List by Wolfire - This user is no longer active to contact. There is no copyright section of the guide, nor does it state anywhere that the guide is to be used only with permission or not duplicated. Have also checked over on GameFAQS.com where the guide was originally published, and still, no such information exists. Because we are using only portions of the information which has been referenced and put into our own format, I think this is safe to still use here unless the original writer contacts one of us directly requesting otherwise.
==Sites + References No Longer Available==
*www.hmotaku.net - This was a wonderful resource for information for the Leaf Valley characters in particular. Sadly, the site has been closed for several years now. References have been left on the HoLV pages anyways.
==Approval Screenshots==
FoMTConsent.png|FoMT guide
BTNPermission1.png|BTN guide by Skyrender
CherPermission.png|Email exchange with Cher (fogu)
HMGB Permission.png|HMGBC Guide by JunoGem 
AWL Permission Gamefaqs.png|AWL Guide by Raserei Hojo, provided through GameFAQS.com
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