Article Quality Policy

Here on the Age of Sigmar Homebrew Wiki, we want you to have a place where you can post your stories and lore and perhaps engage with a community of like minded folks. We also want this to be a good place for people who like reading lore for the Mortal Realms to browse through, and so we want the average article quality to be a bit higher than is often found on fan-fiction sites. There are a bunch of policies on this site, and they are all valuable for various reasons, but the bottom line in all this is that the rules are here to help make your article really good, so that you can be proud of it and so that people can enjoy looking through it. If you have any questions or issues, feel free to reach out to an admin, either here or on the discord.
Sometimes, if there are small changes that need to be made to an article, such as categorizing, html issues, missing templates, and so forth, an admin may pop in to just fix your article. If there are bigger issues, or the admins are busy, or the issue has to do with your content, you may get a Quality Issue Template placed on your article. This is not a punishment or condemnation, just the start of a discussion about things that should be improved in your article. If you have any uncertainty about the quality issue, we invite you to reach out to an admin, here or on discord.
==Minimum Requirements==
The following are the absolute bare minimum requirements that must appear on an article in order for it to be compliant with the Article Quality Policy. 
===Templates===
There are a large selection of templates for page development. They make articles more uniform in structure and are not difficult to use. When creating an article, please ensure to follow the bare minimum requirements, in regards to templates, below:
*All articles must make use of a Property, Free Use, or Community template.
*All (Property, Free Use, Community, Construction, ect.) must be placed at the very top of an article, preferably in the order listed above. 
*Incomplete articles must have a Construction template. 
*No image placeholders on articles are to be published. 
*Any type of music players (youtube, soundcloud, ect.) are to be placed at the top of the article and and must be clearly visible. Hidden players through the use of coding tricks will be removed. 
*All quotes must utilise a Quote Template.
*If you feel a new Template needs to be created, please notify one of the Admins, as this is an Admin function, and they will create it. We already have a ton of created templates for the various articles on the wiki. DO NOT create your own! You can find infobox templates at the following link: [Category:Templates|Category:Templates]
===Infoboxes===
*Ensure that articles utilise appropriate infoboxes when warranted.
*Only use one infobox per article. 
*No infoboxes within infoboxes.
*You can search for the best infobox for your article here: Infoboxes
===Naming===
*When naming an article the title should be concise. 
*No article titles should begin with the word "the" or end with full stops. For example, a page entitled "The Blackstar Chapter" should be entitled, "Blackstar Chapter". Only in certain situations will an exceptional naming circumstance be allowed, e.g. an article named "The Twelve", where the lack of the word "the" would appear curiously absent. Other articles such as "Kabal of the Poisoned Thorns" are permitted to use the word "the" in the name. But this is an exception to the rule rather than the norm. 
===Content===
*All articles should be three paragraphs in length, minimum. 
*All articles must abide by the established canon of the Warhammer Age of Sigmar universe in accordance to this wiki's Canon Policy, except in certain circumstances, such as community pages involving Alternative Universe (AU) settings. 
*Ensure that all articles make use of proper punctuation, spelling, grammar and diction. 
*Articles should not contain internet slang (ex. "How r u?" or "c u 2nite"). Please spell out an entire word. If you are unsure how a word is spelled, please refer to either the Google search engine or Dictionary.com. 
*Please do not abbreviate the names of characters, places or anything. Wherever possible, use the full name of a character the first time they are mentioned. After this first mention, you may refer to them by last name or rank/title then last name.
*Articles that use real world events, could be considered highly offensive or sensitive - such as the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis during WWII, or the Killing Fields by the Khmer Rogue regime in Cambodia in the 1970s. Incorporating real-world events in your article's lore is acceptable, as long as the names are changed and used as an inspiration for your article. However, you should only do so by NOT mentioning (by name) any one real-world group (Examples: Nazis, Soviet Red Army or Al Quaeda) or people (victims of said atrocities, such as the Jews and Cambodian people). 
*The use of derogatory terms (even those used historically in real-world events) that refer to any one particular race, creed, religion or sexual orientation, is NOT okay, and will be considered a Moderate offense under our wiki's banning policy.
===Headings===
*Please ensure that you utilise the appropriate heading sizes. To do so, ensure that the largest heading should be header 2 (Ex. ==Chapter History==)
*Please do not insert a heading, such as == Summary ==, if there is only a single heading within the article. Just don't put a heading until you feel the need to insert two, and then you may create two.
*There are examples of headings in many of the guide pages to help flesh out your page. None of these are mandatory, and you are free to make whatever headings you like.
===HTML===
*Please ensure that all articles have been formatted correctly and that there is no stray or unecessary html tags. Failure to do so will result in a Quality Issue tag. 
===Adding Links===
Adding links to terms in an article adds depth and easy navigation to related content. There is one problem though. If you do not point to the correct file name, you will get a link to a non-existent page. It gets worse when someone clicks the link and creates a stub duplicate page when a perfectly good article exists. The best way to link is by searching for the phrase you want to make a link by going to the Special:Search page.
*A given page should only contain one link to any other page. If a page links to the Templars of Iron in one place, then that should be the only link to the Templars of Iron on that page. Typically this link should be the first instance of the term in the article.
===Proofreading===
Too many times people never look for errors before posting an article, and this wiki aims to hold its editors to the highest possible standards of grammar, spelling and syntax. As such, all new articles will be proofread, edited and in certain cases rewritten by administrator fiat to meet the wiki's formatting and quality standards.
===Images===
*Images should be displayed at 250px (should not exceed 300px wide). If your image is too big, you can use the following code to force it to display at 250px: [[File:YourFile.jpg|250px]] Adding a | then some number followed by px will allow your to display an image at a particular size. 30px is great for thumbnail images.
*Images should have concise captions describing the content of the image. 
*No usage of officially copyrighted images of Games Workshop. 
*Ensure that all images are credited and appropriately licensed. Images altered from official copyrighted sources and made into something completely unique are considered "derivative works" and should not be claimed that anyone other than Games Workshop owns exclusive copyright over Games Workshop-owned derivatives of it. These images must be classified under the legal "Disclaimer" license after being uploaded. When applicable all works must be accredited to their respective artists (if known).
===Categories===
Categories are important and represent one of the main advantages of organising information in a wiki format, as they allow our users to find all the pages that may accord with their areas of interest. Please ensure to do the following when adding categories:
*Please ensure that you always categorise your new article. It saves time when the Administrators have to go through page by page to add categories later. There is a list of categories at [Special:Categories] to help you find the proper categories for your articles.
*All articles must be categorized in all relevant categories. Categories should, however, be kept to a reasonable minimum. Additionally, user-based categories, excluding "Articles by NAME" and "Fan fiction by NAME," are not allowed.
*Please DO NOT CREATE NEW CATEGORIES without prior authorisation from one of the wiki's Administrators. If you are unsure of what category to utilise, it would be best to ask one of the Moderators or Administrators to help you decide which categories would best suit your article, as they are more familiar with the system. 
*Only utilise the already well-established categories that are commonly used on most articles. 
*Articles that are considered "Humour Articles" must only be in the Humour category.
==Remedial Tags==
Sometimes, there might be some minor issues that need to be addressed with a contributor's article. The most common issues are spelling errors, syntax, grammar and basic article formatting. In these instances, a moderator or administrator will tag an article with one of the following to tags, which indicates issue(s) are present in an article, and what actions will be taken if they are not rectified in the allotted time frame: 
===Quality Issue Tag===
A Quality Issue tag is utilised to mark articles that would benefit from an increase in quality, be it a low adherence to canon, a lack of integrity and originality, or bad diction. Only an Administrator may remove the template. An admin will mark an article with the following:
Example: 
{{Quality Issue|Current Date|Issues with article.}}
It will appear like this:
A contributor will have a minimum of 48 hours to take the appropriate actions to correct their article. After this allotted time frame has passed, a Moderator or Administrator will be allowed to make the necessary spelling corrections, syntax, formatting, grammar and punctuation changes as they see fit. However, any other issues that remain, the contributor will have 30 days from the time this tag was added, to fix the listed issues. If they fail to do so, the article will be permanently removed from the wiki. Only an Administrator may remove the template.
===Stub Tag===
A Stub tag is utilised to mark articles that are considered a stub article, i.e. not meeting the minimum 3-paragraph length requirement, in accordance to our Article Quality Policy - Minimum Requirements. Only an Administrator may remove the template.
Example:
{{Stub|01 Jan 2020}}
It will appear like this: 
===Non-Canon Friendly Tag===
A Non-Canon Friendly tag is utilised to mark articles that do not meet the Canon Policy. Non-canon refers to anything that is not recognized as being part of the officially established lore and timeline of Games Workshop's Warhammer Age of Sigmar universe. Only an Administrator may remove the template.
Example:
{{NCF|01 Jan 2020|Quality issue.}}
It will appear like this:
==Other Things to Consider==
*The writing style of an article on this wiki should be concise, descriptive and expressive. 
*The preferred writing style of an article on this wiki should be formal and written in a style similar to the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Wiki or Lexicanum. 
*DO NOT create articles just for the sake of adding the topic to the wiki. Only begin an article if you intend to finish it and will include a level of detail and sourcing about the topic that is commensurate with that found in our featured articles.
*Please do not edit pages simply for taste; i.e., altering sentences that are already grammatically correct and factually accurate; instead, act to fix typos, replace faulty grammar and correct errors of fact. Failure to consult with the article owner when making major alterations to an already extant page may lead to the rollback of all your work and/or a permanent ban depending on the amount of unauthorised changes that have been made and that require repair. Please avoid this potential problem by simply outlining your proposed changes to an article's original author. Otherwise, bring up such issues as spelling and grammatical errors on the article's Talk Page. 
*Ensure your article is well-organised and laid out in the similar format as that of an official Battletome article that might appear in White Dwarf Magazine or on one of the canon Age of Sigmar wikis. 
*Ensure that you pay attention to detail such as realistic lifespans of characters. Many races are functionally immortal, but there have been major die offs, such as the Age of Chaos, and it is unlikely for many characters to pre-date the coming of the Age of Sigmar. 
*When describing realistic scenarios that involve battle, try to ensure accuracy and realistic battle strategies, logistics, strength of the enemy and even terrain and weather. 
*Chronology is a bit flexible, given that the setting routinely progresses, but the "Present time" for almost all articles should be somewhere in the Age of Sigmar. References to a particular era, or progression through the various eras of the Age of Sigmar, is valuable for grounding your article in the wider world.
*When writing about a character, endeavour to make them realistic as possible (list strengths, weaknesses, personality traits, ect.) to make them more relatable and believable. 
*Please ensure that you check over your work after you complete it and are ready to publish. So many problems of poorly created articles appear here on the wiki only because the editor did not bother to check their work after completing an edit or a new article.
*Ensure that any image you add to the wiki has the appropriate license and categories, and has been inserted on the page where you wish to place the picture. Do not place a picture in the middle of a line of text, as this causes formatting problems for the page and creates more unnecessary work for our Administrators and other editors.
*There is to be absolutely NO GAME MECHANICAL INFORMATION or STATISTICS of any kind posted in an article. It will be deleted by Administrator fiat.
Note: Portions of the text here has been copied with permission from the Warhammer 40K Homebrew Wiki under the Fair Use doctrine. No challenge to their status intended. 
Category:Policy