Sword Art Online Wiki: Basic Rules

This page covers the basic rules of conduct on the wiki. Anyone is free to contribute to the wiki, as long as the following rules are followed.

This wiki is first and foremost a novel wiki. If the anime or any other medium conflicts with content from the novel, the novel's version of events is considered to be the canon version.

In case of discrepancies between media, the following order is used to determine canonicity: Novels & Material Editions > Anime > Manga > Other media.

## Article Formatting and Content

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* Articles must at least have a minimum of quality content to be allowed on the wiki. Articles that do not meet this requirement may be deleted by moderators.
	+ The bare minimum for a majority of articles is at least two paragraphs (one of which should be an introduction paragraph that follows a standard structure) of decently-written, decently-formatted (see Page Formatting and Style Guideline), and on-topic content.
	+ Certain article types may have different requirements (see Page Formatting and Style Guideline).
	+ New articles that technically do meet the content amount requirements but lack sufficiently-decent writing quality or go off-topic will be treated as not meeting the standard for new articles.
* All articles must have an infobox, unless an infobox for a specific page category does not exist.
* All articles must be categorised appropriately.
* Any new pages should follow the article format set by existing articles (see Page Formatting and Style Guideline).
* Content posted on articles should be on-topic and concise.
	+ Character articles are written from said character's perspective (e.g. a Kirito article should not cover what girls feel for him, an Asuna article should not focus on what Kirito was doing at the time etc.).
	+ Any section on an article should only cover information that the section is meant for (e.g., personality section should not cover relationships)
* Format-related changes that would affect multiple articles in order to maintain consistency (e.g., the order of article sections, name order changes) must be approved by community consensus or admin authorisation. Attempts to make such changes without authorisation will be reverted by moderators.
* This wiki only covers official content. Fan-made content, including-but-not-limited-to fanart and fanfics, cannot be posted on any official articles on this wiki.
* Content must be sourced (see Reference Guideline). Unsourced content may be removed.
* Speculation is not allowed on articles. Speculation by the in-series characters may be posted on the wiki, if attributed to the character properly.
* Misinformation and misleading information is strictly forbidden on the wiki.
* Articles should focus on content that is known rather than emphasise what the author has yet to reveal.
* Non-canon material should not be posted in canon content sections of any article.
* Do not post someone else's writing (e.g. lyric translations) on this wiki's articles without permission.
* When multiple people are mentioned, the topic of the article (if applicable) is mentioned first, while all other names are listed alphabetically.

### Infoboxes

* Infobox images are decided based on a community vote. Infobox images cannot be changed arbitrarily without proper justification.
* A new candidate for an infobox image should be objectively better than the existing one.
	+ Factors that are considered when deciding an image's worth: colorisation, level of detail, file dimensions, background noise (presence of other characters or details that distract from the topic at hand) etc.
* The original medium of the image does not determine its objective worth (i.e., an anime screenshot is not necessarily better than a light novel image)
* Infobox images for characters should use bust shots (i.e., focus on the face + upper part of the chest), rather than full-body views. Full-body views should be posted under the appearance section.
* Infobox images should not have vertical dimensions higher than their horizontal dimensions. The ideal horizontal:vertical dimensions are 16:9, but this proportion is not obligatory.
* New infobox parameters cannot be created without administrator approval.
* Only Japanese and English voice actors for the characters are listed on this wiki.

### Categories

* All articles should be categorised appropriately. Please check other articles of a similar type for an idea of how the article should be categorised.
* New categories should not be made without administrator approval.
* "Protagonist" and "Antagonist" categories are considered useless and are thus not used on the wiki.

## Style

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* This wiki is written in the English language.
* This wiki does not discriminate between spelling variants in British English and American English. Both versions may be used interchangeably.
* Summaries on the wiki are written in the past tense. The present tense is only used to describe the character's appearance and personality when it still applies to the character in the most recent arcs.
* Dates on the wiki are written in the following format: [Month] [Day], [Year]
* Informal language should not be used on the wiki (see Manual of Style)
* Any name or term should only be linked once per article (if the article has a list or an infobox, links may be repeated in such cases).
* Article titles should not use titles (e.g. Integrity Knight articles are named based on the character's original name, not their Synthesis title).
* Articles cannot be renamed without community consensus or administrator authorisation.

## Images

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* All images must be properly named, sourced, and categorised to be allowed on articles. Images that do not meet these requirements will be removed.
* Only images that originate from official sources may be used on articles.

## Terms and Names

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* The spelling and translation of any names or terms on the wiki cannot be changed without administrator approval.
* All names on the wiki are written in the same order as in the original text. This means that Japanese names are written in their original Japanese order (surname, followed by the person's individual name), while names of characters from Western societies and Underworld are usually written in the Western name order (individual name, followed by surname)
* The Japanese version of a specific name or term is introduced using the {{Nihongo}} template in the introduction paragraph of the article.
* Don't refer to real life people using their in-game names and vice-versa.
* Anime episode titles must be based on the naming used on the official English site for the SAO anime.

## Quality Control and Disputes

* All edits are subject to supervision by senior editors and moderators.
* Edits may be undone if they do not meet the wiki's rules or standards.
* When undoing edits, editors and moderators should explain their reasoning for this action either in edit comments, or by messaging the affected editor. Clear-cut vandalism, spam (including posting too many edits in a row) etc. may not require such comments.
* All editors should familiarise themselves with edit comments left by content reviewers and work on the mentioned issues before attempting to redo their edits.
* If you disagree with another editor's decision to undo an edit, please resolve the issue through messaging the person and discussing it in a civilised manner.
	+ Outright undoing moderator edits is considered utterly inappropriate behaviour and will result in an immediate ban.
* Edit wars are not allowed on the wiki.
* Spamming edits, especially when this is done ignoring moderator actions and comments, may result in short-term warning bans to encourage editors to look up and discuss issues before publishing new edits.