Rules

*Read all the rules pages before editing, just reading one doesn't cut it.*

## Rules and Regulations

* Do not vandalise current articles. Continued vandalism will result in a block
* Do not ask for  **Admin** status on the wiki, as it will not be granted.  **Rollback** may be requested if there is mass-vandalism that hasn't yet been cleaned up or if there are no active rollback users.
* No offensive articles or images with sexual, vulgar language, or racist remarks.
* Do not make pointless articles. If you see one, put {{delete}} tag on it.
* Please respect neutrality.
* No advertising or spam.

#### **WAYS TO DETECT BIAS**

There are ways to detect if the article is biased. Here's how:

* The article only provides one point of view.
* Facts that come from the source may be biased or copyrighted.
* Does the article lack diversity?
* Do the facts/trivia in the article have to deal with the article?

#### **CLEANING UP BIAS**

Cleaning up bias may be difficult, but it can be done.

* Write from a neutral point of view.

A wiki is a repository for information. That means it should be filled with facts, not opinions. Share your expertise, but don't argue from authority.

* Make sure your sources are not biased.
* Support your facts with valid sources.
* Never use user comments.

#### **Use the Edit Summary**

When editing pages, try to fill in the "Summary" box above the Save/Preview buttons before saving. In addition, make sure that you fill it in with something describing the edit you made and, if it's not obvious, describe why you're making the change. For example, "fixed spelling error" or "added fun fact" or "reverted edits by 127.0.0.1" are all acceptable. Saying "made some changes" or just filling in the name of the page is not helpful because it's information that we already have. Making your summaries accurate and useful makes it vastly easier for the rest of us to keep track of Recent Changes, keeps everybody happy and helps prevent misunderstandings.

#### **Use the Minor Edit Button**

A check to the minor edit box, above the summary box, is intended to signify that only superficial differences exist between the current and previous version meaning, typo fixes, formatting, or otherwise rearranging text without changing content. A minor edit is a version that the editor believes requires no review and could never be the subject of a dispute.

By contrast, a major edit is a version that should be reviewed by other editors to ensure that everyone agrees on the change. Therefore, any change that affects the meaning of an article is not minor, even if the edit is a single word.

The distinction between major and minor edits is significant because editors may choose to ignore minor edits when reviewing recent changes; logged-in users might even set their preferences to not display them. If you think there is any chance that another editor might dispute your change, please do not mark it as minor.

An edit marked as minor is signified with a bolded "m" character (m) in the page history. Minor edits will also appear with the same bolded "m" in Special:RecentChanges.

#### **Link Once**

A given page should only contain one link to any other page. Typically this link should be the first instance of the term in the article. But in the case of large articles, it's also ok to instead make one link in each major section instead of just once.

#### **Don't use conversational style**

Check your spelling and grammar. Don't use internet slang (ex. "How r u?" or "c u 2nite"). If you're not 100% sure about the way a word is spelled, type it into Google or Dictionary.com. If you know that you're not the strongest speller, compose your edits in a word processor or web browser that supports spell-checking (Firefox 2 and derivatives such as Lolifox, and Opera when ASpell is installed all work).
Set the Spell-Check language to American/British English.
Don't use "smileys" or "emoticons" in articles.
Don't "reply" to content others have posted. If you think a particular point warrants discussion, post on the article's discussion page. If you're 100% sure that something should be changed and don't think a discussion is necessary, just change it. Dialogue goes only on articles' discussion pages.

#### **Stubs**

If you don't know enough information on a topic, an article is way too small, or you know there's more, then add a stub to it. To do so, just add this to the bottom of the content (A clear line above the [[Category:...]] tags):

{{stub}}
And people will know that it's a stub by looking at the stub category.

#### **Abandon the concept of authorship**

Contributing means forfeiting your work to the public domain. No one owns any page. This way everyone is completely free to contribute to everything. If you must, you can give yourself credit in a footnote, though this is strongly discouraged as it goes against the spirit of a wiki. If you've made an edit to an article that you're particularly proud of, the correct place to take credit is on your own user page.