Guidelines and Policies

**Policies · Agreement · Guidelines · Standards · Images · Vandalism**Additional **Guidelines**: **Editors · Moderators**

* Policies
* Agreement
* Guidelines
* Standards
* Images
* Vandalism
* Editors
* Moderators

1. **Keep it civil**: Do not make personal attacks on other people. If you need to criticize another user’s argument, do so without attacking them as a person. Do not use bigoted language, including slurs which degrade another person or group of people based on gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, etc.
2. **Be a productive member of the wiki**: Contribute to the wiki in line with the established processes and conventions. Need help? Ask an administrator! Disrupting the wiki with “edit warring” over differing opinions of a topic with another user or group of users is not productive.
3. **Do not engage in excessive self-promotion**: The wiki is a collaborative community resource for the topic at hand. It is NOT a free place to advertise your related website, YouTube channel, blog, social media account, etc. Have a question about whether your link would be welcome? Ask an administrator!
4. **Do not harass other users**: If somebody asks you to stop posting certain content on their wall, respect their wishes. It is their wall.
5. **Do follow community guidelines for formatting**: When a community has established formatting, it’s important to adhere to that, especially when spoiler content is involved.
## User Agreement

By editing the Portal Future Wiki, you agree to abide by Wikia’s Terms of Use.

* This means that by editing or participating here, you agree that:
	+ You are over 13 years of age.
	+ You will not abuse, harass, threaten or intimidate other users.
	+ You will not post explicit, homophobic, racist, or otherwise deliberately offensive material.
	+ You will not use the Wiki as a platform to advertise your goods or services.
	+ You will not post or solicit information which invades others' right to privacy (such as personal information).
* The above applies to all parts of our Wiki, including message walls, forums, talk pages, userpages, usernames, avatars and profile information, and breaking any of the above rules will lead to a ban, potentially a permanent ban depending on the offense.

## General Guidelines

* Assume all edits are made in Good Faith. Everyone makes mistakes. If you need to correct an error someone has made, politely explain your reasoning in the Edit Summary, or contact them on their message wall. Do not engage in edit wars.
* Speculation or ambiguous information is not permitted in an article. As a rule, if a sentence contains words such as "could", "might", "possibly" or "likely" you should question the fact's veracity. What might seem obvious to you might seem like speculation to others. Add sources where possible to backup your claim. If you are unsure, contact an Admin.
* All speculation and opinions should be limited to the Discuss threads.
* ALL content which is based on fan translations must be sourced to the original translator. Any translated work added to the wiki with no source will be removed. If you do not know the source, contact an Admin.
* You can report vandalism to staff by leaving a message on an Admin's message wall.
* Header/"Top-Hat" templates (for example, Template:Stub) should not be removed by editors without first contacting an Admin or Content moderator.

## Message Walls

* *Naomi Novik Wiki* isn't Facebook, please do not engage in lengthy off-topic conversations on your message wall, as it makes our Recent Wiki Activity more difficult to moderate. Please take lengthy conversations to the Discuss area (See top navigation for link).
* If a user asks a question on an Admin's wall, do not answer on the Admin's behalf or insert yourself into the conversation, as it blurs the line between moderators and editors.
* If you do have any suggestions for improvements to this wiki, please leave a message on an Admin's Message Wall.
* Admin and Moderator Links:
	+ Admin - Ann

## User Pages

* Do not add personal identifying information, such as your real full name, full family names, or contact information, anywhere on your profile. It will be removed for security purposes.
* Deliberately offensive material is not permitted on user pages or user profiles, as per our User Agreement. This includes - but is not limited to - slurs of any kind.
* Do not edit other users' sandboxes or user profiles, even if you mean well. If you find an error in someone's work in progress, or have a suggestion, please bring it up on their message wall rather than editing directly.
	+ The only exception to this rule is collaborations between users (please contact an Admin first to let us know), or in the case of Admins or Moderators patrolling redlinks, broken images, or replacing templates.

## Standards

### Formatting and Editing

For consistency sake, article formats and guides have been created. They can be found at the the beginning of each category that you will likely create an article for, such as:

* Category:Temeraire Characters > > > Temeraire Character Outline

We have created specific templates for various functions. For detailed information on some of the less popular wiki templates and how to use them, please visit the Help Category

A Guideline for Editors can be found here, For Editors. If the idea of attempting any edits seem a bit intimidating at first please ask for help either on the Discuss forms or leave a message on the Admin Wall at Amshene (talk) 02:18, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

### Fan Work

While this is a Wiki for *Naomi Novik* fan work, not all fan works will be permitted on this Wiki.

If the Fan work does not meet the standards listed in this section yet an editor still wishes for it to be on this wiki, please contact an Admin so they can judge the material accordingly or else they may be removed without warning.

* Fan work that is not canon, must be clearly labeled as fan work, this includes both written and artistic in nature. Some art work is naturally interruptive and as long as it is supported by canon then it is allowed. Art work that is not supported by the original body of work will be removed.

* Information from Fan Fiction must not be mixed in with the information from the actual books by Naomi Novik in any article. Fan Fiction can be posted here, but it should be done via the Blog system. If there are several people that would like to post their own Fan Fiction, we can create a category for Fan Fiction and a link to it form the main page.
	+ Fan Fiction that is posted at this wiki, must no contradict anything in the original books or short stories.

### Prohibited

*Naomi Novik* fan work that contains this material is not under any circumstances permitted on this Wiki. If an editor believes a fan work should be added despite the rules listed below, contact an Admin. However, the answer will likely be no.

* *Naomi Novik Wiki* is run on a Good Faith model for both fan work and the creators and teams behind said fan works. If we feel this Good Faith is being broken by words, actions, or attitudes, we reserve the right to Blacklist and/or permanently ban anyone acting in this manner, even if said reasons aren't listed in our Rules and Guidelines.
* Any fan work that is speculative in nature and not supported by the books is prohibited.
* Any fan work that is not appropriate for all ages and ethnicity is prohibited.
* Presenting fan work as canon is prohibited.

## Image Guidelines

### General Rules

* Images should be uploaded in the best quality available, and high resolution where possible.
* Pornographic or otherwise nude/sexual images are not permitted - even if they are canonical to any fan-content such as a CG or a sprite - as they are against Wikia’s Terms of Use. If you are unsure whether an image breaks this rule, contact an Admin before uploading.
* In image galleries, make an effort to describe what the image is in the caption as well as the source and / or artist.

### Filenames

In order to ensure our image database is easy to search, filenames should, at minimum, include the name of the image and not meaningless string of letters and / or numbers.

### User Pages

* While uploading images for your user page is allowed, it is strongly suggested that they are uploaded to an external hosting service such as IMGUR and embedded, in order to make our image uploads easier to moderate.
* Any fanart images MUST include "Fan work" in the caption when used and in the file annotations when up loaded.

* Any images uploaded to your userpage including nudity, gore, jumpscares, deliberately offensive content, or which otherwise break our User Agreement guidelines will be removed.

## Vandalism

The following behavior is considered vandalism:

* Adding irrelevant or nonsensical information to any article.
* Deliberately removing correct information with no clarification in the edit summary or contacting an admin.
* Using offensive language or breaking the Wikia Terms of Use outlined in our User Agreement.
* Writing in a language other than English, because Admins cannot moderate it.
	+ Exceptions are given to non-English fan-content on article pages such as names or titles, however discussion on the wiki and main bodies of article should remain fully in English.
* Edit-warring with another editor (continuously editing/undoing edits on a page to change or remove another editor's contribution). Conflicts or debates between editors should be taken to the article's talk page or the individuals' message walls. If necessary, contact an Admin to mediate the dispute.
* Raiding the Wiki as part of a group of vandals making similar edits in a short period of time will result in an instant permanent ban.

You can report vandalism to staff by adding a message to an Admin's message wall.There are very few **policies** which apply across all Wikia. These can be found on the Central Wikia at Wikia:Category:Policy.

Other policies for this Wikia should be decided by the wiki community. It's generally best to keep policies as simple as possible, and not to introduce too many rules. A growing wiki can usually do well with a few simple policies and a lot of goodwill and cooperation.

1. **BE BOLD!** in updating pages. Go ahead, it's a wiki!
Encourage others, including those who disagree with you, likewise to **BE BOLD!**
2. **Be civil** to other users at all times.
3. **When in doubt, take it to the Discuss area**. We have all the time in the world. Mutual respect is the guiding behavioral principle of Wikia and, although everyone knows that their writing may be edited mercilessly, it is easier to accept changes if the reasons for them are understood. If you discuss changes on the article's *talk* (or *discussion*) page before you make them, you should reach consensus faster and happier.
4. **Respect copyright**. Wikia uses the GNU Free Documentation License. Everything you contribute must be compatible with that license.
5. **Decent edit summaries** and clear and transparent explanations are universally appreciated. Other editors need to understand your process, and it also helps you yourself to understand what you did after a long leave of absence from an article. Please state ***what*** you changed and ***why***. If the explanation is too long, add more on the discussion page.
6. **Assume good faith**; in other words, try to consider that the person on the other end of the discussion is a thinking, rational being who is trying to positively contribute to the project — unless, and only unless, you have firm, solid, and objective proof to the contrary. Merely disagreeing with you is no such proof.
7. **Don't revert good faith edits**. Reverting is *too* powerful sometimes. Don't succumb to the temptation, unless you're reverting very obvious vandalism (like "LALALALAL\*&\*@#@THIS\_SUX0RZ", or someone changing "1+2=3" to "1+2=**17**"). If you really can't stand something, revert once, with an edit summary something like "(rv) I disagree strongly, I'll explain why in Discuss." and immediately take it to the Discuss area.
8. **No personal attacks**. Don't write that user such and so is an idiot, or insult him/her (even if (s)he *is* an idiot). Instead, explain what they did wrong, why it is wrong, and how to fix it. If possible, fix it yourself (but see above).
9. **Be graceful**: *Be liberal in what you accept, be conservative in what you do*. Try to accommodate other people's quirks the best you can, but try to be as polite, solid, and straightforward as possible yourself.
10. **Use the preview button**; it helps prevents edit conflicts and mistakes.

## **It's important to have fun... but try to make sure those around you have fun too!**For Moderators

1. **Don't revert good faith edits**. Reverting is *too* powerful sometimes. Don't succumb to the temptation, unless you're reverting very obvious vandalism (like "LALALALAL\*&\*@#@THIS\_SUX0RZ", or someone changing "1+2=3" to "1+2=**17**"). If you really can't stand something, revert once, with an edit summary something like "(rv) I disagree strongly, I'll explain why in Discuss." and immediately take it to the Discuss area.
2. **Encourage other Fans**, always be upbeat and positive when posting on talk or discuss pages. We want to bring more fans to the wiki and have them come back for repeat visits.

Not every visitor either has the time or inclination to help with the edits, but by being encouraging and helpful some of those hesitant fans may convert to editors.