Poldark BBC Wiki:Policy

**Policy**

The main goal of the wikia will be: to continue creating a professional and comprehensible encyclopedia for Poldark, focusing on Winston Graham's novels and the BBC production that was completed in 2015 to 2019. In order to do that, there had to be a basic set of rules so that every contributor will be on the same page and information will be given in the same way. These rules have evolved in time through the work of multiple contributors and will continue to evolve.

It would be very helpful and productive if you could continue the good work done to the 130 articles created to date. To do that, you need to adhere to these basic rules that will keep a good standard of articles and build a welcoming and kind place for Poldark fans to communicate. Failure to do these things will lead to warnings and eventually a block. If you think changes need to be made, please explain why on the talk page.

## Spelling and wording

1. You need to write articles as though they actually happened in the past, using past-tense. The same goes for locations and events. This is known as keeping things in-universe. Any mention of novels and TV shows should be put in the BTS section. Any pages for the actual novels, TV show and real-life people will be exceptions to the rule. For example: Demelza Poldark was the Mistress of Poldark, instead of: Demelza Poldark is a character.

2. Please use British English. There are several ways to spell certain words in English depending on each English-speaking country. Poldark was wrote by an English author, set in England and the BBC production was created there, hence why it uses British English. For example, Each article needs to be ideally matching each other, so you don't want one page putting "organized", and the other spelling it "organised".

3. Please keep your information professionally and reasonably worded.

## Layout

1. Each page has a basic, standard layout. For example, each main heading for a character's page would be in this order: Biography - Appearance - Behind the scenes - Notes and sources. Look at similar pages to get a better idea of how to structure a page, and simply copy it.

2. Please filter out unnecessary pages and details, especially in infoboxes. Pages should be kept simple, and the purpose of infoboxes is to put the basic information instead of those extra details. For example:

* The fact a character had an elder sibling will be noted in their article. You don't need put "eldest brother" in the infobox.
* The family section of an infobox should just have their closest family - the extended family can be found on the family pages (e.g. Poldark family).
* If you don't know for certain when a character was born or died, don't put anything in the infobox. Unless you have a source for at least a general age bracket, leave it empty otherwise it's pointless because it doesn't prove anything.
* Unless an actor portrayed a main character, don't create a page for that actor. There are hundreds of actors who appeared in Poldark for just 1 episode etc., and pages for these actors will essentially be stubs who prove to garner zero views. A character highly involved in major storylines will have higher interest and will be worthy of a page.

## Sources

It's very important that you please add sources for everything, so we can see it's true and not baseless speculation or made up. Don't change sourced information. If you think you have a better source, discuss it on that article's talk page.

A source from Winston Graham is preferable. The BBC production has followed Graham's version of events and timeline loyally. Because of that, it's easier to put the novels and the TV show together in articles. Debbie Horsfield has filled in a few gaps, but unless a detail in the TV show contradicts the books (and it's very rare that they do), there's no reason why it can't be put in Graham's version of events together in an article. A reference will difference them, hence an added importance for you to include a source for your contribution. These few minor changes and mistakes in the TV show you can note in BTS too.

## Community

A wiki is supposed to be a collaborative community of editors. An editor needs to communicate and respond if contacted, especially if you want to make changes to articles that doesn't adhere to the policy. Your expected to act professionally, provide sources and reasons for your work so your fellow editors can validate your information and you should help others and uphold the policy.

If you participate in a discussion or speak to another editor, please accept someone else may have a different opinion to your own and you should be kind and respectful. If your discussing potential changes to an article, there should be a consensus agreement. Continuing to argue when a decision was made, doing so in a way which could be perceived to be aggressive, and edit-warring will be considered counter-productive and a block could be enforced to cool things down.

## Blocking

If you break any terms of the policy, your edit will first be undone and a reason provided. Unless it's an obvious act of vandalism designed to lower the professionalism of the wiki, it will be considered a good faith edit and you could be contacted politely by an editor who intends to provide help.

If you continue to act unprofessionally, you will be given a warning. If you continue to act that way again, you will be blocked to cool thing down. The purpose of blocking will be to prevent pages being further damaged, uphold professionalism, finally end arguments and help users being attacked. The length of blocking will determined by an admin based upon the level of the damage you caused. A second block will be given and the length will be increased if you come back and continue to do these things.

***Please be aware that when you make an edit on the wikia, you are agreeing to these rules. A block will be enforced if you break these rules.***