SoDWiki:Policy

Community Portal • Policy • Projects • Style & Formatting  • User Space • User Styles

Current Policy Proposals

If you would like to propose a change or addition to this policy, use the  discussion  page!

Current Policy

General Formatting

• Avoid writing in first person. If you have a comment to make and you aren't sure how to add it in, such as “I think this thing sees invis but I'm not sure” or “This always kills me” please consider adding it to the talk page.

• Addressing the reader is possible, though not necessary or normally suggested.

• Guides are the exception to this, and as they should be written from personal experience, can be written on a more personal level.

Spelling and punctuation

• Use the same name as the in-game “label”, with the exact same punctuation and capitalization, generally in singular.
• The first letter of articles is automatically capitalized, so a link to a decaying skeleton goes to the same place as A decaying skeleton. Capitalization matters after the first letter though, so a decaying Skeleton isn't going to work in this case.

External images

• An image should never be used to replace text.
• {{Image|url}} - This will pull the page name and append the word Image. Suggested if there will only be one image on the page.
• {{ImageNamed|url|link title}} - This appends the word “Image” to the link title. Please title images appropriately.

Talk Pages

• New comments should be added to the bottom of the current discussion. New subjects should be added below old, using the + tab at the top of the page.
• Please use signatures on talk pages.
• Please use the talk (a.k.a. discussion) pages to add comments or questions, and not directly to the article pages. This will allow for other users to help confirm and add to new information for addition to the article, and will make all pages less cluttered (and therefore more helpful!)
• Using talk pages correctly helps keep article pages tidy, and reduces the need to for repeated clean ups.

EIIP

Everything In It's Place

• Information about NPCs, Quests, Items and Zones should be added to their own pages.
• Quests should be named using the name given to them in game. When no in game name is provided, the use the naming format:
  • (Quest Giver's Name) quest
  • (Quest Giver's Name) collecting quest
  • (Quest Giver's Name) quest I (in the case of progressive quests.
• Quests should not be named after their reward, unless that is the name given in game. In those cases, please append quest to the article name.
• Links should be used; they are more efficient than blank text and easier to update than adding what should be article information in the wrong place.
• Please consult existing categories — most pages belong in at least one. Yay for organization!

Signatures

The purpose of signatures

A signature identifies you and your contributions to discussions on the SoDWiki. It is a reference by which other users recognize and give attribution to you as a user, which incidentally encourages civility in discussions.

When should signatures be used?

Any post or comment made to talk pages should be signed, regardless of the namespace. A signature aids readers of a discussion by showing the date and time on when comments were made.

When should signatures not be used?

Do not sign on any articles, since a signature does not indicate ownership or copyright of any part of an article. Your edit or contribution will be attributed to you automatically via the revision history of an article.

How to sign

Adding your username at the end of your comment counts as the most simple signature. However the wiki provides a convenient and recommended way to sign your comments — by placing four tildes (~~~~) at the end of the comment. Upon saving the page, the four tildes will automatically be replaced with your signature and the current date and time.

User Name Space

User space structure

If your username is “Example”, then:

• Your user page will be at User:Example.
• Your user talk page will be at User talk:Example. This is the primary method that other wiki editors will use to contact you.
• You can create user subpages under your user page, such as User:Example/Subpage. These can be used to specify additional details about yourself or manage your current projects.
• Your user space encompasses all of the above.

A user's personal information or records must remain confined to their user space. You must be registered to create a user page and your user page must be named the same as your login name (otherwise it may become a canidate for deletion).

Content Removal

Talk Pages

Users should not remove comments (wholly or partially) from any talk page, with the following exceptions:

• Removal of unquestionable vandalism and spam.
• Removal of links to sites with malicious scripts and/or patently offensive material.
• Removal of email addresses (although requests not to remove email addresses should be honored).
• Removal of personal information posted without the subject's consent.
• Material prohibited by policy.
• Removal for archiving purposes — archiving pages should be linked from the primary talk page.
• Moving a discussion to a more appropriate talk page.
• Avoid modifying existing comments and sections, Using strikethrough is preferable.

Moving comments

Instead of deleting these comments, they should be moved to the correct page (and for this example's sake, lets say eating habits are very important.) As an example, let's say the following comments were posted on the Wood Elf talk page.

I found three dwarves eating pie in Underhill — Dude :I once saw a dwarf eating pie in Newport! — Super Dude

The page they were removed from should have something on it that looks like this.

{{Template:Talk Move|Talk:Dwarf}}

This will appear as:

Comment(s) moved. See Talk: Dwarf.

Next, the comments on the new talk page should indicate that they were moved from another page and what page they were previously on.

{{Template:Talk From|Talk: Wood Elf|
comments = I found three [[dwarves]] eating pie in Underhill — Dude
:I once saw a dwarf eating pie in Newport! — Super Dude}}

This will appear as:

Comments moved. Previously at Talk: Wood Elf.
I found three dwarves eating pie in Underhill — Dude

I once saw a dwarf eating pie in Newport! — Super Dude

This method can also be used with other sorts of talk pages, such as User Talk and Template Talk.

Article Pages

Blanking article pages will now be considered vandalism, and those pages will be reverted to a previous state. For information on requesting deletion, please see below.

Article Maintenance

All of the following categories can be found in Category:Wiki Maintenance.

Misnamed

If you feel a page should be renamed, please add {{Misnamed|Suggested Name}} to the very top of the article. Replace the words Suggested Name with the name you feel would be more appropriate. This usually applies when an article name is spelled improperly, or pluralized. If a name is spelled correctly but simply differs from our proper noun capitalization policy, please add {{Capitalization|Suggested Name}} instead.

• Articles with these tags can be found in Category:Misnamed.

Clean Up

If you feel a page significantly diverges from the Style Guidelines and would benefit from an update to meet these critera, please add {{Cleanup}} to the very top of the article. This tag should not be used on newly created pages — every attempt should be made by the original editor to meet these guildlines the first time.

• Articles with this tag can be found in Category:Cleanup.

Stub

If you feel a page is lacking vital information, please add {{Stub}} to the very top of the article. Again, please refer to the Style Guidelines page if you are unsure what information a particular type of article should contain.

• Articles with this tag can be found in Category:Stubs.

Shared Name

If you feel a page name is used to represent more than one article, such as both an NPC and a quest, please add {{SharedName}} to the very top of the article.

• Articles with this tag can be found in Category:SharedName.

Deletion

If you feel a page should be deleted, please add {{Deleteflag|Reason}} to the very top of the article. Replace the word Reason with the reason you feel it should be deleted. Remember — blanking a page's content through editing is not acceptable.

• Articles with this tag can be found in Category:Flagged for deletion.