Board Thread:Wiki Discussion/@comment-27713488-20180106040608/@comment-25941257-20180106082241

Fluid-decanter wrote: It seems the wiki has grown to the point that we should write up some official guidelines for interacting with others and contributing content. I don't want to overwhelm people with guidelines, but we should definitely have some for issues that have already happened. Here are some ideas:

General:
 * don't post sexually explicit images, even if they are screenshots of the game (text is okay in moderation) [because of Wikia Terms of Use]

I would avoid the mention of Wkikia ToS. This wiki, and others like it are somehow in a grey area regarding ToS already. I also would add a warning about consequences for ignoring the warning (bannning).

Fluid-decanter wrote:
 * also try not to post images consisting only of text - just quote the text


 * article comments are for discussion of the article itself, not so much the article's topic. The comment system is also not well suited to extended discussions, which should generally go in our Forum, especially speculation and fan theories.
 * be aware that in article comments and the Forum, sometimes comments don't post unless you refresh and retry, so take precautions.

Although it's sensible to mention it, I think that lately this is no longer an issue, in my experience (I have been able post messages both in the Forum and comments after many hours have passed since I wrote them).

Fluid-decanter wrote:

Editing:
 * in main namespace articles, don't include story info, or any info that might be falsified by future changes, from patron-only patches. it's okay to discuss spoilers and record data in forum threads and user pages, but please mark it accordingly.
 * use standard criteria when deciding whether an edit is a "minor edit" (not relevant to logged-out users)

I would clarify what is main namespace articles or, alternatively, I would use Wikia pages instead as it's clearer.

Fluid-decanter wrote:
 * don't use the edit summary to ask questions or send messages. but do give us an edit summary.
 * don't delete relevant information without discussion, especially if it isn't yet recorded elsewhere on the wiki
 * don't make sweeping changes or change headings without discussion, and leave anchors when changing headings
 * for page and section headings, Wikipedia-style capitalization [I also think we should specify American English and use of the serial comma, though no one's had an edit war over it yet]

We should probably add a link to a page that explains Wikipedia-style capitalization.

I would also add a mention of Spam, although we have very little cases so far.

Fluid-decanter wrote:
 * numbers formatted as in the game: dot and not comma for decimal point, commas every three digits for large numbers

Specially for people that doesn't have English as first language, I would add some examples: 37,45% 37.45%; 1 000 000 1000000 1,000,000.

Fluid-decanter wrote:
 * I think we had a standard for formatting sex scene listings but I can't remember where it was written down

Pretty sure that it was an old Forum discussion, if that helps.

Fluid-decanter wrote:
 * try not to hide info relevant to the article's subject in footnotes. some level of this is OK when it would otherwise stretch out a table cell.

Grumbles, grumbles, grumbles Right, I'm OK now. Nothing to see here folks.

DukeLeto7 wrote: Some additional suggestions:

Editing:
 * Register an account before undertaking major edits.

I'm viscerally opposed to this one, sorry. There are many advantages to register an account, but nobody should be compelled to do that to help in this wiki. From the very start, we had allowed non registered users to make edits and I see no reason to change that. Although we have our share of, I don't know how to tell this delicately, less than helpful collaborators, some others have been pretty helpful. Also people like BetatesterFP started helping here as a non-registered user and his contributions were very relevant them. He has the habit to sign his contributions, and I always like that, so maybe we could request that.

DukeLeto7 wrote:
 * American and British English are both acceptable, but avoid the use of idioms and words particular to either for the sake of non-native speaking editors and readers. (This should probably extend to allowing spelling variations from both main standard dialects as well, as none of us want an edit war over the presence or absence of "u"s, of "z"s over "s"s and the occasional transposition of terminal "er"s.)

I'm a bit lost on this (I have sometimes if center is the American version and centre the British version) and I really have no issues with that. Of course, in Spanish is quite different for me, so I think that I understand where are you coming from.

DukeLeto7 wrote:
 * One space after the end of a sentence is preferred to two.

I'm in fervent agreement on this one.

DukeLeto7 wrote: The dreaded inequality HTML entity guideline, in three possible versions:
 * Avoid non-ASCII characters wherever possible. (There doesn't seem to be any use of diacritical marks on vowels in the game, so there isn't much call to use them in the wiki, even if one is introducing pompous foreign quotations pour encourager les autres.)
 * V1) Avoid using the Unicode characters ≥ and ≤ (and possibly the ANSI en-dash and em-dash), and instead use the ASCII combinations >= and <= (and possibly the ANSI hyphen).
 * V2) Avoid using the Unicode characters ≥ and ≤ (and possibly the ANSI en-dash and em-dash), and instead use of the HTML entity codes &amp;ge; and &amp;le; (and possibly the &amp;ndash; and &amp;mdash;).
 * In addition to the above guideline (V2), avoid using the ASCII > and <, as they are HTML control characters, and use the HTML entity codes &amp;gt; and &amp;lt;.

The V2 is clearer and we should try to be as clear as possible. Personally, I would try to add an explanation about the reasoning behind this, but maybe it would get too much verbose..

DukeLeto7 wrote:

Conduct:


 * Don't be a Fucklord.

We should probably expand on this one, as there always some people that. Just. Don't. Get. It.

DukeLeto7 wrote:
 * Many editors and commenters do not speak English as a first language. Be patient and encouraging when communicating with them to help them learn to express themselves better in the TLS fan community.
 * Don't start reversion wars, but instead discuss contentious edits in the comments for the articles involved.

I would suggest a dedicated Fourm thread for that instead:


 * Don't start reversion wars, but instead discuss contentious edits in the this Forum thread.

Why? Because the moment that the discussion starts to get just a bit longer, the tools available in the comments are very limited (as Decanter's guidelines warns).

DukeLeto7 wrote:
 * DukeLeto7 is to be fined 5,000 ProN for every extraneous digression.

References:


 * When canon or semi-canon information comes from sources outside the game, such as SL's Patreon posts and comments, posts or comments in the TLS blog, or posts by SL in various discussion boards, link directly to the source where possible, even if the content is behind a paywall.

That's all I can think of right now.

I'm in the fence with this one. From the very start both Chendler and me have tried to avoid the creation of first and second citizen classes among the community between patrons and non-patrons (task that was easier at the beginning, since in its early versions there wasn't any Patreon among the wiki editors). But I suppose that is for the best, as it helps at least a part of the community.