DigimonWiki:General guidelines

This is an in-progress copy of our current general guidelines. While it might not be complete yet, please try to follow the guidelines and advice that is already included. Join the discussion on the talk page if you would like to help develop these guidelines.

General guidelines

 * Information needs to be true for both original Japanese and dub versions. If the explanation differs between the two, don't just replace one with the other, but take the time to say what happens in both.


 * When there are two different names for a character, one from the original and one from the dub, use the one that will most easily be recognized by English readers, but note the other name at least once on the article. Do this even for all articles, since you never know which article a reader will start from.


 * Keep speculation off the Wiki. If it wasn't explicitly said in a manga, anime, etc, then let the reader come to their own conclusion. There are some exceptions to this, such as the very obvious and popular speculation. If you include any form of speculation, it needs to be marked as speculation, preferably in it's own section such as ==Speculation== . Try to discuss this first and get more than one opinion before including any speculation, even if you feel it's obvious.


 * Everything needs a source, even if it's just citing what episode you learn what from.


 * Don't give everything it's own article. While it might be tempting to shake off the restrictions of Wikipedia by giving everything it's own article, it doesn't always make for a good move from an organizational standpoint. Something having its own article or not should not be a sign of importance, but rather simply about information organization. Minor elements, and even minor characters, should use a parent article or some form of List of article.


 * For most general situations you can refer to Wikipedia's guidelines (see here or here) when Digimon Wiki has no equivalent guideline. Notable examples include:
 * Manual of style for anime-related articles
 * Manual of style for Japanese-related articles
 * The three revert rule (in a nutshell, to avoid edit wars do not make more than three reverts to an article within 24 hours)

Digimon creatures

 * Pending more formal guidelines, for a general article about Digimon follow the examples seen: Need to find example articles


 * For articles/entries about individual Digimon, there are two forms: one is a species entry and the other is a character entry.
 * A species entry is like what you see on List of Rookie Digimon (Part 1). It contains basic information about that Digimon as a species, as well as linking to other entires about Agumon as a character.


 * A character entry should be named after the most common form of a Digimon for that character (like, Agumon (Savers)), and include information on all that character's evolutions on that entry, rather than different entries/articles for each form. The character entires and their sections should link back to the species entries.

Splitting Digimon articles
If you wish to break a Digimon speices entry off from a list:


 * Take the contents of the section on the respective List of article.


 * Go to the article name of the Digimon, which will most likely be a redirect (if you are redirected, just click on the link below the title of the article, and you will be taken back to the correct article).


 * Check the article history to see if there is any other content of value, and merge that content with the content you took from the List of article. (also, note that you are taking information from the list article in the edit summary. For example "taken from List of Rookie Digimon (Part 1)").


 * To revert to an old version, click on that version in the edit history, then click edit. You will see a warning that you are editing an old version. Click save to restore to that version.


 * Keep the section header on the List of article, but replace the content with " ".

Content and copying

 * See also: DigimonWiki:Copyrights.


 * Remember to not violate copyrights, such as cutting and pasting exact info from other Digimon websites isn't allowed. (You can still use the information, just rewritten.)
 * The only content that can be copied word for word is if it is released under a GFDL or compatible license (such as Creative Commons). When ever you use such content, cite the source in the edit summary. For Wikipedia articles it's a good idea to say which article on Wikipedia the content came from, and to make sure that the article has the Wikipedia template on it.


 * Likewise, any other website can use content from Digimon Wiki, another wiki hosted on Wikia, or Wikipedia, for free. To do so you must attribute the work (say where it came from, so that people can see the list of editors that worked on it), mention a link to the GFDL (so people can read the details) and agree to release any changes you make to that content free to use under the same conditions (if you change the text, someone can use your changes just as you used it from Digimon Wiki, etc). For more information on this see examples such as Reusing Wikipedia content.

Images

 * While Digimon Wiki has a much more litberal fair use policy for images than sites such as Wikipedia, we are still required to comply with U.S. fair use laws (due to Wikia's servers being hosted in the US).
 * The amount of images should be kept minimal. Don't use two images in a place where one image would do the same thing. It is more important that images and their use be informative rather than pretty.