Role Play Wiki
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Role Play Wiki is a role-playing and simming wiki. We strive to be a collaborative encyclopedia that aims to be the best source about role-playing on the internet. Naturally, we need your help for that, but to keep our community civilized and our information reliable, the guidelines and rules described in this document will need to be followed as closely as possible.

Basic[]

Purpose of the wiki[]

Main article: Role Play Wiki:About

(From SE:G section: What can I contribute?) Role Play Wiki is meant to be a resource of information about role-playing: simming, online role-playing, role-playing games and other topics useful for role-playing. This definition includes in-character subjects such as important characters and elements of established RPG's, species, user-created characters, and so on. It also includes out-of-character subjects such as RP communities, games, famous simmers/gamers, and so on.

What Role Play Wiki is not for: gaming or role-playing guides; minor characters or lore elements of established role-playing games; underdeveloped (stub) role-playing characters. This is however limited to content and other general namespaces, anyone is free to use their own blog or user namespaces for content that does not match the standards of a regular article.

You may not roleplay in the mainspace of the wiki, only in Discussions, in chat, on blogs, or on message walls. See Role Play Wiki:Role-play areas for more details.

Contributing & being member[]

(From SE:G section: Who can contribute?) Excluding the readers of the wiki, the Role Play Wiki's community will consist of anonymous and registered contributors. Some of the contributors ("crew") will get a couple of special rights in order to maintain the wiki and safeguard it from vandalism, but this does not mean their vote or opinion weighs heavier. Everyone who contributes, however, is required to follow the guidelines and rules as described on this page.

Whereas regular users have no special rights, members of the crew do. They are the bureaucrats, administrators, rollbacks and chat moderators of this site. Their task and duty is to keep it clear from unwanted edits (vandalism, spam, e.a.). However, they do not have more say in the content of this site than a regular user.

Anonymous vs. registered contributions[]

Contributors do not need to have an account, but it is advised to have one, as anonymous contribution will display your IP address. The advantages of having an account include having a profile and a fixed place for people to contact you, and being able to easily keep track of your previous edits.

Apart from that, anonymous users are non-eligible for partial page ownership. Therefore, pages about custom species, characters and other will be deleted when they are created by an anonymous contributor. There will however be a buffer of minimum 30 minutes before deletion. This is to allow users who accidentally logged out, to claim the character as theirs by adding {{Custom}} or {{Custom-nw}} at the top or just by editing the article.

(From SE:G section: How to create an account, create a page, or format a page?) You can become a registered user by signing up. If you have problems understanding how to register, check out the help page for account creation: Help:Create an account.

People of importance[]

(From SE:G section: Who can contribute?) Does one have to be a leader of a community, club or group to be able to contribute about it? Does one have to be a renowned role-player in order to have a say in this wiki? The answer is simple: no. Role Play Wiki has no identity verification system and can therefore not make any distinction based on role-play experience or history.

Every user has to add a source (read more: References and Sourcing) for the claims and statements he or she makes.

Community decisions[]

Community decisions will be made about any drastic or structural changes, as well as any changes of direct influence on the community of Role Play Wiki. Both active and already made community decisions can be viewed on the page Project:Vote. For the guidelines on how voting is started, done and how decisions based upon these votes are made, please also see Project:Vote.

Using the wiki: rules[]

For the general policy page, see Project:Policy.

The following rules are the general policy applicable on the wiki.

  • Follow Fandom's Terms of Use: Even if you have not, but especially if you have created an account, you agree to follow the ToU when you make use of Fandom's services and add content or links posted on any of the wiki's pages.
    • You are your account: You are solely responsible for any and every action performed by your account. Forgetting to log out, relatives or acquaintances using your account or even hacking, are invalid excuses for unauthorized content, abusive edits and inappropriate behavior.
  • Be welcoming: Give clear explanations and directions to new users, respond constructively to messages or questions of your fellow contributors, and so on. That way, the wiki will be a welcoming environment with a bigger and more stable userbase.
  • Assume good faith (AGF): Users sometimes make mistakes or do things not according to the rules, but often, they did not intend to. When pointing this out, explain how and why they should do it different. No user should be blocked for a one-time violation or without prior warning either.
    • Previous goes mainly for editing articles or other pages; an exception is made when it goes about comments directed to individual users or user groups, especially in regards to flaming or hating them.
  • Alternate accounts: multiple accounts are allowed, but when one account is blocked from (a certain area of) the wiki, other accounts should not be used to get around the block. This is called sockpuppeting and will result in a permanent block of the alternate account, even when the block on the first account expires.

Layout[]

The layout of Role Play Wiki is for mostly dependent on the pages MediaWiki:Wikia.css and MediaWiki:Common.css. Users can optimize the way they view the wiki by adding additional code in their own Wikia.css or Monobook.css.

Changes to the wiki[]

The only way the layout of the wiki will meet big changes, is per community approval. A vote will have to be set up on which every contributor can express his or her opinion about the suggested changes.

Formatting pages[]

(From SE:G section: How to create an account, create a page, or format a page?) Users are not allowed to apply <div> or <span> tags, CSS or templates to alter the overall layout of their pages, included but not limited to background color, font size, text color and alignment. This means that one should be extra careful when copypasting into the visual editor.

Exceptions may be made for the following page types,

  • User subpages – anything is allowed, as long as it does not break Fandom's Terms of Use or does not conflict with the rest of these guidelines.
  • Userpages and user talk pages – may contain coding that does not decrease readability or make it visually demanding; may have altered CSS in the degree that it does not require adaptation (i.e. it is so different from the rest of the wiki that it requires users to "get used to it").
  • Blog posts – may contain coding that does not decrease readability or make it visually demanding.

Namespaces[]

Namespaces are the prefixes used to organize the different types of pages present on Role Play Wiki, usually pages with a different purpose within the context of the wiki. Present on this wiki are the following,

  • (Main): the namespace without prefix serves for regular, informational articles, including the main page; the Style section of our guidelines applies mainly to this namespace.
  • Talk: the namespace prefixed with Talk: is used for content discussion: what should be worked on or what issues are there with the pages? To avoid edit wars, discuss any content or formatting conflicts on talk pages.
  • User: contains only userpages, pages often used for introductions; do not edit other people's userpages: unless on the user's request, you should not even fix formatting or spelling of someone else's userpage. User subpages may be edited if the user has no problem with it.
  • Message Wall: the page to contact a specific user.
  • Role Play Wiki: also known as Project:, this namespace serves for pages about the wiki itself and how it is organized. Ex. Project:Affiliations, Project:Vote.
  • Role Play Wiki talk: also known as Project talk:, discussions regarding project pages: questions or comments on the specific elements of Role Play Wiki's organization.
  • File: images and videos can be found here, along with their specs (license, uploader, ...). Previous versions of the file can also be found here.
  • File talk: to discuss the previous: do you have doubts the copyright of an image is okay? Think it needs a blue background instead of a red but can't edit? That's what you put here.
  • MediaWiki: only editable by admins – site messages such as "Add category..." are stored here.
  • MediaWiki talk: suggested changes for the above – since these page aren't visited a lot, it's best to drop an admin a message if you leave a suggestion for a change on a MediaWiki page.
  • Template: pages with templates (that usually contain complex coding), used to ease formatting consistency (e.g. {{Character ibx}}) or to automatize repetitive messages (e.g. {{Responded}}).
  • Template talk: used to suggest changes or discuss the content of the previous.
  • Help: used to explain the usage of certain elements that may be hard for people new to the wiki environment.
  • Help talk: not to be used – most Help: pages will be stored on Community Central, so suggesting changes also happens there.
  • Category: page from which articles or pages with elements in common are linked.
  • Category talk: discussions about renaming or editing, as well as splitting up into or merging multiple categories.
  • Forum: wiki-style discussion board – works like a talk page, with one thread per page.
  • Forum talk: meta-discussion of the previous.
  • User blog: personal blogs written by a specific user; it is allowed to advertise or talk about other communities, give your opinion on something or write your own guide to a certain aspect
  • User blog talk: only to be used if there are things incorrect in the blog – other comments go in the comments section, below the user blog.
  • Blog: listing pages of user blogs.
  • Blog talk: to discuss the previous: removing a blog list or changing what kind of blogs can be on it.

Style[]

(From SE:G section: How should entries read?) The following guidelines are instructions on how to write a proper article in encyclopedic style, so that the wiki meets minimum quality standards and serves its job as source of information well.

Language[]

We use English[]

This wiki is in English, and thus should all its content be in English as well. Exceptions go for common loanwords, and other loanwords of which immediate translation is provided.

The American English variant will be used as preferred language variant on this wiki, including pages that fall under partial or full page ownership, with the following exceptions:

  • User profiles: the user may decide the preferred variant of English. Foreign languages are allowed as well.
  • User talk: English is preferred. Foreign languages are allowed and a translation would be appreciated.
  • Talk pages of any other namespace: any user may post in their preferred variant of English. Foreign languages are disallowed.

This wiki in another language[]

If you feel like writing about role-play in another language, feel free to create a foreign version of this wiki at homepage:Special:CreateNewWiki. It is highly encouraged that you use the same URL, only adding the appropriate prefix in front (e.g. pl.roleplay.wikia or de.roleplay.wikia). Another option is that you use the foreign word for role-play (e.g. jeuderole.wikia for French or szerepjatek.wikia for Hungarian). If either option already exists, it is strongly advised that you join the already existing wiki rather than making a new one. If it is inactive, you may want to adopt it.

When you have started editing this foreign wiki, you may want to link articles there to their corresponding English articles. For this, interlanguage links need to be enabled. We only have two requirements to connect with a foreign wiki: the URL needs to be consistent (as described above) and it needs to have at least 5 pages. Additionally, we cannot connect to more than one wiki of the same language for technical reasons, so your wiki should be of a language that we aren't connected to yet.

Foreign words in articles[]

Words or names in foreign languages are not allowed in article and section titles, unless they are in (extended) Latin alphabet. Other writing systems, such as Chinese characters or the Cyrillic alphabet, may be added within the article itself instead.

The following rules apply:

  • Common loanwords (e.g. ninja, feng shui) are treated like English words
  • Uncommon loanwords
    • Should be italicized, unless they are the subject of the article
    • If they are from a language with a different writing system, the original follows between parenthesis when first mentioned
  • Foreign names
    • Are not italicized
    • If they are from a language with a different writing system, the original follows between parenthesis when first mentioned
    • Maintain original order (e.g. last name first for Japanese names)

Titling[]

Both article and section titles should follow sentence case. This means that only the initial letter and proper names will be capitalized. An exception is made for titles of works or items: an article Vampire Diaries would be about the series, while Vampire diaries would be about the diaries vampires write.

A page or section title should not start with an article (the/a/an), unless it is the name or title of a specific work or item. The Exorcist would be about the movie or a character nicknamed "The Exorcist", while Exorcist would be about the profession of someone performing exorcism.

Article or page titles[]

The title of an article needs to be kept short, but relevant and unambiguous. In most cases, this will be the proper name of the person, item or concept the article is about, with or without suffix for disambiguation. When a suffixless version of an article does not exist yet, do not append a suffix.

Unless words are only used in plural (e.g. jeans), article titles should be singular. This means that Vampire is preferred over Vampires and Sword over Swords. For categories however, this is the other way around, as categories are intended for multiple articles.

Avoid special characters such as @, # and /. This includes other alphabets: in the case of for instance foreign role-playing character names, the title must be transcribed. Their original name may be written out within the article itself.

Section titles[]

A section's title, starting at ==Heading 2== (Heading 1 being article title), needs to be kept short and relevant as well. Especially for big headings, it is important that section titles are objective representations of their content.

Section titles should be unbolded and preferably also unitalicized (exception for uncommon loanwords). Including internal links in titles should not be present if they can be avoided by including the internal link in the next paragraph or placing {{main}} or {{also}} right below the heading.

All pages[]

In order to keep a page on the wiki, it must have at least two hundred one (201) bytes worth of content, however these pages will be considered stubs and will use {{stub}}. In order for a page to not be considered a stub, it will need four hundred+ (400+) bytes. These pages are still subject to being marked as stubs, but for other reasons as opposed to content.

If your page is a new addition to the wiki, you will have one week to fix your content from the time {{delete}} is added. If you can not meet the page criteria within one week, the page will be deleted. The only exception to this rule is if the page is on the SciWorld Conventions, since our wiki contributes to these and they need to be documented.

Character pages[]

Character pages are a specific type of page talking about a role-playing character or a main character in a role-playing game (which may be based on a real person). It differs from a player page in the sense that a character does not usually role-play, and that its biography will have happened either fictionally or in character.

Character pages from a specific canon can be created and edited by anyone, if the character is important enough to get a separate page on this wiki. User-created characters should be indicated by {{Custom}} or {{Custom-nw}} at the top, and a Meta-information section at the entire bottom, before however the notes, references and sources. To be eligible for partial page ownership however, a user is required to be registered.

Character page sections[]

Sections that either should preferably or need to be present on character pages, are the following:

  1. Template: {{Custom}}[1] or {{Custom-nw}}[2] (obligatory if user-created)
  2. Template: {{Ibx character}}, or character picture (obligatory)
  3. Text: abstract – a paragraph without header that shortly explains the basic features of the character (obligatory)
  4. Section (not necessarily in order written here)
    • Biography – character's life from birth (or before) until now
    • Appearance – further description what the character looks like (with optional pictures) and attire
    • Personality – what the character is like, likes and dislikes, etc.
    • Skills – what abilities and weaknesses they have
    • Inventory – what they usually carry around with them
    • Anything else you want to add
  5. Section: meta-information – OOC explanation of the character: when, by whom, how it was created (obligatory)
  6. Section: references (see referencing)
  7. Section: sources – bibliography (see sourcing)

Player pages[]

Player pages are a specific type of page talking about a role-player or role-playing gamer. This type of article talks about an actual person, and must therefore be handled with the necessary discretion in regards to the privacy of this person. Only publicly available information should be taken. The focus should also not lie on their personal life (even though it may be mentioned in the extent it is known), but on their role-playing career.

Player page sections[]

Sections that either should preferably or need to be present on player pages, are the following:

  1. Template: {{RL}} – used to indicate the article relates to the acual word (obligatory)
  2. Template: {{Ibx player}}, or player picture (obligatory)
  3. Text: abstract – a paragraph without header that shortly sums up the highlights of the player's career (obligatory)
  4. Section (not necessarily in order written here)
    • Biography – player's real life (in the extent it can be written about)
    • Career – player's role-playing career
    • Communities – communities he or she was/is a member of
    • Style – preferred role-playing genres and types, writing style
    • Characters – the characters they made (with short biography and explanation)
    • Anything else you want to add
  5. Section: references (see referencing)
  6. Section: sources – bibliography (see sourcing)

Referencing[]

(From SE:G section: Do I need to disclose my sources?) As soon as an external source of information is used to make a specific statement, a reference is necessary. For this purpose, a section ==References== is placed at the end of the article, followed by <references /> on the next line. This will render all references created within the article.

References are made by putting <ref>This is where you put some information.{{Src|<fullurl>}}</ref> right behind the statement or quote, like this.[3] References are usually posted right behind a word. In the case the word is followed by a form of punctuation, the reference is put behind the punctuation.

Besides indicating the source of specific statements, references can also serve to give extra information in an article where it would be considered somewhat offtopic. This includes giving background information (e.g. explaining who a person mentioned is), defining a technical term (not all terms need inline explanation) or giving alternate versions of a story or theory.

Sourcing[]

(From SE:G section: Do I need to disclose my sources?) Sources are more generic than references, in the sense that references explain a specific element or statement of an article and sources are the material used to base entire sections or even the entire article upon. Like references, sources get their own ==Sources== section, at the entire end of an article (after References).

Sourcing format[]

Sources must be listed in a bulleted list and must follow a specific format, which is the following:

Author's surname, Firstname M. N. (YYYY-MM-DD). "Article Title", Main Title. If it exists, also the subtitle. Location: Publisher, Journal Title, Nr.Volume (date), pp.startpage-endpage, Xth Ed., ISBN. Accessed: Month DDth, YYYY.(source)

For items that are not accessible or published anywhere, it is also allowed to just describe them (see fourth item in example list).

A source list should be made alphabetically, with exception of works by various or anonymous authors, which are abbreviated respectively with Aa.Vv.[4] and s.n.[5]. Sources with various authors are put directly after the alphabetical list, then followed by sources with anonymous authors.

Example bibliography[]

The following is a fictional bibliography to make the above explanation a bit more concrete.

  • Jones, Lucas. "How to balance a post's quality and quantity?". New York: NY Simming Association, The Simming Corner, Nr.5 (Summer 2006), pp.9-12.
  • Smith, John A. (1899). Theatre in Ancient Rome. S.l.: Random University Press, 3rd Edition, ISBN-1234-1234-123.
  • Smith, John B. (s.d.). "Why role-playing is awesome", Example Site Community. Accessed: September 10, 2013.(source)
  • Aa.Vv. (2011-10-11). IRC Chat log from discussion on Some RP Community.(source)

Uploading files[]

You can upload files through Special:Upload or Special:MultipleUpload, as well as directly in the editor. However, you can't just upload any image: it is necessary that you first verify if the image is usable on this wiki.

If your file is not used on your userpage, sandbox, mainspace articles, templates, or help or project pages, it is considered a candidate for deletion. You will have two days to move the image to the proper namespace before it is deleted. Role Play Wiki is not an image host, we will not keep files for personal uses.

When uploading, you will need to indicate the appropriate license. All license templates can be found in Category:Image wiki templates.


Page ownership[]

There are different levels of page ownership in effect on Role Play Wiki. In some cases, a user needs to be registered in order to be eligible for page ownership.

Free to edit[]

Most pages on the wiki will be free to edit. This includes, but is not limited by, pages about sims, communities, players, events, items, and so on. Anything that is not created by a single user, falls under "free to edit".

No editing[]

  • In the case of talk namespaces, it is not allowed to remove or delete information. Anyone, including administrators, must build up to what is already present. The content can be moved to an archive however, by the user (in case of a user talk page) or by admins.

Partial page ownership[]

Partial page ownership on this wiki means that the creator is the full owner of the content of a page, but that other users may edit it as well, to fix the language and/or ensure that it meets the guidelines.

Allowed[]

  • Reformat to meet the style guidelines
  • Put coded or manually added content in templates
  • Correct spelling and grammar
  • Revert spam and vandalism performed by who are not the page owners
  • Replace files, only if the result is a clear improvement

Not allowed[]

  • Alter or remove the established page content
  • Add content (without explicit written permission)
  • Replace files

Pages that fall under this[]

  • File pages
  • Certain main content pages: about user-created content, indicated with {{Custom}} or {{Custom-nw}} at the top
  • Character pages, unless indicated in the "Meta-information" section that they are canonical

Full page ownership[]

Full page ownership means that explicit (written) permission from the owner is required to edit the page, and only in the way permission has been received for. Only grave violations of these guidelines or of the Wikia Terms of Use are proper reasons to edit anyway. In the case of mild violations, the page owner should be addressed or, if he or she is inactive, an admin.

Pages that fall under this[]

  • User pages (excluding user subpages)

Amongst users[]

How to work together[]

(From SE:G section: Working with others) Cooperation and collaboration is important to achieve the best results. Even pages about your own club, community or role-play may not have your complete and full approval, but each party should be willing to strive to consensus.

  • Do not provoke or tick off other users intentionally.
  • Be tolerant of the preferences and points of view of others, especially if they differ from your own.
  • Respect and consensus are keywords.

Editing conflicts[]

In the case of an editing conflict, try to follow this procedure,

  • Does the information contradict? Go with the most trustworthy version.
    • If one version is sourced and another is not, go with the sourced version.
    • If multiple versions seem plausible, feel free to state that different versions exist and explain what these versions are.
    • If one version is more plausible or sourced, feel free to still state the existence of the other version(s) in a footnote.
  • What is your opinion? What is the opinion of others? Discuss this on the article's talk page.
    • Clearly state your own preference and explain why you think so.
    • Accept and try to understand the preference of others.
    • Do not convince others of your preference or make them abandon their own.
    • Try to find alternatives or in-between options that everyone can agree on.
  • What do the guidelines say about the matter? Follow the guidelines.
    • The guidelines are an additional "preference" that should also be taken in account.
    • If the guidelines do not provide the answer, look at Wikipedia as an example, but keep in mind that the local policy overrules Wikipedia's policy.
    • If RPWiki or Wikipedia's guidelines have a method of handling that seems fair to most users involved, go with that method.
    • If RPWiki or Wikipedia's guidelines have an unclear method of handling, or if a fair amount of users involved disagree with it, user consensus should be prioritized.
  • If an edit conflict is resolved around Role Play Wiki's policy, the guidelines may need to be changed or added to for consistency on the entire wiki.
  • If after the previous, consensus can still not be achieved, contact an admin.

Privacy policy[]

As a general rule, do not link social media profiles or other (non-Fandom) profiles of people, or give out users' and players' e-mail addresses, without their explicit permission

In accordance with Fandom's Terms of Use, you should not solicit personal information from underage users. However, it is advised to avoid personal questions towards any user in general, including asking for their age, real name or where they live.

Further issues[]

(From SE:G section: Who should I contact for further information?) In the case something is missing in the guidelines, the wording is unclear or ambiguous or if you have any questions at all, it is best to turn to any of Role Play Wiki's staff.

If an item is worth adding to the guidelines, it should be added to this page's talk. When a (registered/anonymous) user agrees, it will be put up on the voting page for community negotiation.

In the case of for instance bugs, major technical problems (e.g. you are unable to log in) or cross-wiki issues with certain users, it is best to address Fandom Staff directly at Special:Contact.

Terminology used in the above text[]

(From SE:G section: Definitions)

  • Established role-play/RPG: the RPG or RP platform has a wiki to provide for more detailled information.
  • Reference: that what someone refers to, a source for one specific statement.
  • Source: source of information.
  • Underdeveloped RPC: rough outlines for characters that do not meet minimum standards (longer than one-two paragraphs of content; basic information such as name, age, race; etc.) should be kept in user namespace rather than content. They will not be deleted, but instead moved to the creator's subpage.
  • User-created character: a RPC or NPC created by a user, rather than the existing (canon) ones.

References[]

  1. Template:Custom serves only for user-created character pages that have their own wiki page elsewhere.
  2. Template:Custom-nw serves only for user-created character pages that have or don't have a page elsewhere.
  3. According to Rule 48 of the Internet.(source)
  4. Aa.Vv. stands for the Latin Auctores Varii, meaning "various authors".
  5. S.n. stands for the Latin Sine nomine, meaning "without name". Additionally, there is also sine dato (s.d.), "without date" and since loco (s.l.), "without place" (used for location or publisher).
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