Mass Effect Wiki:Community Guidelines

This page concerns basic community guidelines for Mass Effect Wiki.

Language
Offensive language, either toward other editors or in articles, is not tolerated. There is some leeway in Talk pages and in discussion between users, but inserting offensive language in articles is considered vandalism. When deciding how to respond to an editor’s comments, consider how you would speak to a stranger face-to-face in public, as that is effectively what you are doing. If you find offensive language in an article, please correct or report it. Repeat offenders will be warned, then banned (see below).

Commenting on other users
Commenting on another user’s edits should be done on that article's Talk page or on the user’s talk page. If you disagree with a user’s edits, particularly if they are major edits, discuss them with the user and use basic courtesy. “Editing wars” without any discussion between both parties should be discouraged. Even if you disagree with someone, there is no need to be impolite. Discuss it first; they may have misunderstood your point of view.

Do not edit another user’s comments or their Talk page. A user’s Talk page is effectively their personal noticeboard and should not be edited. Editing another user’s comments to ridicule them, shut them up or make them agree with you is considered vandalism and may be a banning offence (see below) as it is technically impersonating another user.

Policy discussions
If you are an experienced Wikia user, please check before implementing policies from other wikis. For example, some wikis use user-written guides signed by that user, e.g. “Vanguard Guide by Tullis”, but MEWiki does not. As with any other new community, lurk and take some time to familiarise yourself with the community before making or proposing substantial changes.

Banning
Banning a user happens under two circumstances. A roaming user who commits a major act of vandalism but is not a contributor will have their IP address blocked for a short period of time to discourage a vandalism spree. However a regular contributor will be banned if circumstances demand it. Example of behaviour leading to a ban are:


 * Repeated vandalism of pages
 * Crude or offensive language
 * “Editing wars”
 * Insulting other users
 * Editing another user’s comments
 * Impersonating another user to vandalise pages or ridicule them

First offences do not normally lead to a ban, but an offender will be warned. Repeat offenders who refuse to listen to warnings will be banned. This may be anywhere from two weeks to six months depending on the offence. If the offences continue after the ban expires, the user will be permanently banned.

In some circumstances, a particularly severe first offence (e.g. racist language, deleting large swathes of the wiki, severe vandalism that takes a long time to correct or that damages the wiki) will lead to a permanent ban without a warning.

In short, the code of conduct is “courtesy toward other users, the community and the wiki itself”.

Speculation
MEWiki has a “low tolerance policy” on speculation in articles. This is due to an incident when an editor created a new race and star systems, and began incorporating them into articles as fact. As the PC version had recently been released, this confused several contributors as to whether a new race had been added in the PC version. Finding and rooting out these edits created problems, and so this policy was introduced.

Speculation is permitted in articles under the following circumstances:


 * It is clearly marked as being speculation, either under a “speculation” heading or with the sentence “some speculate that—” at the beginning of the paragraph.
 * There is evidence for this speculation. For example:
 * Incorrect: “Quarians once had fur, but after wearing environmental suits for hundreds of years this trait has died out.”
 * Correct: “Some speculate that if they join the Council, humans will have a major military role because they have a substantial fleet, well-trained army and adaptable military doctrine (see Systems Alliance).”


 * If the speculation refers to an unreleased game or novel, put a link at the end of the sentence to an interview or article supporting that speculation. For example:
 * Incorrect: “In Mass Effect 4 there will be giant spindly killer fish!”
 * Correct: “In Mass Effect 4 there will be giant spindly killer fish. [link to article about giant spindly killer fish in ME4]”

If speculation is not substantiated or qualified, it will be removed.

Vandalism
Vandalism is any unwanted or inappropriate editing to existing articles. Examples of vandalism include:


 * Replacing entire articles with nonsense or offensive language
 * Inserting nonsense or offensive language, spam or false information
 * Deleting sections of articles, or deleting entire legitimate articles
 * Creating nonsense articles

Most vandalism is committed by users outside the community or roaming Wikia users. It should be corrected as soon as it is committed or reported to an admin.

Protected Pages
Some pages are protected if they have suffered repeated editing wars or vandalism. These pages can only be edited by a registered user. If the vandalism continues, the page’s protection may be increased, meaning only administrators or sysops can edit the page. Over time a page’s protection may be removed to “test the waters" and ensure the vandalism is not repeated.