EvaWiki:Rules and Regulations

Rules used in writing articles dealing with matters specific to Evangelion, can be found at FGP:Standards and Conventions.

"When Aoba called B Wing's construction sloppy he hadn't seen anything like THIS!" This article or section may require a cleanup to meet a standard of quality that isn't plain embarrassing. Please discuss this issue on the talk page and/or begin editing the page.

Copyright: Who owns EvaWiki?

The content of the EvaWiki is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. By adding information into the EvaWiki, your contributions will also be copyright under this license. There are special cases where a contributor may not want something to be public domain but wants, like an essay for example, they must therefore note that the copyright is that of the contributor. Such pages should not be modified by others.

You must never submit copyrighted material to the site unless it falls under fair use or you have permission by the copyright holder. You CANNOT simply copy-paste a large section of material from another site, like wikipedia. You CAN cite it, and at the end provide a link to the web page you got it from and clearly label "source:Wikipedia" (or a news site or whatever). As explained above, image files can be used under fair use but please do not blatantly use a super-high definition image file. We're really just using the images in a promotional context, etc.

Additional information about copyrights can be found in the Project Copyrights page.

Edit Conflict and Revert Wars

As on any other wiki, two people may not have the same opinion about what an article says or should say. The disagreement may be over facts, over theories, or simply over the wording of a statement. If the disagreement is purely on facts, you can resolve this with providing evidence. Edit something back if you want and don't let people just walk over you. However, after about three rounds of Person A changing it back, then Person B counter-changing it back, then Person A changing it back again, etc. etc. it becomes a "Revert War": all logical discussion has stopped and the two people are just seeing who can hold out longer. Please don't do this. Once you realize this is a problem that isn't going away and "Person B" is determined to make their change stick, move discussion about the point you disagree on into the "Talk" page for the article. If the matter cannot be easily and quickly resolved there, and it's actually a matter of some great debate, the discussion will eventually have to move to the forums, where it will be hashed out. If the Admins haven't intervened already, you should bring up the situation with the Admins if the forum discussion is going nowhere.

Username and Vandalism

Vandalism will not be tolerated in the least. Vandalism is grounds for expulsion and banning from the wiki. As for usernames, it is not allowed to pick a username of an offensive (racist, sexist, etc.) nature, and it is not allowed to use the same name as titles of articles in this site (You can't name yourself "Shinji Ikari" or "Progressive Knife").

What to do if you get into conflict with another editor on EvaWiki

You can and probably will get into arguments with other people on here from time to time. But there is a clear difference between "spirited difference of opinion about some Evangelion-related matter" and "you're just hurling childish namecalling at each other". If you think someone is harassing you, please contact the Admins.

Non-Point of View: Remain Objective

Things you write on here must always be Non-Point of View (NPOV): you have to remain objective when writing an article. Basically, its the difference between "facts" and "opinions". "Evangelions look cool" is an opinion. "Shinji pilots an Evangelion" is a fact.

Wikipedia tends to gut articles of a lot of content, however, for "original research". Admittedly, there is a point where "fact" and "opinion" begin to blur as we make educated guesses and analysis based on evidence. On this site, we actually encourage you to write as much as possible, and there are several "Theory and Analysis" pages, properly segregated away from the main articles.

In short, "EvaWiki" is an online encyclopedia, meant to establish objective *Facts* about the series. It will also try to analyze them somewhat (analysis mostly happens in episode guide pages).

Translations: Stick to known sources

Japanese is a highly context-dependent language and translations from Japanese to English can sometimes be more of an art than an exact science. This is especially true since Evangelion is a franchise where the dialog is ambiguous and often highly context-dependent - the enormous and ongoing controversy over whether Kaworu tells Shinji "I like you" or "I love you" is a perfect example.

That isn't to say that all translations are equal; there are good translations and bad translations, with the really good translations preserving the nuances of the original language and the really bad ones causing things to be "lost in translation", or even worse, adding in complete misconceptions or nonsense! This sometimes happens even with professional translators caught with an unfamiliar word or phrase or misinterpreting the context.

So how do you keep translations accurate? The guideline here is to stick to a named translator who is known to be very good, or in case of anonymous translations, to have them verified by known translators. In case the translator is relying on a transcribed interview, the transcript needs to be available in text form and verified to be accurate by a named, reliable source.

Unverified anonymous translations are among the biggest sources of misinformation on the wiki and are verboten, and may be subject to deletion or reversion.

Weasel Words

It is easy to use phrases such as, "People believe that" or, "It has been stated that" in an attempt to remain objective. While it works, these are phrases that are known as Weasel Words. This is different from using Passive Voice, which is actually a good thing and should be encouraged. Weasel words can easily mess up the flow of an article or make a point hard to communicate. They can't always be avoided, and if you feel that the use of one is necessary, by all means please do so. However, don't make them your go-to for trying to stay objective. Try to find a shorter way.

Guide for writing Theory and Analysis pages

In the words of Aristotle, "Frame an issue, defining its key terms, acknowledge other views and describe them fairly; then present your own ideas, showing they are logically coherent and consistent with the available evidence".