EvaWiki:Rules and Regulations

This page serves as the central hub for the internal policies and rules of conduct for editors on EvaWiki.

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

General

EvaWiki is not Wikipedia.org. EvaWiki uses MediaWiki software, but none of the rules or regulations which Wikipedia functions under hold sway here.

EvaWiki operates under the Pirate's Code, as set down by the 18th century pirates Henry Morgan and Bartholomew Roberts:

1. The Right of Parley -- Editors on EvaWiki are always encouraged to, in a respectful manner, question the logic or veracity of anything on EvaWiki. If you're unconvinced a particular point or decision is correct, please bring it up for discussion on an article's Discussion page or in the forums. No subject will ever be taboo.
2. Mutiny -- against the Grand Mistress of EvaWiki, Reichu, and her subordinate Administrators, is unthinkable: the deepest circle of hell is reserved for betrayers and mutineers. You have to do what Administrators tell you to do, and this isn't a democracy: we won't "vote" on a course of action to take. Similarly, Administrators are not elected, they are appointed by other Administrators. There is a three-tiered rank structure, in ascending order: Regular Editor, Administrator, "Bureaucrat". Just as normal editors have to obey Administrators, Administrators have to obey Bureaucrats. Bureaucrats are essentially super-Administrators which have the right to make other people into normal Administrators.
3. He who falls behind is left behind -- If you stop editing completely on EvaWiki for an extended period of time (think a full year), and you have not contacted the site explaining that you are on a leave of absence, your inactive account will be eventually removed (if a piano fell on your head and you were in a coma for three years, if you were in prison, etc. e-mail the site explaining why you were gone and you will immediately be given a new account. However, Administrator privileges will be lost if you are gone from the site for so long a time without explanation. "Explanation" could literally amount to writing on top of your account "I might be gone for a little while" then showing up again a year later, without penalty).

This isn't Wikipedia

EvaWiki does not believe in the restrictive rules of Wikipedia. In order to prevent "wikiholics" who do ardently believe in the rules of Wikipedia from overwhelming the site, several rules of behavior will be observed:

1. Every editor on EvaWiki has to have and regularly use an account on an Evangelion messageboard -- "Wikiholics" tend not to use messageboards. However, the EvaWiki is meant to be a reference tool used to aid fan communities specifically like messageboard groups. EvaWiki should not become isolated from the messageboards. Thus, everyone on EvaWiki has to have a messageboard account, and they have to "regularly" use it (the Admins will judge if you obviously just registered an account for the sake of saying you have one, then never really use it). You have to at least register an account on the EvaCommentary Forum, which is home of the "EvaWiki Discussion" sub-forum. If your "home board" is somewhere else (i.e. you posted daily on AnimeNation Forum before it went defunct) that's not really a problem, so long as you regularly post somewhere and you have an account on the EvaCommentary Forum to directly discuss EvaCommentary/EvaWiki matters.
2. Major discussions about content on EvaWiki should take place in the "Wiki Discussion" subforum of the EvaCommentary Forums. Only use "Talk" pages sparingly. -- As a corollary to the above, major, that is, long-running discussions about contentious or unresolved matters on EvaWiki should take place in the EvaCommentary Forum's Wiki subforum. The "Talk" pages on the wiki are a vital tool; they're like stick-it notes attached to each article for quick and easy reference, i.e. "I cannot find a reference for this statement in the "notes" section, can someone find it?" or to point out "this image isn't displaying properly". However, long-running discussions should really be done on the messageboards. A key part of this is that there is no "Administrators' Noticeboard" on EvaWiki itself: instead of bringing up something on an "Administrators' Noticeboard", as some other wikis do, or if you wish to "register a complaint" about a dead Norwegian Blue, you have to do it in the wiki subforum. The EvaWiki is only a part of the larger "EvaCommentary" site and these rules requiring the use of the messageboards for several functions will help weld them together, instead of EvaWiki becoming isolated. That doesn't mean you should be discouraged from using "Talk" pages, just remember that they're for bringing up things specifically relevant to that article, and you shouldn't just start a whole conversation on them. The discussion might grow to be fairly long, and if there is still a great deal of confusion and more discussion to be had, just start a new thread in the messageboard to settle it. Meanwhile, you really shouldn't start up entire conversations on another Editor's talk page purely for socialization or something, use the messageboards for that (you should write on their Talk page, if you're asking them something specific, etc.) This won't be enforced too vigorously, but please be mindful of it.
3. Anyone who uses a wiki-tool to count the exact number of edits they have made on EvaWiki will be instantly and unconditionally banned without any possible hope for appeal -- MediaWiki software has certain program tools which allow a wiki editor to count find out what their exact "Edit Count" is. On Wikipedia.org, many people actually have developed badges on their userpages listing "I made 10,000 edits!", pointing to this as something that makes them an above-average contributor. However, the reality of "Edit Counts" is ridiculous: an entire episode article can be written by one editor in one "Edit" (the number of times you click "Save Page"), while another editor could run around making 1,000 single-letter spelling corrections, and then claim to have done "equal work" to the other editor. By all means, you are supposed to contribute as much as possible to EvaWiki. but the "Edit Count" feature is a peculiarity of MediaWiki's setup, and not an accurate gauge of physically how much material someone is contributing to the site. It is a tool which "wikiholics" tend to abuse, at the expense of other contributors. Thus, anyone who uses an Edit Count tool to find their exact edit count, then states it on EvaWiki or in the forums, even in a seemingly non-confrontational manner, will unconditionally be subjected to an immediate and permanent ban from EvaWiki. You will note that while EvaWiki runs on MediaWiki software (and thus you could conceivably use the "Edit Count" feature) there is no button to click on in EvaWiki that will quickly or easily take you to one: to find your Edit Count on EvaWiki, after having read this warning, you'd actually have to go out *of your way* to Wikipedia.org to find a program for finding your Edit Count. Thus it is impossible to "accidentally" find out your Edit Count, thus you cannot claim you were banned for "accidentally" stumbling onto it.

Copyright: Who owns EvaWiki?

From a strict legal standpoint, Reichu owns the EvaWiki and everything that you put onto it. By adding information onto EvaWiki, you are signing away any rights to it. You don't "own" an article, even one that you wrote entirely by yourself. In return for this, we all get the privilege and ease of not actually having to run the site for ourselves, or shoulder the rather large costs involved in buying server space.

HOWEVER, you must never submit copyrighted material to the site without at least sourcing it. You CANNOT simply copy-paste a large section of material from another site, like wikipedia. You CAN copy 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.

Long story short: in return for being able to work on an online Evangelion guide which everyone will see across the Internets, you don't actually own articles on here. That's part of the reason you don't sign your name. By the same token, you cannot submit copyrighted work here, without citing where it came from.

Things you add to articles can and will be changed: live with it

Part of the "ownership of articles" thing is that you might get upset if someone alters something you wrote, or removes entirely something you wrote. If you stay here, this just happens all the time: things you write will be edited back and forth so many dozens or hundreds of times that most people here should just be used to it; this happens on all websites using MediaWiki software. The last thing we want is a 40 year old man privately e-mailing the Admins, literally pouting and crying because someone deleted his episode note that "in 2015, they still use cars instead of hovercraft" and deleted his article on "Flashlight". Comic Book Guy, this embarrasses both us and yourself.

Edit Conflict and Revert Wars

Sometimes, for whatever reason, Person A might think that an article should say one thing and Person B thinks it should say another. Maybe they disagree with your facts. Maybe with your theories. Maybe with just the way you worded the sentence, because they think their version looks prettier. 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. First, 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 its 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 at all. Even for "fun". Vandalize an article and you are gone. As for your username, you are not allowed to pick a username which is offensive (racist, sexist, etc.) and you are not allowed to use the same name as the title of an article on this site. Thus you cannot 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 by bringing it up on the Administrators' Noticeboard in the forums. Please avoid privately contacting an Admin. The formal channel is to contact them through the Administrator's Noticeboard.

EvaWiki is just a small part of the Eva Commentary site

The greater, overall "Eva Commentary" site of which EvaWiki is a small part, however, doesn't follow these rules

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).

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".