BIONICLEsector01:Tutorial (Keep in mind)

Tutorials

There are some things to keep in mind when editing the BS01 Wiki.

Conduct

The BS01 Wiki encourages an atmosphere of friendliness and openness. Of course, in practice there are sometimes disagreements and even the occasional fight, but members of the community are expected to behave in a generally civil manner.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that you should always assume good faith on the part of other editors. Don't assume that someone is acting out of spite or malice. If someone does something that upsets you, leave a polite message on the relevant article's talk page or on the user's talk page, and ask why. You may find that you've avoided a misunderstanding and saved yourself some embarrassment.

Editorial policies

Neutral Point of View

BS01's editorial policy is the "neutral point of view", often abbreviated "NPOV". This policy says that we accept all the significant viewpoints on an issue. Instead of simply stating one perspective, we try to present all relevant viewpoints without judging which is correct. Our aim is to be informative, not persuasive. Our policy does NOT mean that our articles are expected to be 100% objective, since in any dispute both sides believe their view to be "true".

It's OK to state opinions in articles, but they must be presented as opinions, not as fact. Also, it's a good idea to attribute these opinions, for example "Supporters of this say that..." or "Notable commentator X believes that..."

You might hear users referring to an article as "POV". This is BIONICLEsector01 slang for a biased article, or one obviously written from a single perspective. Advertising would fall in this category, as would a political diatribe. In a less extreme case, an article might have "POV" problems if it spends significantly more time discussing one view than another, even if each view is presented neutrally.

Subject matter

The BS01 Wiki is an encyclopedia of BIONICLE info. Hence, articles should be encyclopedic information about notable subjects. What exactly constitutes notability is the subject of constant debate here, but few of us believe that there should be articles about every person on every item in the MNOLG, every word that isn't English, or every possible location.

Citing sources

The BS01 Wiki doesn't require that you cite sources for the information you contribute, but we do ask that you do so whenever we find a piece of information you added to be questionable. If you're using a website as a source, make an "External links" section and link to it. This helps our readers verify what you've written and find more information. See BIONICLEsector01:Sources for more information on this.

U.S. (and Canadian) English vs. English outside North America

Since this is a U.S. based wiki, American spelling and grammar are generally recommended. However, if the article is about something from English outside of North America, the other form may be used with proper permission.

Copyrights

Do not submit copyrighted material without permission. The best articles are usually written from either personal knowledge, or through the synthesis of research from multiple sources. For a more detailed discussion of copyrights, see BIONICLEsector01:Copyrights.

Renaming articles

If you find an article that you believe is mis-named, please do not cut & paste the contents of the old article into a new article--among other things, it separates the previous contributions from their edit history. The preferred method is to ask a staff member to move the page to it's new name.

Continue with the tutorial.