Journey ShoutWiki:Guidelines, rules, and anti-rules

In general, many places in the world seem to be adding more-and-more rules, with more-and-more pressure to conform. The consequences for 'messing up' are often so extreme that people are either afraid of making a faux pas, or to revolt just to make a point (or to get away from it all).

Here at the Journey ShoutWiki, we want to help create an open environment where people can feel safe to work on things, and not get punished for it. Because of that, there are very few hard-and-fast rules, and most of the rules (and guidelines) we do have are meant to help make things easier for the overall community. Even disruptive edits are often alright, as long as they help to improve things.

And if you want to get edit-blocked just for the fun of it. Go for it! We're not going to stop you. X3

Editing
Feel free to edit

No need to ask. If you can think of a way to improve to improve an article, go right ahead! We trust you. =)

It's okay to make mistakes, even big ones

Mistakes are part of the learning process. We've all been there, and users won't be punished just for making an honest mistake. We want to cultivate an open culture of learning and growth, and when it comes to both of those things, mistakes are part of the package.

So you don't need to stress too much about offending people just because you made one tiny little typo - it's okay, honest! Errors can be fixed! =)

On the flipside, you don't have to get on someone's case if they made an error: if what they did adds something to the wiki, thank them for the edit, and then fix the mistake. ;)

It's even understood that sometimes a person can make the same mistake over-and-over, either because of habits, or for other reasons that makes it hard for them - it's fine, really!

Basically, with maybe a few exceptions, the only way that making mistakes is likely to get you into trouble, is if you decide not to learn from them. ~_^

Build off the old, build up the new

Balance quantity and quality

Now this one can be tricky. Often, it can be difficult to not try and get something perfect, especially if we've often had people yell at us for the smallest mistake. And on the flipside, sometimes it can be tempting to just dump a bunch of information in with little-to-no care for how it comes across. One of the things about wikis is that the information can always be improved, but it can be hard to improve something if you can't understand what the intention is.

The trick is to put enough care into your info that it can probably be understood and improved on without much difficulty, without stressing out in order to make sure that you didn't have a single typo, or that you match the style perfectly.

There's no hard and fast rule on what that balance is - and you shouldn't stress out about it too much. XD A good guideline is that if you're stressing out, then you're probably putting too much effort into it, but if you're not stopping to consider how something sounds at all, then you're putting in too little.

That said, there's an exception if you don't have much to add in terms content, but you can see a way to improve the quality: as long as it helps, it's accepted. ;)

Don't assume impossibility of something

There have been cases where the community assumed that something was impossible until one player or another proved everyone else wrong. Because of that, it's recommended not to claim that something is impossible, or that it doesn't happen on another platform. Instead, it's recommend to list the circumstances where we do know that something is possible.

Refer to a companion as "another player"

A lot of the time, players don't realize that a Companion is another player, rather than an NPC. So on this wiki, it's asked to simply refer to them as another player while linking back to the companion's page (as appropriate for the context). Just simply write as if companions are people, and hopefully readers should get the idea. =)

If it doesn't have a name, name it

Work to create an encyclopedia

Normally, this wouldn't be something that seems like it needs to be listed. However, one of the reasons for branching off from the Gamepedia wiki is because it seemed like it was being made into more of a forum than an actual wiki, Examples include making articles for players to list what times they're available to Journey, and using articles to play community games in, instead of just discussing them or introducing readers to them.

That said, this isn't a hard-and-fast rule; games may be allowed in appropriate talk pages, players are allowed to list their times on their user pages, and a few examples of how to play a game are welcome on their related articles.

TL;DR: Use articles as articles. XD; Also, use templates as templates, and use categories as categories (and, to some extent, tags).

Working With Others
Start with trust

While we know that there may be those who would intentionally hurt the wiki, they'll more than likely be few and far between, and damage can be reverted. Everyone deserves to be given a chance, especially in a place such as this, where things can be reverted if necessary. If, after being given a good chance, trust has been broken and there's no sign of repairing it in the near future, then it might be time to take action. However, if one is just starting out, then it's good to start from a place of trust. =)

Assume competence

Assume good intentions

This goes for more than just editing. A lot of the time, if it seems like someone is trying to be hurtful, they're not; they may even be trying to help. While it's true that hurt unintended is still hurt, it's impossible to know everything about how to not be hurtful, and it doesn't do any good to just hurt them back.

If you can, it may help to try and explain how the behavior is hurtful in a (relatively) calm manner. If the hurt is too much to try and discuss the issue without lashing out, then try asking a third party to help.

Try to avoid rules-lawyering

Drama is neither encouraged nor forbidden

Report MAJOR issues - whistleblowing is to be rewarded!

Editing
Keep it PG

One of the nice things about Journey is that it could be enjoyed by people of all sorts of backgrounds, ages, etc. Please try to keep the wiki the same way. No foul language. No graphic content beyond a PG-ish rating. Absolutely nothing NSFW. This also goes for edit summaries, and to an extent, links to other websites; while, say, comment sections can't be controlled, it's asked that the primary content be SFW, at least, and generally PG-ish, whenever possible.

No overlap-categories (e.g. "Snow (Glitches)")

If we were to have a category for each-and-every case where two (or more) other categories overlap, it would be an enormous hassle to handle, for both the admins, and the average user. Instead, use the existing, lower-level categories (e.g. "Snow" and "Glitches"). We believe that this can also help users to discover that there's even more to a certain topic than they may have originally thought.

While it's not installed yet, we plan on using Catisect (or a similar extension) so that readers can still specifically look for pages that have these kinds of overlaps.

No information on hacking

We don't have a choice with this one; it's ShoutWiki policy. Images showing texture mods might be okay under user pages (or if really necessary under appropriate articles), and we might make a page discussing Level 09 without telling how to get to it. However, information discussing how to perform a hack will be removed, and may result in a block. Major and/or repeated infractions will result in increasingly longer blocks.

Anti-rules
Not only are these not rules, but users are asked not to require certain things of others. ;)

Editing
'Layout consistency is NOT required

Specific verbiage isn't required, either

Working With Others
Specific verbiage is REALLY not required