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This page documents an official Avatar Wiki policy.
It is a widely accepted standard that should normally be followed by all editors.
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Content
Categorization • Continuity • Copyrights
Deletion policy • Images • Layout guide
Manual of Style • Spoilers
Template namespace • Verifiability
What Avatar Wiki is not
Interaction
Assume good faith • Blocking policy
Discord chat • Discussion policy
Ignore all rules • Protection policy
Revert policy • Signature policy
User blog policy • User page policy
Voting
On Avatar Wiki, user blog posts have a variety of purposes, including news, announcements, community discussion, discussion of Avatar-related concepts, and fanon updates. However, Avatar Wiki does have a number of policies that apply to this feature.
General use[]
Usage of feature[]
The following types of blogs should be deleted by an administrator and the user warned by using {{blogdeleted}}.
- No irrelevant blog posts: Blog posts must be related to Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, the live-action adaptations, or Avatar Wiki. In particular, blog posts introducing yourself as a new user are not permitted. (In any case, you can do this in your first "substantial" blog post later on, if you are so inclined.) Blog posts that do not appear to be relevant should be reported, and may be summarily deleted at the discretion of an administrator. If your blog post is deleted and you do not agree that it is irrelevant, you should appeal at the same place.
- No insubstantial blog posts: Blog posts are meant to provide a means for users to present thoughtful opinions and pieces of writing. Their intention is not to act only as a conversation starter. Thus, blog posts should present some substantial content and should, at the very least, be one, full paragraph (and not one sentence). Blog posts that do not appear to be substantial enough should be reported, and may be summarily deleted at the discretion of an administrator. If your blog post is deleted and you do not agree that it is insubstantial, you should appeal at the same place.
- No proposal blog posts: The War Room is intended to be a centralized discussion forum for all site-related issues and improvements, and should be used for all proposals. Creating a blog post for these purposes is confusing and breaks the continuity of site-related discussion history.
- Avoid shadow pages: Redrafting of articles on Avatar Wiki should be done on the public sandbox, or a userspace sandbox (example). However, shadow pages can be used if it is not intended to be a draft for a new article, or a new edition of an article, and represents a significant deviation from the original article.
- Avoid posts about vandalism: Trying to inform as much of Avatar Wiki as possible about current levels of vandalism or "imminent danger" of vandalism is unhelpful. Vandalism is done because of the reaction to it, and thus dramatization only further encourages it.
Images and video[]
- No fair use Avatar images unless already used elsewhere: Fair use images of Avatar, that is, any screenshots and images whose copyrights belong to Nickelodeon or Paramount, can only be used on blog posts if the image is already in use elsewhere on the wiki. In short, this means that users should not upload Avatar screenshots specifically for their blog posts.
- No more than two "hotlinked" images: "Hotlinking" may only be done from secure, dedicated image hosting websites such as Photobucket. ("Hotlinking" refers to showing an image on a page by pasting a direct link to it on this site.)
- Avoid excessive multimedia: Blog posts are intended to be an outlet for writing, and not as a means to make a multimedia presentation. As a general guide, there should be only one image per paragraph of writing. If the subject of the blog post is in fact the multimedia, then the user should endeavor to provide sufficient text to help us understand the relevance and importance of the multimedia. If your blog post contains excessive multimedia, all images and video will be removed from the blog post, even if the two limits on images and videos described above have not been exceeded.
Categories[]
- No adding of categories unless the category is marked otherwise: When creating blog posts, users generally should not add any categories to their blog post. (Category:Blog posts is added by default.) The Fanon blog posts category is an exception since its addition is mandatory for all blogs created with a fanon purpose. However, as a guide, the adding of the Avatar news category, Site news category, and any category relating to Reviews should be left to an administrator.
Standard of writing[]
All user blog posts should adhere to intelligent standards of English (essentially, standards that should be expected of a mature young adult). Full sentences must be utilized. Users should always use correct grammar, punctuation and spelling, and appropriate writing conventions such as the proper use of paragraphs. The titles of blog posts must use correctly spelled words, without abbreviations or internet slang (especially smileys), and should never use all-caps.
Inappropriate content[]
In the circumstances of a blog post containing or referring to material that some believe to be inappropriate, the following process should take place, depending on the nature of the blog.
- The blog contains images and/or other media that is determined to be explicit or inappropriate: The blog post is reported to an administrator, and deleted. The user is warned with {{blogdeleted}}.
- The blog describes or focuses on detailed imagery of explicit or inappropriate material or concepts: The blog post is reported to an administrator, and deleted. The user is warned with {{blogdeleted}}.
- The blog alludes to explicit or inappropriate material or concepts: If there is no detailed descriptions or images, and the allusions are minor, no action is taken.
News blog posts[]
Whether a news blog post is required[]
When there is news related to Avatar, users are encouraged to add it to the wiki. If the news item is minor, it should be added to this blog post. However, a new blog post should be created and will be added by an administrator to the Avatar News blog if it satisfies one of the following criteria:
- Item has been reported in a dedicated article by at least one reputable media organisation
- Item has been reported in a dedicated article by at least two major fan sites
- Item can reasonably be said to be an overwhelming topic of fan discussion
Original interviews, original breaking news items, very significant site announcements, and posts by Wikia are never required to fall under the above standard.
Standard for news blog posts[]
These standards are required before blog posts are added to the Avatar News blog.
- In general, use a journalistic writing method and style e.g. avoid common online methods of expression such as smileys and all-caps, and avoid plugging yourself ("this is me, I'm bringing you this fantastic news").
- In general, do not introduce special designs or formatting.
- In general, you will not need to break your article up into subsections with their own headings.
- Linking to your sources:
- Do not make external links in the prose or at the start of the article.
- Only link to your sources, if any, at the end. Put them under a heading titled "Sources" in an unordered list (the one that has dot points).
- Never let your readers see the raw URL. Label your links.
- Only use
<ref>tags for explanatory notes, not referencing as you would elsewhere on the wiki. - Remember that your blog post is being transcluded onto the main page. Minimise how much you "break" the main page by avoiding the following:
- Introducing a line break or paragraph break in the first 150 characters.
- Making the title longer than roughly 25-35 characters. If in doubt, shorten it. Shorter titles are more effective at attracting readers anyway.