User:BobNewbie/The Sims Wiki:Guide

Welcome to The Official Guide to The Sims Wiki! If you are completely new to Wikis and/or The Sims Wiki, please take some time to read this page. If you are already an user on The Sims Wiki, feel free to read certain sections.

Through this guide, we will try to explain to you The Sims Wiki's policies, our pages, our community and other things that make us the wiki we are today.

Policies, Guidelines and 5 Pillars
The Sims Wiki has fundamental principles by which The Sims Wiki operates have been summarized by editors in the form of five pillars:

The Sims Wiki is an encyclopedia of facts and information. Most articles (with notable exceptions) should have relevant and factual information.

The Sims Wiki has a neutral point-of-view; articles should not be written in a particular "slant" and all facts must be verifiable.

The Sims Wiki is free content; appropriate copyright laws must be respected, but the articles on the wiki are the collaborations of many people and are not owned by any person or group of people.

Wiki Users should interact positively with each other; if there is a disagreement, users should seek constructive resolutions rather than resorting to name-calling, harrassment, edit wars, or other discouraged behavior. Users should be welcoming to new users and should assume good faith.

There are no firm rules; when editing an article, sometimes the best solution is to ignore all preconceptions and be bold. Remember that every action on The Sims Wiki can be undone if needed.

We edit and grow by those pillars.

We have a large variety of policies, but all of these are there to maintain order on the wiki. These policies are generally easy to follow, but are also mandatory.

While we do not strictly follow the "Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it" rule, we do in most cases warn users about something they have done wrong, except in extreme cases.

The Sims Wiki is an community encyclopedia for The Sims Series that anyone can edit, to summarize it in a few words. There are, however, some mistakes to what The Sims Wiki is. The Sims Wiki is not:
 * A social networking site.
 * A repository of The Sims games.
 * A modification site.
 * An advertisement service.
 * A democracy.
 * An official site.

For more explanation, please read this page, which explains what The Sims Wiki is not more broadly.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, is the largest and most successful wiki. This page lists some of the overarching guidelines that have helped make Wikipedia a success that The Sims Wiki tries to encourage.

Encourage others, including those who disagree with you, likewise to BE BOLD!
 * 1) BE BOLD! in updating pages. Go ahead, it's a wiki!
 * 1) Be civil to other users at all times.
 * 2) Ignore all rules. If the rules discourage you from improving or maintaining the wiki's quality, ignore them.
 * 3) When in doubt, take it to the talk page. We have all the time in the world. Mutual respect is the guiding behavioural principle of Wikia and, although everyone knows that their writing may be edited mercilessly, it is easier to accept changes if the reasons for them are understood. If you discuss changes on the article's talk (or discussion) page  before you make them, you should reach consensus faster and happier.
 * 4) Respect copyright. Wikia uses the GNU Free Documentation License. Everything you contribute must be compatible with that license.
 * 5) Decent edit summaries and clear and transparent explanations are universally appreciated. Other editors need to understand your process, and it also helps you yourself to understand what you did after a long leave of absence from an article. Please state what you changed and why. If the explanation is too long, add more on the discussion page.
 * 6) Assume good faith; in other words, try to consider that the person on the other end of the discussion is a thinking, rational being who is trying to positively contribute to the project — unless, and only unless, you have firm, solid, and objective proof to the contrary. Merely disagreeing with you is no such proof.
 * 7) Particularly, don't revert good faith edits. Reverting is too powerful sometimes. Don't succumb to the temptation, unless you're reverting very obvious vandalism (like "LALALALAL*&*@#@THIS_SUX0RZ", or someone changing "1+2=3" to "1+2=17") . If you really can't stand something, revert once, with an edit summary something like "(rv) I disagree strongly, I'll explain why in talk."  and immediately take it to talk.
 * 8) No personal attacks. Don't write that user such and so is an idiot, or insult him/her (even if (s)he is an idiot). Instead, explain what they did wrong, why it is wrong, and how to fix it. If possible, fix it yourself (but see above).
 * 9) Be graceful: Be liberal in what you accept, be conservative in what you do. Try to accommodate other people's quirks the best you can, but try to be as polite, solid, and straightforward as possible yourself.
 * 10) Sign your posts on talk pages using ~, which gets replaced by your username and timestamp when you hit Save.  But don't sign on mainspace articles.
 * 11) Use the preview button; it prevents edit conflicts.

It's important to have fun... but try to make sure those around you have fun too!

The Sims Wiki also abides Wikia's, our Wiki host company, guidelines.