The Sims Wiki talk:5 pillars

We should probably add this somewhere: Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Five pillars and add that besides Wikia and our own policies we also try to follow Wikipedia's policies when able. Duskey ( talk ) 04:35, July 31, 2010 (UTC)
 * Adapted:


 * 1) The Sims Wiki is an encyclopedia. It incorporates elements of general and specialized encyclopedias, almanacs, and gazetteers. The Sims Wiki is not a soapbox, an advertising platform, a vanity press, an experiment in anarchy or democracy, an indiscriminate collection of information, or a web directory. It is not a dictionary, newspaper, a collection of source documents or a creative medium; that kind of content should be contributed instead to the The Sims Fanon Wiki.
 * 2) The Sims Wiki has a neutral point of view. We strive for articles that advocate no single point of view. Sometimes this requires representing multiple points of view, presenting each point of view accurately and in context, and not presenting any point of view as "the truth" or "the best view". All articles must strive for verifiable accuracy: unreferenced material may be removed, so please provide references. Editors' personal experiences, interpretations, or opinions do not belong here. That means citing verifiable, authoritative sources, especially on controversial topics and when the subject is a living person. When conflict arises over neutrality, discuss details on the talk page, and follow dispute resolution.
 * 3) The Sims Wiki is free content that anyone can edit and distribute. Respect copyright laws. Since all your contributions are freely licensed to the public, no editor owns any article; all of your contributions can and will be mercilessly edited and redistributed.
 * 4) Wikiapedians should interact in a respectful and civil manner. Respect and be polite to your fellow Wikiapedians, even when you disagree. Apply etiquette, and avoid personal attacks. Find consensus, avoid edit wars, and remember that there are articles on the English Sims Wiki to work on and discuss. Act in good faith, never disrupt The Sims Wiki to illustrate a point, and assume good faith on the part of others. Be open and welcoming.
 * 5) The Sims Wiki does not have firm rules besides the five general principles presented here. Be bold in updating articles and do not worry about making mistakes. Your efforts do not need to be perfect; prior versions are saved, so no damage is irreparable.

--a_morris (talk) 16:21, July 31, 2010 (UTC)


 * I don't know if the pillars themselves should be adopted as strict policy per se, but I think the general concepts of each should be followed and displayed somewhere... though I don't think they should be on the Policy page as putting them there indicates that they are hard-and-fast rules. Perhaps it should be added onto the Simplified Ruleset, or placed elsewhere?


 * Also, maybe some misconceptions could be cleared up by wording the 5 pillars more simply. Like:


 * 1) The Sims Wiki is an encyclopedia of facts and information. Most articles (with notable exceptions) should have relevant and factual information.
 * 2) The Sims Wiki has a neutral point-of-view; articles should not be written in a particular "slant" and all facts must be verifiable.
 * 3) 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.
 * 4) 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.
 * 5) 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.


 * That's just my §2, though. -- Patrick (LostInRiverview) (talk)(blog)(random page) 19:47, July 31, 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree that they're not a policy, they should probably have their own The Sims Wiki:Five pillars page with the About page and Policies linking to it. I'm not sure misconceptions will be cleared up by making the text shorter, that just leaves room for more user interpretation and misunderstanding, in my opinion. I think we should keep it at a short bolded statement and then a lengthy clarifying text containing links to relevant policies and guidelines. a morris, brings up some good topics for discussion in her references. The 'not a newspaper' should be removed from our version, since we do report on The Sims news and I, persoanlly, intend to expand on that in the near future, to bring more Sims news to the Wiki. I'm not sure what is meant with 'not a source document' so I cannot comment on that, can you please clarify it for me? 'Editors' personal experiences, interpretations, or opinions do not belong here' could be reworded to '...are only allowed on designated 'player stories'-, 'Theories'- and user pages' How does that sound? I'm also not that keen on the 'Wikiapedian' expression. It is my understanding that this is not Wikipedia, nor is it a Wikia; it is a Wiki. We're hosted by Wikia, but the general term for the site is still Wiki. I'm more favorable towards the term 'Wikian'. We could also just stick to 'User' and 'Editor'. Duskey ( talk ) 00:23, August 1, 2010 (UTC)

Combined pillars
How about we combine the two versions you've proposed so far? Although I might've just made a big hash of it. Note that this is a layout and wording example, individual examples in these pillars are still subject to discussion. Duskey ( talk ) 00:23, August 1, 2010 (UTC)

The 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 incorporates elements of general and specialized encyclopedias, almanacs, and gazetteers. The Sims Wiki is not a soapbox, an advertising platform, a vanity press, an experiment in anarchy or democracy, an indiscriminate collection of information, or a web directory. It is not a dictionary, newspaper, a collection of source documents or a creative medium; that kind of content should be contributed instead to The Sims Fanon Wiki.

The Sims Wiki has a neutral point of view; articles should not be written in a biased language and all facts must be verifiable. The Sims Wiki strive for articles that advocate no single point of view. Sometimes this requires representing multiple points of view, presenting each point of view accurately and in context, and not presenting any point of view as "the truth" or "the best view". All articles must strive for verifiable accuracy: unreferenced material may be removed, so please provide references. Editors' personal experiences, interpretations, or opinions do not belong here. That means citing verifiable, authoritative sources, especially on controversial topics and when the subject is a living person. When conflict arises over neutrality, discuss details on the talk page, and follow dispute resolution.

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 released under the CC-BY-SA license. Anyone can edit and distribute information on The Sims Wiki. Since all your contributions are freely licensed to the public, no editor owns any article; all of your contributions can and will be mercilessly edited and redistributed.

Wiki users should interact positively with each other; Users should be welcoming to new users and should assume good faith. Wikiapedians should interact in a respectful and civil manner. Respect and be polite to your fellow Wikiapedians, even when you disagree. Apply etiquette, and avoid personal attacks. Find consensus, avoid edit wars, and remember that there are articles on the English Sims Wiki to work on and discuss. Act in good faith, never disrupt The Sims Wiki to illustrate a point, and assume good faith on the part of others. Be open and welcoming.

There are no firm rules; The Sims Wiki does not have firm rules besides the five general principles presented here, though a number of policies and guidelines are followed. Be bold in updating articles and do not worry about making mistakes. Your efforts do not need to be perfect; prior versions are saved, so no damage is irreparable.


 * I personally think the five main points should be short and sweet. Try to word them as best as possible to get across as much information as possible in fewer words and sentences. Also, remember that we're not Wikipedians. --Patrick (LostInRiverview) (talk)(blog)(random page) 00:28, August 1, 2010 (UTC)


 * If we go for a simple version, the suggestion Lir made sounds good to me. Duskey ( talk ) 15:35, August 2, 2010 (UTC)


 * Created this page and added the previous discussion. Duskey ( talk ) 12:24, August 9, 2010 (UTC)