| Policies and Guidelines | |
|---|---|
| General Behavior Policies | |
| Main policies: Alternate and Multiple Account Policy · Creation Policies · Discussion Policy · Fanon Policy · Image and file policy · Notability policy · Retirement Policy · Unreleased games policy | |
| Manual of Style | |
| Guidelines: Assume good faith · Be bold · Neutral point of view · Please don't bite the Newbies · Snowball clause · Simplified ruleset · 5 pillars · Spoilers | |
| All Policies and Guidelines → |
The Sims Wiki has a set of guidelines in place. These guidelines, which differ from official policies, do not establish firm rules, but instead present suggestions to editors to resolve various situations. These guidelines often reflect "best practices," or else represent standard procedures that the community tends to follow, even if those standards are not established in official policy.
Many of The Sims Wiki's guidelines are inspired by or originate from similar guidelines on Wikipedia. While The Sims Wiki (and many other online wikis) do take inspiration from Wikipedia's methods of operation, it is important to remember that The Sims Wiki is not Wikipedia. Thus, not all of Wikipedia's guidelines should be used to guide editors as they edit this wiki.
In many cases, the community here has established guidelines or procedures to address specific needs; some of these guidelines have been written down and are presented below, while others remain unwritten. Do remember that guidelines are just that - they are meant to guide, but they are not rules.
If you are aware of a community guideline that has not been listed here, please add it.
Guidelines on The Sims Wiki are divided into two groups, style guidelines and user guidelines.
List of style guidelines[]
Manual of Style[]
The Manual of Style gives general guidelines on how articles on The Sims Wiki should be written, including how they should be named, laid out, and organized. The main Manual of Style has two sub-pages which go into greater depth on the appearance of articles about games and articles about Sims.
Categorization[]
The wiki's categorization guidelines are meant to standardize how categories are applied to pages on the wiki. Categories provide a structure to how content is organized and aid in navigability between different pages across the wiki.
Image guidelines[]
The image guidelines serve as a supplement to the wiki's image and file policy, and apply to how images should be named, organized, and standardized.
List of user guidelines[]
Assume good faith[]
A key principle of The Sims Wiki is the assumption of good faith. Editors should assume that most editors on The Sims Wiki intend to help the wiki, not harm it. Editors should try to maintain this assumption of good faith, even if an editor's actions are ultimately harmful to the wiki. It is usually best to assume that any harm caused by an editor's actions was unintentional, not deliberate.
Be bold[]
Editors on The Sims Wiki are encouraged to act decisively to solve problems, rather than relying on community discussion to resolve every minor issue they encounter. Bold edits may not be perfect, but they can get the ball rolling towards better solutions, and often faster than would be achieved through a period of formal discussion.
Please don't bite the Newbies[]
More experienced editors on The Sims Wiki should try their best to be supportive and welcoming to new editors. New editors may inadvertently break rules or go against established guidelines, but they should be gently and politely corrected, rather than chastised or punished. Biting the Newbies can cause well-intentioned new editors to abandon the wiki, or even to vandalize it out of anger.
Simplified ruleset[]
The simplified ruleset takes the wiki's major guiding principles and guidelines and condenses them into a short and easy-to-understand list of guidelines, targeted towards users who are new to wiki editing and/or new to The Sims Wiki.
Snowball clause[]
The "snowball clause" is a recommendation against strictly adhering to bureaucratic procedures for the sake of bureaucracy. Sometimes, the outcome of a discussion can be clear even before the discussion has run its full course. In these cases, it may be wise to simply admit that a particular position doesn't have "a snowball's chance," and move on.