Oddworld Wiki:Content policy

This page contains the Oddworld Wiki's content policy. It describes the criteria and rules for all content on the wiki.

Content criteria

 * All content should relate to the Oddworld series in some way.
 * All content needs to be accurate. The Oddworld Wiki aims to provide reliable information. In particular, adding speculation and own inventions (fan fiction, fan art etc.) to articles should be avoided.
 * All content needs to be verifiable. Other editors need to be able to check and verify it.
 * All content needs to be informative. Information which is only of interest to the writer or to other editors (as opposed to readers) should not be included in articles.
 * All content needs to be objective. Opinions, gameplay strategy, and "my favorite"-style passages should not be added to articles with the exception of game or level guides.
 * All content needs to abide by copyright regulations. Generally, content from other sites should not be copied unless permission has been granted. For example, do not upload magazine scans or add illegally obtained information, so as to avoid potential legal problems.

Spoiler policy
The Oddworld Wiki aims to document everything Oddworld. As such readers should expect detailed descriptions of games and their story lines, including for recently released games. Articles about released content are never marked as containing spoilers. For articles about upcoming content editors may add the Upcoming template to the top of the article.

Copyright and plagiarism policy
The Oddworld Wiki does its best to provide self written content that is available under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA license. In short this means that any written content on this wiki is free to be used and reused in whatever way you wish, as long as you give proper credit and make your work available under the same license.

Plagiarism
As a trusted source of information, we want as much of our pages as possible to be made up of original content that you can't find anywhere else. To this end, we would prefer you to, whenever possible, create original works that do not directly copy anyone else's work.

This is not to say you can't be inspired by it - maybe you saw something somewhere else that you thought might improve a page. By all means, feel free to bring that to the wiki - but make sure its your own work and written in your own words - and if you can improve and develop the idea further.

Of course there are a few exceptions to the rule, which include:
 * Licensed Content. If you have prior permission from the content owner, you can reuse their content word for word. When using large portions of licensed content on a single page the Copyright template should be filled out and placed at the bottom of the article.
 * Copyleft/Creative Commons/Pubic Domain - this is a specific form of licensed content, the owner of the work has made it available for anyone to use without prior permission, but in the case of the first two this is subject to some rules. You should ensure that you follow any requirements set by the content owner (such as following the license conditions, or attributing in the way that they request); if no attribution standard is given by the owner, then you should ensure that they are identified and if at all possible the original linked in the references (for non-displayed content, the comments may also be acceptable).
 * Quotes - Its perfectly permissible to quote a person, or even a copyrighted work. Your quote should be limited to the amount you need to make your point - for example, you can't quote an entire magazine article, but a paragraph or two may be acceptable. You should use the Quote template, and link to the source of the quote wherever possible, giving credit to the author/speaker/publication.
 * Fair Use - There are also times where it is possible to reuse content within the US's "Fair Use" exemption. Much of the source files and screenshots fall into this category, as does images used in news reporting. The origin should be credited and linked wherever possible.

What happens if someone posts copyrighted content?

 * Usually we will assume the editor was acting in good faith, and simply failed to notice or understand the implications of posting copyrighted content. The editor in question will be warned to not knowingly post copyrighted content.
 * Editors who continue to post copyrighted content even after their first warning will receive restrictions on their account as described in the administration policy.

What should I do if I see unattributed copyrighted content?

 * Undo the edit or remove the offending content from the article. Explain what you did in the edit summary or the article's talk page. Alternatively you may rewrite the offending content in your own words and use a reference to link to the original copyrighted material.
 * If you are the owner of the content in question and you would like it removed or attributed, please contact one of our administrators with the relevant information.
 * If you notice an editor repeatedly posting copyrighted content, please alert an administrator.

Attributions
To avoid reinventing the wheel The Oddworld Wiki has based much of its organization, categorization and templates on the great work done at other, bigger wikis out there. We would like to thank The Nukapedia in particular for being a great example of how to run a wiki and for being a source of excellent wiki templates. The Oddworld Wiki would not be what it is today without them.