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The general rule regarding page style and layout is: go with whatever works and looks good. However, some styles, set out at Sonic News Network:Style, have been used effectively on the wiki and are a good place to start.
Using copied material
Main article: Sonic News Network:Wikipedia
Because of the specific licenses held by Wikipedia and Wikia, it is acceptable to use information from Wikipedia or other Wikia wikis on Sonic News Network. However, any material that is taken from these websites must be accompanied by a link to the source page.
In particular, if any pages are completely copied from either Wikipedia or Mobius Encyclopaedia (the Archie Sonic Wiki), these pages must be tagged at the top with Template:enWP or Template:enME respectively. Such tags may only be removed once the page in question has been edited sufficiently that the majority of its text was created by Sonic News Network users. Even once after the tags have been removed, links to the original pages should be retained indefinitely.
It is not acceptable to plagiarize content from other websites or wikis. Instead, if one is to use materials from other websites/wikis, these materials must be given a rewrite in order to be acceptable on the wiki while taking in mind our wiki's rules. After that, a link to the original article must be put on the article on this wiki that used that information under a 'References" section.
Fan-made information
Main article: Sonic News Network:Fan fiction
Sonic News Network main space articles strictly deal with only information from official sources (information which appears AT LEAST ONCE in official or licensed media). As such, any non-officially support information or content (fan content) are only to be used accordingly to the following rules:
Fan-made information is tolerated, but must be confined to pages in userspace. Other pages will be deleted. When making an article for your fanfiction, fancharacter, or any other fanon article, you should place it within your own user page, or in a subpage of your user page. You can create a subpage by creating a page as normal at User:Username/CharacterName. For example, if User:Supermorff created a character named "Gordon the Gopher", it would be included at User:Supermorff/Gordon the Gopher.
Please only create fan pages in your own userspace (to signify your ownership of the page) or in a forum (to signify that it is open for editing by the community). Do not create fan pages in somebody else's userspace. Any fan pages found in the userspace of a non-existent user will be immediately deleted.
Fan character pages must not have any canon categories, which includes Category:Characters or any of its subcategories (such as Category:Hedgehogs). You may instead categorize your fanon articles in Category:Userspace, or its subcategories.
You may post fanart that you have created, but it must not appear in any canon or mainspace article. In particular, do not add fanart of your favourite character on that character's page. It will be swiftly removed. You may include fanart in userspace or in the forums, but also be aware that fanart not in use on any pages is likely to be deleted.
Fan pictures must be categorized in Category:User images and no other categories.
You may not link to your fan articles from mainspace pages, including redirects. If you wish to link to your fan article from another user page you should pipe-link as follows: [[User:Supermorff/Gordon the Gopher|Gordon the Gopher]], which appears as: Gordon the Gopher.
Non-Sonic pages
This is primarily a Sonic wiki, but we permit a small number of non-Sonic characters to have pages. Such characters must have appeared in at least two games, two comic books, or two episodes of a television show in which Sonic was a main character. Cameo appearances do not qualify as appearances. This includes crossover games, comics, and television shows, but excludes those in which Sonic merely made cameo appearances.
Non-Sonic blogs
Blogs on this wiki must pertain to at least one of the following:
The Sonic the Hedgehog series and fandom.
The Sonic News Network or its users.
The video gaming industry.
Blogs which do not pertain to any of these will be deleted. Users wishing to discuss off-topic subjects are encouraged to use our chat feature.
Sock-puppetry
Sock-puppetry is the act of creating one or more alternate accounts that a user may use to create confusion, deception, or disruption. Such alternate accounts are known as sock-puppets, and are forbidden on this wiki.
Scenarios include:
Block evasion - If a user created a new account in order to evade a block, or a ban from chat, the sock-puppet account would be banned indefinitely and, depending on the situation, the perpetrator's main account may have the already existing block extended. Note that this also applies to deliberately using different IP addresses to evade a block.
False consensus - The creation of an alternative account to skew or disrupt discussions involving voting is also prohibited, and can result in the permanent ban of the sock-puppet account, and the main account receiving a block.
Circumventing policies - All violations of policy apply to the editor, not just the account. The normal punishments for any offenses committed with a sock-puppet account will be applied to the main account in addition to the indefinite ban of the sock-puppet account.
Regardless of the circumstances, the general rule is one editor, one account, although users may request for the utilization of a bot account to tend to tedious and repetitive tasks more easily, or to test account. The user may also move to a new account, but the other account will be blocked and thus rendered unusable. In these cases, the user should make it clear to site administration that they are created for that purpose.
Information & referencing
You can add the reference in any way you like and other users can format however they see fit, but the best way is to use ref tags. To add a ref tag to an article, simply type <ref>[Write source material/link here.]</ref>. If you need help with this, see Help:Citing sources or ask an administrator.
Leaked information
Leaked information may only be used on articles if it is either intentionally or accidentally leaked by a company involved with the production, development, and/or distribution of the respective title. If the information was leaked through illegal means (e.g. stealing copies of a media, such as a game in question prior to its release) it is to be removed on sight. This is also the case of any legal copies of the media sent out prior to the official release date for any reason. Articles on things that only became known about by illegal means are to be deleted outright. It is only once said media or information is released via official means that it can be posted on the Wiki.
To prevent the possibility of legal action, this policy cannot be ignored nor circumvented, and no exceptions can be made.
Rumors
Sonic News Network is for official information from the Sonic series. Rumors are discouraged, and may be reverted. This may include unconfirmed details about upcoming games and products, which should not be added unless there is reliable evidence from official sources to support the claim.
If somebody has removed information you have added because they believe it is a rumor or otherwise incorrect, try to add a reference to back it up - present the URL of the website or documentation of where you read the information, for example. This allows other users to check up the facts the same way you did. If the information is still removed, it may be because the source of the information is not reliable, in which case you should try to find another source.
Source reliability
Information gathered from domains easily and quickly manipulated or changed without warning from time to time. Sources such as fan sites, forum sites, Wikipedia or similar sites (eg. Sonic Retro) not under the jurisdiction of official franchise companies, subsidiaries or affiliates are not regarded as reliable sources for information. Such information's legitimacy are questionable and may be difficult to verify if at all, and must be kept away from main-space articles unless the documentation can be proven to come from the jurisdiction of official sources (information taken from a post written by Sega official Aaron Webber on a fan site is for example considered a reliable source).
What the Sonic News Network is not...
...a general gaming website
Although the SNN may have news blogs on recent developments in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, it is by no means a place where we report on all forms of news in gaming. The SNN is not IGN or GameSpot; those sites and organisations exist for the purpose of providing general gaming news, but the SNN is here to document everything Sonic the Hedgehog, and thus, only Sonic the Hedgehog-related news will be provided.
...an advertising/promotional site
The SNN is not a form of advertising or promotional site, it is an encyclopedia, not a social media, or file sharing site. Anything related to advertisement or promotion, unless it is that released by official sources, will be removed.
...tech support
While the SNN has information on the game, it does not have the needed information to troubleshoot any issues users may have. It may still be possible to ask users about issues in case they have had similar issues, but at our core we don't have the needed tools or expertise to adequately help those that require technical assistance.
...always correct
While editors strive to present clear and accurate information, sometimes an article may contain information that is inconsistent, incorrect or outdated. Mistakes are usually fixed by editors or moderators, but occasionally an error might not be identified or fixed. It is important to assume good faith and help the wiki by amending mistakes to improve the accuracy and quality of articles. Where possible, include references that verify facts and use article discussion pages to clarify edit conflicts.
...official
This site is 100% fan-maintained. All users and editors here are just fans. No one here (barring the rare) workers or employees for any of the franchise developers, publishers or their subsidiaries or affiliated companies.
Even though the format of this site and Wikipedia is similar, and the basis that it is an encyclopedia that anyone can edit, the SNN Wiki is NOT Wikipedia. It is not even owned by the Wikimedia foundation. The SNN Wiki is owned by Wikia.
...a battlefield
Forums and other community discussions are not the place to hold personal grudges, conflicts, or even prejudice. Battling it out with another user or a group of users is not only not acceptable, but neither of you will win. Solve any disputes with civility and rationality, and avoid letting them take center stage for everyone else to bear witness.
...a blog
The SNN is not a blog. The SNN may have blogs as a part of the website, but this is an online encyclopedia about all things Sonic the Hedgehog.
...other wikis
While the SNN Wiki is part of the Wikia network, it is not any other wiki. As such, anything that other wikis do is not important or relevant to the SNN. Just because another wiki has/doesn't have something cannot be the sole reasoning as to why the SNN must/must not have it. It is also not the place to dispute bans of other Wikis. Even if users are editors on other Wikis, they should be spoken to on the Wiki in question.
...a dictatorship
The SNN Wiki is not ruled by one person without question.
...an oligarchy
The SNN Wiki is not ruled by a select group of people without question.
...a republic
The SNN community does not vote on a single user to be the leader or controller of absolutely everything in it for a set amount of time.
Arts
It is believed that official Sonic series artwork, as well as screenshots taken from official Sonic series material (such as games, TV shows, comic books, etc.), may be used on this wiki under the fair use doctrine of United States copyright law. As such, this permits the use of said artwork and screenshots on mainspace pages for encyclopedic purposes. The image description page should identify in all cases the source of the image, the subject of the image, and should be appropriately categorized in one of the sub-categories of Category:Images.
No duplicate images are permitted. If an image is uploaded that is a copy of another image already uploaded onto SNN, it may be deleted without warning.
However, if the uploaded image is used as a mean of an improved image of a previous one but in a different file format, it may be allowed but only after the low-quality image is removed from pages it is used on.
All images must be in use. Any image that is not posted onto at least one wiki page may be deleted without warning.
Non-official or non-Sonic images do not fall under the fair use doctrine on Sonic News Network, as their subject is outside the scope of the wiki. Therefore any non-official or non-Sonic images must be accompanied by permission from the original artist before being uploaded, else they may be deleted. If you are the artist yourself, you must state this clearly on the image page.
Non-Sonic or meme-related images must not be uploaded for the sole purpose of being posted on blog comments or board threads. Instead, feel free to imagelink to versions of the image that have been uploaded on other sites, e.g. image databases or other wikis. Images uploaded for this purpose will be deleted.
Users are not allowed to edit any artwork done by another person. Once again, official artwork is allowed.
Users cannot use others' fan-characters without permission.
If a user does not know if he/she can edit or use someone else's artwork then permission needs to be asked. If you are not able to ask then you can seek an active admin.
Users cannot falsely claim the ownership of a drawing.
Artwork with vulgar or offensive content is not allowed.
Video
Videos are sometimes an excellent source at providing helpful, informative and factual information about the franchise in Sonic News Networks in other ways image/art or words alone can not, as well as being relevant. This is a rule of format in regards to the quality, content and presentation of videos.
General
Some video content outside the jurisdiction of official companies may contain Copyright holdings to a particular up-loader or publisher. See Wikia licensing or if unsure, ask an Administrator for more information.
Videos uploaded for display on main space articles must only include: Trailers, cut-scenes, introductions, Interviews with official staff members, Information for reference materials, walk-through, tech demo, sound/song and similar.
Video provided must be presented in an orderly and professional manner possible. Such rules include videos must not contain:
Overly-edited, distracting and long 'intro'
'Non-officially-supported-or-licensed' promotional material such as advertisements or sponsorship.
Any comments/commentary requesting for 'likes', 'favorites' and/or 'subscriptions'.
Must not be heavily edited, or to the point the editing or post-editing details are discernible. Such includes "watermarks" and similar details. Minor color corrections are acceptable.
Must not be or contain fan-made montages
Contain profanity.
Content in all video must be presented in an informative, factual and unbiased manner free from personal input or opinion by the user unless said user is an official member of the franchise staff regards to a presented topic.
Guides and tech-demos.
Guides for how to complete a level, challenge or 'boss' within games can be presented in main space articles. A general rule to ensure quality as well as some form of professional standards are presented here. 'General Rules' presented above still apply.
Users or up-loaders are encouraged to provide only the highest quality format of content when possible and if unavailable, should feel to replace it.
Don't hurt other user's eye or your camera's soul with content like this.
Users uploading a video game tutorial/demonstration are encouraged to capture it in 1080p or higher, and should primarily be PC-Native unless no other platforms are available to access that particular title, with console-native being secondary. Emulation software for the PC platform are known to provide similar, if not better results.
A more important note is do not take photos, record videos or screen captures via external means such as directly from the screen of the consoles. These tend to look horrible and unprofessional.
If possible, the video is recommended be captured at 60 frames-per-second if such options are available or, If an emulation software, or console platform is unavailable to provide higher frame-rates due to software or hardware limitations, then slightly lower quality will suffice until a means is available to replace it.
Must not contain cheat codes or hacks in effect (minor display, enhancement or functionary hacks or "mods" such as "Heads-Up-Display (H.U.D) removal" for purely demonstrative purposes or similar types are acceptable.)
Sound
Sonic News Network is currently undergoing replacement of third-party hosted video sound file with more permanent and stable '.ogg' formats. The '.ogg' file extensions provide additional benefits to the more common YouTube or other third-party related video-hosting sites mainly being
Creates an appearance of better site conformity, of more compact and of professional standard.
Allows better access to all users, as video content from third-party sites to be streamed to the Sonic News Network may slow down internet connections.
Allows access to users of countries where third-party video hosting websites such as YouTube are banned (.eg China)
Quality and existence assurance, whereas content from third-party video hosting sites outside of the jurisdiction of the Wiki may be corrupted, deleted or removed without notice for whatever circumstances and may require (sometimes constant) replacement.
Some sound or music content outside the jurisdiction of official companies may contain Copyright holdings to a particular up-loader or publisher. See Wikia licensing or if unsure, ask an Administrator for more information.
Sonic News Network main space articles strictly deal with only information from official sources (information which appears AT LEAST ONCE in official or licensed media). As such, any non-officially-content are forbidden to be used in mainspace articles.
'.ogg' file extension sound files to be placed in main space articles must be renditions from officially-supported sources (no fan or unlicensed remixes).
'.ogg' file extension creation guide
The '.ogg sound file extension although given their use, are not commonplace in the wiki and as such, many users may not know how to create one. A step-by-step guide on both format style and creation are below
The raw MP3. file must be first obtained. Content from third-party sources, or most commonly available from third-party video or sound hosting sites such as Youtube can be retrieved by the use of common online free Youtube- MP3 converters such as from here or here.
Once the MP3. file format is obtained, users must then convert the file into the new .ogg format. This can be done with installed software such as 'NCH Switch File Converter' however, other free methods are also commonly available to convert file formats such as from here. (NOTE: Some sound files may be extremely long or large. Thus it is required to reduce the sound file to less than 8 minutes long. This can be done via common paid or free video editing software.)
Once the sound file is converted to an '.ogg' format, it can then be uploaded for use in the Wiki via the 'Image Upload' Wizard.
A guide on how to utilize or insert sound file formats can be found here and here.
Filenames
The Sonic News Network allows any user to upload images to the wiki. However, when uploading images, users must comply with certain image naming rules. Users cannot upload any image with any of the following filenames:
Filenames starting with numbers
Filenames starting with "image" or "IMG"
Filenames starting with "pic"
Filenames starting with "thumbnail"
Filenames containing "tumblr"
Filenames starting with punctuation
Filenames starting with "DSC"
Single-character filenames
If a user tries to upload any image that starts with the prefixes mentioned above, they will get an error message.
Signatures
Signatures are a method of signing one's name on various talk and discussion pages. You add a signature by typing out four tildes (~~~~). Signatures can be customized using various wiki markup, and then pasted into the signature box in Special:Preferences.
Signatures are not to be used on the mainspace articles of the wiki. When creating a larger signature, sometimes there is an excessive amount of wiki markup used. When a signature reaches over three lines of wiki markup (not including the timestamp), the signature must be made into a template. These should be included in your own userspace as a subpage of your user page, i.e. User:Bullet Francisco would create his template at User:Bullet Francisco/Signature.
If you have a templated signature, you can add it to the custom signature box in Special:Preferences by using {{nosubst}}. That is, Bullet Francisco would type:
{{nosubst|User:Bullet Francisco/Signature}}
For more information on signatures, please see Help:Signatures.
Reverting edits
As a rule of thumb, you should ideally only revert once. Edit-warring occurs when several users revert or undo edits by each other multiple times. Edit-warring is not productive, and can lead to unnecessary conflict. It is imperative that you abstain from reverting the other user's edits if you have already reverted the edit once. If the other parties involved continue to revert your edits, you should be proactive and take the conflict to a talk page. Resolve the disagreement there. If users cannot agree in this way, they can bring in other users, particularly administrators, to arbitrate and/or add their own opinions.
Because edit-warring is disruptive to the wiki, administrators may temporarily block the users and/or lock the pages involved.
This rule only applies to edits done in good faith. This rule does not apply when reverting cases of vandalism, spam, or edits done to your own userpage. Always assume good faith when reverting edits made by other users.
