Factorio:Wiki rules: Difference between revisions

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Below are the community guidelines for the Official Factorio Wiki. Infringing upon any of these rules will result in either a warning or a temporary/permanent ban, depending on the circumstances. These rules are not final, and are subject to change. Additionally, all admins hold the right to enforce as they see fit, even if the rule they enforce is not specifically enumerated here.
This page is used for contributors on this wiki. This page also contains some guidance for potential contributors.


== Get an account ==
We at the Official Factorio Wiki thank you for your cooperation, and we hope that you see these rules as fair and acceptable. Of course, you may message an admin at any time to discuss the rules or ask for clarification.


Just follow the instructions for registering. It takes normally one or two days to be added, because every user is added by hand to avoid spam. If after a week your account is not accepted, please email Wube's support.
Our rules are fairly standard to what you'd find on other wikis.


If you need more rights to the wiki (deletion, moving...) you need to ask the developers directly, or ask in the forum board. Additionally, you may also ask an admin, if one is active at the time. Note that higher permissions are very rarely given out.
== Discipline ==


==  Understanding the wiki ==
Before getting into the list of rules, the process that the Wiki administration team takes will be explained here. We follow a very simple system, which progresses from a polite unofficial warning to a permanent ban, depending on the severity and times that the event has occurred. Their violation will also be undone. There are a few 'shortcut' rules that if broken will skip stages, however.


This Wiki is hosted by Wube, a development company that develops Factorio. This Wiki is run by the community, with small influence from the developers.
# An unofficial warning - The user will be sent a kind message pointing out that they did something incorrect, and that's it. The violation will be fixed by an admin.
# An official warning - The user will be sent a kind message stating that they have been officially warned to cease what they're doing. It will use the phrase "This is an official warning."
# A temporary ban - The user will be temporarily banned from the Wiki, for a variable amount of time, depending on the case. They will also be sent a message.
# A permanent ban - The user will be given a permanent ban, and a message.  


== Official rules ==
If the user goes some time between violations, the stages will undo back to 2. However, certain violations result in an immediate ban, such as vandalism, spamming external site links, attempting to mess with the mediawiki installation, etc. These are further detailed below.


* Language
== Conduct ==
** The default language is English. All pages must have an English version, and should be translated English -> Other.
** Any other language has no right to obtain a page name which collides with English.
** No other language has the right to use a page name which means the same or something different in another language.
** Language pages when translated should use the English name with the language code appended to the end of the name. For example, "Transport belt" when translated to German should be named "Transport belt/de".


* Typo control
# Be respectful to all editors, and readers. '''All forms of hate are not tolerated''', and will result in an official warning directly.
** Please use the "Show preview" button to view your changes before saving them, to allow yourself to catch incorrect links and typos, and improper formatting.
# '''All forms of vandalism and spam are not tolerated''', and violators will be banned without question.
** Please correct all typos found, even if changing the sentence layout is necessary. Comprehension is important.
# Wiki talk pages are for discussion of their respective page '''only'''. Please keep all discussion of in-game mechanics to the forums or subreddit, the links to which are in the sidebar. An article's talk page is intended for discussion or questions regarding the article's content. It is not a forum for casual discussion. Game suggestions, personal stories, shout-outs, etc. will be removed.
** Run a spell check of the article to catch spelling errors.
# Similarly, self/other promotional content is forbidden unless it is for ''specific examples and educational purposes''. Edits made that simply show off or enumerate user creations will be removed.
# Always remain civil during discussions.
# Registered users are expected to use a single account for all editing under most circumstances. The use of more than one account by a single individual is known as "sockpuppeting", and is a very high offense. A second account can be used in certain rare circumstances by longtime established, trusted users. Some valid reasons to use a second account may include those below. In those cases, '''it must be made absolutely clear that the accounts are operated by the same individual.'''
## Technical testing
## Bot (automated) accounts
## Administrators who want to use non-admin accounts in less secure editing situations.


* Conduct
== Editing ==
** Be respectful to all editors, and readers. '''All forms of hate are not tolerated''', and will result in a warning and ban.
** '''All forms of vandalism and spam are not tolerated''', and violators will be banned without question.
** Do not edit-war. If a user overwrites your change and you disagree, do not edit the page back and forth, discuss it on the talk page of the page in question.
** Wiki talk pages are for discussion of their respective page '''only'''. Please keep all discussion of in-game mechanics to the forums or subreddit, the links to which are in the sidebar.
** While the Wiki can be easily reverted in the event of a mistake, please try to avoid creating work for others.


* Page layout guidelines
# Do not edit-war. If a user overwrites your change and you disagree, do not edit the page back and forth, discuss it on the talk page of the page in question. In instances of edit warring, the oldest version is preferred until a decision is reached. Moving a page back and forth and un-deleting a page without permission is also considered edit warring.
** Typically, a page will start with a short intro, then the content of the page, a history section, and a "see also" section. Please follow this when creating content pages. Categories should be used sparingly.
# This ties into the above rule, but assume good faith. If a wiki editor makes a mistake due to human error, the fact that they are new to the community, or any other honest reason, fellow wiki community members must assume good faith. Rather than insulting, berating, or lashing out at the editor, community members should approach situations like these with a helpful and understanding attitude. This is why unofficial warnings are given first.
** Please use sane formatting, and do not Capitalize Words Like This.
# Refrain from using profanity unless it is used within a direct quotation. Preferably, censor the curse with stars.
** Do not overuse '''bold''', ''italics'', or <span style="color:#0000FF">colorful text.</span>
# Refrain from editing other users' user pages, unless it is to remove broken links.
** If possible, clean white-space from the ends of lines. Many editors can do this for you. Emacs, Notepad++, Sublime Text, and Vim are recommended.
# While the Wiki can be easily reverted in the event of a mistake, please try to avoid creating work for others.
** Avoid creating unnecessary pages. If the info you are trying to add is related to an entity in-game, please place the info on that entity's page, and so on and so forth.
# Mod related documentation is not to be hosted on this wiki. The Official Factorio Wiki is meant for documentation of the base game only. Instead, users looking for documentation or developers looking to provide documentation should do so on their mod's entry in the mod portal, or bundle the documentation with the source code of the mod. ''This wiki does not document nor enumerate mods.''
** The Wiki follows the ''stable branch of the game''. Changes concerning the experimental branch should only be put into place late in the development cycle of the branch, right before it is pushed to stable.
# Tying into the above rule, the Wiki also does not enumerate user creations. User creations should only be placed on the Wiki for demonstration and educational purposes only, simply enumerating or showing off designs will be removed as there exist better portals for this.
# Pages with high amounts of transclusions/importance will be protected, to both protect against vandalism, and to protect the servers from load caused by edits to these pages. Contact an admin if you want a change one of these pages or feel like it should not be protected.


== Page creation ==


# Work in progress pages of new content must be created in the author's userspace, and preferably an admin should be asked before merging into the greater Wiki.
# Any other language has no right to obtain a page name which collides with English. There exist a few words that are the same in multiple languages (The word 'So' means the same in English and in German, for example), these words cannot be used for page names to avoid collisions.
# No other language has the right to use a page name which means the same or something different in another language. This is also to prevent confusion.
# Language pages when translated should use the English name with the language code appended to the end of the name. For example, "Transport belt" when translated to German should be named "Transport belt/de". For a list of letter codes by language, see [https://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php here]. With the exception of <code>pt-br</code>, we use this standard. Please note that any languages that are not listed [[Template:Flag|here]] are not reachable when translated (won't show up as a language the page is in). Please ask an admin to add support for a new language you wish to translate to.
## See also: ''[[Factorio:Translation guide|Translation guide]]''
# Page names should only be capitalized at the first word, with some exceptions. Essentially, Petroleum gas, and not Petroleum Gas. This is both for readability and for the internal code of the wiki to work correctly. Failing to do this will result in the page's name being fixed.
# Translation of WIP pages or pages in someone's userspace is highly discouraged. While it won't be stopped, it is very likely to result in a waste of effort, since the page may never reach the public eye, or be finished. Instead, if the WIP page is a tutorial, writing a new tutorial from scratch in a native language would be much better, as you wouldn't have to conform English to your language.
# Pages may only be created in the user's userspace if they are meant to end up on the general wiki or otherwise relevant to the wiki (sandboxes, etcetera). If the page is not related to the wiki, it has to be related to Factorio, and may not be linked from outside sources, including the general wiki. Uploading files for a non-wiki-related page is not permitted.


== Contributing to the wiki ==
=== Templates and redirects ===


This wiki is the work of a team. The goal is for people to add information or bring it into better context, do videos, or design the layout of the pages, with the end goal to provide an easy place for beginners to Factorio to gain information.
* Redirects may only be created in the following circumstances:
** The redirect is being used to fix several similar red links, and it would be too much effort to correct them in other ways.
** The redirect is being used to 'autocorrect' a common mistake, such as not prefixing a tutorial with <code>Tutorial:</code>. This does not include spelling mistakes!
** The redirect is being used to fix an incorrect external link that occurs on many sites. ''If the incorrect link only occurs on one site, have the owner of that site fix it.''
** The redirect is to a file, to fix several file based red links or broken icons.
** The redirect is created automatically by a page move.


The team communicates through the talk-pages ("Discussion" tab at the top) or through the forum. It's very important to check recent changes ("View History" tab at the top of the page). History will show you all the changes people have made to the page. Additionally, checking "Recent Changes" on the sidebar is also recommended.
* Redirects may '''''NOT''''' be created under the following circumstances:
** To redirect on a common community slang (e.g Underneathies -> Underground belts). People are smart enough to search for the actual in-game name.
** To solve a small amount of red links. Where possible, fix the red links directly.
** To fix small issues such as incorrect capitalization, etc. There is a search feature on the Wiki.
** Redirects may ''not'' be created unless there is actually a lot of links going to them. Redirects created with the idea of "This might be useful someday" are noise and provide nothing. Again, there is a search function. There are rare exceptions to this rule, stated above.
** Redirects may not exist within user spaces, except when a page was moved and the redirect was created by that page move. Any other redirects created or placed into a user's userspace will be deleted.


(BTW: You can change the shown results in  preferences!)
* Templates may be created in the following circumstances:
** The creating user has permission from an admin to create the template and use it on pages. Often, we may have an easier method of solving the problem the editor is attempting to fix with a template, but is unaware we have it. Ask us, we don't bite.
** It is acceptable to create a template inside of your userspace, for use with testing another WIP page. However, you may '''''NOT''''' use this template anywhere but within your userspace.
** Upon approval, you may create the template, or move it out of your userspace, but not before.


There are different jobs you can do. This list goes from simple to complex.
* Why we discourage the use of templates:
** Templates are a powerful feature, so much so that users often attempt to fix problems with them. However, to put it to an analogy, using a template to fix a small problem is like using a backhoe to weed your garden. Most of the time, it is overkill and provides no clarity or convenience that could not be provided via other means.
** Templates are inefficient, and require many resources from the server to resolve them when a lot of them are put onto a page. This can put load onto Wube's servers, which we try to avoid.
** Templates make it harder to understand pages. Since they can create text arbitrarily, it can be difficult to determine which of the many templates on a page is creating text that shows up on save. It is better to have less templates, so it is easier for editors to understand the construction of a page.


=== Corrector ===
== Requesting admin work, Misc ==


Read through the pages (of your language) and correct mistakes or bad language usage. If it sounds ugly then change it. If you're new to wikis it might be difficult at first, but keep at it and you'll learn to do more. :)
# There exists a few templates for this purpose, mainly <nowiki>{{Delete}}</nowiki>, <nowiki>{{Move}}</nowiki>, and <nowiki>{{Merge}}</nowiki>. These may be placed on pages to request action be taken by moderators or by editors. However, do note that the request may be denied.
# Files that are unused are always up for deletion, so ensure that any images uploaded are immediately used somewhere on the Wiki.


=== Translator ===
== See also ==


Take an English page, copy the content into a sub-page (see below for an explanation) and translate it to your language. Please only translate if you speak the language very fluently or natively.
* [[Factorio:Style_guide|The Wiki's style guide]]
 
* [[Factorio:Editor noticeboard|The editor noticeboard]]
=== News-maker ===
 
There is also the [[News]]-page. Just add new links as new interesting information comes out. The rest is explained in the page as comments. Don't add stuff that isn't news. Before you add any, ask yourself: If I was looking at this from the future, would it still be relevant? Most of the time, blog posts from the Factorio team are denoted on the news page.
 
=== Designer ===
 
This is about the look and feel of this wiki.
 
Deep knowledge of Mediawiki's template system is not really needed, but will help. For the beginning just try to understand how the current templates work. Make your own test-page in your user-space and try to program around. It can be really fun because this task is more or less like programming. If you need assistance, be sure to check the "help" link on the sidebar of the Wiki, as it can give lots of information about the markup of the Mediawiki language.
 
Look here for some help: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Contents
 
=== Architect ===
 
The wiki is created in an agile process: writing, reading, testing. :) If you find out that this process is somehow inefficient, for example the changes are in the wrong place, then you need to change the wiki in general.
 
So, the job of an architect is to bring the existing pages into the right context by adding some new pages and/or renaming existing pages, and then changing the links to the pages. And sometimes old stuff must be deleted. '''Please do not make large changes without consulting an admin'''.
 
 
=== Other ===
 
So, if you have an idea:
* '''Don't be afraid: There is nothing which you can really break, the wiki has a version history.
* If you are still afraid: You can use the a test page in your home-space. That's the page beginning with "User:<your user name>". You can add a sub-page like "User:<your user name>/MyTests". Ask others what they think about it. Communicate!
* Begin with slight changes. The others will watch (the "Recent changes") and help you out. If after a week or two is no response/follow up change, your change was good. Keep going, make bigger changes.
 
== Basic ==
 
* Read the wiki pages. It is important to learn by example.
** If you don't like something, change it.
** If you find typos, change it.
** If you find something is described wrong, change it.
** If someone disagrees about it, try to work it out on the talk pages or on the forums.
 
== Advanced ==
 
* Add missing information in the right places.
: In most cases this is easy, but sometimes can be really difficult. Ask for help if you're unsure.
 
* If you find that a topic belongs to two pages, then don't copy the information into the two pages, but create a new page and link them.
 
* Use the correct choice of words.
: Factorio has a set of words which have a fixed meaning. For example: An entity can be mined, an item can be picked up. Getting entity and item mixed up means something different! Ask the users if you are unsure which is which.
 
* A picture says more than a thousand words.
: Use pictures if possible. In some cases use GIFs! See below.
 
* You can also go to the [[Wiki To-do List]] and see if there is a job you like.
 
=== Existing discussions ===
 
In descending order of date:
 
http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2047
 
http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3205
 
http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2429
 
http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2255
 
== Translations ==
 
For translating the in-game texts, the dev-team uses https://crowdin.com/project/factorio
 
 
=== So what do I need to do now? ===
 
* If you want to translate a page, then don't rename the page, just add a "/" and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes standard macro-language-code] to the page name.
: "Inserters" becomes "Inserters/fr" for France, "Inserters/ru" for Russian etc.
* If you are working on a page which has a translated page name then rename (Move) it! Search the original page name, add the language-code (see above), and move it to the new page name. A redirect is automatically left for the old page name!
 
(More to explain, language macro, see main-page at top right)
 
== Pictures ==
 
=== Picture formats ===
 
For making things simple we should use only formats based on 100. This is to avoid different sized pics which look staggered. This is especially important for the width, for the height it is not that much of a problem. For example: 200x200, 300x100, 400x232. For existing pics (old pics use often a width of 256 px) reduce the text to 200 px (and analogous).
 
* (100 - 200) x (100-300) px
: For flowing with the text, pictures which explain the text, the browser can embed this into it's own rendering. You can put them left or right, the text should flow around.
* (400 - 600) x (100 - 600) px
: Something like a banner. A big picture which stays alone in its line. You may put simply a ":" in front of it to indent the picture and keep it away from flowing text.
* 300 x 300 px
: This is especially good for gif animations. Gif animations cannot be reduced in size, because Mediawiki re-renders the picture and the result is the first frame of the gif! See for example these pics: http://www.factorioforums.com/wiki/index.php?limit=200&ilsearch=Mpstark&user=&title=Special%3AListFiles
* The biggest format for flowing text should be: 600x600px
 
=== Making pictures out of the game ===
 
Do's:
 
* Take pictures at day! [[Lua/Game#alwaysday|Turn on daylight]]! Use night or dawn only if you need to explain something that only works at night (for example, the lights).
* Turn off clouds! The shadows in GIF-animations are not useful.
* Steam/smoke is also not that useful.
* Use god mode! [[Lua/Player#controllertype]]. You can move anywhere on the map and your character won't be in the picture.
* You can [[Lua/Game#speed|slowdown the game]] to find the right moment for the picture. Slowdown is also useful if you use Gifcam, which makes Screenshots in 30 frames/sec only.
* You can also use the [[Lua/Game#peacefulmode]] to be not disturbed by the natives.
* You can stop the game in the right moment using SHIFT-SPACE key. That also blends the grid in.
* Learn how to use the [[Debug mode]] to add relevant information into the picture.
* Go into the highest zoom level you possibly can without missing any vital information.
* A good in-game picture should be rebuilt so that only the relevant entities/items are shown. Anything in the photo other than what you're trying to show/explain is unnecessary.
 
Dont's:
 
* Don't take pictures of clutter! The only stuff in the photo should be the stuff you're trying to show. The Exception to Clutter: If you're showing what a fully finished factory or setup might look like.
* Don't just take a screenshot. Try to remove all unneeded information from the picture.
* Try to make a picture without the character, except if to show something; then face the character toward it.
 
See http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2472 for more.
 
== Taking Screenshots, animations and videos==
 
=== Taking Screenshots ===
 
* It's possible to take [[Lua/Game#takescreenshot|screenshoots out of the game]]! The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yDZM0diiYc second trailer] is made like so. See http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5591
* [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5591 Calculate screenshoot dimensions].
 
==== Optimizing the picture before upload ====
 
* Cut as much as possible/nice.
* Resolution should not normally be higher than 600x600 px. Use multiple photos or ask a trusted wiki user if you need a much larger photo.
* ''Do not add text to the photos'' Write any needed text outside the photo on the wiki. You cannot search text that is in a photo and users might not find what they are looking for.
* Sharpen the pictures. For the wiki it looks a lot better to sharpen the pictures once or twice.

Latest revision as of 19:16, 20 July 2022

Below are the community guidelines for the Official Factorio Wiki. Infringing upon any of these rules will result in either a warning or a temporary/permanent ban, depending on the circumstances. These rules are not final, and are subject to change. Additionally, all admins hold the right to enforce as they see fit, even if the rule they enforce is not specifically enumerated here.

We at the Official Factorio Wiki thank you for your cooperation, and we hope that you see these rules as fair and acceptable. Of course, you may message an admin at any time to discuss the rules or ask for clarification.

Our rules are fairly standard to what you'd find on other wikis.

Discipline

Before getting into the list of rules, the process that the Wiki administration team takes will be explained here. We follow a very simple system, which progresses from a polite unofficial warning to a permanent ban, depending on the severity and times that the event has occurred. Their violation will also be undone. There are a few 'shortcut' rules that if broken will skip stages, however.

  1. An unofficial warning - The user will be sent a kind message pointing out that they did something incorrect, and that's it. The violation will be fixed by an admin.
  2. An official warning - The user will be sent a kind message stating that they have been officially warned to cease what they're doing. It will use the phrase "This is an official warning."
  3. A temporary ban - The user will be temporarily banned from the Wiki, for a variable amount of time, depending on the case. They will also be sent a message.
  4. A permanent ban - The user will be given a permanent ban, and a message.

If the user goes some time between violations, the stages will undo back to 2. However, certain violations result in an immediate ban, such as vandalism, spamming external site links, attempting to mess with the mediawiki installation, etc. These are further detailed below.

Conduct

  1. Be respectful to all editors, and readers. All forms of hate are not tolerated, and will result in an official warning directly.
  2. All forms of vandalism and spam are not tolerated, and violators will be banned without question.
  3. Wiki talk pages are for discussion of their respective page only. Please keep all discussion of in-game mechanics to the forums or subreddit, the links to which are in the sidebar. An article's talk page is intended for discussion or questions regarding the article's content. It is not a forum for casual discussion. Game suggestions, personal stories, shout-outs, etc. will be removed.
  4. Similarly, self/other promotional content is forbidden unless it is for specific examples and educational purposes. Edits made that simply show off or enumerate user creations will be removed.
  5. Always remain civil during discussions.
  6. Registered users are expected to use a single account for all editing under most circumstances. The use of more than one account by a single individual is known as "sockpuppeting", and is a very high offense. A second account can be used in certain rare circumstances by longtime established, trusted users. Some valid reasons to use a second account may include those below. In those cases, it must be made absolutely clear that the accounts are operated by the same individual.
    1. Technical testing
    2. Bot (automated) accounts
    3. Administrators who want to use non-admin accounts in less secure editing situations.

Editing

  1. Do not edit-war. If a user overwrites your change and you disagree, do not edit the page back and forth, discuss it on the talk page of the page in question. In instances of edit warring, the oldest version is preferred until a decision is reached. Moving a page back and forth and un-deleting a page without permission is also considered edit warring.
  2. This ties into the above rule, but assume good faith. If a wiki editor makes a mistake due to human error, the fact that they are new to the community, or any other honest reason, fellow wiki community members must assume good faith. Rather than insulting, berating, or lashing out at the editor, community members should approach situations like these with a helpful and understanding attitude. This is why unofficial warnings are given first.
  3. Refrain from using profanity unless it is used within a direct quotation. Preferably, censor the curse with stars.
  4. Refrain from editing other users' user pages, unless it is to remove broken links.
  5. While the Wiki can be easily reverted in the event of a mistake, please try to avoid creating work for others.
  6. Mod related documentation is not to be hosted on this wiki. The Official Factorio Wiki is meant for documentation of the base game only. Instead, users looking for documentation or developers looking to provide documentation should do so on their mod's entry in the mod portal, or bundle the documentation with the source code of the mod. This wiki does not document nor enumerate mods.
  7. Tying into the above rule, the Wiki also does not enumerate user creations. User creations should only be placed on the Wiki for demonstration and educational purposes only, simply enumerating or showing off designs will be removed as there exist better portals for this.
  8. Pages with high amounts of transclusions/importance will be protected, to both protect against vandalism, and to protect the servers from load caused by edits to these pages. Contact an admin if you want a change one of these pages or feel like it should not be protected.

Page creation

  1. Work in progress pages of new content must be created in the author's userspace, and preferably an admin should be asked before merging into the greater Wiki.
  2. Any other language has no right to obtain a page name which collides with English. There exist a few words that are the same in multiple languages (The word 'So' means the same in English and in German, for example), these words cannot be used for page names to avoid collisions.
  3. No other language has the right to use a page name which means the same or something different in another language. This is also to prevent confusion.
  4. Language pages when translated should use the English name with the language code appended to the end of the name. For example, "Transport belt" when translated to German should be named "Transport belt/de". For a list of letter codes by language, see here. With the exception of pt-br, we use this standard. Please note that any languages that are not listed here are not reachable when translated (won't show up as a language the page is in). Please ask an admin to add support for a new language you wish to translate to.
    1. See also: Translation guide
  5. Page names should only be capitalized at the first word, with some exceptions. Essentially, Petroleum gas, and not Petroleum Gas. This is both for readability and for the internal code of the wiki to work correctly. Failing to do this will result in the page's name being fixed.
  6. Translation of WIP pages or pages in someone's userspace is highly discouraged. While it won't be stopped, it is very likely to result in a waste of effort, since the page may never reach the public eye, or be finished. Instead, if the WIP page is a tutorial, writing a new tutorial from scratch in a native language would be much better, as you wouldn't have to conform English to your language.
  7. Pages may only be created in the user's userspace if they are meant to end up on the general wiki or otherwise relevant to the wiki (sandboxes, etcetera). If the page is not related to the wiki, it has to be related to Factorio, and may not be linked from outside sources, including the general wiki. Uploading files for a non-wiki-related page is not permitted.

Templates and redirects

  • Redirects may only be created in the following circumstances:
    • The redirect is being used to fix several similar red links, and it would be too much effort to correct them in other ways.
    • The redirect is being used to 'autocorrect' a common mistake, such as not prefixing a tutorial with Tutorial:. This does not include spelling mistakes!
    • The redirect is being used to fix an incorrect external link that occurs on many sites. If the incorrect link only occurs on one site, have the owner of that site fix it.
    • The redirect is to a file, to fix several file based red links or broken icons.
    • The redirect is created automatically by a page move.
  • Redirects may NOT be created under the following circumstances:
    • To redirect on a common community slang (e.g Underneathies -> Underground belts). People are smart enough to search for the actual in-game name.
    • To solve a small amount of red links. Where possible, fix the red links directly.
    • To fix small issues such as incorrect capitalization, etc. There is a search feature on the Wiki.
    • Redirects may not be created unless there is actually a lot of links going to them. Redirects created with the idea of "This might be useful someday" are noise and provide nothing. Again, there is a search function. There are rare exceptions to this rule, stated above.
    • Redirects may not exist within user spaces, except when a page was moved and the redirect was created by that page move. Any other redirects created or placed into a user's userspace will be deleted.
  • Templates may be created in the following circumstances:
    • The creating user has permission from an admin to create the template and use it on pages. Often, we may have an easier method of solving the problem the editor is attempting to fix with a template, but is unaware we have it. Ask us, we don't bite.
    • It is acceptable to create a template inside of your userspace, for use with testing another WIP page. However, you may NOT use this template anywhere but within your userspace.
    • Upon approval, you may create the template, or move it out of your userspace, but not before.
  • Why we discourage the use of templates:
    • Templates are a powerful feature, so much so that users often attempt to fix problems with them. However, to put it to an analogy, using a template to fix a small problem is like using a backhoe to weed your garden. Most of the time, it is overkill and provides no clarity or convenience that could not be provided via other means.
    • Templates are inefficient, and require many resources from the server to resolve them when a lot of them are put onto a page. This can put load onto Wube's servers, which we try to avoid.
    • Templates make it harder to understand pages. Since they can create text arbitrarily, it can be difficult to determine which of the many templates on a page is creating text that shows up on save. It is better to have less templates, so it is easier for editors to understand the construction of a page.

Requesting admin work, Misc

  1. There exists a few templates for this purpose, mainly {{Delete}}, {{Move}}, and {{Merge}}. These may be placed on pages to request action be taken by moderators or by editors. However, do note that the request may be denied.
  2. Files that are unused are always up for deletion, so ensure that any images uploaded are immediately used somewhere on the Wiki.

See also