User:Ryan W/Sandbox/Draft FAQ

 ''This page, like all project pages, can be edited by anyone. However, please ensure that your revision is compatible with any existing consensus (established by discussion and/or repeated precedent). You are also encouraged to discuss, critique, or challenge any of this advice on the talk page.''

This frequently asked questions page is especially for new editors. Like the policy page and guideline page, its main purpose is to stop the same disputes from recurring over and over, so we can all spend more time on the fun stuff.

If you're a new editor, welcome! There are many places where you can help, and reading this page will get you there faster. Clicking on a question in the table of contents is a shortcut.

Can I write an article about myself / my clan?
In most cases, no.

Our biographical articles are about people who have made memorable and widely known contributions to the Doom community. If you or your clan has done that, you don't need to create an article, because your reputation will cause someone else to do so.

If you decide to write about yourself anyway, be prepared for a very blunt conversation about whether or not you qualify for an article, which you might not enjoy. Even if the article stays, bear in mind that you don't control its content. It may grow to include every significant Doom-related thing you have done, no matter how embarrassing, due to the neutral point of view policy.

Can I write an article about my mod?
Probably not.

We have no established, black-and-white standard for a PWAD or other add-on to be declared "notable". In practice, however, "notable" projects are one of the following: On rare occasions this has included unreleased material, but only if the hype itself is already a significant event within the Doom community (e.g. Crucified Dreams, Congestion 1024).
 * incredibly popular (e.g. DWANGO5, DeHackEd);
 * widely acclaimed (Aliens TC, Skulltag);
 * historically important (Origwad, Impse).

I added some trivia to an article, but another user removed it. Isn't trivia allowed here?
First, read the entire page to make sure it isn't already there. (Surprisingly, some of our articles have become organized over the years, with the important material at the top.)

Next, is the trivia item already documented in a public place within the Doom community? If not, it falls under the original research policy. Please compare your trivia to the examples on that page before deciding that you absolutely, positively must include it.

I uploaded a picture, but another user complained. Why?
Although Wikia's interface makes it very easy to add images, they are also one of the most controversial aspects of the Doom Wiki. Some likely explanations are:
 * You uploaded a copyrighted image which does not fall into one of a few standard categories: unmodified in-game screenshot, map view, or media cover art. (For legal reasons, exceptions to this policy have to be justified, or the image gets deleted.)
 * A nearly identical image already exists.
 * You did not create the image yourself.
 * You photoshopped the image after you created it.
 * You did not select an option from the "licensing" menu.
 * The image has a nonstandard aspect ratio or game UI. (This is easy to fix by simply replacing the file.)
 * You did not place the image in an article, and nobody else could figure out its intended purpose.

This site is all about Doom, but doesn't provide any download links. Should I add one?
The Doom series is not freeware, so no, you shouldn't.

Why is the Doom 3 material so incomplete?
We are all unpaid volunteers and this project does not have a deadline. Therefore, a given article receives attention only when someone feels like working on it and can make time to do so. On the other hand, this description also includes you: if you are a Doom 3 fan and you notice some missing information, please go ahead and add it!

Why is there a "cleanup" or "stub" banner at the top of the page I created?
When you click Save, you are opening the article for collaboration by the entire wiki community, and the maintenance categories make that process easier to organize. Our ultimate goal is to make every page polished and comprehensive, which is almost impossible for a brand new article, given the long history of the Doom series and the huge amount of technical data available.

If for some reason you must create an article very slowly without seeing these banners, do it in a text editor (such as Notepad), or on a subpage of your user page.

I added a link to Entryway, but another user removed it. Why?
The lists on Entryway are intended as starting points for reader navigation, not a complete topic index. We generally take a conservative approach, to prevent the page from slowly growing until it is too long for new readers to digest. A front page with an extremely large number of links can also decrease our search rankings.

This article looks like it was written by my 4-year-old cousin. How do I delete it?
A wiki by its nature contains a large number of incomplete pages. In general, an article is erased only when its subject is clearly unimportant to the Doom community. A badly written article about a relevant topic can be improved into a well-written article, or merged into a broader article if the amount of new content is small.

That said, if the existing text is complete gibberish or you are certain that the topic is unsalvageable, any registered user can nominate an article for deletion.

I posted to a talk page to get opinions, but nobody replied. Now what?
If your proposed action would be extremely difficult to reverse (e.g. making 50,000 edits with an automated script), start a new thread at Central Processing and explain your idea in detail. Otherwise, just start editing. If another editor has a question, you'll see it on that same talk page, or on your personal talk page.

I've cleaned up spam / vandalism from the same user several times. How do I get them banned?
You can post to Doom Wiki:Spam, create a problem report, or contact any administrator. If it's urgent, check the recent edit history first to make sure that administrator is still active.

High-speed vandalism or linkspam (say, 10 or more nearly identical edits in less than half an hour), or page move vandalism, can also be reported to the Wikia Staff.

Why are you so anal about bad grammar / topic drift? This is just a gaming site.
If you can only remember one sentence from this FAQ, here it is:


 * The Doom Wiki is a reference work, not a social networking site.

When you open a dictionary or an economics textbook, you expect a formal tone and a logically organized outline; the same applies here. Articles should contain coherent expository prose, not conversation or excessive decoration. Talk pages are somewhat less organized, but questions and comments should be directed toward improving the encyclopedia content, not about random subjects.

If you don't agree with these ideas, that's fine; there are thousands of other gaming sites for you to try. Doomworld.com, for example, is a place where people chat about Doom all day long. You could even start a completely new Wikia project about Doom or any other game.

Why are there so many policies and guidelines? Isn't this site just like Wikipedia?
Although we use the same database engine and have similar "encyclopedic" content goals to Wikipedia's, almost everything else is different. You should never assume that any Wikipedia policy applies here without checking first.

Some important differences include:
 * The Doom Wiki is much smaller than Wikipedia. The pace is slow, with almost no editors who log in daily.  Therefore, it can take weeks to have an in-depth discussion on a talk page, and months to make a policy decision.
 * As a corollary to this, silence is normally interpreted as consensus (see above).
 * There are no roving bands of gnomes and robots performing high-speed cleanup of vandalism or sloppy formatting. If you see a problem, consider fixing it, or it may still be there 2 years from now.
 * Assuming good faith is often counterproductive in a large group of gamers.
 * The active administrators spend 99 percent of their time writing articles, and use their special abilities only when absolutely necessary to clean up a mess.
 * Neutral Point of View is not an absolute rule.
 * A "blocked user" and a "banned user" are the same thing. (In Wikipedia language, all bans are enforced by blocks, and topic bans are not used.)
 * Wikia Inc., our parent organization, is a for-profit company.

Do you seriously expect me to memorize all these rules before I contribute?
No. We really try to make decisions using common sense whenever possible. However, every section on those pages was added for a good reason, usually to counteract a specific problem that sucked up a lot of our time. If you appear to be totally ignoring a policy or guideline, you should expect a polite reminder (see below).

What if I disagree with a policy or guideline?
A certain amount of this is normal and healthy on an evolving wiki, where new contributors are continually arriving and bringing new perspectives to the situation. Perhaps the circumstances of the original policy discussion have changed over the years. Before undertaking a large sequence of edits to support your belief, however, please propose them on Central Processing and wait a week or two for any responses.

If you are convinced that the same situation will occur again in the future, you can even edit the policy or guideline (the pages aren't protected), but be prepared to explain your reasoning at some length.

There's a long debate happening on a talk page. It's going in circles and we're all frustrated. Will an admin please step in and choose a winner?
Unlike other gaming sites, administrators on the Doom Wiki have no special authority over the content. In fact, the active administrators spend 99 percent of their time writing articles, and use their special abilities only when absolutely necessary to clean up a mess.

If a dispute is in danger of spilling over into a site-wide problem (such as mass vandalism or stalking), by all means contact an admin right away. Otherwise, the participants simply must continue to seek a compromise, or solicit more opinions by posting on Central Processing.

A user is making a lot of confusing edits, or posting nonsense on talk pages. Why haven't they been banned?
Unlike other gaming sites, banning is a last resort on the Doom Wiki.

If someone is posting Viagra links or replacing articles with "NIGGER POOP", by all means contact an administrator right away. Otherwise, try asking the other user (without shouting) why he/she is editing that way. Look at their contribution history to see if all their edits are confusing, or just certain edits. If the article is on a topic with which you are unfamiliar, do a little research to learn more about it. And if you've done all that and you still believe there is an issue, get a third opinion by posting to the article's talk page, or to Central Processing if many pages are involved.

I have a question that's not answered here, and I don't want to edit the article until I get feedback.
If you've already asked on the article's talk page and gotten no replies for several days, just start editing. (The revision history feature makes it almost impossible to seriously break anything.) If you're new to the site and you're certain that you're in a controversial area, look at the policies and guidelines to see if the same issue has come up before. Alternatively, you could post to the personal talk pages of editors who have previously worked on the article.

I have a question that's not answered here, and it's a general question, or it applies to a group of articles.
Try reading the policies and guidelines to see if the same issue has come up before. If that fails, start a thread on Central Processing. Central Processing is one of our most high-traffic areas, so in the unlikely event that no one replies for a week, you are probably asking a brand new question! The answer will need to arise empirically over time, through further editing and expansion of the relevant topic areas.