WikiPOBia:Rules and guidelines

From WikiPOBia

The goal of the WikiPOBia is is to create an on-line resource for the works of Patrick O'Brian; if you are reading these pages, you can contribute to them as well. All we ask are some basic courtesies for consistency in the layout of the wiki and ease of use.

Editing guidelines

The WikiPOBia is set up to be edited and revised. If you don't like the idea of others editing your entries, please don't contribute to the wiki. Each article also includes a "discussion" tab on the page. Please resolve content issues in the discussion area, it will save wear and tear on the admin staff to have issues resolved this way instead of editing wars taking place within the articles themselves.

Spoiler warnings

For new readers, please be aware that most, if not all, articles in the wiki can contain spoilers. Writers wishing to contribute to the wiki need to include the spoiler warning template {{Spoiler}} in their articles before discussing major plot details. The spoiler warning template needs to be used for any major spoilers (major spoilers defined as: deaths, marriages, battle resolution, legal proceedings, plot surprises). Please only use the template once per article. There is a second template {{Endspoiler}} which should be used after a section containing spoilers to indicate that the rest of the article is free of major spoilers.

Neutral point of view

Basically this means articles should be written in such a way as to show no bias one way or the other with respect to the content. People naturally have a bias; however, the goal of this wiki is to provide information in such a way as to let the reader make up his own mind. This does not mean that you have to write a neutral article trying to balance good and bad aspects of any villains; you can be clear the mentioned person is a 'bad guy' in O'Brian's universe.

Copyrighted materials and fair use

Unless you are the author of such works DO NOT include copyrighted material without permission in the wiki; it makes the admins mad. Please read the copyright information before submitting. In the rare instance an author wishes to publish his copyrighted material to the wiki, the inclusion will be handled on a case-by-case basis by the admins.

Photographs, art work or other graphics materials need to be legal through either the public domain or under fair use laws. It is up to contributors to make sure any graphics submitted are legal for use in the wiki. Please see the copyright article for more information. All graphics need to be loaded in the wiki and properly cited before they can be used in articles; for more information on how to do this see WikiPOBia:Image Help.

Sources

Any references made should be properly cited in a bibliography for the article under the heading ==References== at the end of the article. See the WikiPOBia:Cite sources article for more detailed information on how to cite various sources. Wikipedia also has an article here: Wikipedia Cite sources if you need more information.

Editing help

If you have specific questions about how to edit a wiki article, please see the Help:Contents article and the Help:Editing for more information.

Behavior guidelines

Registration

The WikiPOBia requires a log in name before you can edit or create articles. To this point, please no lewd or profane user names in the wiki. Do to increased spamming, creation of new accounts has been suspended. If you are interested in editing for the wiki, please email WikiPOBia Help and request an account be created for you.

Profanity

Contributors to the wiki should maintain a polite form of writing. Stating in an article that "Mrs. Williams treated everyone like shit." is not only in poor taste, it is a violation of the neutral point of view policy of the wiki.

Personal attacks

Personal attacks, or "flames", either in the body of articles or in the discussion areas will not be tolerated. The admin staff will determine what is a flame.

Respect for all contributors

Everyone makes mistakes: typos, grammar errors, or spoiling by accident; please refrain from castigating the person responsible. Spelling and grammar errors can easily be fixed by editing the article in question and spoiler warnings can be added.

What can be included in the WikiPOBia?

Works of Patrick O'Brian

Any of the works of Patrick O'Brian can be included in the wiki. While the majority of information will probably center on the Aubrey-Maturin series of books, articles on any of Patrick O'Brian's works listed in the complete works article can be included in the wiki.

Observations about the sources of O'Brian's work are interesting but should be described as speculations unless the evidence is overwhelming or confirmed from other sources; similarly theories about O'Brian's intentions or use of mythological or other themes should also be clearly labeled as speculative. We do not know for certain what O'Brian was thinking.

Article about Himself

In addition to the published works of Mr. O'Brian, the wiki also contains a biography of Patrick O'Brian. Within the confines of this article, the contents of the following biographies can be used as source material (but not copied), the biographies can themselves be the subject of wiki articles:

Patrick O'Brian: A Life Revealed by Dean King
Patrick O'Brian: The Making of the Novelist by Nikolai Tolstoy

Articles about the worlds Patrick O'Brian created

All characters (both historical and fictional), places (real or imagined), and ships (actual or invented) can have articles

Definitions of naval terms, foreign languages, and slang of the time

Areas of interest to better understand the text. Some examples of appropriate articles would be:

Medical practice of the early 1800's
Rank and uniforms of the Royal Navy
Ship building and design
Social mores of the 1800's

The fillum

The movie, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World can have articles in the wiki; however the neutral point of view policy must be maintained. Film Jack Aubrey and Book Jack Aubrey can be compared and contrasted; The Rose as Surprise can be an article, too. However, text such as "The movie was terrible don't bother watching it." or "The movie was the greatest film ever, everyone should own it." is not permissible under the neutral point of view policy.

What cannot be included in the WikiPOBia?

Fan created original material

This includes but is not limited to:

fan fiction
song vids
poetry
art work

The wiki is for providing information about Patrick O'Brian and his published works. While fan created material has its place, it is not here. There is a list of links for fan material provided in the Created by fans article, please refer to that article for web resources on fan created works.

The 21st century world

There will be no articles in the WikiPOBia concerning modern political, religious, or social issues. Any articles about these topics will be deleted by the admins.

Advertising

The WikiPOBia is not a retail site. Articles disguised as advertisements about ship model kits for sale, battle recreation groups, or other items will be deleted.

The only exception to this rule is the Special:Booksources information that contains ISBN information for Patrick O'Brian's books and related companion materials.

Actors' careers

The WikiPOBia is not IMDb. Articles about Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany or any of the other actors from the fillum are not appropriate for the wiki.

Additional help

If you have further questions that are not answered either here or in the Help pages you can email the admin staff at: WikiPOBia Help