The Elder Scrolls Wiki:Policies and Guidelines

This page is considered an official policy on TESWiki. It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that everyone should follow. Except for minor edits, please make use of the discussion page to propose changes to this policy.

By accessing or using this wiki, you agree to have read the "Terms of Use"

The Elder Scrolls Wiki is a The Elder Scrolls encyclopedia written collaboratively by its readers, who are known as TESWikians. The site is a Wiki, meaning that anyone, including you, can edit almost any article right now by clicking on the Edit link that appears at the top of the page.

Much of TESWiki follows a similar setup to its parent wiki, Wikipedia.

Browsing TESWiki

TESWiki contains a huge amount of information on all sorts of subjects within The Elder Scrolls universe ranging from characters, locations, items, factions, and creatures to everything and anything in between. It also includes real-world articles on real world culture, and the creators who help build the series. Try browsing the various categories now.

You can also search for text in articles. Just go to the "search" field to the left, enter your search term and click "search". Note that the built-in search function may be disabled in times of server overload; in these cases you will be redirected to a Google-based search of the TESWiki database.

If you read something that you really like, then why not drop a note on the article's talk page? First select the Discussion link (look for it in the tabs above the page), to get to the talk page. Then select Edit on the talk page, or click the + to the right of Edit to simply add a new comment. We always love to get a little positive feedback.

Creating or editing a page

Everyone can edit pages in TESWiki — Just click the Edit link at the top of any page (except for protected pages) if you think it needs any improvement or new information. You don't need anything special; you don't even need to be logged in. If you want to experiment first, without risk of "messing up" a real article, head over to the sandbox, where you can practice editing to your heart's content. To practice editing an existing page like this one, just copy and paste it from the article's edit page into the sandbox.

If you want to learn more, check out the pages listed in or help page index. Our editing help and editing FAQ pages should help you to learn the basic info you should know as a member of our project.

Point of view

Never write in a first-person point of view. In example: "I found the item there, but I think it can be found elsewhere." All pages must be written in a third-person view, unless anything else is determined.

When it is necessary or desirable to use a pronoun to refer to the player, in order to avoid the appearance of sexism, use the third person plural pronoun (e.g. "they," "their"). Do not use combined forms like "he or she," "(s)he," or "he/she," since they are clumsy and longer.

Neutral point of view

Always write in a neutral point of view. Don't use your own or anyone else's personal opinion, but rather the common opinion when writing on a page. Read more about "Neutral point of view" here.

Language, grammar, and other mistakes

It is very important to write in a way other people can understand. However, one should not be afraid of not having a good command of the English language, and therefore not contribute to the Wiki; any information you add, can be edited or corrected by others, and yourself if desired.

Style

All articles on the wiki follow a specific and regimented format. Articles not matching this format should be revised in such a way that reflects the accepted standards laid out by our Style and formatting guidelines.

Media

Adding audio

Main article: The Elder Scrolls Wiki:Media#Audio

Adding images

Main article: The Elder Scrolls Wiki:Media#Images

Adding videos

Main article: The Elder Scrolls Wiki:Media#Videos

Adding categories

At this point you should only add categories that already exist. Remember that categories are added so that the reader can easily find similar pages. Video links are not categories. No page should at any point contain excessive amounts of categories.

Reliability of the information added; assumptions etc

See also: The Elder Scrolls Wiki:Sourcing

It either does, or does not. All information added to the Elder Scrolls Wiki must be valid. Content based on assumptions will be deleted, as this does not provide the reader with standard quality-information.

Policies

The three most essential principles are NPOV, GFDL, and civility. What does this mean?

• NPOV, or neutral point of view means that articles should not be biased, and should represent differing views on a subject fairly.
• All contributions to TESWiki are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License (Unported) (CC-BY-SA). This specifically ensures that TESWiki will remain freely distributable in perpetuity. Please do not submit any content that is copyrighted without permission of the copyright holder. (See Copyrights for more information).
• Civility. TESWiki works by cooperation, consensus, and therefore mutual respect, civility, and wikilove should be practiced universally. Please assume good faith when you disagree with someone, stay cool, and talk things over civilly. It is good practice to provide an edit summary explaining your changes so as to assist others with noticing and accepting your changes. If you find that your edits get removed or modified, wait a moment before reinstating them.
  • If your edit is reverted even once, this is not justification to revert it back; this is called "edit warring" and is very unproductive. The user who undid your edit probably had a good reason for doing so. First check the page history, your talk page, or the article's talk page to discuss. You may also reach out directly to the user who reverted your edit on their talk page and come to a consensus about the matter. See also: Wikiquette.
• Style: TESWiki articles should be written according to our Manual of Style. In particular, new editors should ensure that they write their articles in an "in-universe" perspective. Titles of the saga (such as movies, books and comics), alternative endings of games, non-canon and real world information should never be incorporated in the article itself. The articles present history as real. To add such commentary, use the Behind the scenes section of each article.

By accessing or using this wiki, you agree to have read the "Terms of Use."

Usernames

• Usernames and chat monikers must adhere to a certain standard. While we encourage creativity, individuality, and personal expression, the name an editor selects for their editing profile must be acceptable for users and readers of all ages and backgrounds. Thus, usernames will never contain profanity, curse words, words that are demeaning, potentially libelous, harassing, bullying, or discriminating against one's race or ethnicity, sex, religion, gender identity and expression, mental disabilities or anything that alludes to any of the above. If an editor questions the appropriateness of their username, it likely violates this policy. Discrepancies as to what is being deemed as appropriate can be appealed and voted on by the community. Such appeals are subject to revaluation upon request of the community.
  • Editors are only permitted ONE and only one account, unless another account is needed for bot editing or the use of auto-wiki browsers. Permission from a bureaucrat and Wikia is required for this exception. Users found in violation of this will have their additional accounts permanently blocked. Depending on the surrounding circumstances, the main account may also be blocked. Consult the block policy details.
  • Users found in violation of this policy will have their inappropriately named account blocked. From there, the infringing user has one of two options. Either they can create a new account with an appropriate name, or they can petition Wikia to have their username changed across all wikis. Their personal talk page, however, remains unlocked, for the purpose of appealing the block or notifying an admin when their account name has been changed.
• A user's profile picture is considered an extension of their profile, so it is treated the same way as their username. As such, an avatar containing overly disruptive, offensive, violent, sexual, or otherwise inappropriate imagery is disallowed. A user with an avatar in violation of this policy will first be asked to change it, and if they refuse, they may be blocked.

User agreement

Not a full list.

As a user of TESWiki, you agree not to:

• Harass members of the wiki.
• Use the Service in any unlawful manner or in any other manner which could damage, impair, or overburden the site;
• Post, upload, transmit, share, or store content which is unlawful, defamatory, infringing, obscene, or invasive of another's right to privacy or publicity;
• Impersonate another entity or person;
• Post, upload, transmit, share, or store unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, solicitations, "spam", or any other type of unauthorized solicitation;
• Solicit personal information from any user under the age of 18;
• Solicit passwords or other information for unlawful purposes.

Read more about Wikia's Terms of Use, here.

Vandalism on the Elder Scrolls Wiki

This wiki does not tolerate the act of vandalism. Any edits that are not made in good faith will be reverted, and the person who executed the immoral act banned/blocked.

Badge-Hunting

Any person that edits only for the purpose of achieving "badges" or "achievements" will be given a warning depending on the severity and the amount of edits not done in good faith. If the user continues to perform pointless, absurd, unnecessary edits after the warning(s) has(have) been given, it will be up to the Administrators on the Elder Scrolls Wiki to judge if the person qualifies to become blocked from the Wiki.

Want to join?

Anyone can edit, but there are advantages to creating an account if you want to contribute regularly. To join, create an account and then introduce yourself to the community at the new user log.

Don't be discouraged

If you run into conflicts in your first forays into editing, then don't let it get you down. In any collaborative project there are clashes. Be bold! Have a look at the writers' rules of engagement page as well as the other articles in the tutorial wing below. Use them to help you resolve the problems and learn how to become an active and productive contributor. If there is a slang phrase or term you aren't familiar with, look it up in our glossary.

And if there's anything you don't understand—be it technical or social—and you're not sure where to look, ask for help from an administrator, and they will be happy to help you.

Have fun!