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This page is an official policy on WoWWiki. This policy has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow.
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DNP stands for Do Not Post. Things on this list should not be posted anywhere on WoWWiki. Some of them are specifically banned and will get you banned if you persist in posting them.
Copyrighted content
Copyrighted content (from Blizzard or another source) which is in blatant violation of fair use is not permitted to be posted. See the copyright policy for more information.
Exploits
Posting of info or links to any kind of exploits (or any other way of breaking Blizzard's Terms of Use or EULA) will be deleted and will result in a ban. It is suggested, therefore, that you not do so. However, depending on the use of the term, datamining is prevalent in the WoW community even among reputable official fansites, usually for data about items and similar information. Therefore, for the purposes of this policy, publication of datamined content on WoWWiki is controlled as defined below.
Datamined or unreleased content
- See also: WoWWiki:Images policy
For the purposes of this section, datamining is defined as accessing content which is not accessible in normal gameplay in the official unmodified client or any official tools Blizzard may provide (such as the User Interface Customization tool). While "model viewer" images of live or PTR content are permissible, "true" in-game screenshots are preferred and will always be given preference over model viewer content. Content arrived at by an exploit is not allowed to be posted on WoWWiki.
Only articles about announced content are permitted. Where topics center around information released in-game or in game data files, only information pertaining to live or public test clients are permitted. Certain pieces of unannounced content may be exempt from this for reasons of extreme notoriety and importance, which will be up to an administrator's judgment. Note that Blizzard Entertainment has final say on what content can be shown. Content from clients which are under a non-disclosure agreement is considered to be unannounced, until the agreement is lifted.
Speculation
Unsourced speculation (that is, speculation without factual sources) is not permitted in main namespace articles on the wiki, and all speculation should be kept separate from factual content within articles. This is discussed in detail in the writing policy for lore.
Inaccuracy or opinions about announced content are best kept off-wiki (see the external links policy); unannounced content on external sites is not permitted to be linked. Information which is difficult to maintain, such as item drop rates, should be left to off-wiki item database sites.
Off-topic content
Do not post content that has no connection with the Warcraft universe whatsoever. This is considered wikisquatting. Off-topic content can be deleted by any WoWWiki contributor, and whole pages that are off-topic are candidates for speedy deletion. Persisting in posting such content may get you labeled as a vandal and/or banned.
WoWWiki is not Wikipedia. Do not create articles to define real-world things which have little connection to Warcraft. If it is necessary to provide a definition, you can use an interwiki link to connect to the likely more in-depth article on Wikipedia.
Examples of off-topic content
- The now-deleted articles on various gaming consoles. They may be gaming machines, but they have never run WoW.
- A guild page containing nothing but an encyclopedia entry on the bird family (the animal).
Examples of tangential but on-topic content
- An article on how to spec your PC/Mac to run WoW smoothly is tangential, but on-topic.
Defamatory or false content
Articles and/or talk pages that are nothing but personal defamation not only violates the neutral-point-of-view policy, but are also illegal in many countries. Defamatory content can be deleted by any WoWWiki contributor, and whole pages that are nothing but defamation are candidates for speedy deletion.
Note that a modicum of common sense has to be applied to this policy. While isolated cases of "I think you are being a jerk right now, because <well-formulated and objective reasons>..." as a response in a talk page is not exactly good wikiquette, it is not defamation. A whole barrage of why a person has to be an idiot is defamation.
- When tagging a defamatory page {{speedydelete}}, you may want to remove pieces of the text pointing to specific people while the page is awaiting deletion. It is a judgment call. This goes especially for real-world contact information like phone numbers, real-world addresses, etc.
- Please add a line below the {{speedydelete}} tag indicating that the page is strictly defamation and that is the reason why it is being deleted. Alternatively, use {{speedydelete|<reason for deletion>}}.
Attempting to mislead others by submitting content which is blatantly false and which is not subject to interpretation is also not acceptable. When in doubt, and if you can, you should cite it.
Persisting in posting either defamatory or false content may end up with you labeled as a vandal and/or banned.
Discrimination
WoWWiki is a wiki for everyone. We do not tolerate discrimination based upon social status, age, sex, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, faction, server, guild, etc.
Non-English content
WoWWiki is an English wiki. Its infrastructure does not support content in other languages. Doing so would entail something like what wikipedia has — different sub-domains and monitoring routines to track changes between different language versions of pages and alert translators.
Therefore, non-English content is against policy and can be tagged {{speedydelete}} when found (except for certain guild pages — see exceptions, below).
- Visit wikis for a large selection of Warcraft wikis in other languages such as German and French.
Nonsense
Pages which don't make any sense or are "non-content" may be candidates for deletion. Non-content includes empty or virtually empty pages (or stubs with absolutely no content, as discussed in the stub policy), slang terms, and forum memes if they do not reach outside the scope of one small group of people who are using it or are aware of it. Terms and memes which only exist on one server are permissible within the server's page and sub-pages.
- The Alamo meme, for example, is referenced by Blizzard and therefore is not a candidate for deletion.
- Slang terms and memes should be cited with multiple references from throughout the Warcraft community if possible.
Original content
Historically encyclopedias, and other wikis such as Wikipedia, do not condone original content (OC), or content without basis in outside references and/or is an editorial work, and they consider original content grounds for DNP infractions or removal. Here on WoWWiki these same general rules apply. Any content posted on WoWWiki needs to have basis in fact or other reference, which is verifiable through the Web/Internet or by some other means, and should be documented by citation, else is a candidate for deletion.
- An example of editorializing is: "And I think that was stupid..."
Any content that 'could' reasonably need a citation or is otherwise questionable, should be marked with {{fact}} (as in 'fact check') or {{ref needed}}. Any content where the reference is known and cannot otherwise be assumed in context should be marked with {{ref}} and friends. See Editing policy for more.
For policy on pages where limited OC may be allowed:
- Talk page policy
- Lore policy
- Fan fiction policy
- Personal article policy
- Player character page policy.
- Guild pages policy
Other prohibitions enforced by this policy
Content which violates the Wikia Terms of Use is not acceptable on this wiki. Furthermore, the following are restricted (see Help:Prohibited content):
- Pornography, adult or mature content
- Violent content
- Excessive profanity
- Gambling or casino-related content
- Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia content
- Any other content that is illegal, promotes illegal activity or infringes on the legal rights of others
Exceptions
- One possible exception is quoted material pasted from a part of a page where the author simply would not or could not translate it. If this content is on-topic and otherwise not available on WoWWiki, it is a candidate for translation — or removal as part of the regular editing process.
- Guild pages. As per guild page policy, these pages are required to have three (3) sentences in English. Other than that, we allow guild pages to continue in whichever language; it makes sense to allow it since some guilds cater only to speakers of a specific language. Pages violating this are tagged {{Stub/Guild}} and given the standard time to correct the problem. Guild pages are also given latitude on OC, and other content, so long as is reasonably pertinent to the guild or people and/or wow.
- User pages. User pages like guild pages, are given latitude on OC, and other content, so long as is reasonably pertinent to the author, wow, most kinds of editorial or fiction, or otherwize not violating some other part of policy. If unsure, can always ask a moderator or admin.
- Observation and Documentation pages. Pages such WoW technical references, AddOn and related documentation pages, WoWWiki canonical content, some kinds of lore edits, some WoW game documentation, and others are allowed OC as practical matter, as WoWWiki is historically itself the only source of reference-able documentation. Any source that could be cited, still should be, such as: 1) where and what version something was observed, 2) what general person, product, book and/or other material is referenced with a reference, or 3) otherwise.
- The template {{silly}} (nor any other template) does not prevent an article from being subject to the DNP policy.
Violations
Content which qualifies as DNP should be edited out, or if the entire page is DNP content, tagged for speedy deletion. If you cannot edit out the content, you should tag the page with {{Violation}}.
Users who persist in posting DNP content may have action taken against them per the vandalism policy.
See also
- Emulated server - posts advertising, linking to, or giving info about private servers is not allowed