Custom BIONICLE Wiki:Policy/Article Policy

=Content Guidelines=

All content on mainspace articles on this wiki should be related to fanon BIONICLE info. Any unrelated info is to be deleted. Canon BIONICLE info can be found on BIONICLEsector01 (although more information can be found below), and "crossovers" (ex. Star Wars and BIONICLE) should be moved to the BIONICLE Crossovers Wiki.

If a page is to be made involving a canon character, location, species, etc., it must have the Trueinfo Template attached and hold some degree of headcanon and/or fanon information. The Trueinfo Template should link to the corresponding page on Biosector01. If the desired page does not have a canon name or title, the Trueinfo Template should be linked to some subsection on Biosector01 where information about the nameless character, location, species, etc. can be found.

Appropriate content
Unless otherwise stated, all content on this wiki must be "safe for work": BIONICLE is aimed at a younger audience, and therefore all material must be suitable for readers ages 13 and under. Anything that is likely to disturb or offend other users is not permitted, as is uploading or linking to illegal or adult content. Swearing at all on this site is strongly discouraged, and doing so on the mainspace (in articles) is absolutely not permitted (LEGO-approved "swear" words, however, like "," may be used).

If your page is to include any of the above or is not suitable for readers 13 and under, include a message in bold near the top of your page detailing this.

Discussion of religious and political topics is strictly banned and blocking of repeat offenders may be carried out by administrators. Users who are first time offenders, and who ignore warnings to stop discussion on religious and political topics, may also be blocked by an administrator.

Crossover Content
Crossover Content, or the use and application of materials or franchises not pertaining to BIONICLE is strictly forbidden. This includes crossovers with non-BIONICLE fictional franchises including, although not limited to Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Hero Factory, and so on, and so on. It also includes nonfictional material, such as the use of humans (real or imaginary) in your stories. Such content is not permitted on this wiki and should instead be published on the BIONICLE Crossovers Wiki (aka the BCW).

Should an instance of this arise, the Deletion Template is to be applied at the top of the page (with notation that it is crossover content within the template) and the page can be deleted at once. The author can request that his/her content be restored, but only for the sake of its recovery and/or immediate transferal to the BIONICLE Crossovers Wiki. Following this, the content will be deleted again after three days. Further resurrection of the content may occur at Staff discretion, but only for the sake of immediate recovery or transferal.

Plagiarism
Direct plagiarism of other users' ideas or articles is not allowed. It is permitted to use the same ideas or story concepts as another user unless otherwise stated, but blatantly copying other material is against the rules. This applies to material that originates off-wiki as well.

Plagiarism of sites like Biosector01 or Bionicle Wiki for the sake of a canon page or other material is forbidden as well. Should an instance of this arise, the Plagiarism Template is to be applied at the top of the page and the page must be revised immediately. If the plagiarized areas are not rewritten within a month, the page is to be deleted. If the page is to be resurrected, offending content must be removed upon resurrection.

Wikification
"Wikification" is meeting proper and complete application of the guidelines as described in the Manual of Style and Layout Guide as shown below. An article must be "Wikified" when it somehow does not meet these requirements. Should an instance of an article in need of wikification arise, the Wikify Template is to be applied at the top of the page and the page must be brought up to standards immediately. If the areas in need of wikification are not brought up to the requirements of the Manual of Style and Layout Guide within two weeks, the page is to be deleted. If the page is to be resurrected, offending content must be removed upon resurrection.

It should be noted that, once applied, the Wikification Template cannot be removed except by the Staff.

Stubs
A "stub" page on this wiki is defined as any page shorter than 2,000 bytes. If you do not know how many bytes a page has, you can look under the page's Archives or History and that will give you a count of the page's bytes (approximately a letter/symbol count). Stub, Wikification, or Adoption Templates should not be counted in byte counts when determining if a page is still a stub.

Pages under 2,000 bytes are not permitted. (Exceptions to this rule include pages pertaining to Kanohi, vehicles, objects and other inanimate objects, elements or powers, and canon pages, although even they ought to be over 1,000 bytes.) Should an instance of this arise, the Stub Template is to be applied at the top of the page and the page must be revised immediately. If the stub is not expanded over 2,000 bytes after two weeks, the page is to be deleted. Owners may request their page be resurrected, but the page must be expanded upon resurrection.

Adoption
Should the stub meet certain requirements, users are allowed to "adopt" or claim ownership of a page formerly belonging to someone else in return for bringing the page up to standards. Often applicable pages will be denoted by an Adoption Template, although they may not.

Below are the rules for page adoption
 * The original creator/writer of the page must have been inactive for over a year.
 * You can only 'adopt' pages that do not meet the wiki guidelines.
 * If the user returns and demands it to be changed back, you must comply with the users demands. If an admin asks for you to change it back, you must also comply.
 * When you adopt the page, you must apply the Adoption Template at the top of the page with the names of the original creator and you.
 * If the adoption template is put up and no one adopts it within two weeks, then the page can be deleted.
 * If someone claims the page before you can, you must follow wiki rules and ask them if it is alright to add info to that page. Considering there are a lot of pages that need fixing, there will be enough to go around.

Stories
Stories of any kind are allowed so long as they follow rules on this page and general CBW policy. Should a problematic style of story arise, the Staff will meet and decide whether or not to ban the story type. If they decide it is necessary, they will take the proposal to the Matoran Council Chamber.

Add-on stories (open-ended, unplanned stories where people continue the previous person's entry by adding on) of any kind are permitted, although the Staff reserves the right to shut these down if necessary. This is because they can become confusing and full of spam.

=Manual of Style=

This is a guideline as to how all articles on the mainspace of this wiki ("regular" articles) should be written. Note that pages on other namespaces, such as user pages, can be written differently and are not included in this page.

Language
Articles on Custom BIONICLE should be written in English. Although American English is preferred and highly encouraged, it is not required. It is also preferred that you not make use of other languages without translation as well or description in American English within stories or pages. For example, if a character were to say something in Spanish, the correct English translation ought to be written aside the quote, or otherwise use of another language would have to be described in order to prevent reader confusion. For example, "Sidorak mumbled something in another language" would be preferred if no translation is to be provided. Use of another language in articles is discouraged unless in use by a character in a story or in an ancient or exotic inscription. The article, whatever it is, must be written mostly in English.

Capitalization
Capitalization should follow the standard conventions of American English. Do not use capital letters for emphasis (with the exception of when a character is expressing something in a story article); where wording alone cannot provide the emphasis, use italics.

Offices, positions, and job titles are common nouns and therefore start with a capital letter only when followed by a person's name—in other words, when they have become part of the name. When used generically, they should be in lower case. However, if the word refers to a person, it should be in capitals.

There are some ranks the name of which should always be capitalized, no matter the semantics (i.e., “Dark Lord”).

All character, faction, and species names should have the first letter of each important word capitalized (such as "Lykos," rather than "lykos").

The one major exception to capitalization rules is the word "BIONICLE," which can be spelled in capitals.

Only the aforementioned should be capitalized, not normal nouns. For example, writing "Teridax Is A Makuta" is incorrect, whilst "Teridax is a Makuta" is correct, as only the specific species and character names are capitalized.

Correct Usage

 * Takanuva is the only named Toa of Light in canon, and he became a Toa and fought Makuta Teridax on Mata Nui.
 * Notes: Takanuva and Teridax are character names. Toa is a species name, and Toa of Light is a character "job title" as is Makuta (which is also a species name). Mata Nui is the name of a specific location.

Incorrect Usage

 * Takanuva Is The Only Named Toa Of Light In Canon, And He Became A Toa And Fought Makuta Teridax On Mata Nui.
 * takanuva is the only named toa of light in canon, and he became a toa and fought makuta teridax on mata nui.
 * Notes: Only the things noted above in "capitalization" should be capitalized, but they MUST be capitalized, hence why both examples above are incorrect.

Acronyms and Abbreviations
When abbreviating, remember to write both the full version and abbreviation; for example, instead of writing "Botar was a member of the OoMN," one would write "Botar was a member of the Order of Mata Nui (OoMN)." Exceptions can be made for abbreviations that are known as well or better than their full name, such as "DNA."

However, it is usually not required to write the full name out, as names such as "Order of Mata Nui" can instead be reduced to "Order" if necessary.

Remember that capitalization rules still apply; do not use initial capitals in a full term that is a common noun because capitals are used in the abbreviation (you would not say, "Antidermis Destroyer (AD)," but rather "Antidermis destroyer (AD)").

Like all nouns, acronyms become plural by adding -s or -es at the end. Apostrophes should not be used.

Correct Usage

 * Helryx is the founder of the Order of Mata Nui.
 * Helryx is the founder of the Order.
 * Notes: Unless the "Order" mentioned above is noted to be the Order of Mata Nui in a previous text, this could incite confusion among readers, though it is still permitted by the Manual of Style.

Incorrect Usage

 * Helryx is the founder of the OoMN.
 * Helryx is the founder of the Order of MN.

Article Titles
Most generally, article titles are based on the subject of the article. There will often be several possible alternative titles for any given article; the choice between them is made by consensus. Remember that article titles must conform to proper word usage guidelines such as capitalization.

When naming an article, please abide the following procedure:


 * Use the "official" name whenever possible (in a fanfic article, that means that it is the given name for the character that its creator has chosen). If more than one "official" name of the subject is known, use the most full and accurate version of the name.
 * Do not use character titles, species names, occupations, etc. in the page name of a character that has the specific title or belongs to the specific species. For example, naming Tahu's page "Toa Tahu" goes against the policy, as with "Makuta Teridax". If it refers to a group name, however, such as if there is a Toa team named "Toa Tahu", then the page name could be "Toa Tahu".
 * Whenever alternate names are used (i.e., Akatark and Krataka) you are encouraged to use the name under which the subject was known during the later time period, or, for characters, at the moment of the character's death. If multiple names were used by the character simultaneously, it is preferred that you use the most commonly known of those names (i.e., Nightwatcher instead of Charon)
 * If no "official" name exists, a nickname may be used, but please use the Nickname template. It is common for pages to be named something like "Unidentified Great Being" (NOT "Unknown Great Being"), but it is usually better for them to have more specific (albeit still conjectural) names (i.e., Keeper of the Elder Prophecies).

There is a specific problem for canon (as well as some fanon) articles, which is that often, people may wish to create their own versions of the pages. Normally, that problem can be solved by adding subsections to existing sections to give information about their parallel versions, but sometimes the subsection is long enough to merit its own article.

In those instances, you have permission to create a page of your own. Often, it should have the same title as the main article with your username or the name of the alternate universe in parentheses afterward, but if your character has, say, had his name changed in the alternate continuity, then it is allowed to make a new article with that name.

Note that the new article should still have a subsection on the main article's "History" section, though it would preferably be summarized to avoid the length problems that a new article is meant to prevent.

Remember, proper capitalization in page titles is important. The first letter in an article title is required to be a capital letter by the MediaWiki software; you are encouraged to capitalize nouns and significant words (verbs, adverbs, adjectives, etc) following. In other words, you are encouraged to use the process for capitalizing books titles.

In general, only create page titles that are in the singular, unless that noun is always in a plural form in English, such as binoculars (note that category names follow different pluralization conventions).

Except in titles of works (The Darkness Returns, A Chance for Redemption) or in "official" names (The Cavern, The Claw), avoid the definite ("the") and indefinite ("a"/"an") articles or prepositions ("of", "on", "for", etc.) at the beginning of a page name. This applies even if the subject of the page is usually preceded by the definite article "the" in speech or writing: thus, for example, "Chronicler" is preferred over "the Chronicler;" however, the news show "The Chronicler" is fine.

Use the full name of the subject instead of its abbreviation (for example: Heroism Empowered Resourceful Ordinary instead of HERO).

"BIONICLE" should not usually be placed before article titles (i.e., BIONICLE: The Darkness Returns) unless the article is a fictitious BIONICLE film, series, or game, and the title requires the word to "work" (i.e., BIONICLE Universe).

Some special characters either cannot be used or can but cause problems. For example, you should not use a piping character (|), an asterisk (*), an ampersand (&), a plus sign (+), curly braces ({}), or square braces ([]) in a name.

Correct Usage

 * Tahu
 * Notes: This page must refer to the character named "Tahu". If this is about a team or group, however, then "Toa" is allowed at the beginning, if this is the correct team name.
 * Teridax
 * Notes: The same rules noted under "Tahu" apply here.
 * Mata Nui
 * Notes: All capitalization rules still apply.
 * Ignika
 * Notes: The same rules apply, even if this is a Kanohi, the title "Kanohi" may not be in the page title.
 * Unidentified Great Being
 * Notes: This is only applicable if there is no official name for this being.
 * Toa Hagah
 * Notes: This is ONLY applicable if this refers to a TEAM by this name and not a character by the name of "Hagah". Otherwise, the page must be referred to as "Hagah".

Incorrect Usage

 * Toa Tahu
 * Notes: This is incorrect if it refers to the character named Tahu, as occupations or species may not be in page names.
 * tahu
 * Notes: The capitalization rules still apply here. Even if the page's name does not refer to something specific, capitalize the first letter as if you are starting a sentence. If it does refer to something specific with multiple words, capitalize the first word of every part of the name, like in "Mata Nui".
 * Mata nui
 * Notes: See under "tahu".
 * Dark Lord Teridax
 * Notes: Character titles may not be in page names, as stated above.
 * Emperor Kragator
 * Notes: Occupations or titles may not be in page names, as stated above.
 * Kanohi Ignika
 * Notes: Kanohi titles may not be in page names.
 * The Ignika
 * Notes: "The" may not be in a page name unless it is the correct name of a piece of media (story, game, series).
 * Unknown-named guy
 * Notes: Refer to an unnamed being in a professional manner in page titles and in the page content itself.

Headings
Most of the above page naming rules apply to headings as well.

If a section is too small to cover all information about a topic, you may place the template Main, which can guide readers to articles on that topic. The See also template may also be used, but remember only to use it sparingly.

Categories
Many of the above page naming rules apply to categories as well. Official categories will use the above-mentioned book titling rules.

Quotes
Quotations may be included in the content if they are less than a paragraph long; if they are a paragraph or longer, or a dialogue, then the Quote and Dialogue templates may be used. Please be sure to provide as much information as possible (for instance: characters speaking/narrator, source, and page if applicable).

Redundant internal links should not be added to quotes because they serve little purpose beyond making the quotes appear cluttered and messy. Links should only be added to quotes if they contain a specific article's only mention of a particular concept. Piped links should be avoided as much as possible.

Per standards of American English, double quotation marks (" ") are default on both of the already-mentioned templates and the period (full stop), comma, question marks, and exclamation marks should be within the quotation. Single quotation marks (' ') should only be used when there is a quotation inside a quotation.

Spoilers
The spoiler template may be used if information in an article is from as-yet-unreleased storyline information; for example, future material from a fan fiction story serial.

=Layout Guide=

The following is a guide to how a fanon article should be structured here on the Custom BIONICLE Wiki. Feel free to make new suggestions on the Matoran Council Chamber.

Note that this is not a tutorial on how to make an article, but rather how the article should be structured. If you want help on getting started, see Help:Getting started and Category:Help.

Opening Templates
The Title tag is used to alter the appearance of the article's title. Its main uses are to italicize the names of a fiction of some sort or a type of vessel. Do not use this to alter the actual title (ex: Only displaying "Title" instead of "Title (disambiguation)").

The Writer template (accompanied by Multi-Writer and Adopted) is for explaining that a specific user has created this fanon article, and therefore all improper additions to the page's story will be reverted. Please note that this does NOT mean that you are not allowed to edit the page; it means that you are not allowed to add your own fanon content without the owner's permission.

The Youmay tag is used when it is possible that a user has found one article when they were actually looking for another of a similar or identical name.

Infoboxes
Infoboxes are a quick and easy means to access vital statistics about an article at a glance. They should almost always be used in articles, save in the few instances where one would not apply. For example, the aura field does not fit into any of the categories that the infoboxes cover and therefore is not required to have one.

There is a guide to infoboxes on their respective pages; a list can be found on Category:Information templates. Please note that the “header” section on the Character template is for listing the species of the character, and that if none is known, then it may be left blank.

Article Body Organization
There are some guidelines for the organization of articles within the Custom BIONICLE Wiki. Ideally, they are organized into several main sections, with subsections and extra sections where appropriate.

If you cannot find an outline below for your planned article, please use whatever matches it most closely, and if nothing matches it at all, feel free to contact the Staff before proceeding.

Please note the canon template ought to be used for links to Biosector01.

Character Articles

 * 1) Biography: An account of the character's life. It is generally expected that this section will be divided into subsections on lengthy articles, though the appropriate sectioning of this is left to the author.
 * 2) Abilities and Traits: Describes personality.
 * 3) Powers and equipment: Describes any notable abilities and notable equipment possessed by the character (if enough information is available for the equipment, an article should be created for it).

Organization/Group Articles

 * 1) History: An account of the group's history.
 * 2) Known Actions: A list of actions which the group was known to have taken.
 * 3) Members: A list of current members of the group.
 * 4) Servants: A list of servants of the group.
 * 5) Infrastructure: A description of how the group operates.

Species Articles

 * 1) History: An account of the species' history.
 * 2) Abilities and Traits: Deals with the physical characteristics of the species.
 * 3) Social Structure and Interactions (for sentient species)/Behavior (for non-sentients): Deals with how the structure of the species' society is organized, or how it behaves in the wild, depending on whether the species is sentient or not.
 * 4) Known individuals: A list of known members of the species.

Location/Universe Articles

 * 1) History: An account of the location's history. If it is a universe, a point of divergence and deviating individual should be included.
 * 2) Landscape: Includes any information on the characteristics of the location, such as its position, geological trends, ecosystem, and non-sentient species. If it is a universe, known planets should be detailed.
 * 3) Locations: A list of major locations within the one that the article is about.
 * 4) Known inhabitants: Describes native sentient species and individuals.

Event/Date Articles

 * 1) Causes: A brief summary of the history that resulted in the event
 * 2) Details: A thorough description of the various things that occur. A timeline is encouraged, though not required.
 * 3) Effects: A brief summary of the history that resulted from the event.
 * 4) Important factions and figures: Organizations and Characters who have major roles in these occurrences.

Battle/War Articles

 * 1) History: A summary of the events leading up to and stemming from the battle, details on the battle, and descriptions of the landscape used and use of landscape.
 * 2) Known Combatants: Individuals and organizations involved in the battle.

Object/Vehicle/Weapon/Kanohi Articles

 * 1) Description: Contains all details of the object/vehicle's design and capabilities.
 * 2) History: All history related to the article.
 * 3) Example usage: A brief summary of the object/vehicle/kanohi's use (if applicable).
 * 4) Known users: A list of beings who have used the object (if applicable).

Power/Element/Substance Articles

 * 1) Description: A list of capabilities that wielders of the power may have access to.
 * 2) Known users: A list of beings who are capable of using the power. Note that subsections such as “Species,” “Objects,” and “____-related locations” may be created if necessary.

Fiction Articles (Story, Series, Movie, Game, etc.)

 * 1) Story/Synopsis (if applicable): The main plot of the story/movie. Should be divided into subsections for chapters. (If a series, a list of episodes should be included; if a movie, a list of scenes should be included; if a game, a list of levels should be included.)
 * 2) Characters: A list of characters (the scroll box template may be used if necessary; see the Appearances section below for help).

Appearances
A list of appearances may be provided in each article if applicable, with the exception of fiction pages, which follow their own guidelines. All appearances should be linked to and italicized when appropriate.

See Also and External Links
See Also is a bulleted list, preferably alphabetized, of internal links to related articles. Editors should provide a brief annotation when a link's relevance is not immediately apparent.

External Links is the same, only it contains links for other pages on the Internet. See External links for more detailed information.

Notes and References
This section presents citations that verify the information in the article. On this wiki, they should not commonly be used, as most of the information here is fan fiction.

For more information, see Citing sources.

Galleries
Galleries may be made for any sort of article (see Help:Galleries for information on how to make these). Generally, if a gallery has more than media items, it is recommended that a subpage entitled "Pagename/Gallery" be created and that it be linked to under the "See Also" section in the main article.

For more information regarding galleries or media usage, see here.