This page is an official policy on Wowpedia. This policy has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow.
|
DNP stands for Do Not Post. Things on this list should not be posted anywhere on Wowpedia. 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.
Sandboxes[]
- See also: Wowpedia:Images policy
Content derived from sandboxes (private/emulated servers) are not allowed on WoW ToU/EULA grounds. Such content will be deleted and result in a ban. Model viewer screenshots are allowed, but in-game screenshots are preferred where possible.
Data mining not involving sandboxes is tolerated by Blizzard and therefore on Wowpedia as well.
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 Wowpedia 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.
Wowpedia 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).
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 Wowpedia 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[]
Wowpedia is a wiki for everyone. We do not tolerate discrimination based upon social status, age, sex, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, faction, server, guild, etc.
Non-English content[]
Wowpedia 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.
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 Wowpedia, it is a candidate for translation — or removal as part of the regular editing process.
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 subpages.
- 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.
- 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.