Wiki Rules

Hello! As you may have guessed from the title, this page is about PPC Wiki's rules. Most of them are, in fact, more like guidelines than actual rules, but they must still be respected.

If the PPC is new to you, please note that this wiki is not the hub of our community; the PPC Posting Board is. That's why we call ourselves Boarders. If you're just passing through and stop to fix a link or a typo or something, thanks! However, since Permission is required to add to our shared universe and many of the articles on the wiki are about individual writers' personal characters, we prefer anyone contributing substantially to the wiki to be a Boarder first and a wiki-editor second. If you want to join us, please introduce yourself on the Board. We hope you do! Even if you don't want to join, the Board is the best place to ask questions or start a conversation, since only a few of us regularly check on wiki activity.

Da Rules

 * Read the PPC Constitution. Follow the PPC Constitution. This forms the basis of our rules in all PPC community spaces.
 * Follow all Fandom platform rules.
 * Be respectful of each other and of people outside the community. Neither abuse, nor harassment, nor hate speech are tolerated in our spaces. Anyone who persists in toxic behavior will be banned from all PPC community spaces.
 * No flaming, bad-mouthing, or casting aspersions about fanfic authors; keep your comments about the writing, not the writers. Remember, they're people, too, and they have as much right to their stories as we have to ours, no matter how poorly written they are.
 * Remember YKINMK: people are allowed to like things you don't like as long as they're not hurting anyone.
 * Spamming and trolling are not tolerated. All such edits will be undone and the account or IP responsible will be blocked without notice.
 * Please identify yourself. I know it says you don't have to make an account or sign in to edit, but around here it is polite to do so anyway. We're Boarders first, wiki-editors second, and we tend to get a little twitchy if we see people we don't know messing with our stuff, even if they mean well. IPs that persist in editing without identifying themselves will be given a warning. If that fails, they may be temporarily blocked to encourage logging in.
 * If you are prevented from creating an account or logging in for some reason, give your name in your edit summary.
 * Once you've made an account, please take the time to fill in your user page. You don't have to put a lot there, but at least fill in the infobox. This is especially important if your wiki user name is different from your Board name.
 * When you make comments on talk pages, always remember to sign your comments. If you're logged in, you can do this with four tildes.
 * You may not make a new page for your character(s) unless you have Permission. We also advise waiting until you've published at least one story about them apart from your writing samples.
 * Do not make substantial changes to the content of user or character pages belonging to active Boarders. If you're just fixing a spelling or wiki-code error, that's fine, but larger changes should be left to them. If you want to make a suggestion, that's what talk pages are for. Or, y'know, that message board thingummy we mentioned earlier.
 * Please don't add pages to PPC Wiki unless they are demonstrably relevant to the PPC. This is not "All Badfic" Wiki or "That Fandom I Really Like" Wiki. Pages without a clear connection to, e.g., the PPC's setting, missions, agents, or community at large may be deleted without notice.
 * Keep pages K/G to T/PG-13 or, if it is necessary to discuss adult subjects, make sure to put a  warning at the top.
 * Make your pages legible. That means using correct spelling, punctuation, grammar, capitalization, and paragraphing. Modern browsers like Chrome and Firefox come with a built-in spellchecker, so please use one of them if possible. If not, you can still type articles in a word processor with spellcheck before putting them on the wiki.
 * Follow the wiki's style as discussed below.
 * If you don't understand something, don't be afraid to ask for help.
 * If you see someone asking for help, help them!
 * Silliness is encouraged! Be entertaining and have fun!

Style Guide
Since the wiki has been around for a while, we've settled on a Certain Way Of Doing Things for many types of pages. It makes all of us look better if the wiki has internal consistency, so look closely at what others have done before you and, if there is pattern in a page or type of page, stick to it. Here are some specific guides to help you out:


 * Posting New Mission Reports
 * How to Make a Character Page
 * How to Use Sources and References

There are also some general things to always remember:


 * Italicize titles of long works (e.g. The Lord of the Rings, Mass Effect) and use quotes for titles of short works (e.g. "Rambling Band" or 'Rambling Band').
 * In the first line of a page, use a complete sentence to define the page topic and re-state the page name in bold text.
 * Alphabetize your additions to the Unclaimed, Claimed, and Killed Badfic lists. Also pay attention to other lists that may be alphabetized or otherwise ordered.
 * Capitalize words like "agent," "department," and "division" when they are used as titles: "Agent Jay worked in the Department of Mary Sues."
 * DO NOT capitalize them when they stand alone, e.g. "the agent returned to her department."
 * For heaven's sake, use spellcheck.

Finally, finish what you start. When you make your PPC Wiki account, fill in your user page so we know who you are and what you've done. If you make a page for your agent, fill it in with more than one or two lines, and definitely make sure you state who the agent's author is. If you upload an image to the wiki, use it. If you make a link to a page that doesn't exist, create that page or get rid of the redlink. It's about integrity, and it's about looking good. The wiki is a form of writing, too, and there's really no reason for us to care less about it than we do our other works.

On Style Choices and Regional Usage
Improper or inconsistent formatting and SPaG may be corrected by anyone. However, be absolutely certain that what you want to correct is an error and not a style choice. The tone of this wiki varies from article to article, and that's okay! Informal phrasing is allowed, even encouraged, depending on the topic. Look up unfamiliar words and phrases before you assume they're wrong, and beware Muphry's Law.

It is not appropriate to "correct" for American vs. British and British Commonwealth spelling and usage unless the instance in question damages the consistency of a page. We have writers from all over the map, and we refuse to invalidate their particular brand of English by choosing one over the other. That means there are going to be some pages with American usage and some pages with British/Commonwealth usage. When determining which set of rules to use, ask yourself the following questions:


 * 1) What is the origin of this subject's canon? For example, if it's a page about something from Harry Potter, the canon's origin is British, therefore British usage is preferred.
 * 2) What is the origin of this subject's creator? For example, anything originating from the Original Series should be discussed using American usage, because Jay and Acacia are American. The various spin-offs have authors from different countries, and pages about their agents and concepts should be discussed with usage consistent with their country of origin.
 * 3) * If English is that author's second language, you'll want to go with whichever style of English usage they learned, not the language of their home country.
 * 4) What is the precedent set by this page's creator? When in doubt, just be consistent with what's already there, whether the page uses your brand of English or not.