The User conduct policy provides guidance on editing and communicating with fellow users on Wookieepedia.
Administrators are responsible for enforcing site policy by mediating in disputes, issuing appropriate warnings, protecting pages, blocking users, and deleting inappropriate content if need be. Contact an administrator in the event of disputes and policy violations. If the offending user is an administrator and you believe further action should be taken, please see Administrators#Administrative abuse.
The Wookieepedia Discussions forum and Discord server have additional rules and guidelines.
Editing practices
Be bold
Everyone is encouraged to be bold in doing what they can to improve Wookieepedia, as wikis are built on collaboration. You do not need to ask for permission to make changes, though you are encouraged to make use of edit summaries to briefly describe what you are doing and why. If you feel uncertain, please do not hesitate to ask around on our Discord server, the Ask An Editor A Question thread, or talk pages! Wookieepedians are here to help each other out.
Wikis are built on collaboration.
It is recommended that major changes, such as moving a page to another title or changing a page's main image, be proposed on a wiki talk page, the Senate Hall forum, or on Wookieepedia's Discord first for other users to discuss the issue. Talk pages that include {{ImageVote}} indicate that the article's main image was decided via a formal vote. Some caution should also be taken when editing a template, which may affect the appearance of other pages.
Three-revert rule
Always refrain from edit-warring; disagreements should be discussed using the guidance below instead. Edit-warring is when multiple users revert each other—changing a page back to a previous revision—due to disagreement over which revision is better. Whoever "started" the conflict does not matter, only the way in which you choose to engage—or not to engage.
Reverting should be done with caution and restraint, as it could deter users who are making edits in good faith. Whenever possible, try to improve edits to conform to article standards rather than simply revert them, and explain reverts through edit summaries. Note that users with the rollback tool may quickly revert edits with the automatic edit summary: (Reverted edits by X (talk) to last version by Y).
Users may be blocked if they revert changes to any single page in whole or in part more than three times within 24 hours. This three-revert rule (3RR) does not apply to self-reverts, maintenance edits (such as restoring the Jundland Wastes sandbox), or removing vandalism, as defined below. If a user is edit-warring, report to an administrator and consider issuing the {{Msg-3RR}} warning on their user talk page.
Dispute resolution
Disagreements on site matters are inevitable, but they should not descend into incivility. Exploring compromises and synthesizing different views is the essence of a wiki. Heated debates are particularly fertile grounds for incivility. If you are feeling frustrated, do not lash out at others; take a step back from the discussion. Encourage all users to step back and move on to less controversial matters for a while if you believe a discussion is getting out of hand.
If someone makes an uncivil remark, never respond in kind. Administrators should be alerted immediately, and other users should step in to mediate the conflict.
- Truce: If there is a disagreement over an edit and you begin reverting each other, stop editing. The issue should be discussed on a talk page to prevent edit-warring. Either use the talk page of the article in question or contact the other user on their user talk page. Specific header templates that identify different types of disputes include {{Disputed}}, {{Fanon}}, and {{NPOV}}, which should be used on relevant pages in conjunction with talk page messages.
- The three-revert rule forbids reverting another user's edits more than three times in 24 hours. In extreme cases, administrators may raise the relevant page(s) protection level to prevent further edits temporarily. Anyone may request page protection to stop edit-warring.
- Assume good faith: Keep a level head and abide by the civility rules. Aim to respectfully resolve the dispute and take care not to escalate tensions. Put yourself in the other person's shoes, assume that they are acting in good faith, and try to reach a compromise. Even if the discussion does not immediately resolve the issue, serious and considerate discussion is essential to maintaining a friendly and productive environment on Wookieepedia.
Civility
Why civility?
Who's scruffy lookin'?
Civility is a must for everyone in all areas of communication, including but not limited to edit summaries, talk pages, the Discussions forum, and Wookieepdia's Discord server. As a public project, we are all part of Wookieepedia, and our community strives to be ever-more friendly and welcoming; incivility fosters an environment of intimidation.
Hostility in conflict is tied with incivility and personal attacks. Users should promote a friendlier environment with positive feedback, such as praising others for not responding to incivility with incivility and giving out awards for productive contributions. Users shall be blocked for engaging in intimidating behavior and harassment or making personal attacks and uncivil comments. Relevant comments may be removed in accordance with the Talk page policy.
Unacceptable behavior
When critiquing someone's actions, do not make judgments of their personal character and avoid name-calling. For example, instead of stating "You are a troll" or even "You are acting like a troll," a more tactful approach would be to say "You seem to be making statements just to provoke people."
The following is a non-exhaustive list describing unacceptable behavior, whether directed at others personally or at their contributions:
- Unnecessarily antagonistic attitudes and rudeness, including judgmental tones and taunting (e.g. "this user is a bad editor," "fixed someone's sloppy spelling," "you make pointless pages")
- Personal attacks and insults.
- Intimidation or harassment. This could include using profanity while addressing another person, bombarding another person with messages, and negative personal comments such as "I'm better than you."
- Threats of any kind, including doxxing, legal action, and, less significantly, sanctions on Wookieepedia (e.g. "I could get you blocked for this"). Friendly advice and formal administrative warnings from administrators that a user may be violating a policy and thus possibly blocked are not threats.
- Inappropriate humor, especially humor at the expense of others and sexual humor.
- Belittling contributors for any reason. This could include subtle jabs disguised in the form of paternalistic praise.
- Accusatory comments, particularly if repeated in bad faith. Whether they are true or not, such remarks aggravate rather than resolve disputes. This includes quoting users out of context to misrepresent their views.
- Using someone's identities or affiliations, whether expressed or perceived, as a means of dismissing or discrediting their views.
- Inciting or escalating any such behavior.
Usernames and images should likewise be in line with this policy. A user with an unacceptable username should rename their account or create a new account.
If someone is uncomfortable with a discussion being held, particularly regarding sensitive topics such as violence, real-world politics and/or religion and especially in sensitive spaces such as a user's talk page, then it should be dropped.
Discrimination
Wookieepedia's website host, Fandom, regulates discriminatory behavior on the site through its Terms of Use, violations of which may result in Fandom staff issuing a global block for the offending user across the Fandom platform. If Fandom does not find a particular case to be actionable, Wookieepedia administrators still have the responsibility to take appropriate action regarding any case of discriminatory behavior by a Wookieepedia contributor in accordance with this policy and any other relevant policies, such as the Blocking policy.
Users should not engage in discriminatory behavior based on another person's or perception of another person's physical or social characteristics. These include using hate speech or hateful symbols, even when not directed at a specific person, about age; disability of any form; ethnocultural background; family structures; gender (including misgendering, deadnaming, and gender essentialist discrimination against non-binary and transgender identities); race and skin color; romantic and sexual orientation (including discrimination against aromanticism and asexuality); and variations in sex characteristics. Discrimination based on another person or group's religion or irreligion is likewise unacceptable.
Disagreement over what constitutes such personal identities and social groups is not a legitimate excuse for discriminatory behavior. All discriminatory content can be removed from Wookieepedia, including those on talk and forum pages in accordance with the Talk page policy. Certain parts of a page's history can additionally be hidden from public view by the administration in accordance with the Deletion policy.
There may be a reason for such unacceptable behavior, such as having a really bad day, but there is never a valid justification, regardless of the perpetrator or targeted victim. Some actions may be unintentional and users should remember to assume good faith and act with compassion, but repeated patterns of behavior and gross abuses should result in blocks. Uncompassionate styles of interaction not only affects those directly involved but drives away contributors and harms the Wookieepedia community.
Egregious behavior occurring beyond the site's wiki, Discussions forum, and Discord server that involves and impacts other Wookieepedia contributors—including posts on public forums and private messages (the sharing of private content is within the purview of Wookieepedia's Discord and Privacy policies)—will result in administrative sanction. While expressing opinions itself is not a ground for administrative sanction, Wookieepedians should neither engage in intimidation, harassment, or threats nor share grossly insulting or degrading discriminatory material.
Handling offenses
If incivility or other offenses occur:
- Reminder: Ask everyone to be considerate while pointing out this policy. You can quickly link to this page using the [[WP:CIVIL]] or [[WP:NPA]] redirects.
- Disengage: If the discussion does not cool down, request that it be dropped and ask that it not be continued by anyone for a while. Good discussion should be approached with a level head, and stepping away for some time is important. Participants in the discussion, especially those previously uninvolved, may have different perspectives later on.
- Apologize: It is good practice for offending users to acknowledge their incivility—regardless of any reason for their outburst. Rather than attempting to explain why they were uncivil, they should simply offer a sincere apology. Users are not obliged to express forgiveness, and apologizing does not absolve offenders of their responsibilities, but it is crucial in enabling the process of reconciliation.
- Renewing discussion: After a while, it may be best to open a Senate Hall thread where everyone can discuss the topic in an orderly and respectful manner. After an informal agreement is reached based on the consideration of all views, a Consensus track or Trash compactor vote could be held to officially determine how to proceed, in accordance with Wookieepedia's community consensus.
Spirit of collaboration
Keep calm and help out each other.
Wookieepedia should be a safe and inclusive space where disputes are resolved through respectful discussion rather than unilateral action. To that end, users should not try to disrupt Wookieepedia to "prove" a point, such as whether a rule is imperfect by testing its limits without technically violating site policy. This is sometimes termed "wikilawyering."
For example, one might believe that reverting an edit exactly three times within 24 hours does not technically violate the three-revert rule. One should keep in mind not to see the rule as an entitlement to revert, as edit-warring disrupts community-building. Or, if an article is nominated for deletion on the Trash compactor forum and you believe it should be kept, you should respectfully present your points in the vote explaining how the article is notable rather than nominate similar articles for deletion on the basis that they could be deemed non-notable as well.
No matter what cause or argument you are attempting to promote and whether it is right, how you act matters greatly. This may include attempting to uphold site policy by making lengthy and unwelcoming messages to another user about editing standards, which tends to aggravate and intimidate rather than be of genuine help. Heated debates and tense partisanship disrupt trust and harm our community.
Vandalism
Most contributions should be assumed to be made in good faith. However, Wookieepedia also experiences vandalism—clear attempts to lower the quality of the wiki. This includes spamming, trolling, inserting nonsense into pages, and removing content without a valid explanation. Violating site policies by itself is not vandalism. This may include adding fan fiction (fanon) or removing information that the user believes to be incorrect.
Vandalism should be reverted and reported to an administrator either via the #admin-help channel on Discord, on Vandalism in progress, or the other methods listed on the Contact page, and users may issue the {{Msg-vandalism}} warning to the offending user's talk page. If the behavior continues, an administrator should block the offending user from contributing to Wookieepedia according to the severity of the vandalism.