Destinypedia:Code of Conduct

This page is an official Destinypedia policy.

Destinypedia's Code of Conduct is a policy that lays out the wiki's expectations for how Staff and Users alike are expected to uphold themselves while on Destinypedia or any of its related platforms.

Basic manners

All Destinypedians are expected to conform to a certain level of civility in writing articles and talk posts. While the Destiny series may be intended for mature players, excessively hostile or vulgar behavior is strictly prohibited. Below is a detailed list of pointers on the manner in which all Destinypedia users are expected to conform.

• When dealing with other users, be polite at all times; remember, they cannot see or hear you so choosing your words wisely is a good way to ensure your conversation is not misunderstood as hostile or offensive. Likewise, be careful how you interpret what you read as what you understand might not be what others mean.

• Civilly work towards agreement. Do not argue with users based on religion, personality or political standpoint and always keep conversation based on the object in question and stick to the facts.

• If another user asks you a reasonable question or gives you reasonable advice, do not ignore it. Concede when you are wrong and be reasonable. If you act in a respectable manner, others will find it hard to have issues with you.

• If, while editing, someone disagrees with your contribution, do not edit war! Always provide good reasons why you think that a specific revision is appropriate and discuss it with the other contributor. However this is not to be misinterpreted as a reason to revert others' contributions. Users should not edit based on personal preferences but in accordance with the Manual of Style and the layout guide.

• A good way to avoid entering edit conflicts is to recognize your own biases, and keep them in check. Editors will be less likely to revert edits that are in keeping with the rules.

• Destinypedia is a collaborative project, and as such, pages may not be "claimed" by users in any way. Anyone is allowed to contribute content to any editable page, and once their text has been submitted, that content is licensed for use by the wiki.

• And finally, DO NOT use profanity. As Destiny is a T rated game, profanity is not allowed on any of Destinypedia's articles, subpages or message boards. Likewise Wiki pages or about pages should also be free of potentially offensive content. Keeping the wiki free of foul language helps maintain a friendly atmosphere and a cleaner environment for users of varying ages and religions.

Wiki staff

As the people who run Destinypedia, wiki staff are members of the community who help maintain the site, and as such, have access to a few additional functions. This however does not justify malicious or disruptive behavior from them and staff members are expected to hold to the same standards as any other.

• Be welcoming to new users. Often newbies can be difficult to deal with because of their lack of experience or knowledge of wiki markup. Such users should be dealt with patiently and respectfully. If a newcomer seems to have made a small mistake, try to correct it yourself: do not slam the newcomer. A gentle note at their user page explaining the wiki's standard and how to achieve it in the future may prove helpful, as they may be unfamiliar with the norm or merely how to achieve it. If you use bad manners or curse at newcomers, they may decide not to contribute to the wiki again.

• If you feel that you must say something to a newcomer about a mistake, please do so in a constructive and respectful manner. Begin by introducing yourself with a greeting on the user's talk page to let them know that they are welcome here, and present your corrections calmly and as a peer. If possible, point out things that they've done correctly or well. Intolerance of newbies due to high expectations is unreasonable and rude.

• When editing on Destinypedia, it is always best practice to assume good faith. Since the Internet makes it difficult to determine a person's intentions, suspicious edits can very well turn out to be new users testing their abilities to edit, making accidental mistakes, and learning wiki markup. To avoid mistakenly punishing new users with good intentions you should always assume good faith and kindly inform that user of how to properly use editing tools to help them along. If said user persists in a manner deemed nonconstructive to Destinypedia, they may be banned in accordance with the blocking policy.

• If you are an admin, help mediate disagreements between others users. Do not use your administrative powers to fulfill personal preferences, and administrators should not be biased in their support of any one side in an editing dispute that isn't vandalism. Administrative powers should be used to help keep the wiki clear of vandalism, spam, and users who make malicious edits, but not for simple disagreements between users acting in good faith.

• Wiki staff should not be considered "in charge". Just because staff members have a few extra keys does not mean they are able to dictate or push other users around. Staff members should always be well tempered in all respects and never condescending to users of "lesser rank".

• Give praise when it's due. Everybody likes to feel appreciated, especially in an environment that often requires compromise. Drop a friendly note on users' talk pages once and a while. Show them you notice their effort and appreciate them.

• When reverting other people's edits, give a rationale for the revert (on the article's talk page, if necessary), and be prepared to enter into an extended discussion over the edits in question. Calmly explaining your thinking to others can often result in their agreeing with you; being dogmatic or uncommunicative evokes the same behavior in others, and gets you embroiled in an edit war.

Edit warring and user disputes

Sometimes potentially controversial changes may be made to find out whether it is opposed and another editor may revert it. This may be the beginning of a revert-discuss cycle. While this is fine, an edit war may arise if the situation develops into a series of back-and-forth reverts. Such back and forthing is considered edit warring and undermines the article's stability. Nevertheless, not every revert or controversial edit is regarded as edit warring:

• Reverting vandalism is not edit warring. However, edits from a slanted point of view, general insertion or removal of material, or other good-faith changes are not considered vandalism. See our Destinypedia article about vandalism for specifics on what classifies as Vandalism.

• Reverting to enforce certain overriding policies is not considered edit warring.

• Reverting edits by banned or blocked users is not edit warring.

• When reverting, be sure to indicate your reasons. This can be done in the edit summary and/or talk page. Anti-vandalism tools such as rollback should not be used to undo good-faith changes in content disputes or preference contentions without an appropriate edit summary.

• If an edit war develops, participants should try to discuss the issue on the talk page and work things out. Do not discuss through edit summaries and continued reversion. It is better to seek help in addressing the issue than to engage in edit warring. When disagreement becomes apparent, one, both, or all participants should cease warring and discuss the issue on the talk page, or seek the help of a neutral staff member.

• If, despite trying, one or more users fail to cease edit warring, refuse to work collaboratively or heed the information given to them, or do not move on to appropriate dispute resolution, then an administrator may take action such as locking the page in question and/or blocking the party/parties in question.

• Destinypedia staff are the ones who decide whether to issue a warning or block for edit warring; these are intended to prevent, deter and encourage change in disruptive behavior, but not to punish it. Where a block is appropriate, the span of the block is at the discretion of the staff member issuing the ban. Where multiple editors or even staff engage in an edit war, bureaucrats should consider all sides before making a decision on who is guilty, since perceived unfairness can fuel issues further.