Autumn Falls Wiki:Policy

This is the official policy page for Autumn Falls Wiki. It will grow as problems arise, but it is hoped that most issues may never need addressing.

The first commandment of the wiki, implicitly agreed upon by generations of wiki editors, and from which stem most of the policies stated herein, such as spelling conventions and in-universe points of view, is:


 * The Authors' Word is Law.

The precedence of content is as such (this determines what piece of info to use in case there are conflicting viewpoints from different books/cards/author interviews etc.)


 * 1) Main Books - anything stated in the actual books are given precedence over everything else. These include Autumn Falls.
 * 2) Secondary books - all the secondary books take secondary precedence after the Main books.
 * 3) Author statements - the author statements are given the last level of precedence because anything that they state may NOT occur

When dealing with conflicts in the storyline: Determine which conflicted view has the highest priority, add that the main section of the article, and describe the conflicting viewpoints in the trivia section of an article.

Content
First and foremost, Autumn Falls Wiki is exactly that - a wiki, or an editable online encyclopedia on Autumn Falls. We host information, facts, images, and official theories related to Autumn Falls on this site, as well as discussions about the material presented here. We do not entertain any fan fiction, images, or ramblings (collectively "fanonsense"), advertisements, spam, or articles not directly associated with Autumn Falls universe. You may talk about mostly anything which you like on your blogs or userspace. Just remember that this wiki is not a social networking site. Social networking on Wikia is done on the Community Central or on any other social media website.

All the media on this wiki (i.e. videos, images, music) must be in the public domain; unless you have obtained permission to use them publicly, copyrighted files will be removed, no matter how beautifully shot. Quotes, facts, and figures may be taken from anywhere however. All written content must be put in your own words.

Any users or editors who repeatedly refuse to follow these rules may be banned at the discretion of any administrator, and their contributions removed.

Vandalism
If you see an act of vandalism, please revert the page to its original state and tell an administrator. Severe vandalism will result in blocks from administrators.

Categories
Due to misinterpretation of categories in the past, this is emphasized here and in the Manual of Style. Remember, ALWAYS use common sense.

What is a good category
Good categories include, but are not limited to:
 * Groups of People (eg: Falls}
 * Books/Series (eg: Autumn Falls, Series One)
 * Meta-categories (Authors, Books, Characters)
 * Deceased

What is a bad category

 * Categories for specific people.
 * "Autumn Falls"- this entire wiki is about Autumn Falls. As such, creating such a category is redundant, and should not be done. If you are referencing the first series of books, please use the category "Autumn Falls".

There are numerous more bad categories not stated.

Combinations
Due to category spam, we ask you to combine the categories. For example, if the categories "Autumn Falls", "Gwen Falls" and "Erick Falls" are all on one page, we would appreciate if you just used the category: "Falls Family". This applies to other categories as well.

Another major example is when you are adding book categories to a page (i.e. Autumn's Wish). If the topic of the page appears in two or more books in that same series, instead of using the individual book titles (i.e. Autumn Falls, Autumn's Kiss, Autumn's Wish), please use the series name (i.e. Autumn Falls).

We would also appreciate if you would help delete the extra categories that are not needed on that page. If you have a question about categories, please ask one of the admins.

Tenses
For Characters: Appearances in books should always be in the past tense and those describing the characters should be in the present. For Books: Very, very open but use common sense. The date of release must be in the past. For Cards: The description must be word for word from the card. Use common sense for the rest. The Rest: As a rule of thumb, past tense but USE COMMON SENSE! 

Spelling
All names, places and other in universe objects ''will be spelled according to their spelling in the book and no other way. ''Please correct any mistakes you see.

Naming of articles
Article naming of a character or person will, wherever possible, abide by the following conditions:
 * An article's title should contain the common name  
 * For example: Use Autumn Falls
 * An article's title should contain the last name used throughout the Autumn Falls, regardless of marriage.
 * For example: Use Gwen Falls
 * Titles (as in ways to describe that person) are not to be used in an article's title
 * Titles include: Mr., Mrs. (and derivatives)
 * For example: Use Autumn Falls's mother instead of Mrs. Falls
 * Exceptions for this are when the title is part of their actual name or when the person in question is royalty (i.e. Queen Elizabeth II).

Quality
Autumn Falls Wiki is not an ordinary fansite, it is an encyclopedia. Please give your best efforts in writing, and if you find a typo, grammatical or factual error in an article, be bold and correct it!

Plagiarism
Plagiarism is against the policy of this wiki, Wikia, and virtually everyone. Even if it is to help this wiki, we do not tolerate any plagiarism. Plagiarism will be dealt with accordingly.

Unacceptable Usernames
Wikia has a no-swearing policy, so any usernames which are racist, sexist, or have inappropriate language (e.g, Bitchboy) are infinitely banned from Autumn Falls Wikia.

Insert False Information
Inserting false information can mean two things: As we have said before - Autumn Falls Wiki is the encyclopedia for Autumn Falls - and any misleading whatsoever will cause in a ban. Please note that it is mostly un-logged in users who do this, and they think they can get away with it. They do not as they get banned accordingly. If this user vandalizes sibling Wiki's to this one, the user will get an infinite ban.
 * Purposefully misleading
 * Misinterpretation

Misinterpretation is just an honest mistake and thus we will not consequence you. Please note that there is an extremely fine line between purposeful misleading and misinterpretation.

Rudeness and Harassment
Rudeness and harassment are banned as it obviously severe cyberbullying, and thus the user will not enjoy being part of the community, and by extension, the Internet. Rudeness and harassment will result in anything from a warning to a ban - the admins will judge the level of rudeness and/or harassment and block you accordingly. If the rudeness and/or harassment contain swearing, you will be unconditionally blocked for one month.

If there is rudeness and/or harassment in a chat, we ask the people in the chat to refer that person to an admin or a chat moderator. We ask you to take a screenshot (Ctrl+PrtScn for Windows and Apple key ⌘ + Shift + 3 for Macintosh) of this rudeness and/or harassment, and the admins will block that user accordingly. For the privacy of the users of this Wiki, please only show the chat part of the screenshot and not the rest of your screenshot. For Windows users, you can edit this using the Microsoft Office Picture Manager after first pasting (Ctrl+V) the screenshot in Microsoft Paint.

Removing Accurate Content From Pages
Autumn Falls Wiki's job is to have the most accurate information (about the series) out there. Accurate information must stay. If you see any inaccurate information, feel free to remove that portion.

"Sock Puppets"
"Sock Puppets" are duplicate accounts that users operate. A common policy throughout Wikia is that you must only have one account on Wikia. A bot does not count as a sock puppet.

If you operate a sock puppet, you must make it known to an administrator.  Regular users and admins alike must operate only one sock puppet on this wiki . Failure to notify an administrator about your sock puppet, your sock puppet account will be banned infinitely, and your main account will receive a warning. Under most circumstances, the I.P. address of your sock puppet and your account is the same, so our administrative team is able to find out about any future sock puppet accounts.

If another user suspects unapproved sock puppeting activity is happening, they are free to contact the administrative team, and the admins will review the case. If the sock puppeting is true, your sock puppet account will be banned infinitely, and your main account will receive a one-month block.

External Website Spamming
Autumn Falls Wiki is Wikia's non-official encyclopedia for Autumn Falls. Thus links to any non-Wikian websites is strictly banned. We also ask you not to provide links to any other Wiki's (other than this one) that are The 39 Clues-related. The exception to this is if an admin approves the Autumn Falls related wiki.

The other exception for this rule is if you provide a link to the official website of Autumn Falls (http://www.randomhouse.com/teens/autumn-falls/books).

Any links to external websites seen by any user, they are asked to notify an admin, and the person responsible for posting the link will be blocked for at least 2-3 months (this may be longer, depends on how heavily advertised).

Nonsense and Gibberish
What can be considered the top rule of Wikia is - no one under the age of 13 can edit. Thirteen is the typical Eighth Grade age. In the Eighth Grade, you will have learned to show respect, and how to type and write in complete and good-quality sentences. Thus all nonsense and gibberish should be left to your preschool and kindergarten years. Furthermore, you should also be old enough to know nonsense and gibberish when you see it.

However, you can spam nonsense and gibberish on  message walls  that are friendly chats between three or less people. If a fourth person comes into the chat, please refrain from using nonsense and gibberish.

Consequences
The administrators have no wish to block any users, but after many offences, blocking a user is inevitable. Depending on the severity of your offence, you may be blocked for a longer period of time. We have posted block lengths here.

However, a user can file a complaint on their message wall saying that the blocking administrator did not explain or answer any questions as to why the user was blocked. If the wiki administration finds this to be true, the blocked user will be unblocked, and the blocking administrator will be told what was done incorrectly. After many incorrect blocks, this administrator may be demoted.

Layout guide
The Manual of Style should be followed wherever possible in order to give Autumn Falls Wiki a more professional and encyclopedic view on content. Though this layout is not compulsory, its usage will definitely raise the quality of lesser or poorly-written articles, and the wiki in general. A must read before making major rewrites or starting new articles.