Memory Beta:Policies and guidelines

Memory Beta has some policies that have been proposed by the administrators and generally accepted by the members. Please read through the policies below to familiarize yourself with our common practices and rules.

General policies
Remember that above all else, Memory Beta is an encyclopedia. It is a community that is solely devoted to the development of the Star Trek reference database; it is not a chat room or discussion forum. The talk pages are specifically for discussing the writing of articles, and nothing else.

The following are general policies concerning the overall goals and functions of Memory Beta:


 * Editing policy: A guide on how to edit articles, and how to style them.
 * Naming conventions: How to name new articles.
 * Disambiguation: For potential article title conflicts.
 * Image use policy: On the rules for uploading images.
 * Copyrights: That unavoidable legalese...
 * Etiquette: Useful advice for when disagreements arise.
 * Deletion policy: For when deleting pages becomes necessary.
 * Spoiler policy: Let the reader beware!
 * Redirect: On the rules for using redirects.

See also: Most common faux pas for some useful information for newcomers.

Enforcement
For day-to-day operations on Memory Beta, enforcement can be handled by the general membership. Simply pointing out each other's mistakes (politely, of course) is generally sufficient.

For problem cases, the administrators may intervene and enforce a policy, or temporarily lock a page to let things cool down.

In extreme and unusual cases, Chops, Lieutenant Ayala, 8of5 and The Doctor, the project administrators, will step in to ban a user who has proven to be unusually disruptive.

See also: Bans and blocks, Protection policy

General guidelines

 * Contribute what you know or are willing to learn about (and create stubs responsibly)
 * Be bold in updating pages
 * Strive for community solutions
 * Build the web
 * Make omissions explicit
 * What links here?

Behavior guidelines

 * Sign your posts on talk pages
 * No personal attacks (and move personal debates to email)
 * Log in before making drastic changes to existing articles
 * Username
 * Bans and blocks
 * Don't protect pages unless necessary
 * Be considerate to new members

Content guidelines

 * Perfection is not required
 * Define and describe
 * Establish context (instead of presuming too much knowledge)
 * Explain jargon
 * Deal appropriately with patent nonsense
 * Use the correct point of view
 * Check your facts
 * Cite your sources (and use proper references)
 * Make articles useful for readers (and consider the audience in writing)
 * Avoid blanket statements
 * Inform and entertain
 * Describe external links
 * Don't use external links where we'll want Memory Beta links
 * Avoid and fix stub articles
 * Use category sort keys
 * Use templates when appropriate.

Style guidelines

 * Manual of Style
 * Don't include copies of primary sources
 * Avoid making your articles orphans
 * Always fill summary field
 * Follow highlighting conventions
 * Balance parts of a page
 * Do not use subpages
 * Consider writing articles in news style

Miscellaneous

 * Your user page
 * Dealing with vandalism
 * Editing the main page
 * Editing MediaWiki namespace text
 * The Userbox Project