GuildWiki:Policy

This article is designed to act as a portal to the various other policy pages, as well as describe the method of adding and changing GuildWiki policy.

It should be noted that the GuildWiki has only recently started writing policy articles, and thus this may be incomplete. If there are any longstanding GuildWiki traditions/procedures that remain undocumented, please write up an article and link it appropriately.

Current well-established policies
See also: Category:Policy, Category:Archived Policies and Category:Policy proposals

Editing policies
These policies guide editing a page.


 * Check the style and formatting guide for the article type you're working on.
 * Emphasize content over presentation whenever possible.
 * Before adding an image, check the image use policy.
 * Note the special policy for builds.
 * Know when and when not to use a redirect.
 * The article on retention states which information is kept in the wiki.
 * The Criteria for deletion state which information is to be deleted, but don't immediately delete unless it's clearly vandalism or spam.
 * Please sign your comments on article talk pages with non-disruptive signatures.
 * The GuildWiki community encourages users to be bold when updating pages.
 * Finally, recognize that we are not Wikipedia.

Conflict policies
These policies govern how to act when you disagree with another user.


 * Always assume good faith in the edits of others.
 * Except for vandalism, only revert once. After that, discuss any disagreements on the talk page and come to a compromise.
 * You are valuable, so please be bold in editing, regardless of how new you are here or how trivial your edits seem to be. There is no concept of seniority among editors.
 * When engaging in a conflict, no personal attacks are acceptable. Discuss the edit, not the editor.
 * Deal quietly with vandals to avoid feeding the vandals attention.
 * We are not ArenaNet. We, as an organization, do not punish for behavior that violates the Guild Wars Terms of Use.

Administrative policies
These policies govern how admins (aka sysops) differ from normal editors, as well as how administrators are to apply their powers.


 * View the currently active administrators and their duties.
 * View current requests for adminship.
 * Sysops administrate users, not content. Admins have no more say in editing disputes than normal users do.
 * The Bureaucrats can grant rollback rights to editors that help fight vandals.

Changing policies
It is perfectly acceptable to disagree with a policy. There are three steps necessary to change a policy:


 * 1) Add a new subarticle to the policy in question fully rewriting all sections of the policy you'd like to see change.
 * 2) Add a message to the talk page of the policy article advertising the change, and why that change is good for the GuildWiki.
 * 3) Add an entry to the top of the list in the section below linking to the policy in question as well as a brief summary of the suggested change. Please sign and date the entry!

It is very likely that your proposal will need to be edited during the proposal period. It is also likely that other GuildWikians might produce counter-proposals (each with their own subarticle). All discussions about editing individual proposals should stay within each individual subarticle's talk page. The main article's talk page should contain only a summary of each proposal (1-2 lines) and links to each proposal.

If consensus to change the policy is reached in the talk page, edit the policy in question. If consensus is not reached, no change can be made. While a vote can be called to assess community feelings about a change, no vote can ever be considered binding nor, unless unanimous, indication of consensus.

In any case, once the proposal is concluded, move it from the list of policies being revisited to the top of the recently revisited list, along with the date and outcome (success or failure). Failed policy changes on the recently revisited list should not be reproposed for some time.

Policies currently being revisited

 * You are valuable/Draft 1
 * Image use policy/Proposal
 * Image license guide/Proposal
 * Style and formatting/Images/Proposal

Recently revisited policies

 * None

Proposing new GuildWiki policies
Proposing a new GuildWiki policy is a three-step process:


 * 1) Create a new article, in the GuildWiki namespace, describing your new policy. The article title should be similar in style to existing policy articles, if possible. Do not add the new article to the policy category.
 * 2) Add  to the proposition.
 * 3) Add the new article to the list below, along with a brief summary of why the policy would be helpful.
 * 4) Include any additional arguments as to why the proposed policy is good for the GuildWiki in the talk page of the new policy article.

If consensus to adopt the proposed policy is reached in the talk page, add the policy to the policy category. If consensus is not reached, mark the article for deletion. While a vote can be called to assess community feelings about a proposed policy, no vote can ever be considered binding nor, unless unanimous, indication of consensus.

In any case, once the proposal is concluded, remove it from the list of policies being proposed. If the policy proposal failed, add it to the top of the recently failed list, along with the date. Failed policy proposals should not be reproposed for some time.

Current proposed policies
Conflict Policies:
 * GuildWiki talk:Don't shout at each other! - why we get emotional, and how not to

Overall site proposals:
 * Pop culture - Pop culture references and what to do with them.
 * Bots Still working out some kinks though
 * Censorship: guidelines for censoring on GuildWiki
 * What (not) to Delete another take on Censorship
 * Use Common Sense - Common Sense.
 * Guidelines

Recently accepted proposals

 * Rollback - adding users to the "rollback" group

Recently failed proposals

 * Requests for Bot-Status
 * Criteria for protection
 * Disregard all rules
 * In case of dispute, take plenty of screenshots (important points were incorporated into GW:AGF)
 * Bureaucrats - policy about bcrats (deemed unnecessary as it added nothing to the existing GW:ADMIN)