Dungeons and Dragons Wiki:Editing Policy

Because the Dungeons and Dragons Wiki is composed of several sections, each with different focus, we have different editing policies and preferences for them. They are listed below.

Homebrew Editing Policy
Our mission of providing author maintained content leads us towards frowning on changing or rewriting the work of others, unlike most other wikis out there. We ask that you follow the Editing restrictions, found in the author box at the top of the main article page, of each article on the wiki. Edits in violation of this policy will be reverted. If a user fails to abide by this policy, or continually tries to edit a page after their edits have been reverted, the normal course of action is to temporarily block the user rather than lock the page until things cool off.

Some common editing restrictions are listed below.

"Clarity edits only please"
The most common, and in fact default, editing restriction for a page is to restrict non-author edits to "clarity edits only please". In this case we welcome you to edit their work to correct grammatical mistakes, unclear ideas, and similar issues but we ask that you maintain the original intent of the work. If you believe the original intent of the work is wrong or misguided for some reason, please post the issue to the talk page and refrain from simply changing it yourself.

"Conservative edits only"
This editing restriction is often applied to transcribed resources. These articles may be slightly edited from their original forms to include errata or other minor enhancements. This does not necessarily mean the article is open for general editing, however, and any edits made must remain true to the character of the work. Anyone adding to a work in this fashion needs to add themselves as a contributor as well as document their changes on the talk page.

These additional steps are in place to help make certain that any changes to the article stay true to the original intent. They also make it easy for everyone to understand the history and changes of the article.

Other Restrictions
Most other restrictions should be fairly clear. Remember, no matter how strong the restriction you can always put your concerns and suggestions on the talk pages of an article.

Abandoned Pages
Occasionally an author will leave us or stop checking back to answer queries or concerns about their work, and in those cases you may attempt to adopt their work as your own in order to edit it more thoroughly or otherwise correct mistakes. There is no well defined process for adoption as yet, but it does require administrator approval. Your best bet is to leave a message on the author's talk page initially. If they still have not responded within a reasonable period (two weeks to a month), please leave a message on the talk page of one of our admins indicating your desire to adopt the page. As long as the community has no objections, the page will likely be transferred to your stewardship, and your name added to the author box as the adopter and current owner.

Canon Editing Policy
Our canon pages follow a much more traditional wiki editing policy, since they are intended to be encyclopedic and have no individual user name attached to them. You should feel free to correct and update these pages such that they match source material and facts as much as possible. Please strive for a neutral tone with these articles, as they are intended to convey facts instead of opinion or conjecture. Don't be offended if your work here is overwritten or changed, these articles don't belong to anyone in the same way that our homebrew articles do and most changes are welcome as long as they are improvements.

And please make sure to provide citations for your work where appropriate. It helps users find what you are referring to, as well as stop any opinion based edit wars before they start.

SRD and Publication Editing Policy
These pages are linked to actual sources elsewhere, and should be as close to accurately transcribed as possible. Pages in these areas should only be edited to correct listed information or to be more appropriately formatted. The content and or wording of these articles should not be changed under most circumstances.