Dungeons and Dragons Wiki:Homebrew Content Requirements
As part of our mission to provide players and dungeon masters with quality, easy to find material, we have a few policies and guidelines that differ from other wikis. These policies impact all of our homebrewers, editors, and contributors, and we feel that it is important to make them as clear as possible.
Contents
Standard Article Requirements
Each article on this wiki must fit the following requirements:
- All article content must be your original work, or work you are reprinting with the permission of the author.
- The original author and current custodian must be specified in the author template. This template is designed to be used at the top of the page, before any of the content begins. The custodian, or the adopter of the article, is required if the original author has abandoned the work or if the work has been posted by another user with the authors express permission.
- All articles listed in the navigation pages must be complete. We allow for incomplete and in process articles to be maintained as a user sandbox, but they should not be categorized. They specifically may not belong to either Category:3.5e or Category:4e.
- Nearly all articles must be given a balance level according to our balance standards. We also expect that the balance level you indicate for your creation is accurate. There is an entry in the author template where this should be specified. Some article types, like races, are excluded from this requirement.
- All articles must be formatted according to the standards of this wiki. We do our best to follow the formatting standards set by the primary sources for Dungeons and Dragons material.
Standard Article Issues
Articles that do not follow the above requirements will be dealt with in the following ways.
Plagiarized Articles
We do not accept plagiarized articles. These will have the Delete Template placed on them and will be removed within one week. If a page of yours has been deleted because of this issue, we will ask you to provide some form of proof that the charges were false before we can recover the page or allow it to be recreated.
Improperly Attributed Articles
Articles lacking the author template will also have the Delete Template placed on them and will be removed within one week. As we are unable to determine whether a posted article is your original work or the work of another reposted with permission, we are unable to add this template to pages it is missing from. Our admins are happy to help you apply the template if it is missing, however, because we don't enjoy deleting pages for this minor reason. You can ask for assistance on one of their talk pages or in our chat, just make sure to do so before time runs out.
Incomplete Articles
In order to keep this wiki from building up a supply of incomplete and abandoned work, incomplete articles must be located in a user sandbox and lack categories that would allow them to show up in navigation pages. An article can be mechanically complete but lacking expository details (fluff) and still be considered complete, but it is important that the article not contain the missing sections as they are in the preload. A base class lacking an example character may be complete, but a base class that contains "<- something here ->" in the section where an example character should be is considered incomplete.
Any incomplete article found in the main navigation pages will have the Incomplete Article Template added to it. Articles with this template have one week from its application to either be completed or moved into a sandbox under the author. After this week period, it will be deleted without further warning or consideration. It is the owner's responsibility to either finish their article, remove the offending fluff sections, or move the incomplete article into a sandbox and remove the inappropriate categories. If you are uncertain how to move an article or remove categories, please leave a request for help on the talk page of one of our admins or ask for assistance in our chat room.
Creating User Sandboxes
Moving an article to a user sandbox, or creating a user sandbox is easy. To move an existing incomplete article, click the Move tab at the top of the article. Replace the existing page name in the dialog box with User:Name of User/Sandbox (such as User:JamesDean/Sandbox). Be sure to remove all category tags at the bottom so that the article doesn't show up in navigation pages.
To create a user sandbox with the preload (preexisting formatting) of the page type you need, simply type the name in the appropriate entry box to begin with, such as the Add New 3.5e Class or Add a New 4e Race pages. If you would like your sandbox article to be reviewed by other users, place the Help Wanted Template at the top of your sandbox and it will show up in Help Wanted.
Inappropriately Balanced Articles
Occasionally an article will not specify a balance point, will specify a balance point that doesn't follow our balance guidelines, or it will fail to meet the balance point that it set out to. Any article satisfying one of these three conditions will have the Balance Assistance Template placed on it, along with a description of the problem. There are several ways this issue can be resolved, depending on the exact nature of the balance issue.
- The easiest way is to simply specify a balance level that accurately represents the article. In general, this should only be done by the author, as they understand what they want out of the class and should make the decision that it's acceptable at the new balance level.
- In cases where an article failed to meet an intended balance point, the solution is generally to improve or detract from the features of the article until it meets the intended balance point. Again, these changes should only be done by the author, suggestions to help them achieve it belong on the article's talk page.
Since these conditions suggest that the article is technically incomplete, there is a time limit of two weeks for changes to be completed once this template is applied. At the end of that time the article should match its specified balance point or be moved into a sandbox of the author. Articles that fail to meet their intended balance point and remain in regular navigation after that point will be deleted.
Poorly Formatted Articles
The least egregious of the above issues is poor formatting. We do not delete articles that are improperly formatted, but we do apply the Formatting Template to them. This template indicates that the article needs editing to bring it up to the readability standards of the wiki, and will invite people to edit it to reach those standards. This editing may include proper linking, property assignments, general page flow, actual text, etc., and will generally remove a lot of the author's control from the article. Articles with this template are also ineligible for rating by our Rating Committee, and will never receive a recommendation from the wiki.
In Progress Articles
We know that a big draw of a wiki is that it can be a collaborative environment to share work on projects, and we want to keep that alive without compromising our other goals. To that end, you can apply the Help Wanted Template to any of your sandbox projects. This template places your 'work in progress' in an easily accessible list and invites other users to look it over and offer suggestions. So even though your sandbox articles aren't in the main section of the wiki, they can still be accessed and critiqued while you finish polishing them up.
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