Harry Potter Wiki:Policy

This is the official policy page for the Harry Potter 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:


 * Rowling's Word is Law.

Content
First and foremost, the Harry Potter Wiki is exactly that - a wiki, or an editable online encyclopedia on the Harry Potter universe. We host information, facts, images, and official theories related to Harry Potter on this site, as well as discussions about the material presented here. We do not entertain any fan fiction, images, or ramblings (collectively "fanonsense"), Harry Potter game cheats or walkthroughs, advertisements, spam, or articles not directly associated with the Harry Potter universe. You may talk about anything which you like on your talk page, or add the same in your namespace, as long as it is legal. We don't really care. Just remember that this wiki is not a social networking site. If you don't have anything of real informative value to contribute and if you don't want to help out in editing or monitoring - in short, if you don't want to make yourself useful - then scram.

All the content in this wiki (i.e. text, 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 nicely written or beautifully shot. Quotes, facts, and figures may be taken from anywhere, as long as they are sourced (see below for HP referencing templates). All text must be original - no copying from Wikipedia or MuggleNet (see No Copy Policy below).

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

Vandalism
If you see an act of vandalism, please revert the page to its original state and report the vandal.

Any users committing acts of vandalism will be blocked and sent to Azkaban for a period of 24-72 hours. Repeat offenders will receive the Dementor's Kiss and be blocked indefinitely (with the exception of anonymous IP addresses). Administrators may also choose to use their best discretion and block for a longer or shorter period of time. Difficult to block or otherwise exceptional vandals will be reported to a staffer at Wikia.

No Copy Policy
All articles must be written so that they have complete and comprehensive information, at the same time being distinct from their Wikipedian counterparts. Some users and/or anons cut and paste Wikiarticles, leaving a whole tangled mess of redlinks and loops in the HP articles.

If you see an article which seems to be a copy of a Wikipedian article, you can either be bold and rewrite the article yourself, or you can paste   at the top of the article and wait for someone else to dewikipediafy (abbr. "deWPfy") the article.

"In-universe" point of view
For the sake of consistency, all articles written about people, places, or things within the Harry Potter Universe have to be written from an "in-universe" perspective rather than from a "real world" perspective: for example, "Alicia Spinnet was a Chaser in the first five books" should be changed to "Alicia Spinnet was a Chaser from 1991 to 1996". This rule naturally does not apply for subjects outside the Harry Potter Universe, like J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury, and the different books and films. Subjects that exist both in the real world and in the HP Universe should be written about from an in-universe perspective (e.g. London, Nicolas Flamel, etc.).

Should a reference be necessary, one may use the following templates to clarify which book the passage came from: HP1, HP2, HP3, HP4, HP5, HP6, HP7. To clarify from a scene of a movie use the following templates: HP1 film, HP2 film, HP3 film, HP4 film, HP5 film, HP6 film, HP7 film

Spelling
Since the Harry Potter books are originally a British series, the U.K. editions are the final source on spelling and phrases. For example, the U.S. editions of the book refer to Cornelius Fudge as the "Minister of Magic" but the U.K. editions refer to him as the "Minister for Magic." Other small examples are such things as the usage of alternate spellings like "colour" instead of "color", or "Sybill" instead of "Sibyll". We should strive to remain consistent with the British versions wherever applicable. Where there exist multiple spellings, redirects should be made to the page with the British variant.

Deletion
Articles, images, categories and other pages in the Harry Potter Wiki which have been tagged with delete, tfd or cfd and will be automatically listed in Category:Candidates for deletion and will be deleted after no opposition have been given. Articles which have been previously deleted will be re-deleted if there are no significant improvements; articles which obviously do not belong in the Harry Potter Wiki (e.g. vandalism, unrelated topics, game cheats/walkthroughs) will be deleted on sight. (Note: If an article has been tagged for an exceptionally long time without consensus, an admin may or may not delete it at his own discretion.)

If your article has been tagged or deleted, please do not take offence - this is not meant against you. You may defend your article on its talk page or deletion page, or talk to an administrator. Never remove the tag before the vote is done - repeatedly doing so may result in a ban of three days minimum. If your article is deleted, please refrain from rewriting it without consensus from your fellow editors.

This logic also applies in reverse. Please do not attempt to delete articles by yourselves. Blanking articles is just as bad as removing delete tags from those unfortunate articles, and repeatedly blanking articles (not necessarily the same one) also constitutes a minor offense and may result in a three day minimum ban. If you wish to delete an article, you may use the tags mentioned above, state your reason, and wait for a consensus.

Templates
When editing character templates, please refer to Template talk:Character infobox for things such as the template color and the character's house.

Page moves and rewrites
As with any Wiki article, please do not make drastic changes and rewrites without the consent of other editors. Exceptions can be made if the article is in obviously bad shape.

Quality
The Harry Potter 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!

For most of the lesser known facts, sources would be very much appreciated!

And, last but not least, fanfics and other fan pages should be limited to userspace (e.g. User:Example/HPFiction ) and not in the main wiki. All fan pages in the main space will be deleted on sight!

Layout guide
The layout guide should be followed wherever possible in order to give the Harry Potter 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.