Editing Conventions

10 Canon Laws of Mass Trek Wikia

 * 1) This is a merging of the Star Trek genre with the Mass Effect genre, other science fiction works are allowed but these will always take precedence.
 * 2) No time travel! Writing wikia articles are hard enough without altering temporal mechanics. In this universe, time travel is and will always be impossible.
 * 3) No super-power warships of doom (ex. Deathstars)... unless you can logically provide facts to back up your monster of a ship.
 * 4) No fanfiction or stories posted as wikia articles. This is a encyclopedia, if you want to post stories, head over to FanFiction.net. We are honestly sorry, but articles posted as stories will be deleted. Quotes however are allowed and encouraged.
 * 5) Admins have final say on all edits. See Admin Rights for more details.
 * 6) The United Federation of Planets and Starfleet do not exist in this universe. Instead the Xindi Conflict arose, sparking the development of a new grand alliance of races, the Interstellar Coalition.
 * 7) Space battles are welcomed but always make sure to ground your numbers in logic. The Battle of Wolf 359 was a ground-shattering event in the Star Trek genre and it only had 40 ships. If you want grand space battles of thousands of ships, provide the neccessary and logical information, reasoning and factual data to back it up.
 * 8) For the sake of sanity, try to keep events within one decade or more of the current timeline. Currently our users are writing their way through the post-Star Trek Enterprise era (2160s). Sorry but it's not time for the USS Enterprise-E to make an appearance... we are past ICS Enterprise-A.
 * 9) If venturing a radical change to the Mass Trek universe (war, character death, end of life as we know it), please prompt an Admin via their talk pages for premission or clarification if it directly affects the article of another user.
 * 10) Don't cut and paste from other wikias. Cite them for factual data or reference but try to make sure over 3/4 of an article should be your own creatoin.

Tempus
All articles are generally written in past tense because there is no omnivalent present time in this fictional universe, from the various reader's and writer's point of view. Other than that, we write like historians in the future writing about its past.

Dating/Timeline
All articles that include dates must adhere to the timeline on the Chronology category page and follow a logical, predictable time period. Please check dating to ensure that no event directly conflicts with another.

Note: You are not to change the date of an event (on the timeline or the article it pertains to) unless said event directly conflicts with established articles.
 * ex. if a Coalition warship was launched in 2160 to fight in the Xindi Conflict but said war ended in 2157, we have conflicting dates and confused readers.

Note: Admins have final say in all adjustments to the timeline. Any information deemed unspecific or unnecessary will be removed.

Characters
The title of a character article should only consist of the character's first name and last name(s), in that order. Titles, ranks, nicknames as well as additional given names should be listed in the header of the article, not in it's title.

EXCEPTIONS, if the character name is excessively long (i.e. Cylon alphanumeric designations), please use the common name for them.

Wrong Character Article Title Right Character Article Title In order to sort character articles without the Wikia identifying the first name first, insert the Default Sort stubb and the system will sort by chracter surname and not first name. { { DEFAULTSORT:[LAST NAME], [FIRST NAME] } },
 * Example: Admiral Jonathan Archer
 * Example: Cylon Centurion Alpha-29723971-Beta-A
 * Example: Jonathan Archer
 * Example: Alpha-29
 * Remove the spaces in the above code when it is pasted into an article, for it to become active.

Ship Classes
Ship class pages are named .
 * Example: NX-class

Ship Name
Ships are always listed with their fleet prefix (if known). The most common are ICS (Interstellar Coalition Starship), and XSS (Xindi Space Ship). If more than one ship used the same name, include the fleet registry number in the article name, although in articles linking to that ship you may shorten the printed name to hide the registry.

If the Ship Prefix has been update, from UES to ICS, the ship's article page should be renamed to reflect that but entries reflecting its early service should remain untouched.

Example: UES Enterprise to ICS Enterprise

See Ship Prefixes for a detailed list of fleet names.

Ship Alphabetic Ordering
In order to sort ship articles without the Wikia identifying the prefix first, insert the Default Sort stubb and the system will sort by ship name and not prefix. { { DEFAULTSORT:[SHIP NAME], [PREFIX] } }
 * Remove the spaces in the above code when it is pasted into an article, for it to become active.

Categorization
All articles must be appended with a category and said category must lead all the way back to the Mass Trek Wikia Homepage. To accomplish this, always assign categories in a leap frogging list, with the lowest page receiving all categories from the broad to hyper specific.

Note: Do Not Add the category Mass Trek Wikia to any article. This is only for the supra-categories.
 * ex. The article ICS Enterprise should be categorized in Spacecraft, Ships, United Earth Starfleet Ships.  The category list would go as such. Spacecraft > Ships > United Earth Starfleet Ships > ICS Enterprise. So if a user follows the category list back to its highest tier from the lowest page, they will be able to get all the way to the Mass Trek Wikia Homepage.

Supra-Categories
Supra-categories are the top eight categories on the Mass Trek Wikia Homepage. All pages MUST list one of the following.
 * Characters: This is a listing of all the characters articles.
 * Spacecraft: This is a listing of all space-born vessels and facilities articles.
 * Species: This is a listing of all articles pertaining to biological organisms, both sentient and non-sentient.
 * Technology:This is a listing of all articles pertaining to technological developments, ranging from engine propulsion, communication, transportation, civilian infrastructure, social concepts, laws, treaties, etc.
 * Wars/Conflicts: This list pertains to all articles detailing conflicts, from local to planetary to galactic, covering periods of unrest or violence.
 * Geography: This is a list of articles pertaining to all geography, from cities to countries to planets to star systems to galaxies.
 * Civilizations: This is a list of articles pertaining to all civilizations, military organizations, religious orders and political organizations.
 * Chronology:This is a listing of all articles pertaining to chronological events.

Templates
See: Mass Trek:Templates

Articles Under Construction
Articles that are currently in the process of being written, constructed or formatted should always have the following code pasted into them. This will note the article as being 'under-construction' and should not be treated as literal until completion. { {stub} }
 * Remove the spaces in the above code when it is pasted into an article, for it to become active.
 * Warning: Be kind to users/writers who are not completed an article and have instituted the article stub, edit only for formatting, grammar, spelling and comprehension. No rewriting of articles to suit other needs without the authors consent.

Disambiguations‎
Articles that share identical or similar naming titles are to be issued a Disambiguation stubb. Disambiguation pages should be named [Article Title (disambiguation)]. Any disambiguation article that matches this critera should have the dismbig stub added to them: { {disambig} }
 * Example: Pandora is the name of a moon, a ship, ship class and colonization program. All these are to be listed under Pandora (disambiguation). Each article under this umbrella will need to have a link to the disambiguation page, usually written as such:
 * This article is about the [Article Name and Purpose]. For other uses, see [Disamiguation Article (disambiguation)].


 * Remove the spaces in the above code when it is pasted into an article, for it to become active.

Deletion
Articles that have been deemed as containing duplicate or non-specific information will be subject to deletion and added to the category Candidates for Deletion. Articles that have been listed on this list for longer than one month will be deleted. Any article that matches this critera should have the delete stub added to them: { {delete} } Articles deemed vandalism and/or spam will be deleted by Admins without warning and IP/Usernames will be blocked. Users who find such articles should issue the following speedy deletion stubb to the article: { {speedydelete} }
 * Remove the spaces in the above code when it is pasted into an article, for it to become active.


 * Remove the spaces in the above code when it is pasted into an article, for it to become active.

Merging/Redirects
Pages that have been deemed approriate but located in the area will be moved/merged with existing articles and a redirect to their new location will be issued. Any user clicking on the old page's location will automatically be redirected to the pages new location.

Old information on the original article should be moved to its new location, for the sake of housekeeping and all categories should be removed.

Any redirect to a new location should have the redirection stub added to them:
 * 1) REDIRECT [ [New Article Location] ]
 * Remove the spaces in the above code when it is pasted into an article, for it to become active.
 * Warning: Once a redirect is installed on an article, it will requiring going to the new article and clicking the Redirected From Page.
 * Warning: URLs can not be redirected to. Redirects are specific to pages on this wikia only.

Admin Rights
In order to facilitate an orderly and user friendly wikia, the Admins of Mass Trek Wiki can and will be actively editing articles.

Currently there are  Admins, see our Founder for more information, North2207. Admin privileges will be appointed based on a users performance and adherence to Mass Trek Wikia policies.

Support/Conflict with Admins
First and foremost, if at anytime an Admin takes action that you deem goes against the establish policies of Wikia.com or was in error AND refused to correct the issue, it is within your right as a user to bring the issue to their attention and request action. Such actions could be but not limited to:
 * Click Here for the Wikia Support Page.


 * Blocking of users for no verifiable reason.


 * Deleting articles for no verifiable reason.


 * Editing articles for no verifiable reason.


 * Malicious accusations.

Ownership
All articles posted on this wikia will always defer to the orginal desires of its author, so far as:


 * The article's information pertains directly to information in the Mass Trek universe.


 * The article is deemed to contain specific information.


 * The article's chronological dating is logical and adheres to the Mass Trek timeline (as established).

Spelling
Articles that contain grammer or spelling mistakes can and will be edited by admins, to correct for misspellings, improper linking, improper formatting, wrong dates/times or confusing information.

Articles that contain EXCESSIVE grammer or spelling mistakes will be DELETED. A deletion stubb will be added to the article and the user has one month to correct the issues or request beta-reader assistance. At the end of the one month period, if the article's grammer has not been corrected, the user will be warned once that they have 48-hours to make a final correction or the article WILL BE DELETED.

Beta-Readers
We understand that that Wikia is an international site (our Admins are Singaporean and American respectively). If English is not your first language or your grammer is normally not equatable to an English PhD, please always know that we Admins welcome beta-reader requests.

Writing an article and moving on is always bad, feel free to bring a new article to our attention and we will be happy to review it.

Deletion/Alteration of Information & Articles
If a portion or the whole of an article is deemed to contain non-specific information, has a description deemed too extensive, is written in a story format or contains information that directly conflicts with other established articles, it is within the Admins right to modify or remove said information.

These edits are FINAL and users are not to remove them or rewind back to their original edits. Know that this is not intended to steal, demean or remove your work and the admins will always try their hardest to maintain your original idea as much as possible.

We are sorry if these changes hurt your feelings or remove something you enjoyed or worked very hard on but the admins are here to make sure that all articles stay on topic and contain relevant information. If you'd like to contest the change, feel free to bring it to the admin's attention via their Talk pages.

If this does not resolve the issue, please raise it to Wikia Support for further assistance.

Copyright/Copy & Paste
Mass Trek Wikia is a fanfiction wikia, as it takes place in an established canon universe of both a video game and a television show, it respectively requests that its users DO NOT copy information from other wikias or copyrighted material.

If you write an article by using another wikia article or copyrighted material as a source or as reference (like a book report), that is allowable. If you copy said material word for word from another wikia or copyrighted source, the article will be subject to deletion until the user takes proper action.

We highly support all Wikias and also firmly believe that all information on them is owned first by the copyright holder and secondly by the avid fan who took the time and energy to write them.

Do steal people, give credit where credit is due.

Comments/Reviews/Talk Pages
Users are encouraged to use the comments sections and talk pages to give encouragement and help to other users. Constructive criticism is craved!

However if reviews, comments or talk page discussions are deemed to be overtly negative and/or intentionally intended to hurt/insult the user's feelings, they will be deleted.

We are all here to have fun; those that are here to hurt, not help, WILL BE BANNED.

Fanfiction
We highly enjoy fanfction, especially the grand internet archive that is FanFiction.net.

That said, we strongly encourage writers to NOT pen articles in story format. All articles must adhere to the idea of wikia as an encylopedia, to be used as reference and research material.

We are sorry, but any article written in a story format will be subject to deletion, with a one month notice period, followed by a final 48-hour warning period, before ending in deletion.

To appease all sides however, we welcome users to pen their stories on FanFiction.net, then refer back to this wikia as it was intended, as an encyclopedia database for reference and knowledge.

Blocking
Users that have taken malicious action against other articles or users will be blocked, both via user name and IP address.

This is considered a safe, positive and professional environment. If any user is found to be engaging in negative actions that is harming the wikia in general or a user in particular, they will be removed with extreme prejudice.

Block worthy actions can include:


 * Entering in malicious, giberrish or non-sense into an article.


 * Trolling other users to spark conflict or discord.


 * Removing information to harm, not help articles.


 * Harassing other users.


 * Spamming article comments to get attention.


 * Spamming links to external sites.


 * Unacceptable usernames (something that would make your own mother gasp in horror!)

Please refer to our List of Shame for those users that have been blocked for such actions.