Dune Wiki:Guidelines

When submitting new entries, or modifying existing ones, it is requested that you bear the following suggestions in mind. Also, if you are not one already, please consider becoming a registered user. This will give you more editing tools, and a greater say over the direction of the Wiki. Registration is free.

Overall Style
Articles in the Dune wiki should follow an in-universe writing style: that is, any article that pertains to a character, place, event, concept or object found within the fictional Dune universe, should be written from a historical perspective as if it were reality. Pseudohistory is an integral part of in-universe treatment of canon material. For example timeframes should not be defined by novel titles (e.g. "Xavier Harkonnen was a Primero by the time of the Dune: The Machine Crusade novel...") but by events or years measurement.

Articles about real-life Dune-related events, Dune authors, etc. obviously do not have to follow this style. Pragmatic details related to the element's origins, relevant author notes, or reader interpretations of the fictional element should be placed in a 'Behind the Scenes' section at the bottom of the article.

This style follows the model used by the Star Wars wiki.

Neutral Point-of-View (NPOV)
Although the need for NPOV within this wiki should be minimal, there will be times when it will be necessary. For example, over the interpretation of a Dune author's work, or the validity or legitimacy of certain non-canon works.

Please discuss and/or edit any such topics with carefully chosen and non-inflammatory words.

Content
The following suggestions will help to better organize the content of the Dune wiki:

Acceptable sources
Please only include sources or material which have been deemed as acceptable to this wiki. For more information on acceptable and unacceptable sources see the Content Guidelines page.

Original Dune versus newer novels
'''* Material from the new Dune novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson must not be added to Original Dune articles! *' Please differentiate between entries that relate to expanded or non-canon'' material. Expanded material includes the novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Non-canon includes stories or elements developed by films, games, etc. that deviate from Frank Herbert's original novels.

The Dune wiki is split into 3 main categories: Please make use of the Split Canon Templates to disambiguate between Original, Expanded and Encyclopedia pages.
 * Original - This includes Frank Herbert's 6 Dune Novels and his Road to Dune short story.
 * Expanded (XD) - This includes newer works by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.
 * Dune Encyclopedia (DE) - This includes information from the Dune Encyclopedia.

Some non-notable articles may be Mixed Canon where it may be impractical to split the canons, however this should be the exception, rather than the rule.

For articles that contain a mixture of canon and non-canon material, place the creative details in a 'Behind the Scenes' section at the bottom of the article, and include the following code after each non-canon paragraph: &#123;&#123;ref|Behind_the_Scenes&#125;&#125;

Plagiarism
Anyone is welcome to add content to new or existing articles on the Dune Wiki. However, if you are adding chunks of content that has been copied verbatim from another source please give credit to that source by referencing it. This can be done by simply adding the following template call at the top of the article: &#123;&#123;extsource|[source's name goes here]&#125;&#125;

Please do not copy entire pages verbatim from other sources on the Web, including Wikipedia.

Apart from creating style inconsistencies, some content and links will not be relevant to this wiki. Using an existing external article as the basis for a new article on the Dune Wiki is fine though.

Featured Articles
Periodically a new featured article will be chosen to appear on the Main Page. Users can nominate an article, or vote for a nominated article. However, certain restrictions apply, as well as an evolving process for choosing such articles. See the Vote for a Featured Article page for more information.

Categories
Please categorize new articles, as this helps visitors to better navigate the wiki. A list of existing categories can be found here.

If none fit don't be affraid to create a new one. An article can be placed in multiple categories. To add it to a category use the following code:

Discussions
If you want to share thoughts or opinions relating to a Dune topic or article with other contributors, please add a comment to the 'Discussion' page that is associated with a given article. To communicate with a specific user you can add a comment to their specific 'user talk' page. When adding comments, if you are a registered user please add the following after your comment (this will automatically add your Wiki signature): --&#126;&#126;&#126;&#126;

Look and feel
The following suggestions will help maintain an overal 'look and feel' for the Dune wiki:

Sections and table of contents
To enhance readability, and cause a table of contents to be automatically generated for longer articles, please separate articles into logical sections by using the following code: == (heading goes here ==)

Spelling and grammar
Please spell-check entries to reduce typos and grammatical errors.

Templates
Several shortcut templates are provided to explain various common navigational or editing details for a given article. These include:

Stub
If you create or edit an article that isn't complete or could benefit from further information being added, please use the 'stub' template, by placing the following code at the bottom of the article:

Disambiguity
If you create or edit an article about a topic that could be confused for something else, and would like to offer the reader a disambiguous link, please use the 'disambig' template. Note: this template requires the text that will appear. Here is an example:

Exclusively Non-Canon Content
If you create or edit an article that relates exclusively to a topic or character not mentioned in Frank Herbert's original Dune novels, please use the 'non-canon' template, by placing the following code at the top of the article: This will also add the article into the "Non-canon" category.

Mixed Canon/Non-Canon Content
For articles that contain a mixture of canon and non-canon material please use the 'stub' template, by placing the following code at the top of the article:

Rewrite
If you (or another reader) feel an article needs a major or minor rewrite, please use the 'rewrite' template, by placing the following code at the top of the article: This will also add the article into the "Rewrite" category.

Unknown
If the source for the information in an article is unknown, please use the 'unknown' template. This will also add the article into the "Unknown source" category. Unknown

Footnote Reference
For paragraphs that reference non-canon material in a mixed article, the 'ref' template can be referenced. This accepts a section header, to which the footnote will be linked. For example, to add a footnote that points to the 'Behind the Scenes' section of an article, type the following code at the end of the paragraph: