No matter if you're new or old to this site or to the games, the administrators ask that you please follow these rules! It would be preferred to keep this wikia safe for people of any age to look at, so the rules work as a guideline for that.
General Rules
- No cussing, swearing, obscene language, or profanity of any sort (Even if it's abbreviated), and no language inappropriate for younger audiences or individuals in a professional workplace/school environment.
- Be nice! Direct rudeness and offensive language will be met with punishment on a scale proportional to the offense.
- No spamming or vandalism of any sort.
- Do not edit just for the sake of editing. Just because you have more edits or badges than another user, that doesn't mean you are more important than they are.
- Only edit your own user page, unless you get permission from the other user first.
- Sarcastic attitudes, unless properly executed, are not accepted, seeing as how sarcasm often gets lost in translation over text conversations and could lead to battles we don't need.
- This could be considered a "catch all" rule, but for the sake of it will be included separately: Be kind and respect all users, even yourself! That means no insults, no targeted vandalism, and no arguments (However, see the header "Debate Rules" for clarification on what an argument is).
- Try only to add the "stub" template to pages that really need it! If a page has sufficient information on its subject, as well as an image or two (and perhaps a template), it is not a stub. Pages with less than five hundred characters can be considered stubs, even if they have an image or a template.
- When a creature, location, character, etc. has two different names in the North American English and European English localizations of the games, use its North American name when referring to it. Other localizations will be documented in the relevant infoboxes, but North American English has been chosen as default elsewhere to keep the Wikia consistent.
- Created pages should be relevant only to the Endless Ocean games; do not create pages for creatures that do not exist in either game, or for any fan-made content, even if they relate to Endless Ocean.
Image Rules
Image Title Rules
Every creature in Endless Ocean and Endless Ocean 2 should have one main image pertaining to each of their forms and relevant appearances; in-game photos, encyclopedia photos and real life photos; occasionally, there may also be required entries for young photos and young encyclopedia photos. Those "main" images should be titled as follows:
- In-game photos where the main focus is a creature within them should be PNG files named after the fish and nothing more, e.g. "Sea Star.png".
- Marine Encyclopedia photos should be PNG files named after the fish with "E" at the end, e.g. "Sea Star E.png"
- Real life photos can be either PNG or JPG files but must be named after the fish with "RL" at the end e.g. "Sea Star RL.png" / "Sea Star RL.jpg".
- Young in-game photos should follow the same rule as in-game photos but ending in "Young" e.g. "Humpback Whale Young.png"
- Young encyclopedia photos should follow the same rule as encyclopedia photos but ending in "E" e.g. "Humpback Whale Young E.png"
As for photos that do not fall under this category of "main" images, simply title them appropriately -- do not leave default names such as "Screenshot 14.jpg" or gibberish such as "kJfgS2TtfR.png", simply name the image after the subject of the photo, i.e. "Amphitrite's Sanctuary EO2 3.png", "Jean-Eric Cutscene 4.png", "Pirate Compass.png", etc.
Other Image Rules
- All images must relate to Endless Ocean in some way, be it a real-life photo pertaining to some element of the game (such as a real-life photo of a creature, or an example of a real-life item/location that the game was inspired by) or an in-game photo.
- Images depicting fish that have been fished up or removed from their natural habitats are prohibited; this also goes for images of creatures from popular culture or media, which will be removed. Exceptions include fossils, scientific exhibits, aquariums and museums.
- Real-life photos of creatures per page should be limited to around two, in order to prevent page bloat. Exceptions will be made for creatures with multiple forms (such as juvenile/adult, and male/female), but even so, no more than four real-life images should be on any given creature page.
- Do not upload images that are redundant, in which the subject is already well represented in other photos currently on this wiki. Any new photos must show something new about the subject not displayed in other photos, such as a different angle or spot in a location, a creature behaving in a way unique to other photos, or an image of higher quality. This is again to prevent page bloat.
- Do NOT take other users' images without asking their permission. If any cases of plagiarism are brought to an admin's attention, appropriate action will be taken according to the circumstance. Individuals who were determined to have plagiarized will be given a ban, length determined by said admin.
- Do not upload really small images, e.g. photos under 100px. The only time this is appropriate is for icons on pages or templates.
- Do not upload duplicate images. If this happens, the admins will delete the lower-quality image of the two.
- Do not upload edited images unless the edit adds more pertinent information to the page in which it is featured, and is in line with the terms of use of said image.
- Do not upload images with watermarks or any similar features unless you get permission from an admin first. Such features imposed by Arika, however, are allowed.
- When a creature, location, character, etc. has two different names in the North American English and European standard English localizations of the games, use its North American name when naming an image of it.
- Do not upload images that are noticeably taken using in-game cheats. Increased resolution of up to 3x native is permitted for images taken using an emulator, but generally, images should look as if they could be feasibly taken in a vanilla game. This means images taken using the following are forbidden:
- Emulator camera hacks or fog disabling
- Game modifications that visibly change the game from a vanilla state
- Custom textures or colorblind filters
Video Rules
- When you upload videos please name them with the creature, location, or item they pertain to and the type of video it is. The types of videos include the following, but ask an admin if you're not sure what to categorize a video as.
- Walkthrough
- Narration
- Location
- Gameplay
- Promotional material
- Don't upload duplicate videos. Same rules apply as with duplicate images.
- Avoid uploading videos with watermarks if possible. If you're not sure about what can be uploaded, ask an administrator for clarification.
- Do not upload videos that do not contain genuine gameplay. This includes videos with heavily edited footage, parody videos, or animations, unless they are informational. This is to be determined by the admin.
Talk Page Rules
- No content except vandalism, broken links, and profanity may be removed from any user talk page. Off topic posts may be removed from article talk pages.
- While not really a "rule", we ask that all members please remember to sign all talk page comments with four tildes (~~~~).
- While not mandatory, we are also asking users to not change their signatures to only words. Signatures are required on talk pages to identify messages, so if a user's signature doesn't link to their user page or user talk page, it makes it difficult to tell who left which post.
- Article talk pages, like the template header at the top states, are there for discussing changes to the article, not for a discussion about the topic in question.
- Don't rewrite other user's messages.
- Don't answer messages left for other users.
Blog Rules
- All blog posts must pertain to Endless Ocean or ocean-related discussion.
- Nothing overly personal or pointless should even be considered worthy of a blog post. (Pointless subjects include but are not limited to: games, number of edits one has, spam from other websites, certain types of polls, personal problems, etc.)
- Blog posts can have a certain degree of freedom from Blog Rule 1 if they're a series of related entries, such as fictional stories, personal tales, etc. - but keeping them as related to the games as possible is always a safe bet.
- Blog comments must keep on topic as the blog post dictates.
Chat Rules
- Keep it clean! Anyone who posts something violating the General Rules will be kicked from the chat.
- If anyone says anything inappropriate in the chat, please report them to an admin on the Wikia. You must provide proof to back up your claim (screen capture, etc.) as we don't want to block users unnecessarily.
- Please keep the chat for important and public matters. If you have something private to talk about with another user, schedule a time with the person and use the PM (Private Message) system.
Debate Rules
A debate is classified as two or more individuals respectfully presenting opinions based on a set of facts. The key words here are respectfully and facts. Do not present an argument against your opponent in a rude manner, do not insult them or their argument, and do not use profanity in your argument, no matter how worked-up you may be. The "facts" part means that, to support your opinion, you must use factual information that has a reliable source, whether the information pertains to the game itself or something related to the game (debates pertaining to subjects outside of Endless Ocean are not allowed, and the conversations shall be deleted and the users may perhaps be blocked for a short period of time to prevent further arguments).
Those are all of the rules that apply to general users! If any new admins are added to the Wikia, the below set of rules is for them. Thank you!
- Admins Nick, MDB, Maddie and Danny.
Admin Rules
As well as the above rules, admins have other obligations to help keep the Wikia fair and clean at the same time. These include, but are not limited to:
- All admins are required to contact/warn "offending" members before blocking them. This will give the member time to voice their reasons for their actions. The offended has three warnings ("strikes") before the member in question is blocked for however long the admin in charge of the case sees fit. DISCLAIMER: This rule does not apply to users who spam, vandalize, swear, offend other users, users who are exceptionally rude, or unregistered users.
- All active admins have to agree upon a rule and its phrasing before it can be added. This way, all of the admins can add in their own ideas and no one can make the rules work to their personal advantage.
- Before a user is granted admin status, all active admins have to agree upon the candidate.
- An admin is considered inactive after being away from the Wikia for three months.