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The Shadowhunters' Wiki
The Shadowhunters' Wiki
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in: Policies and guidelines

The Shadowhunters' Wiki:Adding Information

Revision as of 05:41, 10 February 2017 by Rwtia64 (Message Wall | contribs) (→‎Canon tiers)
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This covers rules on information regarding the addition of different kinds of information to the wiki: from unreleased sources, and released, to-be-released and recently-released media.

General

  • Only create articles directly related to the wiki and the canonical information of its focus, The Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare. Also, make sure that the pages you are creating do not already exist under another name. Search for it or ask an admin if in doubt. Personal information, non-canon topics, opinions, speculations, assumptions, theories, rumors, etc. should go to the Forum, Discussions, or your own user page. For fanfiction stories, take it to our sister Fanon wiki.
  • Only "canonical" information of everything encompassed within and about The Shadowhunter Chronicles will be considered facts on the wiki mainspace.
  • Please be careful when adding statements to the wiki. Verify that they are facts, true, and reliable. This is to avoid being a contributing factor to the spread of wrong information.
  • See the canon guide below.
  • Always cite your sources, especially if the information is not well-known and is from other sources other than the main book series. This is to differentiate between fact and fanfiction, opinion, rumor, and vandalism.
  • Refrain from making consecutive minor edits (unless they're factual or grammatical corrections; otherwise, try to do them in one save). Also avoid minor, unnecessary changes, and routine changes on several pages (those brought upon by template design changes, for example—ones that can be done by bots and you might have seen admins doing); if you would like to do either, please do it alongside other, more constructive contributions.

Upcoming

Most information fans receive prior to a book's release is tentative. Meaning, it is still subject to change. Aside from this, we still get the occasional vandal that puts fallacies, popular theories, false and misleading information into articles. On the contrary, sometimes even confirmed and sourced information are also removed by uncertain users.

Because of this, editors are required to cite their source(s) along with the new information provided.

This is needed to confirm that the information is in fact confirmed and official. (Tentative information is also accepted as long as a source is provided; if it is later proven false, or if it is changed in the book itself, it can easily be removed. This is to avoid misinformation, confusion and inaccuracies on the wiki mainspace.

Spoilers

This is tentative and currently being voted on.

Spoilers are pieces of information about the series universe that reveal certain plot details, events and/or twists.

Medium Length (spoiler ban) Length ({{majorspoilers}}) Notes
Books One week Two months Anonymous editing will be turned off.
E-books Three days One month Considering online release and publication.
Episodes Eight hours One week Considering Netflix release.

Spoilers (and for the sake of consistency, even small details) from books not revealed prior to the release are not allowed on the wiki at least until one week (UTC time) after the release (unless the information has already been shared prior the release through snippets of teasers), for the sake of those who have not read the book yet. Even then, pages updated with major spoilers from a recently released medium should contain the {{majorspoilers}} tag for two months after the release.

For short stories first released in e-book form and later published, the initial spoiler ban will last only for three days (since they are released worldwide at the same time and people manage to get access to it sooner than physical books, the short stories take considerably less time to read). Meanwhile, because some people choose to wait for the published version or edition, the majorspoilers template will be kept on the involved pages longer: until a month after publication (which could potentially sum up to a year for some pages).

Anonymous users are also banned from editing and posting replies from the wiki to prevent trolls within the time frame or duration of the spoiler ban, and any user who signs up to spoil other users are also immediately blocked.

For episodes of Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments, spoilers must be kept off the wiki for at least eight hours after the initial airing (putting into consideration time zones and Netflix release). Certain pages and the discussion thread on the Forum will temporarily be locked/protected. After the spoiler ban, the involved pages must still contain the majorspoilers tag for a week after the episode airs and since episodes air weekly, the template will fog the page until the end of the season.

Referencing

Citing sources is especially necessary for new information, less-known series facts (both in-universe and real-world, and those that come from sources other than the series books.

Official sources include:

  • the series books
  • official press releases, interviews, articles
  • official website pages
  • other reveals by Cassandra Clare

To add links of sources in articles, add a section named References at the bottom of the page with the {{reflist}} template below it (if there isn't one), then put the link between ref tags (like so: <ref>link</ref>) and place these after a punctuation mark at the end of the statement.

If the reference is expected to stay on the wiki (not get removed once it is confirmed within the series), write the source out completely, with the quote or article title and the site source. Examples: 

<ref>[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/shadowhunters-renewed-second-season-at-875021 'Shadowhunters' Renewed for Second Season at Freeform] — Hollywood Reporter</ref>

to display: 'Shadowhunters' Renewed for Second Season at Freeform — Hollywood Reporter 

<ref>[https://twitter.com/cassieclare/status/626461679522566144 "Henry took the name Fairchild because Charlotte was Consul."] [[Cassandra Clare]] on Twitter</ref>

to display: "Henry took the name Fairchild because Charlotte was Consul." Cassandra Clare on Twitter

~ this section is a work in progress; we use the Harry Potter wiki as basis for references, so for an example, please check out an article on the wiki, e.g.: Harry Potter ~

Foreknowledge

SPOILER WARNING: Plot details follow. Caution is advised!
  • Canon or Trivia: Information given about a yet-to-be-released series (in these cases: Lady Midnight & Chain of Gold) and its events, characters, etc. before the publication can only be placed within the mainspace articles if:
    • it has already been established by the beginning of the aforementioned book
    • it is confirmed as final and official with little chance of redaction (even if it is set to take place within the book), has already been written (given as snippet), supported by or mentioned in, hinted at, or alluded to other already-released works, and is well-known information at this point
    • has taken place in a previous installment, even though it has yet to happen in the upcoming installment (e.g. Will's death in the epilogue Clockwork Princess, which has not yet happened in The Last Hours)
    • Otherwise, if it is information answered in passing, if it is something infrequently talked about and is set to take place during or after the upcoming book's setting, if certain information contradict each other, or if Cassie herself states that it is uncertain or subject to change, the information should be placed under the Trivia or Behind the scenes section.
  • Deaths: To avoid confusion, deaths will only be considered fact and accepted into the wiki mainspace if explicitly stated in a book, or any other official source (except the family tree, though this can be included under the Trivia section and can be considered true once supported by in-universe statements), even though a death is supposedly expected years after the last appearance due to aging. This is to avoid confusion or the assumption that a character died in a book. To contribute to this, the known date of a living character's last appearance need to be specified next to one's age and/or status (see below).
  • Infobox age: The age of the character should always be listed with the year of their last appearance (as of ####). In cases where a character who has appeared in previous works and is set to appear in an upcoming installment, more than one age may be included (one for the character's age in the upcoming book/series, and the other for the character's age in his/her most recent appearance in chronological order—it would depend on the setting on whether that comes before or after the upcoming book) as long as the following pattern is followed in this format:
    • (in ####) - past
    • (by ####) - setting of main series book but character has appeared in story set in the past but has yet to appear in any story set in said year
    • (as of ####) - ongoing/setting of main series book
    • (at time of death) - self-explanatory - only necessary if there is more than one age listed
    • ^ in normal cases, only the third is used and links to the year on the Timeline page (no need even for this if the character is dead; just put in the age); however, if there are multiple ages listed, the years should link to the book page
    • ^ in cases of immortal or unaging characters, an optional parenthesized statement can also be added, e.g. Turned at 15, physically 19, stopped aging at 22, etc.
  • Infobox status: There can also be more than one status (Alive, Deceased, or Unknown) listed for certain characters if he/she has already been proclaimed as deceased in a previously released work but is still alive and expected to have a recurring or major role in an ongoing or upcoming series (set in an earlier time in-universe) as long as the following pattern is followed in this format:
    • Alive (as of ####) - #### = in-universe year of last appearance or mention, wherein the character is still alive; link this to the book, except when it was already linked to in the Age parameter above it in the infobox
    • Deceased (by ####) - #### = in-universe year of death; link to book of confirmation of death
  • Family Tree: In the case of The Last Hours, and certain The Infernal Devices characters, we have a considerable amount of advance/preliminary knowledge, particularly with the revelation of death years and relationships in a released "found family tree" (proven and said to be misleading or deceptive in some cases). Information on-hand need to be treated as "possible false or half-truths" as we do not yet fully know how events will unfold. This information, however, may be included in the Trivia section and/or infobox (with notice or source).

For an example of some of the rules above applied on mainspace articles, see:

If you have any questions, feel free to ask any of the active admins.

Canon tiers

Since there are different sources of information for The Shadowhunter Chronicles canon and sources do, on occasion, conflict with one another, the following guide is to be used on the wiki. Listed below is the order by which the information will be considered and treated in terms of reliability.

For the Film:/TV: namespaces:

Facts from the sources listed above will be considered "canon" and true unless:

  • facts are deliberately stated or refuted by Cassandra Clare
    • not all will be considered true, considering that she may not always have all the information on hand necessary to confirm or contradict other information; i.e. a contradiction will only be counted in articles if she "deliberately" states something as true and another as false (or the like) - other conflicting information may be included in the Trivia sections; more information below
  • something is retconned or changed in later installments
  • something is contradicted by sources considered more reliable

If there are differences from the series' books, adaptations, and other sources that may conflict from previously known information, the information from the books will always be considered as canon. Basically put, everything is canon unless specifically contradicted by a "higher" source.

Although there are different levels of canon, this does not mean relevant information cannot be included in situations where there are conflicting canon sources. Ambiguous continuity should always be noted. If an "official" canon source has been chosen (e.g. Cassandra Clare has said that a fact was a mistake and it was meant to be something else) the information from the conflicting source could still appear in the article in the "Trivia" section, or as an explanation with the cited source that would appear under References.

"Deleted scenes", or those cut from the book, will not be considered canon unless stated otherwise.[1] However, certain shared short stories may be considered canon, also unless stated otherwise.

Please remember that any type of fanon, information created by fans is not considered canon at all and do not belong on the wiki mainspace.

References

  1. ↑ "Cut scenes don't count. That's why they're cut," Cassandra Clare on Twitter.
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