Help:Before You Edit

Welcome to the DC Database Project!

We are really glad you have come and are getting ready to contribute to the database.

Before you get down to business adding a new character or updating an existing one, we have to discuss a few ideas that keep our database running smoothly. We hope you will be able to follow these items as closely as possible. It will help us both in the long run.

Naming Conventions
The DC Database contains tens of thousands of pages and in order to keep them best organized we have come up with a unified standard of naming articles and images. This is to make sure we can find them again later when we need them. Before you create a new page, please have a look at our naming conventions.

Copyrights & Plagiarism
Our project by nature contains lots of textual matter about a subject to which we do not own the copyright. We have obtained permission from the folks at DC to maintain our database of information, but we must be very diligent about not plagiarizing someone else's work and research. Firstly, it is not moral to copy from someone without their permission and secondly it is illegal.

Most researchers and webmasters won't mind you utilizing parts of their work, if you ask them first. If you drop them a quick email, you might be surprised to find they will let you use their research in your article...

If you have copied material directly from someone else's work, please redo the article putting it in your own words and be sure to mention your source material as a reference. Becuase of the legal consequences, we must be very strict about our plagiarism policy. (See Also Copyrights Page)

Neutral Point of View
The nature of our site is that of an encyclopedia, likewise we should strive to only add factual, non-biased information. Further, information that is either not confirmed or is speculative should be noted as such. This will prevent the reader from being misinformed about the facts.

Third Person Narrative
In keeping with the spirit of encyclopedia-style, all paragraph text in articles should be third person narrative (prose). An exception to this, of course, would be in instances of quotation. Using the appropriate punctuation and indicating the speaker, audience and circumstances of the quote are best practice where possible.