User:Hatebunny/Policy

Helpful tips
First, some general tips:
 * Don't be a dick. You won't make any friends on this wiki by ignoring our customs and by being impolite. Even if you don't have any intention of making friends, you won't get the chance to make many edits if your behaviour is decidedly phallic. Which leads into...


 * Get to know the administrators. They are here to help you, but you must remember that they are also contributors to the wiki. You may not get to be BFFs, but if you are civil with them, they will be civil with you. If you and they can get along, you can grow to be a regular and important contributor to this wiki. If you get onto the administrators' bad sides (see tip #1), your experience of this wiki will not be as pleasant.
 * There's more. While our administrators are democratically selected, they behave more like the editorial staff of a newspaper than like typical wiki editors. Policy is decided from the top down, and while this may not seem like the most conducive method for maintaining a community atmosphere, it is necessary to maintain the quality and consistency of a wiki this size. Which is just another way of saying...


 * We are not your grandpappy's wiki. There are several differences between us and other wikis on the Wikia network. We are one of the largest wikis on that network. Because of this, we have a standard of style and grammar that must be met. Our wiki is also proliferated with templates to a greater degree than any other wiki (besides the Marvel Database, which is our sibling site). That said, we do operate in a different way than the Marvel Database, in much the same way that DC and Marvel both publish super-hero comics, but each has a unique method and style for doing so.

Our Templates
We are a wiki that depends heavily on Templates. What is a template, you ask? A template is a page which contains mostly code, and is used on other pages to call upon that template without having to write that code into the page. It's basically a shortcut. They can be very simple or very complex. Because we rely so heavily on these templates, most of them are locked.

However, all users must interact with the templates on an indirect level to edit properly on the wiki. While the template pages themselves contain the code, every one of our content pages uses those templates to display that content in an aesthetically pleasing way. For example, the DC Database:Comic Template uses the information that you add to fill out the infobox AND history sections. There is no text on a comic page that is not entered in the template.

Inputting information into a template is not a complicated matter, though it might seem overwhelming at first. All of our templates are formatted in this way:

| Variable     = Input

The variable on the left of the "=" indicates what is meant to go on the right, and the space (which we refer to as a "field") on the right of the "=" is where the information that will actually be displayed on the page goes. You cannot add your own variables. Those are written into the template code. If you try, it simply will not display.

Most of the templates have some instructions on what kinds of things you are supposed to put into a field. You can see these instructions by clicking the "?" icon that appears in the upper right of any page's infobox. They all have them.

Be wary. Many of those fields are subject to something we call "Category Magic", which means that whatever you put into that field will automatically add a category to the page. If you put something weird into one of those fields, we'll end up with a weird category, and someone will end up changing or undoing your edit. Again, the usage information accessible via that "?" icon usually has information about which fields use Category Magic.