Main Page/Welcome

From GearKnob Wiki
< Main Page
Revision as of 11:51, 18 January 2022 by AlexGRFan97 (talk | contribs) (Added some extra rules.)
Jump to navigationJump to search

Take your time to get acquainted with the basic rules.

  • There is a hierarchy here. Like that or lump it.

Fandom prides itself on the notion that "wikis are not owned by their founders, nor does the founder's opinion carry more weight in disagreements than any other user's opinion". This does not fly here. Myself and RacingFreak/Nik hold the most weight in terms of rank and opinion, and further hierarchies will be assigned based on the number of valuable contributions a user makes. This is a meritocracy.

  • Don't be afraid to speak up.

That said, if you feel the Wiki could be improved or changed in any way, be sure to use the suggestions page to voice your ideas.

  • Declare your pages in advance.

If you want to work on a page or two, then announce your intentions beforehand so that multiple people aren't working on the same thing. You can use this page to "reserve" articles. From here you will have one week to write your article, else it is forfeited. You can request as many pages as you want.

  • Furthermore, work on pages in your userspace BEFORE putting them online.

This will allow me to review your page before it goes live, and make any necessary corrections/alterations. If I and/or RacingFreak are not available for whatever reason, upload pages without our blessing at your peril. If you become a trusted member, you may disregard this rule. For protected pages, if you would like to modify or improve one, discuss your ideas on the talk page first.

  • All articles are to be written from the perspective of an indefinite point in the future UNLESS something is presently ongoing.

This prevents the need to continually update articles should something suddenly change (i.e. a car being taken out of production, a company going bankrupt etc.) and means an article only has to be written once. This basically means use "was/were" in 99% of applications unless it's something that is happening right now, or due to happen imminently.

  • Similarly, major changes occurring outside any of the shows on this Wiki (e.g. incapacitating injuries, cars being scrapped, name changes etc.) are NOT to be reported unless they occur during the span of a particular show.

It may sound callous, but on this wiki, the life of a television presenter or magazine author begins and ends with their involvement in the show or journal in which they worked for, and anything outside of that is irrelevant. Sabine Schmitz and Tom Boswell's deaths for instance are only to be reported as they occurred during their tenures as presenter on the show and were otherwise expected to continue. Another example is if Jeremy Clarkson were to have changed his name to "Jennifer" in 2015/16 as per the original stipulation of his wager, the page would only refer to him as "Jennifer" when describing events following the name change, with all preceding events and the article title itself retaining the name "Jeremy", as that is the name he was most commonly known by for over 55 years.

  • Once a page is finished, submit it to the Wayback Machine so that it may be preserved.

That way, if the website were to ever go down, it can be revived at any time simply by mirroring the pages back into a live form.

  • This wiki operates on a primarily Anglo-centric perspective.

As most automotive programs are British (including the earliest known example, Wheelbase), the British dialect of English is to be used in most articles, along with British-market car names (i.e. Vauxhall over Opel) unless the car in question was never sold in the UK, or an import car was used instead. An example of this is the Dodge Viper, which despite being known as a Chrysler in the UK, mostly appeared in its American form throughout TV shows. American programmes or shows with significant American involvement (such as The Grand Tour) are allowed to use American English vernacular such as "season", "hood", and "trunk".

  • You are responsible for your account.

If the security of your account is ever compromised, whether by another individual or by a bot/script, it is your responsibility to report this so that I may disable it. Failure to do so will result in a presumption of malicious activity and will likely result in a ban.

  • No plagiarism, please.

This basically means no copying from Wikipedia or from the obsolete Top Gear Wiki at Fandom.