WikiFur:What WikiFur is not

WikiFur has several goals, and is various things to various people, but there are some things that it is not.

WikiFur is not intended to hurt anyone
WikiFur is not intended to hurt anyone. This means, above all, that you should avoid personal attacks, both in your articles and in your discussion with other users. Personal attacks are forbidden, and repeated instances will result in revocation of editing privileges.

Similarly, if you believe information that you intend to post would be damaging to someone's personal or professional life, consider whether this is the most appropriate place to present it. If you still feel it is right to include it in an article, strive to present it in the most factually accurate and non-biased manner that you can. If others disagree with its inclusion, work with them to reach consensus on the discussion page, and to achieve a solution that does not leave others unhappy, particularly those concerned with the information.

This also means that we may grant people some measure of control over personal information posted about them, although it should be noted that this is up to the discretion of the curators, and is generally restricted to information generally considered private (such as age, location, and real name), not your public actions (forum posts, historical web pages) or the actions of others (e.g. pages with apparently factual statements that are not to your credit). If you really have done something particularly bad, or worked up a documented history of misdemeanors, you're going to have to live with that.

WikiFur is not a mirror or a repository of links, images, or media files
WikiFur is neither a mirror nor a repository of links, images, or media files. All content added to WikiFur may be edited mercilessly, and in general it is a bad idea to assume that anything you put on here will remain in the same place over any period of time. By submitting any content, you agree to release it for free use under the GNU FDL.

WikiFur articles are not:
 * 1) Mere collections of external links or Internet directories. There is nothing wrong with adding a list of content-relevant links to an article; however, excessive lists can dwarf articles and detract from the purpose of WikiFur. Community consensus has shown that separate pages for such links can sometimes be appropriate; for instance, the List of furry LiveJournal communities
 * 2) Mere collections of internal links, except for disambiguation pages when an article title is ambiguous, and for structured lists to assist with the organisation of articles.
 * 3) Mere collections of public domain or other source material such as entire books or source code, original historical documents, letters, laws, proclamations, and other source material that are only useful when presented with their original, un-modified wording. Complete copies of primary sources should go into Wikisource. There's nothing wrong with using public domain resources to add content to an article, but note that by default, most sources are not in the public domain. See also Wikipedia's notes on primary sources.
 * 4) Collections of photographs or media files with no text to go with the articles. If you are interested in presenting a picture, please provide context, or consider adding it to Wikimedia Commons.

WikiFur is not a free host or webspace provider
You may not host your own website or blog at WikiFur. Having said this, we do encourage use of WikiFur by furries for collaborative wiki projects, though preferably they would be related to the furry fandom in some way. You should create such projects in subpages of your user namespace, or of an article about the project in the main namespace.

If you are interested in using the wiki technology for a significant collaborative effort on something non-furry, there are many sites that provide wiki hosting (free or for money). You can also install wiki software on your server (see Wiki Science for information on doing this).

WikiFur pages are not:
 * 1) Personal homepages. Wikifurries have their own personal pages in the User: namespace, but they are used for information relevant to working on WikiFur, and potentially some more personal information about them and their presence in the furry fandom. They are not for advertising paid products or services. If you are looking to make a personal webpage unrelated to furry (e.g. posting your résumé), or wish to advertise, please make use of one of the many free or low cost hosts on the Internet, and link to it from here.
 * 2) File storage areas. Please upload only files that are used (or will be used) in WikiFur articles; anything else will be deleted. If you have extra relevant images, consider uploading them to the Wikimedia Commons, where they can be linked from WikiFur

WikiFur is not censored for the protection of minors
WikiFur may contain content that some readers consider objectionable or offensive. Anyone reading WikiFur can edit an article and the changes are displayed instantaneously without any checking to ensure appropriateness, so WikiFur cannot guarantee that articles or images are appropriate for children or adhere to specific social norms.

Moreover, there is no guarantee that such material will be removed if noted. While obviously inappropriate content (such as irrelevant links to "shock" sites) will usually be removed immediately, some articles may validly include text, images, or links that would be objected to by some people for various reasons, provided they do not violate any of our existing policies (especially Neutral point of view), nor the law where WikiFur's servers are located.

If you feel some warning should be given, you could use one of WikiFur's rating images - the buttons are useful for links, while the blocks are useful for sections. However, you should not consider this binding policy. Where used, they are intended to be equivalent to representing the opinion of others (and not of WikiFur itself), i.e. some would only consider this topic/link appropriate for (indicated group).

WikiFur is not Wikipedia
Most editors will at least be aware of Wikipedia - some will have come directly from there. While WikiFur looks and works a lot like Wikipedia, and we even link to a lot of its articles and policies to explain similar concepts, it is not the same site, and does not share the exact same goals.

In particular:


 * WikiFur does not forbid the creation of vanity pages. We are pleased to have information about members of the furry community, provided that they do not wish to be excluded, and that the information is accurate and fair to the member concerned.
 * WikiFur, which is a community site, does not have the same restrictive criteria on included topics as Wikipedia, which is constructing a general-purpose encyclopedia. The main criteria for inclusion in WikiFur is that a topic must be capable of being interesting to some portion of the furry community. It does not have to be particularly notable, either inside or outside the community.

WikiFur is not a copy of Wikipedia, either
It is not a good idea just to copy every Wikipedia article that has relevance to a WikiFur article. If the topic is not specifically a furry topic, simply link to the Wikipedia article instead, like this: text. This is mostly to avoid us having poor copies of articles which are better maintained by the wider Wikipedia community. Such copies are liable for deletion.

That said, it is sometimes a good idea to copy articles from Wikipedia, usually when they are highly relevant to the furry fandom and are likely to be expanded here (like articles about furry comics, conventions or people). Ideally, you should be prepared to expand them. Be sure to put at the bottom of the page - this is required by the license.

If it's related in any way to furry community or culture, chances are it's worth mentioning on WikiFur. Note, though, that the furry material has to be the focus of an article, and other info must be kept compact. A paragraph or two will suffice to relate context or its significance for the topic.

WikiFur is not a democracy
WikiFur is not an experiment in furry democracy. Our primary method of finding consensus is discussion, not voting. That is, majority opinion does not necessarily rule in WikiFur. Various votes may be conducted from time to time, but their numerical results are usually only one of several means of making a decision. The discussions that accompany the voting processes are crucial means of reaching consensus. Ideally, a solution should be found that everyone can agree to. If no consensus can be found between the involved parties, a curator should be called in to help find a solution.

WikiFur is not a battleground
Every WikiFur user is expected to interact with others civilly, calmly, and in a spirit of cooperation. Do not insult, harass or intimidate those with whom you have a disagreement. Rather, approach the matter in an intelligent manner, and engage in polite discussion. If a user acts uncivilly, uncalmly, uncooperatively, insultingly, harassingly or intimidatingly towards you, this does not give you an excuse to do the same unto them ("he started it!"). Either respond solely to the factual points brought forward and ignore its objectionable flavouring, or ignore the relevant message entirely.

Also, do not create or modify articles just to prove a point. Do not make legal or other threats against WikiFur, individual Wikifurries, the curators or our host. Threats are not tolerated, will not help your case (as disagreements are judged on the facts presented and the conduct of those presenting them), and may result in a ban. See also Wikipedia's page on dispute resolution.

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