Death Note Wiki:Guide

Note: This page is still in progress.

This is a guide to how things work on the wiki, including general rules and things to know about how we operate here. Intimidating as this may sound, we aren't too strict. What we ask for most is that everyone (including us) shows respect to each other.

Respecting others and their opinions, as well as respecting characters, is the key to enjoying the company of other fans, both on and off the wiki. If there's a character that you dislike, please don't mess up their page or make snarky comments about them. Even if it's directed at a fictional character, rudeness is never cool.

With that said, let's get started.

The Basics

 * If you are new to Wikis, check out the tutorial.
 * Every wiki has two list of articles that need help called "Stubs" and "Wanted Articles". Don't be shy, just get in there and write.
 * Uploading images is another really easy way to help out - see the Special:Upload page!
 * You can find a list of useful templates on Category:Templates, some of which are documented on the templates project page.
 * Check out the community portal to see what the community is working on, to give feedback or just to stop in and say hello.

General
Please do not vandalize pages.

We would also appreciate it if you did not upload innapropriate pictures or use innapropriate language.

We're pretty tolerant here, but dropping several "F-bombs" for no particular reason isn't necessary in order to make a point.

When leaving messages on talk pages be polite. (And sign your post. This can be done by typing four tildes: this ~ is a tilde. Example: ~ ~ ~ ~ without spaces inbetween them will turn into MarleneZ.     Talk    This is called your signature.

Achievements
Please do not make pointless edits to earn achievement badges. Doing so will result in a warning, and then a ban.

Creating and Editing Pages (General)
Before you create a page, make sure that it doesn’t already exist. Check if there is a page about that thing/character under a different name or spelling (e.g. if you’re going to make a “Halle Bullook” page, see if there’s a “Halle Lidner” page first; if you’re going to make a “Ryuuk” page, see if there’s a “Ryuk” page first).

When you are creating a page, please make sure you add content to it. A blank page doesn't really help anyone.

Everything and everyone should be in current tense, even if they’re dead. For instance, “Lind L. Tailor was…” should be “Lind L. Tailor is…”

This is very important. Your opinion of the character should have no effect on their page.

If you are in love with Light, don’t put down that he’s a wonderful, intelligent handsome guy. If you hate Near with the burning intensity of a thousand suns, don’t go on about how he’s a fake L, an @$$ and albino. ''As true or untrue as it may be, it is not the kind of attitude that should be on the wiki. Remember, show respect.''

Creating Your Page
Please do not create a normal page about yourself. Users have a special type of page, which can be found here: http://www.deathnote.wikia.com/wiki/User:Put-Your-Username-Here

If you have questions...
If you have a question, please don’t create a page about it. Either put your question on the talk page (not the main page) of the character/thing it relates to, put it on an admin's talk page, or make a blog entry about it. Either way, we’ll reply.

Fanon and Canon
Please Note: that you should not add speculation or theories popular in the fandom to the wiki (unless it's in a blog or on your page, where you are free to go crazy).

Please do not create a page about anything—including characters—from a Death Note fanfiction or RP. If you wish to do so, then head over to the Death Note Fanon Wiki.

Don’t create a page about a theory you have.

For instance, someone made a page about how they thought Mello and Matt faked their deaths. If you must share this, put it in a blog entry or on your profile. You can also head to our Myth's page.

This is a big debate on this wiki, as well as many others, but we do not allow fanpairings to be mentioned on pages.

Why do we not allow fanon?

Although fan theories are entertaining and interesting, they aren't the kind of info that should be present on an encyclopediac website such as Death Note Wiki. Theories have a bad habit of being considered facts, whch in turn leads to incorrect assumptions and causes confusion on and off of the wiki. With a series like Death Note, spreading personal theories as facts can be very harmful to the enjoyment of viewers/readers in that they lose the chance to initially interpret the series in their own way. Remember: thinking that something happened or could have happened, doesn't mean that it did. Alternatively, it doesn't necessarily mean that it couldn't have or didn't. Nevertheless, it's always nice to let people form their own opinions, rather than shove ours down their throats.

Canon

"Canon" is the name for accepted, proven facts relevant to a subject. In regards to Death Note and this wiki, there are three seperate canons that we operate under. The first is "Manga canon", which consist of official material related directly to the manga; this is the source of most information on this wiki, and the source used to write the characters' biographies, as well as the main plot section on their pages. The second is "Anime canon", which consist of official material related to the anime; if a character does something different in the anime from what they did in the manga, it will be noted in the main plot article on their page. The third is "Film canon" which consists of material related to the live-action film series; a characters role in the film series is noted in a specific paragraph on their page. For more information on what media belongs to each canon, see Guide to Canon.

General Layout
Every character page has a specific layout. The one we use is:
 * 1) Appearance
 * 2) Character
 * 3) History
 * 4) Plot
 * 5) In Other Media
 * 6) Conception
 * 7) Trivia
 * 8) Quotes
 * 9) Themes

Templates
New versions of the Human template and Shinigami template were made. If they look mostly blank on a characters page, then edit the page, put in the new code and it’ll be fixed.

Actors' Names
When putting down an actor’s name for a dub that’s language does not use the Latin alphabet, do the following: put down their name in English. Then, in parentheses, put down the name in its native form (kanji, hangal, etc.; the surname goes first/last depending on what the culture generally does, for instance, Japanese would have surname, then given name, whereas English would have given name, then surname.) Then put down a comma, and the Romanized version of their name (romaji, Revised Romanization of Korean, etc.), with the order of their given and surname depending on what it would generally be in their culture. Examples: Light Yagami (夜神月,Yagami Raito); Yeong Seon Kim (김영선, Kim Yeong Seon).

There are three official Spanish dubs. When putting down a voice actor for the version made in Spain, put down “(Barcelona, Spain dub)” after the actor’s name. For the voice actor from the Latin American version, “(Latin America version)” goes after the actor’s name. and for the Catalan-Spanish version, “(Catalan dub).”

Other

 * 1) For the “True Name” section leave it blank if the characters real name was revealed around the time of their debut (e.g. This section should be left blank for Soichiro Yagami, but should be filled in for Near).
 * 2) For the “organization” section, organizations are FBI, Mafia, Wammy’s House, Media, Japanese Task Force, SPK and NPA. A person can belong to more than one organization, like Near being a member of both Wammy’s house and the SPK. If they don’t belong to any of the organizations listed, leave their organization section blank. Know that “Media” refers to the people speaking on Kira’s behalf, like Demegawa and Takada. Don’t confuse “organization” with “occupation”.For instance, Sayu’s organization would not be “College”. Her organization would be kept blank.
 * 3) The character stats are official information. In Death Note: How to Read 13, character stats were provided. There were other books published, both for the anime (published by people who worked on it) and films (also published by people who worked on it). So none of the info. on stats should be erased, unless you have something proving that the info. was not supplied in any guides/is incorrect.The “Other Attribute” section, refers to the unique attribute that isn’t the same for everyone. For instance, Light is "acting skills", Misa is "charm" and L is "sweet tooth". So when putting down their skill number for that section, please specify the skill (Example: Acting Skills: 10/10).