Policy:Canon

From BattleTechWiki

Official BattleTechWiki Policy This page documents an official BattleTechWiki policy, a widely accepted standard that should normally be followed by all Editors. Any edit to it should reflect consensus. Consider discussing potential changes on the talk page first.

This page in a nutshell: 1. BTW allows all things BattleTech onto its pages. 2. Fan-made or otherwise unofficial material must be segregated from official material. 3. BTW does not seek to decide which official products contribute canon.

[edit] The Canon Policy

The BattleTechWiki (BTW) approach to the issue of Canon for the BattleTech universe is as follows:

BTW allows all things BattleTech into its pages

BTW aims to be the ultimate source of BattleTech-related material on the internet. Therefore, as established in the BTW Policy:Notability, anything that has to do with BattleTech warrants inclusion, irrespective of whether or not it is canonical or even official. Non-canonical content such as fanzines, parodies or real-world treatsies of the BattleTech universe is explicitly included among the material that BTW seeks to cover.

Owing to this Wiki's origin as a fansite, fan-fiction (Fanon) is also welcome on BTW but it must be tagged as such. Contributors of fan fiction are encouraged to make use of the BattleTech Fanon Wiki.

Unofficial material must be segregated from official material

BTW articles are considered to discuss canonical issues of the BattleTech universe by default. Thus, it is the exception to the rule when an article covers an apocryphal or non-canonical subject or includes such information. Such articles should therefore be tagged accordingly.

BTW does not seek to define canonicity within this site

The policy adopted by BTW is not to decide on the canonicity of a given source or piece of information. The official stance is detailed in the article Canon. BTW deliberately leaves it to the individual user to decide what information he deems canonical for his vision of the BattleTech universe, possibly based on the information presented in that article.

Articles covering real-world subjects such as authors or companies naturally stand outside of the canon of the fictional universe and are not affected by the Canon Policy.

We appreciate your adherence to this core policy and welcome you to actively join the community of Users, Creators and Editors of BattleTechWiki.

[edit] How to implement the policy

Contributors to BTW are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the official stance as outlined in Canon. Since it is the canon that defines the BattleTech universe, BTW articles are meant to represent canonical information by default. It is therefore not required to explicitly mark canonical products or information as such.

Articles dealing with apocrypha, non-canon and fanon are the exception, and must contain a "Canonicity" section where information on their canonicity status is presented. Further, they must be tagged accordingly by inserting the appropriate tag from among the following to the very top of the article:

[edit] Articles about non-canonical products

Tag: {{NonCanonProduct}}

If the subject of the article does neither (clearly) fall under Canon nor under either of the following special sub-categories (Apocrypha, Fanon), or if it is not an official (licensed) BattleTech product, then the Template:NonCanonProduct tag should be included. This will insert the following box into the article:

Non-canon Product The subject of this article does not contribute canonical content to the BattleTech universe, even though it may be an official product. See the article's section on Canonicity for details.

[edit] Articles about apocryphal products

Tag: {{ApocryphalProduct}}

If the subject of the article does not (clearly) fall under Canon, but is an official product that contains original additional information pertaining to the BattleTech universe, then the Template:ApocryphalProduct tag should be included. This will insert the following box into the article:

Apocryphal Product Although it is an official BattleTech product, the subject of this article may not meet the criteria for Canon for the BattleTech universe. See the article's section on Canonicity for details.

[edit] Fanon articles

Tag: {{Fanon}}

If an article consists of original fan-fiction, then the Template:Fanon tag must be included. This will insert the following box into the article:

Non-canonical Fan Creation (Fanon) This article is a non-canonical Fan Creation, also known as Fanon. It has been written by an individual author (or collaboration of authors), is identified as an asset of their particular fan universe, and is not considered to be of the regular articles on BattleTechWiki covering canonical subjects. Please DO NOT edit this article, except for proper categorization/placement or spelling. If you have any comments as to how the article can be improved or wish to discuss it, please do so on the article's Discussion page.

In addition, the Template:Neveron tag ({{Neveron}}) may be used to denote articles that deal with aspects of Neveron instead of BattleTech fanon:

Neveron This article is about an aspect of the online game Neveron, which uses Classic BattleTech rules to conduct combat. Because of this, many Neveron factions are named after elements from the BattleTech storyline. Please do not confuse this for an article on BattleTech.

[edit] Articles containing exclusively apocryphal information

Tag: {{ApocryphalArticle}}

If the subject and content of the article are exclusively based on a source that is itself apocryphical, then the Template:ApocryphalArticle tag should be included. This will insert the following box into the article:

Apocryphal This article is exclusively based on information from one or more sources of uncertain canonicity (apocryphal sources). The subject of this article must therefore be considered apocryphal as well. See the article's section on Canonicity for details.

[edit] Articles containing both canonical and apocryphal information

Tag: {{ApocryphalContent}}

If content from an apocryphal source is added to an article about an otherwise canonical subject, then the Template:ApocryphalContent tag should be included. This will insert the following box into the article:

Apocryphal Content Some information presented in this article comes from apocryphal sources; the canonicity of such information is uncertain. See the article's section on Canonicity for details.

[edit] Fanon content

BTW editors are discouraged from adding unofficial fan-made information to articles that contain canonical or apocryphal information otherwise. Fan-created material may not be included within the body of any non-Fanon articles, but may be linked to in the ==See Also (Fandom)== section (please feel free to add this to any articles, if it is not already present). We also ask that fan created articles not be included in any categories that does not have a derivative of the word "fan" or "custom" in the category name.