Memory Alpha has some policies and guidelines that have been proposed by the administrators and generally accepted by the community. Please read through the policies below to familiarize yourself with our common practices and rules. If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page.
General policies
Remember that above all else, Memory Alpha is an encyclopedia. Like the television shows and films, it is primarily, but not always, family oriented. It is a community that is solely devoted to the development of the Star Trek reference database; it is not a chat room or discussion forum. The talk pages are specifically for discussing the writing of articles, and nothing else.
The following are general policies concerning the overall goals and functions of Memory Alpha:
- Bots – bots on Memory Alpha
- Content and resource policies – what we accept, and what we don't accept
- Retroactive continuity policy – dealing with conflicts in in-universe resources
- Cite your sources
- Copyrights – that unavoidable legalese
- Deletion policy – for when deleting pages becomes necessary
- Etiquette – useful advice for when disagreements arise
- File use policy – the rules for uploading files
- Point of view – maintaining the proper POV in articles
- Protection policy
- Spoiler policy – let the reader beware!
- Your user page
- Redirects – the rules for using redirects
- Recommended changes – a few changes to the default user preferences Memory Alpha recommends.
See also: Most common Memory Alpha faux pas for some useful information for newcomers.
Specific guidelines
General guidelines
- Be bold in updating pages
- Build the web
- Contribute what you know or are willing to learn about (and create stubs responsibly)
- Editing guidelines – a guide on how to edit articles, and how to style them
- Make omissions explicit
- Strive for community solutions
- Use common sense
- What links here
Behavior guidelines
- Bans and blocks
- Be considerate to new members
- Log in before making drastic changes
- No personal attacks (and move personal debates to email)
- Sign your posts on talk pages
- Username
Content guidelines
- Avoid blanket statements
- Use category sort keys properly
- Check your facts
- Define and describe subjects
- Establish context (instead of presuming too much knowledge)
- Explain jargon
- Don't nitpick
- Use external links properly
- Find and fix stubs
- Inform and entertain the readers
- Make articles useful for readers (and consider the audience in writing)
- Remember that perfection is not required
- Deal appropriately with patent nonsense
- Use templates when appropriate
- Note pages needing attention
- Why some words may be censored while others are not
Style guidelines
- Always fill summary field
- Build the web – avoid making your articles orphans
- Balance parts of a page
- Category tree – guidelines on the use and creation of categories
- Disambiguation – for potential article title conflicts
- Don't include copies of primary sources
- Follow highlighting conventions
- Manual of Style
- Naming conventions – how to name new articles
- Subpages
- Quotes – how to handle quotes and quotations
- Consider writing articles in news style
Miscellaneous
Enforcement
For day-to-day operations on Memory Alpha, enforcement can be handled by the general membership. Simply pointing out each other's mistakes (politely, of course) is generally sufficient.
For problem cases, the administrators may intervene and enforce a policy, or temporarily lock a page to let things cool down. In extreme and unusual cases, these administrators will step in to ban a user who has proven to be unusually disruptive.