SmashWiki:SmashWiki is not official
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This page documents an official SmashWiki policy, a widely accepted standard that all users should follow. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. If in doubt, consider discussing changes on the talk page. |
SmashWiki is in no way directly related to, affiliated with, or controlled by Nintendo or Nintendo of America, or any game developer whose content is discussed therein (these parties will be collectively referred to as "Nintendo" for the remainder of this document). SmashWiki is a branch of NIWA and as such, is held accountable only to the standards and practices set by NIWA, as well as any additional standards and practices agreed upon by the users. The only way in which Nintendo could directly control the content of this wiki is through a legal injunction, of which there have been none, or through showing a copyright violation that transcends fair use.
Acknowledging the fact that this wiki is not official, we are not bound to simply repeat information endorsed by Nintendo. We are free to document any content that is deemed of encyclopedic value to the wiki and which does not violate international copyright agreements. As an example, Nintendo only occasionally endorses specific Super Smash Bros. tournaments. However, as tournaments beyond those endorsed by Nintendo are a notable part of the Smash community, it is within the scope of SmashWiki to cover them. The same holds true for advanced techniques; although elements such as wavedashing are not official techniques in Nintendo-endorsed sources, their use is important in competitive play and in the games' community, so they too are within SmashWiki's scope. In short, while this wiki should cover what Nintendo officially covers in the games, we also will cover aspects of the Smash community that are notable.
"Official" nomenclature
In situations where an official term exists and a highly recognized fan term does not, SmashWiki will uniformly use the official name. On the other hand, situations where a highly recognized fan term has massively and demonstrably eclipsed the official term in usage will sometimes be handled on a case-by-case basis, and the fan term may be chosen instead. A good example of this is the term "tech", which is near-universally used by Smash fan communities, being used in place of the far less used official term, "ukemi", which was used on the Brawl official site. Situations like this are rare, however, and in general fan terms require a very heavy level of recognition to be used in place of an official term.
Two exceptions to this rule exist:
- Special moves are to use their official name, regardless of any widespread fan term. Special moves are also to use their given name in the most recent game.
- Nicknames for any term (such as DK) do not take precedence over an official name, as they do not follow the same usage format as something like the given example above.
In the absence of either an official name or a highly recognized fan term, such as most characters' normal moves, it is preferable to leave a name section blank than to "invent" a name for an unnamed move such as Mario's down smash. Non-official sources for such things such as Prima Games guides or other fansites are unacceptable, and should be removed on sight.
Dos and don'ts
Do
- Do write content about things outside of the games' official content.
- Do make references to both the official name and other community names if they are different.
- Prioritize using official names unless a different name is much more widely used.
- Use names consistently.
Don't
- Don't remove a term just because it isn't "official".
- Don't remove content on tournaments, tiers, etc. just because they are not endorsed by Nintendo.
- Don't deliberately misconstrue this policy to argue that fan-fiction is acceptable.
