Halopedia:What Halopedia is

Halopedia is first and foremost an online encyclopedia which documents all things related to Halo. However, as a means to that end, it also hosts a community of Halo fans interested in helping build the wiki. Several social features such as forums, talk pages, message walls and the Discord can be found around the wiki to facilitate discussions between users and promote a spirit of mutual respect and understanding.

This page sets out a list of important aspects and qualities of Halopedia, in the hope of discouraging people from using Halopedia for incorrect purposes, or treating it as something it is not.

Halopedia is free
Halopedia is (and will always be) free for anyone to read and to edit, provided they have Internet access. The site's aim is to provide all Halo fans with an accurate and reliable source of information on the Halo franchise, and it would betray this vision to lock any part of the wiki behind a pay-wall. As a result, Halopedia will strive to ensure that its content will always be available for anyone to access and edit, free of charge.

Halopedia is neutral
Although the same might not be true of its users, Halopedia itself is neutral in all debates relating to the Halo franchise. It does not take sides in any conflicts between different users or groups in the Halo community, because its purpose is simply to document the franchise as an unbiased observer. This attitude is reflected in its articles, which should not convey opinions, only facts.

Furthermore, Halopedia's articles should be neutral from an in-universe perspective as well. Articles should not glorify individual factions or people, nor should they vilify others. Taking a side in the fictional conflicts of the Halo universe would only damage the wiki's ability to properly document them, and hence result in a less accurate account of events for readers.

Note that this stance does not govern how users communicate in the social sections of Halopedia. Discussion of all topics relating to Halo is encouraged through those channels, to promote mutual understanding and civility between fans of differing opinions.

Halopedia is uncensored
While Halopedia itself is written in a formal and informative style, the Halo franchise often deals with subjects that are sensitive in nature, and could be interpreted as offensive, inappropriate or otherwise disturbing. Some examples of such topics would be genocide, rape, and prostitution, each of which has been mentioned in the franchise before. Halopedia does not censor information on these topics, as it would compromise the wiki's ability to fully document the franchise.

Additionally, expletives, which are often used in the Halo games, are not censored on the wiki, and are permitted in use on Halopedia's many social features (provided it isn't excessive). For example, the quote "My ass! Well, you can forget about the adjustments to your A2-scope." would not be altered to read "My a**!" on the wiki.

Halopedia is fan-made
The Halo franchise is a trademarked property of the Microsoft Corporation. Meanwhile, Halopedia is completely fan-made and is not in any way affiliated with Microsoft, 343 Industries, Bungie or any of the many studios who have contributed to the franchise. Halopedia does not claim ownership of the copyrighted content hosted on the wiki.

As a result of this, Halopedia has no authority in how the Halo games are created or run. Hence, any requests that we change features of the game, or grant ranks and items (such as Achilles, the Haunted Helmet, Recon, or the Flaming Helmet) will be treated as spam.

Halopedia is completely legal
Halopedia is completely within the law in its operation. Halopedia, or more accurately its contributors, assert that all content uploaded to the site falls within the purview of fair use under United States copyright law. All videos uploaded to the Halopedia YouTube channel follow Microsoft's Game Content Usage Rules, which permits the use of game footage in such videos.

In short, there is no reason to worry about incurring legal ramifications by reading or contributing to the wiki. Halopedia operates within the law; it has never run into legal problems and likely never will.

Halopedia is not a fanfiction site
Halopedia is designed for the incorporation of canon from the Halo universe. Its users and administrators work hard to ensure that every article contains information that has been officially recognized to exist in the Halo world. Many people on the site are working on fanfiction of their own, but fanfiction items themselves do not have a place among Halopedia's articles.

As a result of this policy, Halopedia suggests that users intending to post fanfiction or fan-art do so on Halo Fanon, a wiki entirely dedicated to Halo fanfiction. However, note that Halo Fanon requires its contents to be canon-friendly.

Halopedia is not a speculative wiki
A large part of the intrigue behind the Halo universe is its mystery. Many details in the universe are left deliberately vague, to encourage the reader/viewer to speculate and fill in the gaps themselves. Such speculation is not permitted on Halopedia's articles, as it is not official information and hence could mislead readers. All that should be reported on Halopedia is what is known; not what is not.

For example, the Halo: Evolutions story The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole deliberately leaves the door open for Admiral Cole to have survived his supposed last stand. The wiki should not present any speculation on whether he was able to survive, and what he might have done following the battle if so. Instead, it should only present the facts: that a group of UNSC AIs calculated Cole's odds of survival as 89.7% and that Codename: SURGEON conjectured that had he survived, he'd have settled down on a habitable planet to fulfill his dream of becoming a farmer.

Additionally, in the case of Urban Holland (whose ultimate fate during the Fall of Reach is unknown), it should not be stated that "It is unknown what happened to Holland after he last contacted Noble. He could have escaped Reach, or have died when the planet was glassed." All that should be documented are his actions up to and including his last contact with Noble.

Note that speculating about aspects of the Halo franchise is welcome in the social areas of Halopedia - it simply must remain separate from the articles themselves.

Halopedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information
The Halo universe is very similar to our own, but that does not mean events happen identically to the ones in our universe. An example of this would be the, a starship in the UNSC Navy. Its namesake is almost certainly the Battle of Trafalgar in real life. However, as the "Battle of Trafalgar" itself had not been mentioned in-universe by the writing of this section (January 2020), so it does not warrant a page on this basis alone as the event may not have happened and its in-universe namesake may be completely different.

The real life namesake however is requested to be put in a "Trivia" or "Production notes" section, with Halopedia relying on Wikipedia for this purpose, and should link to it in most cases where a real event, object or person is referenced. A link to Wikipedia can be created with the wikitext.

In cases where the in-universe subject is intended to be the same thing, place, or person. Halopedia will only host information the Halo universe has given on the subject treating them as their own thing, with the page having the  header template should be placed on the page so readers can read about the actual subject the Halo universe version is based on.

Halopedia is not a social network
Halopedia is a reference wiki for all things related to Halo. It is an interesting project and is always growing. Please remember that users are here to contribute and get information, not to socialize. Therefore, please keep all comments on the articles' talk pages strictly on the topic of the article. Halopedia's forums are specifically meant for more open discussion about various subjects in the Halo universe, such as personal opinions and theories. If you wish to talk to another user outside of Halopedia, please use the wiki's messaging system, their user talk page, or e-mail.

Halopedia is not Wikipedia
Halopedia is not Wikipedia or any other wiki site. Halopedia is an independent wiki and it follows its own set of guidelines as outlined in our help directory. Halopedia sometimes takes ideas from larger and more developed wikis, but Halopedia policy is always the highest authority on this website.

Halopedia is not a democracy
Like most wikis, Halopedia is not run democratically. Although the administration puts most popular issues up for a community vote (such as featured articles), discussion holds more weight than simply the numbers of votes on each side. For example, if a proposition is voted on, but a user points out a crippling flaw in said proposition, it is unlikely to be enacted (at least until the flaw is resolved) even if the votes are in favor of it. The reasoning for this is that legitimate concerns cannot be ignored in light of important decisions, and one opinion is not necessarily equal to another; particularly when experience plays into the decision. These details must be ironed out in discussion before a decision is made.

In addition, the Halopedia administration might make a decision on a major issue themselves, without a community vote. This usually only occurs when the issue requires a quick response that cannot be slowed down by a vote, for example the administration might decide to disable anonymous contributions if there was a sudden influx of vandalism from anonymous users. Another situation where the administration might make a decision independently is where the topic isn't something that most users are aware of or experienced with, such as the MediaWiki pages.

Halopedia is not a soapbox
Halopedia is not a website for individual opinions on any subject. Halopedia's articles are to be completely neutral on every subject, conveying all information available, and nothing more. Any creation of articles or editing of existing articles to reflect individual opinions or ideas on subject matter that consist of personal opinions on a topic will be immediately reverted or deleted. Opinions can be expressed on user pages, talk pages, or forums, but not articles.

Halopedia is not a clan recruitment center
The overwhelming majority of Halopedia users play the Halo games online. Many of them are members of individual clans in those games. However, there is no clan recruitment on Halopedia. Outside of individual user pages, references, comparisons, or invitations to join Halo clans are forbidden, particularly on articles, talk pages, or any other space where they do not belong.

Halopedia is not Bungie or 343 Industries
While Halo is a Microsoft-owned franchise, Halopedia is not affiliated with Bungie, Microsoft, 343 Industries or other official parties of the Halo franchise. "Submissions" by people requesting or demanding that we make additions or changes, or demands for Recon, will be treated as spam.

Halopedia is not canonical
While the wiki does its best to only host reliable and accurate information, Halopedia itself is not considered to be canonical. In other words, the wiki itself does not contribute to the official Halo universe; it merely documents it to the best of its ability. This is important to note when using Halopedia to research a topic relating to the Halo franchise - the source(s) of the information contained within the wiki's articles is what is cited on that page, not Halopedia itself.

Halopedia is not for-profit
Although Halopedia generates revenue from the advertisements placed on the site, this revenue is used to keep the website itself running. Halopedia itself does not earn income through any means, and nor does it distribute money to its users. All users who contribute to the site do so voluntarily, out of a passion for the franchise and without expectation of a reward.

Halopedia is set up this way for a number of reasons, chief among them being that most of the content on Halopedia is related to the Halo franchise, which is trademarked property of the Microsoft Corporation. Hence, it would be against the law for Halopedia users to earn any money from its content, and could lead to a cease and desist order or even a lawsuit.

However, an equally important reason is to preserve Halopedia's ethics. The only issue Halopedia users need concern themselves with is ensuring our content is the best it can be. If this dynamic is altered and money is introduced into the equation, it would interfere with how the site is run, and could end up influencing major decisions. This is far from ideal, as Halopedia is primarily a resource for information on the Halo franchise, not a revenue stream, and it should be run as thus.