I do appreciate the inherent lack of veracity in using the internet as a primary source.
What is the general guidance on edits to the Wiki?
Is it considered OK to add material that is self generated? If I decided to flesh out a particular star system as part of IMTU, would it be well received as an edit to the Wiki? At what level of craziness is it too much?
Is everything good or is content expected to stay inside some particular set of Traveller rules?
If you are adding material to an existing article, try to make sure that it is "canon-compatible" and harmonizes with the overall flavor of the Charted Space Setting. Use the in-line tags <ref>TEXT HERE</ref> to footnote your material, something like: "non-Canon material contributed by YOUR NAME/USERNAME" or something similar. Make sure you add your username and a nod to you reference edit-material in the Reference Section at the bottom, e.g. "Contributor: USERNAME (Material)".
In general, how well it is received will depend on the quality of the material written, and how well thought out it is, and that it doesn't conflict with clear, widely accepted setting-canon.
Here are some example Wiki Pages with User contributions with footnote attributions as examples (See also the Reference Sources Section at the Bottom of the respective Pages):
- Imperial Interstellar Scout Service: Operations Office
- Planetary Navy: Rank Grade Hierarchy
- Knighthood: Order of the Knights Imperial
- Knighthood: Order of Distinguished Merit
Basically, the attitudes toward the wiki and canon that I find annoying fall into two extremes:
- The utter minimalist proponent who thinks the wiki should be nothing more than a list of very strict canon statements from a strictly limited list of canon sources, and NOTHING ELSE.
- The utter maximalist proponent who thinks that the wiki is a free place for anyone to throw up absolutely anything or any ideas at all without any consideration of effect upon setting or authorial attribution whatsoever - they effectively SPAM the Wiki their own ideas.
The 1st group does so by absolutely limiting what other people can see and benefit from, deciding themselves what is and is not allowed to be seen by others. The 2nd group does so by creating such an unattributed mish-mash of stuff that it is not possible to determine what is published and/or approved Setting-Canon, what is 3rd Party Published material for the setting, what is more "general and unspecified non-Canon" and what is pure Fanon (both good and bad). So for the GM who wants to decide how he wants to run his setting canon-wise (strict, semi-strict, loose, etc) and what he wants to allow in his campaign (and what conflicts are going to be created down the line if he does or does not allow something because of future potential canon publications) he is hampered in doing so, and literally anybody can come in with any bad, ill-thought-out ideas and ruin a setting for everybody (or at least a wiki as source for setting-material), because after a while no one can tell what the setting is anymore .
The easiest way to avoid all of those problems is to simply make an in-line reference attribution as I noted above, then everyone is clear what the source is, and they can make their own decisions.
Carefully considering your ideas before you enter something into the wiki in terms of its fit into the overall flavor and feel, as well as the small and large scale ramifications, is the best way to proceed before you make an entry. Ask yourself "Is what I am about to enter adding worth to the Setting in general or as a whole?" "Will it or can it be useful to a general Traveller Setting audience, and improve the setting and wiki for everyone, or just me and my particular campaign?" When writing, try and use an in-Universe "voice" - the Wiki is supposed to be a subscription to the Argushiigi Admegulaasha Bilanidin - the "Vliani Repository of All Knowlege" - the Imperial equivalent of the "Imperial Encyclopedia Galactica". Make your entry sound like an encyclopedia article.
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