Help:Attribution Policy

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Attribution

So you've just made a really neat page and want people to know it was YOU who made it, right? So, you think to yourself, "maybe I'll make my own attribution template and slap it on the top of the page" or "I know, I'll just click the signature button at some random point on the page and then people will know it was ME!" Well, new and old users, I've got some sad news for you :(

Please see also: our legal policy and Wikipedia's ownership of content policy

You Can't Put It There

It's against the rules of D&D Wiki to put any declaration of authorship/attribution on the page. This includes your signature, a custom attribution/authorship template, and authorship/attribution categories. If you put anything on the page to let people know that one user in particular made that page (especially if that user is you), it'll be removed and you'll get a polite warning. Keep it up, and you might get blocked for violating wiki policy, and we don't want that to happen.

Why Can't You Put It There?

Mainly, because this is a community effort, so anyone plastering their name on the page is saying "I made this all by myself and no one else deserves credit!" Now, that's true in some cases, but what if someone comes along and edits that page? Now they need to be attributed, so now we've got two declarations of authorship on the page, and a third, and a fourth, and so on. Eventually, the wiki is hosting 200 attribution templates and categories and every other page is 50% attribution.

So what can you do to be attributed? It's simple: edit the page! Up at the top of the page, between the "edit" and "move" tabs is the "history" tab, and clicking on that tab will show you everyone who ever edited that page (and also let you view and compare different versions of the page), including the person who created it (presumably you).

Contributions Page

If you want to see other content that a user has made, you find it by typing in the url bar of your browser:

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Special:Contributions/"User Name"

replacing "User Name" with the name of the user. If you'd like to see only pages they have created, check the "Only show edits that are page creations" box.

Exceptions

There's two main exceptions here: copying over content released under the OGL, and content released under a license other than the OGL. Note that neither of these exceptions apply to wholly original content by you that post here: they only apply when copying text that someone else wrote and pasting it onto the wiki.

OGL

In the case of transcribing Open Game Content, attribution is allowed to be posted in a footer at the bottom of the page, to comply with the terms of the OGL.

Other Licenses

In the case of copying content from non-OGL licenses, it's usually enough to post attribution on the talk page. Note that you must still have permission to redistribute it, and must create the page using a template that designates the license the content is released under. If you need help with this, please contact an Admin.

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