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'''EarthBound Wiki''' (IPA: ɜrθbaʊndwɪkɨ) is an English, web-based, free content encyclopedia project of all things regarding the [[Mother (series)|''Mother'' video game series]], which spans ''[[EarthBound Beginnings]]'', ''[[EarthBound]]'' and ''[[Mother 3]]'', developed by [[Shigesato Itoi]]. EarthBound Wiki is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. Its articles can be [[Help:Editing|edited]] by anyone with access to the Internet, simply by clicking the ''edit'' link at the top of the page.
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In every article, links will guide you to associated articles, often with additional information. Anyone is welcome to add further information, cross-references, or even citations, so long as they do so within EarthBound Wiki's editing policies and to an appropriate standard. One need not fear accidentally damaging EarthBound Wiki when adding or improving information, as other editors are always around to advise or correct obvious errors, if needed, and the EarthBound Wiki encyclopedia software, known as MediaWiki, is carefully designed to allow easy reversal of editorial mistakes.
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Because EarthBound Wiki is an ongoing work to which in principle anybody can contribute, it differs from a paper-based reference source in some very important ways. In particular, older articles tend to be more comprehensive and balanced, while newer articles may still contain significant misinformation, unencyclopedic content, or vandalism. Users need to be aware of this in order to obtain valid information and avoid misinformation which has been recently added and not yet removed. However, unlike a paper reference source, EarthBound Wiki can be constantly updated, with articles on topical events being created or updated within minutes or hours, rather than months or years for printed encyclopedias.
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==About EarthBound Wiki==
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===EarthBound Wiki statistics===
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There are currently {{NUMBEROFUSERS}} users registered with EarthBound Wiki (with {{NUMBEROFACTIVEUSERS}} currently active), and as of today, there are {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} featured articles in the encyclopedia; every day visitors from around the world make edits and create new articles to enhance the amount of knowledge held by the EarthBound Wiki encyclopedia. Visitors do not need any specialised qualifications to contribute, since their primary role is to write articles that cover already-existing knowledge, and people of all ages therefore can write EarthBound Wiki articles.
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All the text in EarthBound Wiki, and most of the images and other content, is covered by the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). Contributions remain the property of their creators, while the GFDL license ensures the content will remain freely distributable and reproducible.
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===Who writes EarthBound Wiki?===
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Regular editors can be everyone from expert scholars to casual readers, all with one thing in common: the general EarthBound Wiki user is a fan of the ''[[Mother (series)|Mother]]'' video game series. Anyone who visits the site can edit it. There are mechanisms that help community members watch for bad edits and also administrators and system operators with special powers to enforce correct behavior.
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The site is administrated by [[User:From Beyond The Stars|From Beyond The Stars]].
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==Making the best use of EarthBound Wiki==
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===Exploring EarthBound Wiki===
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Many visitors come to this site to acquire knowledge, others to share knowledge. In fact, at this very instant, articles may be being improved, and [[Special:NewPages|new articles]] are also being created. You can view changes as they happen at the [[Special:RecentChanges|Recent changes]] page. You also can view [[Special:Randompage|random articles]]. You may even search for articles, using the search box on the upper-right side of the screen.
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===Basic navigation in EarthBound Wiki===
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EarthBound Wiki articles are all linked, or cross-referenced. Wherever you see highlighted text like [[Main_Page|this]], it means there is a link to some relevant article or EarthBound Wiki page with further in-depth information elsewhere if you need it. Holding your mouse over the link will often show you where a link will take you. You are always one click away from more information on any point that has a link attached. There are other links towards the ends of most articles, for other articles of interest, relevant external web sites and pages, reference material, and organized categories of knowledge which you can search and traverse in a loose hierarchy for more information. Some articles may also have links to definitions, audio previews, quotations, and art. You can add further links if a relevant link is missing, and this is one way to contribute.
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===Using EarthBound Wiki as a research tool===
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As a wiki, articles are never complete. They are continually edited and improved over time, and in general this results in an upward trend of quality, and a growing consensus over a fair and balanced representation of information.
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Users should be aware that not all articles are of encyclopedic quality from the start, and may contain false or debatable information. Indeed, many articles start their lives as partisan, and it is after a long process of discussion, debate and argument, that they gradually take on a neutral point of view reached through consensus. Others may for a while become caught up in a heavily unbalanced viewpoint which can take some time - months perhaps - to extricate themselves and regain a better balanced consensus. In part, this is because EarthBound Wiki operates an internal resolution process when editors cannot agree on content and approach, and such issues take time to come to the attention of more experienced editors.
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The ''ideal'' EarthBound Wiki article is balanced, neutral and encyclopedic, containing notable, verifiable knowledge. An increasing number of articles reach this standard over time, and many already have. However, this is a process and can take months or years to be achieved, as each user adds their contribution in turn. Some articles contain statements and claims which have not yet been fully cited. Others will later have entire new sections added. Some information will be considered by later contributors to be insufficiently founded, and may be removed or expounded.
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While the overall trend is generally upward, it is important to use EarthBound Wiki carefully if it is intended to be used as a research source, since individual articles will, by their nature, vary in standard and maturity. There are guidelines and information pages designed to help users and researchers do this effectively.
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===How is EarthBound Wiki different from a paper guide?===
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Major differences between EarthBound Wiki and a traditional paper guide include the very low "cost" of adding additional articles or information, or expanding existing material; the ability to provide both overview summaries and extensive detail without becoming hard to read; ease of reading due to wikilinks replacing in-line explanations; timeliness accessibility and ease of editing in the editorial cycle; and low environmental cost (no paper or distribution impact on the environment). Also EarthBound Wiki updates itself every minute to stay abreast on the most recent event, while paper guides are stuck in the day they were made.
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===Strengths, weaknesses, and article quality in EarthBound Wiki===
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EarthBound Wiki's greatest strengths, weaknesses and differences arise because it is open to anyone, has a large contributor base, and articles are written by consensus according to editorial guidelines and policies. The MediaWiki software which runs EarthBound Wiki retains a history of all edits and changes, thus information added to EarthBound Wiki never "vanishes", and is never "lost" or deleted.
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EarthBound Wiki is '''open to a large contributor base''', drawing a large number of editors from diverse backgrounds. This allows EarthBound Wiki to significantly reduce regional and cultural bias found in many other publications, and makes it very difficult for any group to censor and impose bias. A large, diverse editor base also provides access and breadth on subject matter that is otherwise inaccessible or little documented. A large number of editors contributing at any moment also means that EarthBound Wiki can produce excellent encyclopedic articles and resources covering newsworthy events within hours or days of their occurrence.
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EarthBound Wiki articles and coverage of topics may have a tendency to reflect the cultural, age, and socio-economic demographics of its contributors. There is no systematic process to make sure that "obviously important" topics are written about, so EarthBound Wiki may contain unexpected oversights and omissions. While ''most'' articles may be altered by anyone, in practice editing will be performed by a certain demographic and will thus necessarily reflect a certain degree of implicit bias. An example includes how topics on paintings may not be covered as well on EarthBound Wiki, as topics on the band's discography are covered in great depth.
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Allowing '''anyone to edit''' EarthBound Wiki means that it is more easily vandalized or susceptible to unchecked information, which requires removal. While blatant vandalism is usually easily spotted and rapidly corrected, EarthBound Wiki is more subject to subtle vandalism and viewpoint promotion than a typical reference work. While EarthBound Wiki articles generally attain a good standard after editing, it is important to note that fledgling, or less well monitored, articles may be susceptible to vandalism and insertion of false information. EarthBound Wiki's radical openness also means that any given article may be, at any given moment, in a bad state, such as in the middle of a large edit, or a controversial rewrite. Many contributors do not yet comply fully with key policies, or may add information without citable sources. EarthBound Wiki's open approach tremendously increases the chances that any particular factual error or misleading statement will be relatively promptly corrected. Numerous editors at any given time are monitoring [[Special:RecentChanges|recent changes]] and edits to articles on their watchlist.
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EarthBound Wiki is '''written by consensus''' – an approach that has its pros and cons. Censorship or imposing "official" points of view is difficult to achieve and almost always fails after a time. Eventually for most articles, all notable views become fairly described and a neutral point of view reached. In reality, the process of reaching consensus may be long and drawn-out, with articles more fluid or changeable for a long time compared while they find their "neutral approach" that all sides can agree on. Reaching neutrality is occasionally made harder by extreme-viewpoint contributors. EarthBound Wiki operates a full editorial dispute resolution process, that allows time for discussion and resolution in depth, but also permits months-long disagreements before poor quality or biased edits will be removed forcibly.
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There is a tentative consensus, backed by a gradual increase in academic citation as a source, that it provides a good starting point for research, and that articles in general have proven to be reasonably sound. That said, articles and subject areas sometimes suffer from significant omissions, and whilst misinformation and vandalism are usually corrected quickly, this does not always happen. (An example of this occurred on [http://www.wikipedia.org/ Wikipedia] when a person inserted a fake biography linking a prominent journalist to the Kennedy assassinations and Soviet Russia as a joke on a co-worker which went undetected for 4 months, saying afterwards he "didn't know Wikipedia was used as a serious reference tool.") Therefore, a common conclusion is that it is a valuable resource and provides a good reference point on its subjects, but like any online source, unfamiliar information should be checked before relying upon it.
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A 2005 editorial by a BBC technology writer comments that these debates are probably symptomatic of new cultural learnings which are happening across all sources of information (including search engines and the media), namely "a better sense of how to evaluate information sources."
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===Disclaimers===
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EarthBound Wiki, in common with many websites, makes its disclaimers highly visible, a practice which at times has led to commentators citing these in order to support a view that EarthBound Wiki is unreliable. A selection of similar disclaimers from places which are often regarded as reliable include sources such as Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Associated Press, and the Oxford English Dictionary.
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==Contributing to EarthBound Wiki==
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Anyone can contribute to EarthBound Wiki by clicking on the ''edit this page'' tab in an article. It is important to realize that in contributing to EarthBound Wiki, users are expected to be civil and neutral, respecting all points of view, and only add verifiable and factual information rather than personal views and opinions. However, repeated vandalizing can be reported to an administrator and the user may be temporarily blocked from editing EarthBound Wiki.
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Most articles start as stubs, but after many contributions, they can become featured articles. Once you have determined that there is no article on EarthBound Wiki on a topic you are interested in, you may want to request that the article be written (or you could even research the issue and write it yourself). EarthBound Wiki has many on-going projects, focused on specific topic areas or tasks, which help coordinate editing. The hope of any contributor is to provide useful and accurate information to others, and the projects help coordinate efforts.
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===Editing EarthBound Wiki pages===
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EarthBound Wiki uses a simple yet powerful page layout to allow editors to concentrate on adding material rather than page design. These include automatic sections and subsections, automatic references and cross-references, image and table inclusion, indented and listed text, links ISBNs and math, as well as usual formatting elements and most world alphabets and common symbols. Most of these have simple formats that are deliberately very easy and intuitive.
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EarthBound Wiki has robust version and reversion controls. This means that poor quality edits or vandalism can quickly and easily be reversed or brought up to an appropriate standard by any other editors, so inexperienced editors cannot accidentally do permanent harm if they make a mistake in their editing. As there are many more editors intent upon good quality articles than any other kind, articles that are poorly edited are usually corrected promptly by the ''rollback'' feature.
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===Editorial administration, oversight and management===
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The EarthBound Wiki community is largely self-organising, so that anyone may build a reputation as a competent editor and become involved in any role they may choose, subject to peer approval. Individuals often will choose to become involved in specialised tasks, such as reviewing articles at others' request, watching current edits for vandalism, watching newly created articles for quality control purposes, or similar roles. Editors who find that editorial administrator responsibility would benefit their ability to help the community may ask their peers in the community for agreement to undertake such roles; a structure which enforces meritocracy and communal standards of editorship and conduct. At present around a 75–80% approval rating after enquiry, is considered the requirement for such a role, a standard which tends to ensure a high level of experience, trust and familiarity across a broad front of projects within EarthBound Wiki.
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===Handling disputes and abuse===
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EarthBound Wiki has a rich span of methods to handle most abuses which commonly arise, which are well tested and should be relied upon.
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*Intentional ''vandalism'' can be reported and corrected by anyone.
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*Unresolved ''disputes'' between editors, whether based upon behavior, editorial approach or validity of content, can be addressed through the talk page of an article, through requesting comments from other editors or through EarthBound Wiki's comprehensive dispute resolution process.
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*''Abuse of user accounts'', such as the creation of Internet sock puppets or solicitation of friends and other parties to enforce a non-neutral viewpoint or inappropriate consensus within a discussion, or to disrupt other EarthBound Wiki processes in an annoying manner, are addressed through the sock puppet policy.
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In addition, ''brand new users'' (until they have established themselves a bit) may at the start find that their votes are given less weight by editors in some informal polls, in order to prevent abuse of single purpose accounts.
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===Technical===
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EarthBound Wiki uses the MediaWiki software. It's an open-source program that is used on all Wikimedia projects, and is also widely used on other third party websites on the internet. The hardware supporting the various projects is based on almost 100 servers hosted in various hosting centers around the world.
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==Feedback and questions==
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EarthBound Wiki itself is run as a communal effort. It is a community project whose end result is an encyclopedia. Feedback about content should, in the first instance, be raised on the discussion pages of those articles. You are invited to be bold and edit the pages yourself to add information or correct mistakes if you are knowledgeable and able to do so.
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===Contacting individual EarthBound Wiki editors===
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To contact individual contributors, leave a message on their talk page. Standard places to ask policy and project-related questions are online. You can also reach other EarthBound Wikipedians via IRC and instant messenger. Also, you can try leaving a message on EarthBound Wiki officials's talk pages. Currently users of this caliber include [[User:From Beyond The Stars|From Beyond The Stars]] (Bureaucrat, Administrator), [[User:Ant1pr0t0n|Ant1pr0t0n]] (Administrator, Rollback), [[User:Lord Grammaticus|Lord Grammaticus]] (Administrator, Rollback), and [[User:Dhuzy|Dhuzy]] (Rollback).
[[Category:EarthBound Wiki guidelines]]
[[Category:EarthBound Wiki guidelines]]