As you visit the LOST Wiki we ask you to keep the following guidelines in mind. We strive for an environment where everyone feels able to voice his or her opinions, thoughts and questions without being judged or flamed. Please help us keep the wiki this way.

Play Nice

The rule that comes above all others is Play Nice. No one comes here to be bullied or insulted. LOST is a show that lends itself to theory making and some people comes up with some very mundane opinions about the show while others come up with the most out there ideas imaginable. All are welcome here. You can tell someone that you disagree with their idea or opinion and give reasons why, in a constructive fashion, but turning comments into personal insults will get that comment deleted. NO EXCEPTIONS. The comment could be from JJ Abrams himself, but if he calls another user "stupid," the comment is gone. Making repeated inflammatory comments can result in banning

Censorship

As moderators we strive to be impartial and objective. We will never delete a page, content or comment solely because we disagree with the opinion stated. Nor will we keep a comment that contains offensive material solely because we agree with it. We will however delete any comments that break the above rule, regardless of the opinion expressed in them. If a discussion has not yet started around an inflammatory comment, a moderator will delete it without notice. If you are a registered user, we will send you a message, when warranted, to explain why a comment, page or content was deleted.

Citing Information

Please differentiate speculative information from confirmed information. Speculative information is something that you heard from your brother who listens to a podcast and the podcast guys heard this from people on their boards. There's no way to track that information back to an accountable source, so it is considered speculative. Confirmed information is something that can be cited to a source, for example, a newspaper or magazine article, convention transcript or television interview. When possible, if using confirmed information, please cite the source (example: Charlie "is loosely modeled on Larry Underwood in The Stand." (Entertainment Weekly, "When Stephen King met the 'Lost' boys...," December 1, 2006, pg 52) ) If there is a web link available to the article, feel free to include that, as well.

Copyrighted Material and Plagiarism

Videos are now permitted on the site, but please be smart about it. Posting a YouTube video of an entire episode of Lost will just call attention to it and ABC has the right to ask YouTube (and us) to take the video down, as it is a copyrighted material. Please stick to fan-made videos when possible and applicable.
Plagiarism (copying information from other sources without citing the source) is not permitted and any information found to be plagiarism will be deleted.
Repeated violations (after a warning) will result in banning.

Canon vs. Fanon

Canon is a term used to define factual reference information relating to a fictional universe. For LOST, the canon is considered to be anything we've seen in an aired episode or that has been confirmed by JJ Abrams, Carlton Cuse or Damon Lindelhof (and can be cited). Fanon is anything inferred or created by fans. Your theory about the island being located on the back of a giant, moving tortoise is great, but it is still a theory until confirmed on the show or by the creators. With a show like LOST, there are many mysteries, and part of the fun of watching the show is coming up with your own answers, but please differentiate between your opinion (fanon) and fact (canon). Don't pass off a theory (or your awesome fanfic about Kate's life off the island) as definite information (If you want to get your fanfic urges out, check out the You Write It page). And take anything Benjamin Linus says with a grain of salt.

Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation

In contrast to a chat room, where you might find yourself typing quickly to keep up with a conversation, in the wiki format you have all the time in the world to edit your page or write your comment. Before you hit that save button, take a minute to look over what you've written and make sure it all sounds and looks right. There's a neat spellcheck button in the EasyEdit Toolbar (and if you're using Firefox 2.0, you'll have auto spellcheck as you type). Keep in mind that spellcheck won't catch misspelled words that are actually other words. For example, instead of "hit" a few sentences ago, I wrote "his." Looking over this paragraph, I saw that and fixed it.
Also, as a point of internet etiquette, TYPING IN ALL CAPS LIKE THIS IS THE EQUIVILANT OF SHOUTING and no one likes it. On a related note, tYpInG lIkE tHiS iS rEaLlY hArD tO rEaD; please try to avoid it. Same thing for bolding, italicising or underling large sections of text. Formatting like that should be used for emphasis. People are more likely to read your text and get your point if you make it easy on the eye.
Also, If you notice a mistake, whether it is a grammar or spelling mistake, or wrong information, do not write a comment saying there is a mistake. The comment can confuse people once the mistake is fixed. Either fix the mistake yourself, or contact a moderator and ask to fix the mistake.
For more on grammar, spelling and the preferred formats to use on this wiki, check out the Style Guide.

Advertising/Promoting Other Sites

The only advertising allowed within the pages of the wiki is on the Links page and only LOST related sites are permitted to be advertised there. If you advertise for a non-LOST site anywhere on the pages or in comments, it will be deleted. If moderators notice a habit of continually posting spam links, you will be banned.
For registered users, your profile page (which can only be edited by yourself and moderators) is yours to use however you please. Feel free to use your profile to advertise your personal site.

Post Spreeing

One of the features on this wiki is the Top Contributors feature. This highlights a randomly selected portion of the members with the highest number of contributions. Features like this help make people very proud to work on a wiki, but unfortunately some users become fixated on these type of lists or features and will make large numbers of edits and comments to try and make this list. This is known as Post Spreeing and it will not be tolerated here.
The following is a partial list of behavior considered indicative of Post Spreeing:

• Making off-topic additions to pages or comment threads.
• Making multiple, small edits to the same page or pages in a short amount of time.
• Posting the same comment on multiple pages.
• Posting a comment that covers the same content as an existing, active comment.

Once Post Spreeing is suspected, the comments or additions will be deleted and the user will be warned. If the behavior persists after a second warning, the user will be banned.

Private Message Scams

Private Messaging (PM) is an easy way to get in contact with users on this site. However, abusing Private Messaging will result in a ban. This includes, but is not limited to:

• A scam about money, or heritage.
• Trying to get in a relationship, (ex: I like your profile and want to get in a relationship with you, this is my email, hope to hear from you soon).
• Any message from a stranger asking for personal information (email address, age, location, etc).

This policy is strictly enforced, and a single complaint from one user will immediately result in a ban, no warnings, no exceptions. If you are a user that has received a scam, please contact a Moderator as soon as possible.