The Ovalkwiki Rules of Engagement

Ovalkwiki Exists for Three Reasons

1. ====Entertainment!====
2. ====Make Howard's Job Easier!====
3. ====Flatten the learning curve for new readers of the comic.====

To these ends, we have some general guidelines, some more complicated formatting guidelines, a FAQ, and some potentially tedious and mind-numbing, nit-picky, persnickety sorts of rules.

General Guidelines

• If you want to be a Member, you can be! Members are allowed to edit pages and contribute content to make Ovalkwiki more useful, especially in support of the enumerated list above.
• If you've got a question, ask! There is a single discussion forum for this wiki -- if you've got page-specific questions, be sure to reference the page
• If you've got a suggestion, make it! Again, the discussion forum is a good place for this.
• Organizers are promoted from among the Members. Organizers have a higher-level editorial role, and serve not only as editors but also as moderators should things threaten to slip out of hand. Members who demonstrate particular aptitude may be invited to become Organizers, assuming we need the help at that level.
• Organizers are there for a reason. Per their title, Organizers help us all by organizing the rich content you create and making it more (circular definition in three... two... one...) organized. Organizers are the ones who may re-template your page, or even re-define a whole set of templates underneath many pages. We need this. Howard needs this, especially.
• Howard's Word Trumps All. While the previous entries may have made this sound like a democratic meritocracy, there is a despot at the head of Ovalkwiki. He is mostly benign, but he is also the final point of arbitration, the sole holder of veto power, and the one paying the bills here. Yes, many of you have spent money with him enabling him to pay these bills. This is why his despotism is benign, his arbitration even-handed, and his vetoes carefully considered.
• Play Nice. You share a passion with the other people here. Build on that common ground. Make new friends. And please don't use profanity, obscenity, or vulgar language.

Formatting Guidelines

• New pages should be created from a template. For instance, if a particular character page does not yet exist, you can create a page for that character, but you should select the "Character" page template when prompted. This will help you organize the information the same way it's been organized on similar pages, making the whole site easier to use.
• When no template exists, forge ahead on a blank one. Let's say you want to create a page about the non-alcoholic beverages of the Schlockiverse. You've read the archives, you know about Popso, Ovalkwik, and Genuine Imitation Ovalkwik. You want to write down what you know. GO FOR IT. Don't let the absence of a "Food & Drink" template stop you.
• All Schlock Mercenary comics and footnotes are canon. As canon, they're fair game. If you see Tagon using his left hand to fire a weapon, then he's left-handed. If you see him also using his RIGHT hand, then he's probably ambidextrous. Tagon's character page should then indicate that he has shown no particular preference regarding handedness.
• Cite references! Some of the most fun you'll have is linking strips to prove points you make in here. Yes, it is entirely possible that we'll find strip canon conflicting with itself, in which case call attention to the fact. But don't call Howard stupid or careless. He's probably got a very good explanation for the issue.
• No Fan-fic, Please. Sorry to spoil some of the fun. You may have a very clever idea about how Popso and Ovalkwik used to be owned by the same company and then the stockholders got duped into selling off one of the product lines when Breya Andreyasn's great-great-great-grandmother blah ramble fanfic etc. If the origin of something is unknown, let it remain so. If, however, there is a tangentially-related item in strip canon somewhere, call attention to that. You might even speculate about a closer relationship, provided you do so in a manner that makes it clear that this is editorial commentary rather than canon.
• We like images! Schlock Mercenary is sequential art, after all. Sometimes you'll need to include a picture in order to complete a page. Any images, including strips, from the Schlock Mercenary website can be included here, and yes, "deep-linking" is okay. You may also crop panels. If an image needs to be further altered, however, please ask first. This is one of those cases where Howard has the final say for very good reasons.
• External Links are just fine. There may be pages that need external, non-Schlock links. Science articles would make great links for additional reading. Howard misses "Chalain's Science Corner" in which we learned that Schlock's plasma cannon has a lot in common with the VASIMIR ion drive.

Persnickety, Mind-Numbing Nit-picks

• **You're probably looking for the Style Guide at this point...**