abstract
| - The TerraDrive Universe is a continuous, endless process — what you write could be around for centuries! Even deletions are recorded, so anything you do here remains an accessible part of the TerraDrive Universe, available for future reference. But don't be anxious! While editing, keep in mind the following things, and you will soon find yourself making effective contributions to the project. The primary objective of the TerraDrive Universe is to produce a high-quality, expansive science fiction universe for use as a free resource to everyone. However, given that there is no official structure policing the quality of articles, the TerraDrive Universe community has spawned its own rules, procedures and values, which continue to evolve. Some of these values are informal and you will learn them from observing, asking, or being told by other editors. Some are formal (and their page titles are preceded by "TDU:", like this page). While there are rules and procedures covering everything from serious, right down to fun, a few are really important. These few are mostly common sense about respecting how the TerraDrive Universe works and what it tries to do, but also reflect the accumulated experience of hundreds of TDU developers who are constantly learning and refining core values, which help us avoid or resolve conflicts over content, and which guide us in our constant effort to improve articles and expand the universe. If you follow these behaviors, you will likely be treated with kindness and respect. As you gain experience, you might learn of additional style guides, handy ways to do things etc. But don't worry too much if you don't understand at first. Someone will clean up after you, and, as time goes on, you'll learn more of the subtleties of how to be a great developer! There is no strict set of rules, instead there is a set of guidelines which you can choose to follow. You might see people do things that are plainly not in accordance with these guidelines, but which may still be well within the actual TerraDrive Universe policies. The "be gracious" guideline applies in those situations too. In many cases, well-informed and well-intentioned editors working on an article just have to sort out among themselves the most appropriate way to improve the article.
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