Policy:Canon

The Canon Policy

The Sarna.net BattleTechWiki (BTW) approach to the issue of Canon for the BattleTech universe is as follows:

BTW allows all things BattleTech into its pages

BTW aims to be an all-inclusive source of BattleTech-related information. Therefore, as established in the BTW Policy:Notability, anything that has to do with BattleTech warrants inclusion, irrespective of whether or not it is canonical or even official. Non-canonical BattleTech universe products and publications, such as fanzines, parodies or real-world treatises of the BattleTech universe, are explicitly included among the material that BTW seeks to cover. Nonfictional information about BattleTech as a game, fictional universe and franchise is also included.

BTW is not in a position to decide which official products contribute canon

The Line Developer's official ruling on the issue of what is Canon and what is not, i.e. the stance of the owners of the intellectual property that is BattleTech, is detailed in the article on Canon. BTW deliberately leaves it to the individual user to interpret that ruling and decide what information they consider canonical for their personal vision of the BattleTech universe. The policy adopted by BTW is not to decide on the canonicity of a given source or piece of information, but apply appropriate tags to highlight articles where Canonicity could be considered problematic. A caveat to this is that, unlike the source as such, information from explicitly non-canonical sources will not usually be considered notable BattleTech information for purposes of BTW.

See also Canon in regards to the hierarchy of canonicity of conflicting sources.

Material from fan-made or otherwise unofficial sources must be segregated from official material

BTW articles are considered to discuss official issues of the BattleTech universe by default. Articles pertaining to unofficial topics or subjects (such as Fanon/fan fiction) must therefore be tagged accordingly. In this context, even the work of a person who is a BattleTech author otherwise is considered Fanon if it was not produced in an official capacity.

Meta-sources, i.e. unofficial compilations of information taken from other, canonical sources, are not regarded as canonical themselves and are not valid as references for articles on official subjects. In any case where they have been cited, the statements themselves may be challenged with the {{citation needed}} template and the meta-source citation removed. (The correct reference or citation would be the canonical source where the meta-source took its information from.)

BTW does not publish fan fiction

Owing to BTW's origin as a fansite, we used to permit fan-fiction (Fanon) on this site. This has been changed by user consensus, with the site owner's express approval. As a result, fan fiction may not be posted on this site anymore and existing fan fiction content has been transferred over to the BattleTech Fanon Wiki.

As per ruling #1 above, articles about individual pieces of Fanon/fan fiction are still permissible, if the subject in question has been published elsewhere and is notable enough.

See Policy:Fanon for details.

Articles covering real-world subjects, such as authors or companies, naturally stand outside of the canon of the fictional universe and are not affected by the Canon Policy.

We appreciate your adherence to this core policy and welcome you to actively join the community of users and editors of BattleTechWiki.

How to implement the policy

Contributors to BTW are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the official stance as outlined in Canon. Since it is the canon that defines the BattleTech universe, BTW articles are meant to provide canonical information by default. It is therefore not required to explicitly mark (clearly) canonical products or information as such.

Articles dealing with apocrypha, non-canon and fanon are the exception, and must contain a "Canonicity" section where information on their canonicity status is presented. Further, they must be tagged accordingly by inserting the appropriate tag from among the following to the top of the article:

Articles about non-canonical subjects

Tag: {{NotCanon}}

If the subject of the article does neither (clearly) fall under either Canon or Apocrypha, or if it is not an official (licensed) BattleTech product (i.e. Fanon/fan fiction), then the Template:NotCanon tag should be included. This will insert the following box into the article:

Articles about apocryphal products

Tag: {{ApocryphalProduct}}

If the subject of the article does not (clearly) fall under Canon, but is an official product that contains original additional information pertaining to the BattleTech universe, then the Template:ApocryphalProduct tag should be included. This will insert the following box into the article:

Articles containing exclusively apocryphal information

Tag: {{ApocryphalArticle}}

If the subject and content of the article are exclusively based on a source that is itself apocryphal, then the Template:ApocryphalArticle tag should be included. This will insert the following box into the article:

Articles containing both canonical and apocryphal information

Tags: {{ApocryphalContentStart}} and {{ApocryphalContentEnd}}

If content from an apocryphal source is added to an article about an otherwise canonical subject, then these templates (Template:ApocryphalContentStart & Template:ApocryphalContentEnd) should be used to mark those parts of the article that are based on apocryphal sources. Note that unlike the other tags, these should not be put at the top of the article. This will insert the following boxes into the article:

Apocryphal Content Starts

The information after this notice comes from apocryphal sources; the canonicity of such information is uncertain.
Please view the reference page for information regarding their canonicity.

(Apocryphal Content goes here.)

Apocryphal Content Ends

Articles about publications with non-canon portions

Tag: {{Canonconsiderations}}

In a few rare cases, publications that are otherwise canon have sections confirmed to be non-canon - not merely contradicted by later sources or thrown into question, but explicitly not contributing to BattleTech canon at all. This may be by initial intent (e.g. Empires Aflame, written to be canon up to the misjump) or by later decision (e.g. the Surrender Your Dreams epilogue). In these rare cases, open with the Template:Canonconsiderations tag, and include a "Canonicity" section explaining what is and is not canon.