Soft Cell Wiki:FAQ

This page contains answers on so called Frequently Asked Questions, provided by me – KatozzKita, founder and main administrator of Soft Cell Wiki.

If you don't find an answer on your question here feel free to ask on forum board or in this page's discussions.

The wiki
What is a wiki? A wiki is a web site working on software called. It helps create highly structured sites, with much simpler approach than of traditional web site, and lets people to contribute content regardless of their status – editors can register an account, or remain "anonymous" without any registration, and they don't have to be admins, like, again, in case of traditional old sites. Of course the most famous wiki is, the biggest free online encyclopedia with high content standards, available in hundreds of languages. But anyone can start a wiki site on their own and dedicate it to any subject – a hobby or profession, a celebrity or piece of media, etc, and host it independently or on so called, which take the hosting part on themselves (and that's our case).

Why a Soft Cell wiki? Back in 90s and early 00s, people would create sites and forums, sharing, structuring and discussing various content and knowledge. With the rise of social media this trend decreased, giving more freedom to people who aren't familiar with Internet and computers in general by creating dedicated groups and pages. Of course the discussion and sharing parts are still there, but these places are significantly more chaotic and don't work well for archiving content or structuring information. So fan made wikis, with the possibility of entire community to contribute, have become successors of old school fan sites, which were maintained by a small circle of tech savvy fans.

I saw that fan communities of Soft Cell, Marc Almond and Dave Ball are extremely chaotic AND very separated, even if you take English speaking fans, plus they are mostly closed. One of the possible reason is, of course, that these artists aren't as popular as other monsters of 80s pop I won't mention here, but the amount of work they have produced – and still produce, is very big and, on my opinion, is worth of proper exploration and documentation. And once in a while I'll see even oldest hardcore fans admitting they haven't heard that ultra rare song from an obscure compilation appearance, or misunderstood some line in the lyrics, and so on. I believe that a wiki will make such info more accessible for all sorts of fans, including those who just got there, and even non-fans, and will give more room for discoveries. I also believe that it might bring together these groups of fans that are usually scattered away from each other.

Why not Wikia/FANDOM? My dive into wiki editing started on, not long before it was rebranded into FANDOM. I was an avid supporter of this platform, but slowly it has become less and less pleasant: advertisement, that worsen experience for unregistered readers and editors, unwanted media features forced upon with corporate thinking, painful process of software updates and merging with other platforms, limitations of functionality of MediaWiki itself, unfriendly policies toward users and even admins.

, like Wikipedia, is a non-profit organization that relies on volunteers, donations and very transparent community driven administration. On top of that, users have much more control over how their wikis function and how customized they are, than on FANDOM.

The only downside – it's extremely hard to get a wiki into results of search engines, while FANDOM, being a corporation, is massively backed by Google. So I really would appreciate if you, dear readers and editors, will spread the word about and links to the Soft Cell Wiki.

Content
What is the scope of the wiki? The main scope of Soft Cell wiki are Marc Almond and Dave Ball and their musical works. This also includes other artists and bands/projects related to them. Aside from music itself there are also videos (films), writings (books), and performances.

Are there limitations of content? Aside from content, prohibited by wiki's code of conduct and – yes, and mainly due to copyrights, which are inevitable in case of musical works: they go for audio recordings, music writing, lyrics, visual artworks and photography, videos and films and brands.

For that reason the media content on Soft Cell Wiki is limited only to images, and only when they are necessary for articles. For example, in article about album you, of course, need the front cover of that album to be used in the infobox, but you don't need to upload images of back cover or vinyl labels – they can be described in "Artwork" section of article, with a reference link to Discogs page. Furthermore, uploaded images must have detailed descriptions about authorship and licenses applied to them.

Thus audio and video uploads are not supported on Soft Cell Wiki. Instead, links to official uploads on YouTube or streaming platforms must be used in corresponding sections of articles.

For more information see Soft Cell Wiki:Copyrights.

Does Soft Cell Wiki have a copyright as well? Soft Cell Wiki operates under the. It means that anyone can copy, distribute and/or modify wiki's text, as long as the wiki is credited appropriately. When you edit on Soft Cell Wiki, your contributions are published under the same license. If you're making changes to wiki's material, while distributing it somewhere else, you must indicate that changes were applied, and with the same license.

To simplify: you can use Soft Cell Wiki's text materials freely, without limitations, but – you have to credit the wiki as the source.

Contributing
Is there any requirements to be an editor? Nope! Anyone can contribute to this wiki, you don't even need to register an account. If you see something is need to be fixed, expanded or added – go for it, or be bold, as they say on Wikipedia!

Why registering? While per answer above registration is not necessary, it is recommended to make an account for better credibility on your edits, especially if you plan to contribute a lot. Anonymous users appear in wiki's feed and edit history of pages with their numerical IP addresses, while registered users have nicknames of their choice; it's the same way on Wikipedia.

I've never edited on a wiki before No worries! MediaWiki offers well written instructions on their. For starter, these ones are especially notable:
 * – new users always start with this type of wiki editor, it is good for those who aren't well immersed in web formatting
 * For those, who prefer raw coding experience, or are more familiar with wikis – and

Soft Cell Wiki also uses a variety of templates which have usage instructions as well.

Of course nobody expects you to be a pro on the day one, everyone get better with experience. If you have made a mistake, nobody will get mad at you (unless it's a clear case of ) – other editors can fix that.

If you feel like you are still don't understand wiki editing, nobody will force you into it, and you can address possible edits or issues on discussion pages or forum. As a last resort, wiki's and  pages accept feedback too.

Are there any standards? Yes, they are listed wiki's manual of style.

In general, Soft Cell Wiki, as an encyclopedia, must present information in just-facts-style, accurately, in neutral and fair manner, with reliable sources and references. Otherwise the wiki would become a collection of biased opinions and rumors, which ultimately will kill its purpose.

Any examples of good articles? Yes – good articles get to the featured articles page, to be shown on the main page of the wiki.

Are there priority things to do? Yes, you can check wiki's to-do list. Unfinished articles (aka stubs) and missing pages usually have highest priority to work on. But that doesn't mean you can't make something on your own, once again – be bold!