Article Spotlight: Shadow Marshals

Hello all to the first of many article spotlights! The first article spotlight is Shadow Marshals, an article about an organization composed of biotic turians written by InfernalWarrior. The article is currently the largest on Mass Effect Fanon, spanning over 20,000 bytes. The article is also home to the first Mass Effect Fanon Quote of the Week. Here’s an excerpt:

Shadow Marshals comprised those Turians considered both blessed and cursed by their people, as they were able to perceive the metaphysical energy field known as biotic energy. For a Turian, being able to use biotics was not something which boded well, as those capable of manipulating its energies were notoriously unstable, commonly developing destructive tendencies and being mass murderers and criminals. Further more, any Turian able to become a biotics practitioner was usually very powerful, which could make them very difficult to bring down when they inevitably lost their sanity. Ascribable to this, Turian children who exhibited a greater than average amount of element zero in their bloodstreams were always taken from their parents; originally, they were destroyed without any attempt at rehabilitation, but the Turians rapidly came to consider this a waste of potentially valuable weapons, and so instituted a program to attempt the training of these children. This resulted in the first generation of Shadow Marshals.”

When asked the reason for creating the article, InfernalWarrior replied with,

The main reason for my creating the Shadow Marshals was to develop a suitable background for my Mass Effect Origins character Kranos Faaral. I wanted him to have commando training similar to that of the Asari Huntresses, Salarian STG, and Human N7s. It also made sense for me, as being obsessed with Turians, to write an article about the Turian version of these commando/super agent group. I also drew most of the inspiration for the organization and other parts of the Shadow Marshals from the Jedi Order and Sith Order from Star Wars.”

So far, the article is still a work in progress, but if the rest of the article is anything like what is currently written, than expect  it to be great.

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Mass Effect Fanon would like to thank InfernalWarrior for his help and input, we would also like to congratulate him for having the first article spotlight.

Any opinions express in this article do not reflect Mass Effect Fanon and/or its users.

About: Contests

Contests on Mass Effect Fanon are great, community building experiences that can award an article, a user and much more! This blog post will explain the two current contests, the logo contest and the Quote of the Week award.

Logo Contest is a contest on Mass Effect Fanon that allows users to show their creative side. It was the first contest on the wiki. EliteMaster117 currently has his idea featured as the logo.

Quote of the Week, usually called QotW, is one of the first of many changes that has arrived on Mass Effect Fanon. Every week a new original quote is posted on the main page, but for this to happen, the quote needs to pass a community vote. QotW’s allow all users to notice the creativity and work that another member puts in.

About: Good articles and Spectre articles

Good articles are articles that demonstrate good use of the Manual of Style. For an article to receive the award, it has to be compelling with a good use of grammar. Good articles will be recognized among the community as the best of the best. An article can be demoted if it no longer displays all the requirements.

Spectre articles are articles that demonstrate a great use of the Manual of Style, along with meeting several other requirements that are more strict than the good article requirements. The article must be compelling and give a great deal of information. The articles are recognized as the best of the best.

About: Policies

Mass Effect Fanon prides itself on having a list of policies. Though, in the past, users have asked what some of the policies mean. So in this post three policies will be explained to help new users.

Manual of Style is the most important of the policies, this is also the hardest policy for some to understand. In a nut shell, it tells users to write in the past tense, use proper grammar and use headings. Failure to follow the rule can result in a ban. Though most of the time the user will just be reminded or warned.

Image Policy is the easiest policy to understand, it is also the most misunderstood. In a nut shell, inform the community where you found the image, give a short description, and tell what the licensing is. Most common licenses are Fair-use, user-made and unknown. Unknown licenses do result in the image being removed. That will only happen if the user who uploaded the image or an administrator cannot find where the image came from.

Edit Policy was created to protect users own work. If an article does not have a free-edit template, than only the user who created the article can add content. However, any user can fixed spelling or grammar errors. Also, the policy tell the punishments users will receive if they do not follow the policy. Vandalism results in an infinite ban.

About: Article spotlights

Article spotlights are a new award given to an article that display the creativity shown in an article. Examples are, but not retained to, new organizations, new species, added characters from the games and new characters. They do not have to be finished, though it is preferred that they are. Any registered member (registration is free) can vote for or nominate an article to be spotlighted. Every two weeks a new spotlight is added to this blog. For the article to be spotlighted it needs to have a majority vote, even if it’s only one. A discussion can be found here.