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Contribution guidelines

RelicDB is a reference. Accepted contributions become part of the catalog and its change history, so the bar is accuracy over speed. Account deletion and requests to remove personal information are handled as described in our Privacy Policy.

How it works

  • Any signed-in user can suggest edits from a record's "Suggest an edit" link.
  • Only fill in the fields you want to change — the form submits a diff, not the whole record.
  • Every suggestion is reviewed by an administrator before it changes the catalog. Reviewers can accept some fields and reject others.
  • Save unfinished work as a draft and resume it later from your contributions page.
  • The history is append-only: ordinary corrections are new submissions rather than edits to past ones. You can withdraw a submission before it's reviewed; withdrawal does not erase its contents. Privacy requests are handled separately.

Accuracy and sourcing

  • Cite where a fact comes from — the citation fields on the form exist for exactly this. Manufacturer pages, official checklists, and printed references beat forum posts.
  • Don't guess. A blank field is better than a plausible-sounding wrong value.
  • When two sources disagree, say so in the note to the reviewer.

Images

  • Upload your own scans and photographs of items you have in hand.
  • For the main catalog image, prefer a clear scan or photograph of an example in the best available condition. For rare or hard-to-find items, useful images of worn or damaged examples are welcome when better images are unavailable.
  • Center the item on a neutral background. Crop excess background while keeping the item and its identifying details visible. For flat items, scans are preferred to photographs.
  • When preparing an image for submission, do not crop out, cover, or erase copyright lines, artist or creator credits, maker's marks, or identifying labels. Preserve the details that identify the item and distinguish its version or variation. This applies to all collectibles and to scans, photographs, and stock images. Follow any additional restrictions in the source terms and permissions.
  • No images taken from other databases, marketplaces, auction listings, or publications without permission from those sources.
  • No images bearing watermarks added by other databases, marketplaces, auction sites, or data sources, even if you have permission to use the image. Don't erase or crop out a source watermark to bypass this rule; use your own scan or photograph, or obtain an authorized version without the watermark. Preserve original creator credits and copyright notices.
  • Stock images are allowed where appropriate. Those images should be an accurate depiction of the item. See the stock image policy.
  • Photos of real items are preferred.
  • You must have permission covering both your upload and RelicDB's use of the image. The limited license covers catalog pages, search and browse results, collections, lists, dashboards, and related service interfaces, with no image redistribution through data exports or APIs. See sections 4 and 5 of the Terms of Service.

Conduct

  • You appear by your username, which doesn't need to be your real name. To remove your username and profile link from catalog contributor credits, turn off "Credit my edits publicly" in your privacy settings. Profile visibility and list sharing are separate controls; see the Privacy Policy for what remains visible.
  • No spam, no deliberate misinformation, no edit-warring: repeatedly resubmitting a rejected change without new evidence will get your submissions rejected and may restrict your account.
  • Problems with a record or another user's content? Use the "Report a problem" link rather than fighting it out through edits.