SlamWiki:Policy

Here at SlamWiki we have a few policies you should understand. Most of these apply across all Wikia and can be found on the Central Wikia at Wikia:Category:Policy. However, we have a few SlamWiki-specific policies with which you should familiarize yourself.

Courtesy Policy
SlamWiki adheres to a very simple courtesy policy: Follow the Golden Rule. You know. The regular one. "Do unto others" and all that good stuff. If this isn't straightforward enough for you, let me break it down to one simple guideline:


 * Don't be a dick.

Just use your heads, people! Would you want to be told your work sucks? No! Would you want to come home to find somebody decided to vandalize the front page? No! So play nice, especially in regard to User Poetry.

Plagiarism Policy
SlamWiki follows a very strict plagiarism policy, which can be summarized thusly:


 * If you are ever found to have significantly plagiarized any work, particularly when submitting User Poetry, you will be permanently banned.

This falls under the Courtesy Policy's basic premise of "Don't be a dick."

Plagiarism is wrong. It is illegal, disrespectful to the original author, and supremely dishonest to any fans of your work. By the phrase plagiarism, we refer to the stealing of words, phrases, and paragraphs from another author and passing them off as your own. We say "significantly plagiarized" because there are a few permissible instances of plagiarism:
 * Shout Outs - Brief quotations of or references to a work, usually not more than two lines. Meant to acknowledge the previous work or meant to provide an inside joke for other fans of the work.
 * Homage - A story or chapter written with themes/ideas from a previous work or written in the style of a previous work. Intended as a deliberate nod to that previous work. Utilizes no characters, locations, etc. from that work.
 * Retelling - A rewrite of an original work with some minor changes - perhaps a change of setting or a telling of the story from a different character's perspective. Acknowledges the influence of the original work.
 * Parody - Somewhat like a retelling, only making fun of the work. Always acknowledges the work it is making fun of.

Blocking Policy
Blocking is the means by which Administration prevents a user account or IP address/range from editing SlamWiki. Blocks are preventative rather than punitive measures used to prevent damage by dealing with vandalism, personal attacks, and enforcing SlamWiki policies. Block duration may vary, depending on the severity and longevity of vandalism, but in most instances a block can be lifted if the editor agrees to stop the damaging behavior.

Grounds for blocking

 * Vandalism – Vandalism is defined as any bad-faith edit made with the intent to lower the quality of the wiki or disrupt the functioning of the community. In most cases, users should be warned prior to blocking, though final discretion is left to the administrators. If any questions occur ask an active Administrator.
 * Move vandalism – Moving an article from its original name to an inappropriate article name is subject for immediate ban.
 * Spam – Posting irrelevant spam links in articles, or creating articles which are entirely spam is grounds for an infinite block (for registered users) or a shorter-term IP block.
 * Inappropriate account naming – Creating an inappropriate account name - be it in terms of user impersonation/insult, or general, rudeness/obscenity is also grounds for a no-warning infinite block.
 * Disruption – Users who disrupt the wiki (be it via changing other people's comments, making misleading edits, or harassing other users) may also be blocked.
 * Blanking articles – Users should typically be warned prior to being blocked for article blanking, except in extreme cases where the blanking is obviously being done with malicious intent - i.e. 4 articles blanked in one minute.
 * Personal attacks  – Users attacking other editors personally (in regards to anything) should be given one warning prior to a cool-off ban. The length of the ban is dependent on the severity of personal attacks. Any sort of personal attack can result in a week's Ban without discussion. If you feel you have been attacked personally, just tell an active Administrator.
 * Copyright violations – Users who continually post copyrighted material despite being warned should be blocked so as to prevent further violations. Wiki policies states that any copyright sources should not be used, only free public sources. Also view our Plagiarism Policy above.
 * Posting personal information – The posting of personal information regarding other people (i.e. their home address, phone number, etc.) is unacceptable, and will be enforced with blocks. Users doing so should be warned, and blocked if they continue.
 * Changing an article for the worse – If any article has its content exchanged with worse worded information, it should be reverted. The user who does the exchange of content will be punished for the first and second offense and will be blocked for 24 hours upon the third.
 * Open proxies – Assuming good faith, we allow editing from open proxies. However, any vandalism from an open proxy is grounds for a ban.
 * Editing User Poetry – User Poetry belongs to the user who posts it and is therefore not open to alteration like a regular article. You may only edit another user's fanon to correct grammatical errors or categorize it appropriately. Otherwise, it is grounds for a warning, with a second offense warranting an immediate ban.

Block length guidelines
With the exceptions noted above, blocks should usually progress according to the following table. Final discretion is left to the blocking administrator on a case-by-case basis.

When blocking a user or IP for anything less than infinite, type banned in –  should be substituted on talk pages with the appropriate length. type infiniteban in –  should be left on userpages only following an indefinite block.

Page Protection Policy
Administrators can protect and unprotect pages, including ones that do not exist. Protection of a page or image usually means that a non-admin cannot modify it.

The majority of pages on all Wikia should remain publicly editable, and not protected. Pages may, however, be temporarily or permanently protected for legal reasons (for example, license texts should not be changed) or in cases of extreme vandalism or edit warring or abusive re-creation.

Uses

 * Protecting highly vandalised pages, such as the Main Page on large wikis.
 * Maintaining the integrity of the site's logo and favicon.
 * Maintaining the integrity of key copyright and license pages.
 * Preventing repeatedly created vandal or spam pages from creation. See Special:Protectedtitles
 * Protecting the interface and system messages in the MediaWiki namespace (these are protected automatically)

A temporary protection is used for:
 * Enforcing a "cool down" period to stop an "edit war", upon request.
 * Protecting a page or image that has been a recent target of persistent vandalism or persistent edits by a banned user.

There is no need to protect personal .css and .js pages like user/monobook.css or user/cologneblue.js. Only the accounts associated with these pages (and admins) are able to edit them. (For more information on using these pages, see Help:User style)

Usage
Most pages and images are unprotected by default, only the site logo and favicons are automatically protected. You can protect editing, moving, or both by checking or unchecking the Unlock move permissions selection box.


 * (default) means any user, whether logged in or anonymous, can edit or move the page.
 * Block unregistered users, or semi-protected, means anonymous users and new accounts less than 4 days old cannot edit and/or move pages.
 * Sysops only, or fully-protected, means only administrators may edit and/or move the page.

Pages can also be cascade protected, this will cause all images, pages, or templates transcluded onto the page to be fully protected, even if the main article is only semi-protected.

Rules

 * 1) Do not make the common mistake of protecting pages unnecessarily. For example, do not protect a page simply because it is the Main Page.
 * 2) Do not edit a temporarily protected page except to add a notice explaining the page is protected.
 * 3) Do not protect a page you are involved in an edit dispute over. Admin powers are not editor privileges - admins should only act as servants to the user community at large.
 * 4) Avoid favoring one version of the article over another, unless one version is vandalism.
 * 5) Temporarily protected pages should not be left protected for very long.
 * 6) Talk pages and user talk pages are not protected except in extreme circumstances.
 * 7) The protection of a page on any particular version is not meant to express support for that version and requests should therefore not be made that the protected version be reverted to a different one.

Wikipedia's Simplified Ruleset
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, is the largest and most successful wiki. This page lists some of the overarching guidelines that have helped make Wikipedia a success. We do follow the simplified ruleset and offer a summarized version in the form of our Courtesy Policy above.

Encourage others, including those who disagree with you, likewise to BE BOLD!
 * 1) BE BOLD! in updating pages. Go ahead, it's a wiki!
 * 1) Be civil to other users at all times.
 * 2) Ignore all rules. If the rules discourage you from improving or maintaining the wiki's quality, ignore them.
 * 3) When in doubt, take it to the talk page. We have all the time in the world. Mutual respect is the guiding behavioral principle of Wikia and, although everyone knows that their writing may be edited mercilessly, it is easier to accept changes if the reasons for them are understood. If you discuss changes on the article's talk (or discussion) page  before you make them, you should reach consensus faster and happier.
 * 4) Respect copyright. Wikia uses the GNU Free Documentation License. Everything you contribute must be compatible with that license.
 * 5) Decent edit summaries and clear and transparent explanations are universally appreciated. Other editors need to understand your process, and it also helps you yourself to understand what you did after a long leave of absence from an article. Please state what you changed and why. If the explanation is too long, add more on the discussion page.
 * 6) Assume good faith; in other words, try to consider that the person on the other end of the discussion is a thinking, rational being who is trying to positively contribute to the project — unless, and only unless, you have firm, solid, and objective proof to the contrary. Merely disagreeing with you is no such proof.
 * 7) Particularly, don't revert good faith edits. Reverting is too powerful sometimes. Don't succumb to the temptation, unless you're reverting very obvious vandalism (like "LALALALAL*&*@#@THIS_SUX0RZ", or someone changing "1+2=3" to "1+2=17") . If you really can't stand something, revert once, with an edit summary something like "(rv) I disagree strongly, I'll explain why in talk."  and immediately take it to talk.
 * 8) No personal attacks. Don't write that user such and so is an idiot, or insult him/her (even if (s)he is an idiot). Instead, explain what they did wrong, why it is wrong, and how to fix it. If possible, fix it yourself (but see above).
 * 9) Be graceful: Be liberal in what you accept, be conservative in what you do. Try to accommodate other people's quirks the best you can, but try to be as polite, solid, and straightforward as possible yourself.
 * 10) Sign your posts on talk pages using ~, which gets replaced by your username and timestamp when you hit Save.  But don't sign on mainspace articles.
 * 11) Use the preview button; it helps prevents edit conflicts and mistakes.

It's important to have fun... but try to make sure those around you have fun too!