Alternate History:Conduct Policy
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NOTICE:
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- Note: Please also read Miraheze's Code of Conduct and other global policies as these also apply to this wiki along this policy.
These are the policies of the Alternate History Wiki regarding the conduct of users in editing and participation of discussions on this wiki. The purpose of this policy is to maintain a civil community of users who respect each other and each other's works, to promote a friendly and welcoming community of users who are interested in alternate history, to prevent any hostility, abuse or any disruption of this wiki's community which prevents other users from enjoying to contribute on this wiki. Thus, it is therefore necessary to have these policies in order to keep this wiki and its community functioning in order.
Violations and failure to comply to these policies may result in you receiving a warning on your user talk page or a ban from editing on this wiki, either for a limited set amount of time or indefinitely by an administrator, depending on the type and severity of the violation, at the banning administrator's discretion.
If banned from editing, the user should receive a notice by the banning administrator stating the reason as to why the user was banned from editing and the length of duration of the ban, and they should also be given the right to appeal their ban on their own user talk page. If the user decides to appeal their ban, the user should state a reason why the ban should be appealed, and an administrator may or may not decide to shorten the length of the ban or lift it all together, based on their discretion. Administrators are advised that, for petty and infrequent violations, they should leave a friendly warning for these users instead.
In addition to these wiki policies, users on this wiki are also subject to Miraheze's global policies, since this wiki is hosted on Miraheze and they apply on all wikis hosted on Miraheze's servers. Violations of global policies might result in your account being banned or deleted by a Miraheze steward.
These policies applies to everyone who contributes on this wiki, regardless of their user rights, as we are all equal in this community. Although it is not necessarily required, it is recommended that everyone who accessed this site should read and accept these policies before making any further edits to the wiki, as by accessing and contributing to this wiki you agree to follow this wiki's policies as well as Miraheze's global policies, regardless if you have read them or not.
And since these policies may change over time and without notice, it is recommended to review these policies from time to time. So please take your time to read this, and other wiki and global policies, carefully and thoroughly so you can know and understand what is and is not allowed.
The most recent revision of these policies are effective immediately after publication.
These policies are to be edited by the bureaucrats of this wiki at anytime without notice in order to accommodate the growing needs of the wiki. If you would like to propose any amendments to these policies, or if you have any questions and need clarification, you may request them or ask on this page's talk page.
Article guidelines
Generally, only articles on alternate history timelines are allowed on this wiki. The purpose of this site is to host fictional content for entertainment purposes, and we are not an encyclopedia of real historical events. For more information on policies regarding articles including creation and editing, as well as timeline adoption please see the timeline guidelines.
Map game guidelines
For policies regarding in creating and participating in map games, please see map game guidelines.
Image and media guidelines
For guidelines regarding images and other non-textual media files, including uploading files, the use of media on pages, and media copyright, please see the media guidelines.
Forum policies
For policies regarding user conduct on the forums, please read the threads regarding forum policies.
Chat policies
For policies regarding user conduct on chats, including the wiki chat and IRC chat, please see the policies section of the chat page.
Editing
Since this website is a wiki, anyone with access to this website is able to create and/or edit pages, including to some extent users without registered accounts (although unregistered and non-autoconfirmed registered users are blocked from creating pages or uploading images), except for certain pages which are protected so that only a certain group of users may edit such pages or perform other actions often based on registration status and user rights, including this page which is protected so that only administrators can make edits in order to protect the integrity of this wiki, or if the user has been banned from editing.
For alternate histories, the wiki approach allows for the creation of user-generated content, in which users can start and expand upon their own stories as well as collaborate with others on timelines.
The advantage of having a wiki which is open for everyone to edit is that it allows people to collaboratively contribute on a common interest and help the website grow, as well as allowing users a platform to create their own content and discuss ideas. In the case for a wiki about alternate histories, it allows for anyone to create alternate history timelines and allow other users to add more information, as well as allowing for discussion on this topic among other things.
However, having a site which is open to editing by anyone allows some people to make destructive rather than constructive edits, such as vandalism. For this reason, there are safeguards which attempt to prevent such edits, such as page protection.
If you encounter a page in which you are not allowed to edit, such as a protected page in which you don't have the sufficient user rights to edit or if you have been banned from editing, the "Edit" tab at the top of the page will be replaced by the "View source" tab. Clicking that link, editor will not allow you to make changes to the document, but instead it will allow you to view the page in Wikitext source code in which you can study and copy from. Additionally, there will be a message or notice at the top detailing the protection history, status and reason and/or your banning notice.
Anyone who has a registered account is free to create an alternate history, and anyone is free edit other users' timelines if they are open to edit, as long as they follow these editing policies.
If you need to practice your editing, you can do so at the public sandbox, or you can create your own sandbox for your own use as a subpage of your user page which is linked in your personal tools located at the top-right corner above the page tabs.
Vandalism
Vandalism is define as edits which are considered abusive and destructive. Vandalism includes:
- Removing portions of an article, or blanking out the entire page of an article.
- Inserting or replacing content with nonsensical or offensive comments or gibberish into pages.
- Changing the title of pages or moving pages without the authors' permission, especially containing nonsensical or offensive titles.
- Or otherwise editing or adding content to another user's material without their permission.
- In the case of wiki administrators, this can include deleting pages and files for no valid reason, especially for retaliation or without a valid notice or procession of the page does not violate policies or guidelines.
Edits which are considered to be vandalism will be reverted and users who are repeatedly engaged in vandalizing pages will be banned from editing in order to prevent continued disruptive edits. Many times, vandalism can also cross into harassment and other violations. User accounts which are created solely for vandalizing and other destructive editing may be banned indefinitely.
Editing pages which are closed to contributions by their authors
Some authors of alternate history timelines allow other users to collaborate on them. However, other authors might choose to close their timeline from contributors. Usually, authors who wish to make their timelines closed to contributors can protect their pages from editing by non-authors, by clicking on the "Protect" tab at the top of the page, and then selecting "Protect from non-authors" under the edit protections, via the AuthorProtect extension. They may also leave a notice at the top of their articles stating that the page is closed to contributors.
If the authors choose not to protect their pages from non-authors, you are allowed to make minor edits to the articles, such as correcting spelling and grammar. You are not however allowed to make significant contributions to the articles without the author's prior permission. If you would like to give any suggestions for the authors, you may leave them in the article's talk page by clicking on the "Discussion" tab and leaving a message. If you would like to help the authors on their timelines and would like to be a contributor, you may also ask permission on the talk page.
Editing other users timeline without permission is considered a form of disruptive editing or vandalism.
Spamming
Spam is define as making unsolicited advertisements by promoting commercial products, services, or websites. Examples of spam include:
- Creating pages containing advertisements or for the purpose of promoting commercial products, services, or websites.
- Supplying links to commercial websites in order to increase Internet traffic and advertisement revenue, or to attract or persuade users to visit a website, for example by inserting them into edits or expressing them in the chat or the forum.
It is especially considered spam if the person doing it is being paid to do it, if it is done by an automated spambot, or if it is done repeatedly and aggressively.
Including the fact that advertisement is against Miraheze's content policies, this wiki is not a place for hosting advertisements, as this is not the purpose for this wiki and it disrupts the flow of the community.
Links to external websites are allowed if information of those websites are relevant to the topic of the content, or if they are used to link to references or citations.
Any pages or edits considered spam will be deleted and users involving in spam will be banned from editing. User accounts and IP addresses which are created and/or used solely for the creation of spam and unsolicited advertisements, and spambot accounts and users who create such spambot accounts may be banned indefinitely, in addition the IP address may be banned from creating additional user accounts.
Harassment and Discrimination
- See also: Miraheze's Definition of Harassment
Harassment
Harassment is define as bullying and making personal attacks against (a) user(s) or a particular group of users. Actions which are considered harassment include:
- Systematically vandalizing a user's timelines or articles and their talk pages, their user page, or their user talk page.
- Creating and sending insults or offensive remarks which are directed at a particular user in talk pages, in the forum or on chats, or leaving them on their user talk page.
- Sexual harassment, including sending the user sexual remarks and comments, and soliciting sex or other sexual favors from other users.
- Stalking or persistently following the personal life of a user, whether online or in real life, and/or publicly posting their personal information and contacts here ("doxing").
- Making threats against a user, including threats of physical violence or death, threats on hacking their personal devices and compromising their online accounts, or threats on obtaining and/or releasing their personal information without consent.
Harassment is not tolerated at all on this wiki, and users engaged in harassment will be severely banned, either for a very long period of time (at least a year or more) or indefinitely. Some of these activity may even be illegal, and in this case the user will be banned indefinitely.
Discrimination
Discrimination is defined as the unfair judgement or hateful speech against another user based on who they are or what are they perceived to be; such as on the basis of race and ethnicity, sex and gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and nationality. Discrimination is also not tolerated and users will be severely banned if caught.
Content and Language
Sexual content
Uploading pornographic and sexually suggestive or obscene content to the wiki, as well as making edits containing sexual or erotic content and linking to pornographic or adult websites, or linking to illegal websites or websites containing or hosting illegal content is not allowed on this wiki. Discussing these topics or making romantic or sexual requests to other users is not allowed either.
Gore
Uploading gore or any images detailing graphic violence, as well as linking websites which hosts such content is not allowed on this wiki, even if they are for educational purposes.
Swearing
Making edits which include swearing on articles is generally not allowed, as it is not considered formal and may be considered vandalism or unconstructive editing. On discussions and talk pages, swearing is allowed to some extent as long as it is not intended to insult or defame someone, but please keep it at a minimum.
As per Miraheze's alternate accounts policy, the use of more than one account by the same user, as well as individual accounts shared by more than one person, for editing on this wiki is allowed only by limited use cases determined at the discretion of the administration. Any alternate accounts created without a valid purpose will be banned indefinitely. If a user has any alternate accounts or if more than one person is sharing the same account, it should be disclosed to the administration and the user must ask the administration with their main account if they can allow editing from their alternate accounts.
You must not use an alternate account to evade a recent ban, or for the purpose of vandalism or violating any of the rules of this wiki with the purpose of the violations not being tracked to your main account (sockpuppetry). Sockpuppetry will result in a ban of the main account if discovered.
Abuse of alternate accounts and ban evasion can also result in an IP ban including banning the creation of new accounts and logging in to an existing account from your IP address.
If a user who has been indefinitely banned for sometime, and they would like to come back and "turn over a new leaf", they can ask the administration if they are allowed to create a new account on the condition that they won't violate the rules again.
Creation of bots
The creation and usage of bots, which are user accounts operated by automated software and scripts, on this wiki is not allowed unless you are an administrator or Miraheze staff in the case of global bots, or, if you are not an admin, without the administration's approval. This is because bots can be used for malicious purposes such as repeated vandalism and spam, and they can also be a breach to the site's security and disrupt operations.
Bots can be used, however, to make certain tasks on this wiki much easier. But, even these helpful bots can be prone to errors and bugs which might cause it to "act out".
Bot accounts which are created without admin approval will be banned indefinitely. The botmaster may also be warned or banned.
To request admin approval for a bot, please see the administration talk page.
What happens elsewhere, stays elsewhere
If you have a dispute between another user on this site, whether elsewhere on the Internet or in real life, or whatever the user did outside this site, please do not bring them here. In other words, what ever happens in other wikis, sites, or offline is no regard of any administrative actions here and vice versa. Do not block users on this site if they're causing issues on another wiki. Unless if it violates Miraheze's global policies, whatever happens on other wikis on Miraheze does not come here. And please try not to cause interwiki drama. Thanks.
Reporting policy violations
If believe a user is problematic, or if you see any violations to these policies (such as vandalism, spam, etc.), then you can report the user to the administration either by posting it on the administration talk page, or you can message an individual admin's user talk page.
Also, if you feel that any content on this wiki violates copyright terms, or the your work has been misused here without your permission or in violation with licensing terms, you may also request to have such content taken down.
If there is no active or if there is an abusive administration on this wiki, you can request for a Miraheze Steward to take over administrative requests by replying to the Steward's noticeboard on Miraheze Meta.
Do not make false reports on a user, this can result in a ban.
What to do if you are banned from editing
Although banned users cannot edit pages nor participate in discussion, they still have access to the wiki and can read its contents.
If your user account have been banned from editing by an administrator, it is because you have violated the policies of this wiki. The admin who blocked you should inform you of the reason for your ban, as well as the length of time the ban will last on your user talk page. When banned, you will still able to access the website and read its contents, but you will be disabled from editing almost all editable content on this wiki, including articles, talk pages, other users' talk pages and even your own user page. If you try to edit those pages, you may only view their Wikitext source code, as well as the editor displaying a notice at the top about your current ban.
You should still be able to edit your user talk page, however, if you would like to respond back and appeal your ban. You will also be banned from participating in the forums, although you are not banned from the wiki chat or the IRC chat; those are handled separately and you can also request for an appeal by private messaging an admin. For unregistered users, their current IP address will be banned and, depending on their actions, might also disable the unregistered user from creating a user account.
The best thing to do if you are banned from editing for a short period of time is just to be patient and wait for your ban to expire, as by the time it does hopefully you had some time to think about what you did.
However, since IP addresses tend to change from user to user, sometimes a blocked IP address may be assigned to a user who was not the offending person, and may not be able to create a user account if they wish to participate on Miraheze.
In addition, IP addresses and ranges which are part of open proxies or Tor nodes might also be blocked from editing in order to prevent abuse, as per this policy. Instead, if you use a VPN or proxy site, or if you are accessing this site via the Tor network, you must disable it if you would like to edit, or create a user account and log in. Once logged in, you may re-enable your proxy/VPN/Tor connection.
If you feel you have been banned in error, or if you have been banned for a long period of time or indefinitely and would like to be given another chance, then you have the right to appeal your ban, by writing in your user talk page the reason why you fell your ban should be repealed. Your repeal may be reviewed by an admin, who doesn't necessarily have to be the same admin who blocked you, and who may or may not, at their discretion, shorten or lift your ban. If you were also blocked from your own talk page, you can also try to appeal your ban by contacting a wiki administrator from here to their user talk page on Miraheze Meta. Please don't try to appeal it in the chats.