Revision as of 11:52, 22 January 2006

It has been suggested that this page be merged into List of policies and guidelines. (Discuss)

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All Official Policies on a Single Page

Misplaced Pages occasionally gets bogged down in process and bureaucracy. Sometimes, a myriad of rules and guidelines spring up in a vain attempt to list every possible consequence. However, the bottom line is that Misplaced Pages has very few strict rules, and any such should be obeyed by spirit rather than by letter. For the rules lawyers among 'pedians, this is all you need to know. Anything else is just m:instruction creep.

This page also lists a number of common misconceptions. This page does not explain anything, but simply states the rule and links to a page explaining it further.

General

Core principles

• Misplaced Pages is free and can be edited by anyone.
• Misplaced Pages pages do not have owners or custodians who control edits to them.
• Neutral point of view.
• Be bold.
• Do not submit copyrighted material.

Behavior

• Be civil.
• Don't be a dick.
• Do not make personal attacks.
• Assume that other people mean well.
• State your point, but don't attempt to illustrate it experimentally.

Dispute resolution

• Talk it out.
• Take a break.
• Ask a third opinion.
• Ask for mediation.
• If none of the above works, you can request comments or request arbitration. Both are forms of dispute resolution, not petitions for punishment.

Reverting

• Do not revert war.
• Edits to versions that are only very slightly different are also considered reverts.
• The Three Revert Rule does not entitle people to three reverts per day. It is not a right but an electric fence.
• Only use rollback if the revert is so obvious to not need an explanation - including but not limited to obvious vandalism.

Sockpuppets

• Having a few extra accounts is acceptable.
• Using additional accounts to generate apparent extra support for your position is grounds for blocking the extra accounts.
• Sockpuppets may not be used to evade blocks, bans, or the three-revert rule.
• When there is uncertainty whether a party is one user with sockpuppets or several users with similar editing habits, they may be treated as one user with sockpuppets.
• Votes from one's friends that do not otherwise edit Misplaced Pages but created an account to vote (so-called meatpuppets) will be ignored.

Administration

• People can become admins if they've been around for awhile and have the trust of the community.
• Admins are regular users with no special authority, the only difference is a few extra buttons.
• Admins are not stripped of their admin abilities except in very extreme cases.
• When undoing the action of another admin (in particular, unblocking or undeleting), please notify that admin.

Blocking

• People can be blocked for being disruptive, including but not limited to vandalism and excessive reverting.
• People can be blocked for making more than three reverts. However, they can also be blocked for less if disruptive.
• Accounts can be permanently blocked for being disruptive if they have made no useful edits. This includes impersonator accounts.
• Accounts can be permanently blocked if they belong to a user banned by the ArbCom.
• Public accounts can be permanently blocked.
• Accounts can be permanently blocked for making legal threats.
• A user may have multiple accounts, also known as sockpuppets. However, these may be permanently blocked if abused, such as for vote stacking.
• An IP address should be permanently blocked if it's an open proxy.
• An IP address should not be permanently blocked if it's not an open proxy.
• Admins are never obliged to block anyone. A 3RR violation does not necessitate a block.
• Admins should not unblock themselves, unless they were autoblocked as a result of a block on another user, or a bot.

Deletion

• Junk gets deleted.
• Obvious junk gets deleted outright; examples of obvious junk are listed at WP:CSD.
• Non-obvious junk gets listed for discussion e.g. at WP:AFD and deleted only if consensus agrees.
• There are no strict limits as to what can be put up for deletion, or how often. Just use common sense.

Protecting

• Generally, pages are protected to stop revert warring or vandalism, and unprotected when the hazard passes.
• A protection is not an endorsement for the current version.

Guidelines

• There is a myriad of guidelines on Misplaced Pages. The point of these is not to set anything in stone, but rather to be able to refer to a past discussion.
• The intent is to avoid repeating all the arguments each time the situation comes up - to say "we've encountered such a situation in the past, and consensus was to do this".
• This does not imply that all future situations are similar, nor that the guideline cannot be changed.
• Policy and guidelines are created through consensual discussion, not voting.