User:Evkl/Userspace policy

	This is an official Bulbapedia policy. In a nutshell:
	You may only edit your userpage three times per server day. Balance your personal edits with your encyclopedic edits. Userspace content must be appropriate for Bulbapedia.

Bulbapedia's userspace policy defines the rules of editing in the userspace - that is, pages prefixed by "User:". This policy aims to focus Bulbapedia editors on the primary task of the wiki: creating a community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia. Users who violate the userspace policy rule may face sanctions, including losing the ability to edit their userpage. New users must make a number of mainspace edits before they are allowed to create their userpage.

The policy was instituted to place emphasis on the improvement of encyclopedic content. The current limit is as follows:

Users may make at most three userspace edits per day, AND
Users must make at least one more mainspace edit than userspace edit per day (on average)
Users must, on average, make more mainspace edits than userspace edits, and may not make more than three userspace edits per day.

Subpages in your userspace all count toward your userspace edit totals; for example, making two edits on User:Person and two edits on User:Person/Details would put Person over the limit. The Leadership Board may offer exclusions from the policy to users who are using their userspace to test a new template or page intended for the mainspace.

Userspace Guidelines

Bulbapedia is a community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia. To support building a community, our editors each have their own "userspace" page where they may add personal content. Userpages may be used to describe your primary editing focus on Bulbapedia, provide general biographical information, discuss your history with Pokémon, or other personal information.

If you see that someone has something snazzy on their userpage (for example, a talk page HP bar, random Pokémon generator or customized party template), then you need to ask their permission before using it on your own userpage. How can this be enforced given the public nature of wikicode?

Due to server strain following the release of some games (namely core series games, both original release and English-language release), the userspace may be limited strictly to one or no edits per person per day. "Still relevant?

Content deletion

Anything deemed inappropriate by the Administrators will be removed. If you feel your material was taken down unreasonably or in error, contact whoever did it for their reasoning. Contact a staff member if you want to know if something not specified here is allowed or not: they are all here to help.

If you wish to have your own content deleted (one or two pages), simply tag the page with {{delete}}. If you wish to delete multiple pages (such as a collection of sandbox pages) then contact an active administrator, bureaucrat or Leadership Board member on their talk page. This will reduce edits and save the list of recent changes from temporarily being spammed.

Prohibited content

No pornographic or obscene material is allowed; other prohibited content includes:

Games (such as "find the picture with the subheader under it")
Missions (such as "Go through the 'maze' of subpages to reach the end and find the Shiny Psyduck!")
Riddles
Fan fiction (this can be submitted on the Bulbagarden forums)
Friend pages (the Bulbagarden forums have their own friend lists)
User created awards
FAQ pages
Spoofing the MediaWiki interface (fake "new messages" boxes or other system-generated messages are disallowed)
Categories intended for mainspace pages (categories such as Category:Pokémon are a navigational aid between mainspace pages, and as such should not include userpages; this includes categories added by some templates. If using these templates, use a non-categorising version)

Circumventing the userspace policy

A user breaches the userspace policy when they attempt to avoid the restrictions on userspace content by:

Creating a page in the mainspace;
Treating their talk page as an area for personal content (a two sentence blurb is fine provided you don't keep editing it excessively; posting teams or usertags on your talk page is not);
Creating their userpage on Bulbagarden Archives or Bulbanews in an attempt to circumvent the Bulbapedia policy;
Asking another user to edit for them; or
Creating additional accounts and editing personal content with that account.

Content in breach of the policy will be deleted.

Other users' pages

Userpages are personal pages, and are not to be edited by other users unless prior permission has been given. Instances in which this is permitted include, but are not limited to, broken links that appear on the wanted pages, duplicate images on the Archives, uncategorizing a userpage categorized in a category it should clearly not be in, or reverting vandalism. Spelling mistakes and other minor visual or style challenges which do not impact the overall operations of Bulbapedia should be left untouched.

If a change you wish to make to another user's page does not fall under one of the above categories, ask an administrator or that user for permission. Please also note this permission in the edit summary.

Usertags

Bulbapedia has a Usertag policy, which pertains in particular to their creation.

Users can take advantage of userpages as a place to express themselves and let others know more about them; usertags are one feature to personalize pages. To minimize the proliferation of usertags, Bulbapedia groups similar usertags into a single, multipurpose one, such as {{User Pet}} and {{User Want}}.

To reduce the amount of maintenance that Bulbapedia administrators need to do in the Template: namespace, all newly created usertags are to either be created in the User: namespace, under User:(your username)/(template name) or in the case of a tag that is only to be used on one page, that the {{User Template}} template be used.

We have compiled a list of criteria usertags must meet before they will be moved to the Template: namespace.

Criteria for a Usertag to be moved into the Template namespace

The usertag must have at least five users using it on their userpages
The usertag must be deemed useful enough to be in the Template: namespace by at least two administrators.
Note: If an administrator creates a usertag, it does not need to meet the above criteria; administrator-created tags are considered immediately approved

Once a usertag has met the following criteria and is brought to the attention of an administrator(s), it may be moved to the Template: namespace.

Please note that creating usertags directly into the Template: namespace will result in the tag being moved to the User: namespace, and after multiple offenses, a short ban may occur.

Warnings

Warnings will be issued to users who edit their userspace in violation of the three-edit guideline listed above. If a user has done this, they will be given their first warning, which instructs them to follow the editing guidelines and to use the preview button.

Blatant disregard for the first warning leads to a second, then to a third, and if the user continues despite the repeated warnings, loss of the ability to edit userpages. Rather than do this, Bulbapedia has a social forum, as well as blogs, for the details of its users' everyday lives, found in the Bulbawiki forum link on the sidebar.

If you currently cannot edit your userpage

If you find yourself unable to edit your userpage, this may be due to one of four reasons:

Your account is not autoconfirmed: a special status that is required before you can edit your userpage; this can be automatically earned by making a sufficient number of edits to Bulbapedia's mainspace.
You have been put into the "abuse" usergroup for breaching this policy.
Your userpage has been protected; ask the protecting administrator for assistance.
Your account has been blocked, in which case you will have to wait out the block.

If you cannot edit your userpage and don't seem to fit one of these four categories, ask a staff member for assistance.