Bulbapedia:Userspace policy

	This is an official Bulbapedia policy. In a nutshell:
	Constructive edits in the userspace are unlimited, but personal edits are limited to three times per server day. Balance your personal edits with your encyclopedic edits. Additionally, some content is prohibited.

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Bulbapedia's userspace policy defines the rules of editing in the userspace - that is, pages prefixed by "User:". Bulbapedia is a community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia. To support building this community, editors may create a "userspace" page with personal content. Userpages may be used to describe your primary editing focus on Bulbapedia, provide general biographical information, discuss your history with Pokémon, or share other information. Those who violate the userspace policy 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.

This policy divides userspace edits into two categories: constructive edits and personal edits.

• Constructive edits include content that is meant to be moved into the mainspace, or content that is meant to assist with mainspace projects. Some examples include (but are not limited to):
  • Drafts of new articles, or drafts revising existing articles.
  • Drafts of new templates, or drafts revising existing templates.
  • Experimentation with page layouts, CSS, or tables, with the intent of improving the mainspace.
  • Organizing tasks for a mainspace project, for example a to-do list, action plan, phases, etc.
  • Storing mainspace-relevant data, pending a place in the mainspace to put it.

Constructive edits in the userspace are unlimited, but follow the same general editing guidance as pages on the mainspace.

• Personal edits focus on content that is not intended to be moved into the mainspace. Some examples include (but are not limited to):
  • Listings of the user's interests, collections, or favorite characters.
  • Visuals, such as HP bars, custom graphics, or teams of the user's Pokémon.
  • Listings of the user's social media handles, or links to other websites.

Personal edits are subject to the following limits:

• at most three personal userspace edits per user per day, AND
• at least one more mainspace edit than personal userspace edit per user per day.

For example, if you wish to make one personal userspace edit, you must make at least two mainspace edits. All personal edits to pages in your userspace (including subpages, e.g. User:Example/My Team,) collectively count toward this edit limit.

Under certain circumstances, the userspace may be limited to one or no edits per person per day, to maintain consistent function of the mainspace.

Warnings

Warnings will be issued to users who edit their userspace excessively. If a user makes excessive edits, they will be given their first warning, which instructs them to not edit the userspace so much and to use the preview button. Additional warnings may be issued if the user disregards the initial warnings.

If the user continues despite the repeated warnings, they may face loss of the ability to edit userpages, either on a short-term basis or (after multiple warnings and a short-term block) permanently.

Content restrictions

Restrictions on content include a ban on pornographic or obscene material in any form. Additionally, none of the following are allowed on subpages:

• User-hosted activities (such as games, missions, or riddles) - Bulbapedia's main purpose is to offer encyclopedic info about Pokémon, and that should be the main reason for people to visit the site, not to play mini-games in userspace pages.
• Fan fiction (fan-made narratives using the world or characters of Pokémon) - Bulbapedia is not meant to be a site to host these creations. Instead, these can be shared on the Bulbagarden forums.
• Friend lists/pages - Bulbapedia is not meant to be a social networking site. The Bulbagarden forums have friend lists.
• User-created awards - These are considered a form of friend listing.
• FAQ pages (pages that list several commonly-asked questions and answers) - These should be put in the mainspace as regularly formatted articles, or content within existing articles.
• Spoofing the MediaWiki interface (fake "new messages" boxes or other system-generated messages) - This can at best act as a prank and become an annoyance, or at worst trick users into phishing. Intentionally confusing or tricking users in this way is irresponsible.
• Categories intended for mainspace pages (categories such as Category:Pokémon) - These are a navigational aid between mainspace pages, and as such should not include userpages; this includes categories added automatically by some templates, so make sure to use a non-categorising version if possible. If there isn't an alternate version available for a template, adding the field |nocat=1 or |cat=no to the template call will usually disable categories.
• Personal images - All images uploaded to Bulbapedia (through the Bulbagarden Archives) must be used in mainspace, or for projects intended to be moved into mainspace. You are not allowed to upload images just for use in your userspace. Images found to be for this purpose will be removed.
• Usage of the userspace policy to circumvent other policies - Content that would violate other policies, such as the unreleased materials policy or the notability requirements, cannot be claimed as "personal" pages to gain protection from those policies.
  • Example: the unreleased materials policy forbids coverage of leaked pre-release builds of games. If a userspace page covered such a topic, the page cannot be claimed as "personal" to protect its existence. It still violates the unreleased materials policy, so it would be removed.
  • Note: if you find a specific policy too restrictive or outdated, please suggest constructive, focused improvements via the policy's talk page instead of circumventing the policy via the userspace.

Anything else deemed inappropriate by staff will be deleted. 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.

Userspace management

As with the other namespaces on Bulbapedia, users at Administrator level or above have the responsibility to manage the content and use of the User namespace. This responsibility includes, but is not limited to, deleting any content breaching the userspace policy, approval and management of mainspace drafts hosted in the Userspace, and performing various wiki maintenance tasks that affect the Bulbapedia's content spaces.

Content deletion

If a staff member intends to delete a userpage that breaches the userspace policy, they will message the user on their talk page and offer up to a week to "rescue" their content and save it somewhere that isn't on Bulbapedia. (Severe offenses will be deleted immediately.)

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 or Leadership Board member on their talk page. This will reduce edits and save the list of recent changes from temporarily being spammed.

Mainspace content and drafts

The userspace is currently sometimes used as a drafting space to develop content or templates for the mainspace. Users can utilize the {{mainspace}} template on their personal drafts to alert others that the page is a draft and open to staff review; additionally, {{mainspace|status=complete}} signifies a completed draft. As part of the staff review, approved drafts will have their content incorporated into the mainspace by moving the page outright, merging pages if the page histories don't conflict, or, when merging would render the page history useless, by transferring the appropriate content via edits with an explanatory edit summary and preserving the draft history as a mainspace redirect to the content page. If a draft cannot be reasonably incorporated into the mainspace, it may be deleted following the same process as mentioned in #content deletion.

In order to prevent pages from competing with mainspace content, userspace pages that are found to be hosting mainspace content will be treated as a draft and are subject to the approval process as detailed above.

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 and putting personal edits on that page.
• 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).
• Asking another user to edit the userspace for them.
• 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. Content should not be added to or removed from a userpage (excluding Talk pages) by any user other than the creator of the page. Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and other minor things that do not affect the overall running of Bulbapedia are to be left untouched. However, if permission is given by the owner of the page, other users may make edits. For example, if a user gives you permission to edit a section in their sandbox page, you may only edit that section, not their entire sandbox page.

In certain circumstances, users may edit another user's page without needing prior permission from that user. These circumstances include:

• Fixing broken links that appear on the wanted pages
• Fixing links to pages or images that have been moved
• Uncategorizing a userpage that is in a category intended for mainspace pages
• Reverting vandalism

If a change you wish to make to another user's page does not fall under one of the above categories, ask for permission on the userpage's talk page. If the user does not respond, ask an Administrator. If the Administrator gives you permission, please note this permission in the edit summary.

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 editing Bulbapedia's mainspace.
• Your userpage has been protected: contact the protecting Administrator for assistance.
• Your account has been blocked. If the block is shorter than 1 month, you will need to wait it out. If the block is longer or indefinite, then you will need to appeal your case to the Leadership Board.

If you cannot edit your userpage and do not seem to fit one of these four categories, seek help from a staff member.

See also

• Help:User page
• Help:Namespaces