User:Boblers/Userspace policy draft
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 is a binding contract on Bulbapedia. By having a Bulbapedia account, you are agreeing to follow this policy in your editing. It aims to promote constructive editing of our encyclopedia, and minimize server stress from unnecessary edits.
In a nutshell, it explains that you cannot edit your userpage too often, or include certain prohibited content (listed below). Users who break this rule may find they lose the ability to edit their userpage. New users must have completed a set number of mainspace edits before they can create their userpage. The policy was instituted to place emphasis on the improvement of encyclopedic content.
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 revision drafts of existing articles.
- Drafts of new templates, or revision drafts of 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.
- 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.
- Snazzy visuals, such as HP bars, custom graphics, or teams of the user's Pokémon.
- Listings of the user's social media handles, or other links to external sites.
Constructive edits are unlimited, however personal edits are subject to the following limits:
- at most three personal userspace edits per person per day, AND
- at least one more mainspace edit than personal userspace edit per person per day.
To clarify, if you wish to make one personal userspace edit, you must make two mainspace edits. If you wish to make two personal userspace edits, you must make three mainspace edits. If you wish to make three personal userspace edits, it is expected that you make four mainspace edits. You may not make four personal userspace edits in one day.
Multiple pages in your userspace all count toward your edits.
Background
Bulbapedia is primarily an informational encyclopedia. In spite of that, our editors each have their own "userspace" where they may add any kind of content they please (within reason). However, in 2008 more editors were using Bulbapedia as a social site like Facebook, rather than editing the Bulbapedia articles. This resulted in a complete lockdown of the userspace: nobody could edit their userpages.
Later that year, the ability to edit the userspace was returned with the condition that users do not edit excessively. Content was also controlled quite strongly: Bulbapedians are encouraged to use the Bulbagarden Forums for most non-pedia topics. Breaking these conditions may result in your account being blocked and the offending pages deleted.
Over time, userspace edits for personal use decreased, but so did userspace edits with the intent of improving the mainspace. This had the unintended side effect of pushing back larger mainspace projects that may have needed to use userspace for drafting. To avoid stifling mainspace-improving efforts, the policy was revised in 2023 to remove the limit on constructive edits - but personal edits are still limited.
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. While the definition of "excessive" is up to the person who sees this, a guideline would be seeing multiple edits to the same or multiple userpages within a very short timeframe. If a user has done this, they will be given their first warning, which instructs them to not edit the userspace so much 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.
Content
This is fairly standard. Obviously, no pornographic material is allowed in any form, as this is a website frequented by children. Additionally, none of the following are tolerated on subpages in any way, shape, or form.
- 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 submitted on the Bulbagarden forums.
- Friend lists/pages - Bulbapedia is not meant to be a social networking site. The Bulbagarden forums have their own friend lists, and would be a better fit for this.
- User-created awards - These can be considered a form of friend listing, and again leans into social networking, which is not what Bulbapedia is for.
- FAQ pages (pages that list several commonly-asked questions and answers) - If seeking to offer legitimate info about Pokémon, it's better to put that into the mainspace, where it will have better visibility (although, do so in an article format, not an FAQ page format).
- 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=1or|cat=noto the template call will usually disable categories. - Anything else deemed inappropriate by the Leadership Board will be deleted as well. 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 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.
Content deletion
Users at administrator level or above have the authority to delete any content they feel is breaching the userspace policy. Offenders will generally be given a day or two to "rescue" their content and save it somewhere that isn't on Bulbapedia.
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.
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; 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. Content should not be added to or removed from a userpage 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 edit it within the scope of the permission. 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.
- You have been put into the "abuse" usergroup for over-editing your page and breaching this policy.
- Your userpage has been protected: see the protecting administrator for assistance.
- Your account has been blocked (either from just the userspace, or from the entire site), 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, seek help from a staff member.
In conclusion
Bulbapedia is an encyclopedia that aims to provide info about Pokémon - it's not intended to be a social networking site. If you want to chronicle every aspect of your life, it would be better to use other services like Facebook, Twitter, Mastodon, etc. If you'd like to help make Bulbapedia the best Pokémon resource on the internet, please focus on mainspace over userspace!
See also
