These are basic guidelines to follow as a user of the Kirby Wiki. Violating them will usually result in a warning, followed by a block.
Administrators and users alike can refer other users to these policies when necessary.
Basic Guidelines
- Refer to Kirby Wiki:Simplified Ruleset
What Kirby Wiki is NOT
- Kirby Wiki is not a social networking service - Keep un-related business elsewhere, or use the IRC chatroom (see the link in this section). If someone has engaged in off-topic communication with you, refer this person to the IRC or to this page.
- Example of unaccepted communication:
==Hi==
I haven't talked with you in a while. How have you been? ~~~~
- I'm fine, <etc etc etc>, how about you? ~~~~
- Example of acceptable communication:
==Bo==
I don't know the name of his fiery counterpart found at Neo Star's volcano. Could you tell me what that enemy is called? ~~~~
- See Magoo. ~~~~
- Kirby Wiki is not an emotional dumping ground - If you're having emotional problems outside of the internet, keep them there. This is a determining factor in one's conduct and it is likely that a user with troubles will not behave nor will he or she contribute properly.
- Kirby Wiki is not a fanbase nor is it community-driven - We generally try to keep fanon from the Wiki's mainspace. We also keep statements like "some people believe" and the like from the trivia sections of articles, while still considering possibilities; we won't pass on what the community decides true as fact, but we will take note of available evidence (I.e.: "X looks similar in appearance to Y.").
Talk pages
Talk pages are the basic vessels of communication at every wikia site. Here are basic rules to follow:
- New topics should go at the bottom of a talk page under their own section header, unless they would be more appropriate as a subheading of an existing topic or section.
- Talk page comments should be signed to give proper attribution and identification. Take note of the signature policy.
- Avoid off-topic discussion. See above, and as an alternative means of communicating over said unnecessary subject, use the IRC.
- Avoid modifying comments made by other users.
- Avoid modifying your own comments if other users have replied to it, unless it is to correct minor typos or sentence structure. Using
strikethroughis much preferable. - It is acceptable to edit existing comments to clean up formatting for readability; for example, closing an unclosed tag that is affecting subsequent comments, scaling down large images, removing the leading space character (which encloses text in a dashed box and prevents text wrapping), or modifying the indentation.
- You are strongly urged to reply to messages on your own talk page. Responding to a user who has contacted you on his or her talk page is OK, but it can cause confusion when looking at conversations that may have happened over important subjects.
- It behooves you to archive your page once it reaches 40kb or more. Talk pages with much content can cause server problems. Please adhere these guidelines for archiving:
- Archive a talk page by sections. Avoid archiving a section only partially, since it will break continuity.
- Archive only inactive discussions. Consider moving relevant sections out of an archive should a topic get discussed again; avoid discussions on archives.
- Empty remnants of sections moved to other talk pages need not be archived if they are irrelevant.
- Personal attacks can be immediately archived if there is no ongoing discussion about them occurring on the page.
- After archiving, add a visible link on the original talk page to the newly created archive.
- Explain that you're archiving in the edit summary.
- An archived talk page is still a talk page. All relevant policies and guidelines still apply.
- Users should generally not archive talk pages in the user spaces of others without permission.
- Users may not remove comments (wholly or partially) from any talk page, with the following exceptions:
- Removal of clear vandalism and spam.
- Removal of links to sites containing malicious scripts or patently offensive material.
- Removal of email addresses and other personal information without the user's consent.
- Removal for archiving purposes (see following section).
- Removal to a more appropriate talk page. Be sure to leave a notice stating that the discussion has been transitioned to another talk page.
- If part of a post is removed, a replacement note detailing what was removed should be inserted (such as <link to shock site removed>).
- If a comment was removed in its entirety due to the above exceptions, there is no need to insert a replacement note, unless the removed comment had received a reply, in which case replacement notes such as <spam removed> or <vandalism removed> should be inserted.
Based mostly off of SmashWiki's talk page policy.
Forums and Blogs
- For more information on using forums correctly, see Help:Forums.
Kirby Wiki, like all other Wikia sites, has making forums and blogs enabled.
What you CAN do with forums/blogs
- Fanon ideas - You may use forums and blogs to discuss Kirby-related fanon ideas.
- Wiki-related - You may use forums and blogs to ask questions, discuss problems with codes, or anything Kirby-related (ideas, et cetera).
- Surveying - You may use forums and blogs to survey the community. Examples are asking the community what their favorite or most hated enemy, copy ability, or boss is.
- Petitioning - You may use forums to garner community opinions on a subject. An example would be to propose to the community an idea. The idea is to have consensus.
What you CANNOT do with forums/blogs
- Petitioning for project pages - Do not make a forum or blog asking consensus on the removal or granting of administration rights from/to a or more than one user.
- Discussion not related to Kirby - You get the point there.
- Off-topic conversations - Do not use a blog or forum to engage in a conversation with another user. This floods the recent changes and thus is very disruptive. Again, take the conversation to the IRC.
Images
- Uploading - When uploading an image, try to license it. If you do not know a license, especially if the image is a personal image of yours or a snapshot that you've taken yourself, select "I don't know a license" or do not add a license at all.
- Placement - Do not stack excessive images on top of each other in an article. If there are too many images for the article to contain, place them in a gallery by putting their bare code (this means without [[ and ]]) in between gallery brackets (<gallery>, </gallery>).
- Copyright - Do not save images from another Wiki and upload them here. See Kirby Wiki:Copyrights as well.
- Personal Images - Each user of the Kirby Wiki is allowed three personal images to upload to decorate their user page or signatures. Do not use the image on an article or project page, and make sure that it has appropriate content. Gore, profanity, or nudity will merit the image's immediate deletion by an administrator.
Signatures
The purpose of your signature is to identify yourself as a user to the community. When leaving a comment, be it on a user talk, discussion, or forum page, always sign with four tildes (~~~~). This allows other users to recognize you as part of the community and to know the exact time at which you made your comment. Your signature may be a subpage of yours, but if you want a simple one, go to your preferences and enter a code into the box. Excessive failure to sign your comments will result in a short block. Should you edit a talk page whereas a user has not signed their comments, use the unsigned template (--unsigned comment by Example (talk•blog•contributions•logs) Always sign your posts with four tildes ~~~~ !) and sign it for them.
- What your signature must have
- A link to your user and user talk pages.
- What your signature can have
- Links to your edit count, contributions, and/or one of your subpages.
- A title that is your common nickname or abbreviation of your user name.
- An image no larger than 45 pixels. If the image itself is larger, shrink it using the pixel code. Example: [[File:Kirby.jpg|28px]]
- What your signature must NOT have
- A misleading title. If your user name is XYZ, then your signature should not say "ABC".
- Disruptive coding.
- Non-visible colored links.
- Excessive text. All of your signature, excluding separation brackets and the like (I.e. "|", "(" and ")", "[" and "]", etc.) should link to a page of yours (contributions, edit count, etc.)
Quietly deal with vandals
- Based loosely off of SmashWiki's policy of the same name.
Vandals hold as many defensive rights as the next user; it is not OK to:
- Personally attack the vandal. If he or she has vandalized a page, block him or her and be done with it. Don't extend conflict.
- Harass the vandal by modifying their userspace. Actions such as this will get you blocked, or, if you're an administrator, your powers will be revoked.
It is OK to warn the vandal should their edit be only slightly disruptive, in which case, he or she may not be a vandal at all, and in fact is completely new to editing at online encyclopedias.
Administration
Rollback
The rollback feature is a very fast method of undoing blatantly unproductive edits, such as vandalism and nonsense. The name derives from the data management term rollback, meaning an operation that reverses the effect of changes made to a database. Administrators and bureaucrats are already equipped with rollback.
If you are a regular user seeking rollback abilities, see Kirby Wiki:Requests for rollback.
System Operatoration and Bureaucratship
- Refer to Help:Administrators' how-to guide and Kirby Wiki:Administrators.
- To request adminship, see Kirby Wiki:Requests for adminship.
- To request bureaucratship, see Kirby Wiki:Requests for bureaucratship.
Internet Relay Chat
The Kirby Wiki IRC is the allowed method of communicating with other users of the Wiki. This helps in that users won't clog the recent changes with off-topic conversations that happen on blogs and talk pages alike. When directed off-topic, you may refer the user you are talking with to this link. Here, you can talk about whatever you want to talk about.
- The IRC chatroom is an extension of the Kirby Wiki - Be sure to keep your conduct at best even when chatting. Personal attacks, excessive foul talk, or spam will result in your suspension from the chatroom and, depending on the seriousness of your actions, a block from editing at the Wiki itself.
- If you already have an IRC client (such as Chatzilla for Firefox and SeaMonkey), click this link.