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These are all the rules for behavior on the Althistory Wiki as it applies to all registered users in the community. These rules are observed and enforced by the TSPTF, who are the admins of the Wiki. Any user may report violations of these rules on the TSPTF talk page at any time. The intended purpose of the rules on this community is to serve three primary functions, which are in order of priority:

  1. Compliance of the standards and policies of our hosts: Abide by the Terms of Service and Community Guidelines for Fandom and Discord.
  2. Protection of Users: Ensure the community is a healthy, safe environment where users can express their ideas and art without fear of bigotry, bullying, or personal attacks.
  3. Protection of Content: Maintain a high fidelity of content organization, and encourage a high standard of quality in writing and research.

The letter of the law outlined in these rules should not be a deterrent against fulfilling these functions outlined above. The opposite also holds true, that the spirit of the law cannot be used to ignore the rules outlined below. These functions do not cover any special protection of the admins, as the TSPTF are the servants of the community, and therefore may be called to make sacrifices for the benefit of the community.

The rules on how to write and organize our content can be found at Conventions in Use in This Wiki.

Fandom (Wikia) Guidelines

As part of Fandom (formerly Wikia), we abide by the Community Guidelines for matters of behavior and the Terms of Use for legal matters. In short: respect others, respect the purpose of this wiki, be appropriate, be at least 13 years old, and don't steal copyrighted content.

For those who use our Discord server for community discussions and chat, there is parallel documentation for that platform as well. Discord’s Community Guidelines covers matters of behavior and the Terms of Service covers legal matters. The vast majority of the time, the spirit of these guidelines are identical to Fandom’s.

Contributing content

Content of the Althistory wiki is subdivided into separate domains collectively known as timelines. These timelines fall under different justictions based on their organization. In general, the original author(s) of content have the sole authority over it, and require their permission to make any changes. These changes must abide by the principles of QSS and QAA and strive to Add, Not Subtract.

  • Community Timelines can be contributed to by anyone who is a member of that sub-community. These operate on their own rules and standards, as well as organize their own administration.
  • Map Games operate as a real-time, competitive community timeline, which any user can join. These operate on their own rules and standards, as well as organize their own administration. Presently, we are only running one map game at a time.
  • Solo or Semi-Open Timelines always require permission from the timeline owner(s). If a timeline has been abandoned, you can adopt it following the Adoption Policy.
  • Stand-alone images and other files cannot be duplicated and must abide by laws of copyright.

All behavior rules and community guidelines that apply to the Wiki also apply to these sub-communities. Contrariwise, rules that are local to these sub-communities cannot be extended to other parts of the Wiki.

List of Behavior Rules

The following is the list of rules currently enforced for the Althistory Wiki Community, in order of severity. The punishment for the first offense is listed under each rule. For information on how to handle repeated offenses, see the next section.

0. User must be at least 13 years old

  • You must be at least 13 years of age to use the wiki, as per Fandom’s terms of service
    • Ban from both Wiki and Discord until their 13th birthday, or up to one year

1. No sockpuppeting

  • Every registered user is only allowed to have one active account, per platform, at one time. The oldest active account is considered the “original” and any subsequent active accounts are called “alts”. If you have a technical issue with your account and require a new one, please make it aware to a TSPTF member, and then your old account will be disabled.
    • Using two active accounts at once: Ban alt account permanently, ban original account for up to one day
    • Attempting to deceive people that an alt is a real user: Ban alt account permanently, ban original account for one week
    • Using multiple accounts to disrupt Wiki processes or systems (i.e. adoptions, deletions, elections, or awards): Ban alt accounts permanently, ban original account for one month
    • Attempting to circumvent a ban with a new account, or continued sockpuppeting: Ban alt accounts permanently, extend ban of original account by at least one month (and then as per the repeated offenses section)

2. No doxxing

  • You may only acquire, discuss, or share someone's private/personal information with their explicit and unambiguous consent
    • Ban from both the Wiki and Discord for one month minimum, up to permanently; removal of posted personal information
  • In order to keep all members of the wiki safe, it is strongly advised that no one post in-depth personal information about themselves on the wiki (e.g. full name, school, location, contact information). Admins reserve the right to remove personal information that appears to pose a risk to a user's safety or privacy, regardless of who posted it.

3. No sexual harassment

  • Private or public offers of sexual favors, unwanted sexual advances, or unwanted sexual comments
  • Sexually-explicit public posts/discussion
  • Jokes about sexual violence, both in Discord and Wiki discussions
    • Sexually-explicit posts or jokes, in chat or Wiki discussions: Jail on discord 1-24 hours; Ban on both discord and wiki up to one week
    • Sexual favors, or unwanted sexual advancements or comments: Ban for one month minimum, up to permanent ban

4. No racism or extremism

  • All forms of bigotry and hate speech, including derogatory epithets; targeting others for their group identity
  • Serious apologetic behavior for, or denial of, historic racism or crimes against humanity
    • Use in either Discord or Wiki discussions (including memes/images): Warning, then ban of one week minimum; deletion of offensive images or wiki content if applicable; further escalation for unapologetic or continued behavior up to a permanent ban
    • Use of slurs or hate speech in timeline content for non-academic purposes: Delete content and warn on user Talk Page; ban up to one week

5. No graphic content

  • No overtly graphic violent or sexual description
  • Overtly graphic “shock” images are also not permitted
  • This applies to timeline content as well as Wiki discussions and Discord
    • Use in timeline content: Revert edits, warn on user Talk Page; ban of up to one week
    • In chat or Wiki discussions: Delete messages, ban of one week

6. No harassment, bullying, or incivility

  • Intentionally instigating or escalating a fight
  • Using offensive, insulting, or abusive language toward others; intentionally annoying or provoking others
  • Trying to exclude someone or discouraging them from participation
  • Insulting or uncritically deriding a timeline or its author(s), or using timeline content as gatekeeping
    • Wiki content aimed at insulting or harassing a specific user: Revert edits, warn on user talk page; ban of up to 1 week
    • In Wiki discussion: Warn on user Talk Page; ban of up to one week
    • On Discord: Jail for 1-24 hours

7. No encouraging illegal activity

  • No discussion of encouraging or participating in illegal activity within or outside the community
  • No posting links to such content or pages that encourage violating national and international laws
    • In Wiki discussions: Strike through/revert edit, warn in the same thread; potential ban of 1 day
    • On Discord: Jail for 1-6 hours

8. No violating wiki conventions

  • Edits should be in accordance with the Conventions in use in this wiki
  • Repeatedly doing one of the following: editing timelines without permission, uploading files without checking for duplicates, ignoring name and category conventions, plagiarizing content or violating copyright
    • Warning on talk page and reverting of edits where applicable
    • 3 warnings for the same infraction, then 1 day ban
    • Deletion of content violating copyright law, or pages containing plagiarized content

9. No vandalism

  • Intentionally making edits that damage the quality of the wiki or hinder its operations
  • Any edits to articles without the article author’s permission, no matter what the reason is, except for simple corrections of spelling and grammar mistakes and minor formatting errors
    • Minor, accidental, or incidental: Revert edits, warn on user talk page; ban up to one day
    • Major or malicious: 1 month to permanent ban

10. No trolling

  • Intentional provoking of another user, or intentionally causing conflict with others
  • Using Wiki processes or systems (e.g. elections, adoptions, deletions, awards, and TSPTF requests) in a way that does not follow the stated procedures of those pages, especially for humorous or satirical purposes, or to provoke or cause conflict with others
  • On discord this includes the abuse of tags, refusing to follow channel guidelines in Discord, intentionally provoking someone, including through constant messages, ghostpings (pinging someone then deleting it), or the sending and deleting of messages
    • On the Wiki: Revert edits, warn on user Talk Page, then ban of 1 day to 1 month
    • On Discord: Warning, then jail for 1-24 hours

11. No impersonation

  • Trying to convince people that you are another user, or some other real or fictional character that isn’t your actual identity
  • On discord this includes changing your name or picture to that of another user for the purpose of impersonating them or trolling
    • In Wiki discussions: Warn on user talk page; ban up to one day or until impersonating material is removed if applicable
    • On Discord: Jail for 1 hour; loss of name changing ability

12. No spamming

  • Repeatedly posting the same thing; the use of long or incomprehensible text, repetitive copypastas, or messages disrupting discussions
  • Posting on discord in languages other than English
    • In Wiki discussions: Warn on user talk page, then 1-7 day ban; deletion of spam pages or content
    • On Discord: Jail for 1 hour

Repeated Offenses

If a user is repeatedly violating Wiki rules, it may become necessary to escalate their punishment to become more severe. The first offense is punished using the rules outlined in the previous section. Repeated violations then escalates to the next punishment, following the hierarchy outlined in this list:

  1. Warning and deletion of offending content
  2. 1 day block
  3. 1 week block
  4. 1 month block
  5. 3 month block
  6. 1 year block
  7. Indefinite block
  8. Indefinite block with no appeal

On discord the following list is followed:

  1. Jail for ten minutes or less
    Alternatively just a warning for minor offenses
  2. Jail for one-half hour
  3. Jail for 1-6 hours
  4. Jail for 6-24 hours; potential wiki ban for one day
  5. Ban from discord for 1-7 days; potential wiki ban of same length
  6. Ban from discord for 1-4 weeks; potential wiki ban of same length

Rules on punishment administration

Admins who repeatedly violate either behavior rules or the rules of this section are subject to the impeachment process. The TSPTF is bound by the following strict set of rules to regulate punishments they dole out:

  • If a user has not committed an offense, then they cannot be punished.
  • If a punishment is incorrectly applied, then it should be immediately reversed if at all possible. If applicable, the correct punishment should then be administered.
  • The same offense cannot be punished twice.
  • If multiple offenses are committed before the user is punished, then they can only be punished for the most severe crime
  • Unless otherwise stated, offenses committed outside of the community cannot be punished. This does not apply to doxxing or harassment.
  • Unless otherwise stated, rules are specific between the Wiki and Discord. If someone is banned from Discord, that does not automatically ban them from the Wiki, and vice-versa.
  • Until it is warranted, a blocked user must always be allowed to edit their User talk page, so they are still able to appeal an improper punishment.

Rules for repeated offenses

  • Simply violating a rule twice is not grounds to escalate punishment. The user must be demonstrating a behavior that is both a) persistent and b) unapologetic. In all cases that do not meet both of these parameters, then the punishment remains at the first offense only.
    • Attempts to nullify or circumvent a punishment (i.e., leaving jail or creating an alt account) is grounds for escalation.
  • Levels of escalation cannot be skipped
  • Improper punishments do not count towards escalation.
  • Rule violations specific to a sub-community (Community Timelines and Map Games) do not count towards escalation.
  • Punishments cannot be de-escalated. In other words, an offense cannot be punished by anything less than the first offense listed in the previous section.

Appealing an improper punishment

By default, a blocked user should still be able to edit their own user talk page. If the user feels their punishment is unfair, they can use this space to request that another admin review the block, and determine if the punishment should be reversed. Behavior rules still apply on the talk page, and the right to appeal can be taken away if violations persist.

Malicious accounts

New accounts that immediately post advertisements, vandalize the wiki, or solely exist to violate behavior rules in other ways are subject to an immediate indefinite block. These accounts have no right to appeal.

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