In the wake of the drama du jour mois, it was pointed out that the Site Rules page needed an update. So here we are, with a proposed update to the Site Rules page under yon collapsible. I've run this by some mods and admins and incorporated the suggestions I got (I think I got all of them), so if you've read this already, it's been updated.
The plan is to have discussion open for a week (tops), and then have a vote. Anyone can offer commentary on the proposed update (non-staff peeps can comment in Site17 and ask staff to port their commentary here if they wish), though the final vote would be open only to mods and admins. But first things first.
[update:] The latest version of the Rules Update draft is in this post.
Previous draft updates:
My second draft incorporating some suggestions
moose's simplified version of my draft
Soulless' trimmed version of moose's draft
Tweaked version of Soul's draft
Site Rules
Your continued membership in the SCP Foundation wiki is at the discretion of site administration, and can be revoked or removed at any time. Membership is a privilege, not a right, and part of that privilege is an expectation of civil, mature, and non-disruptive behavior on the part of every user. What follows is a (non-exhaustive) list of expectations and rules all users are expected to follow, as well as potential consequences for infractions against these rules.
Note that it is impossible to cover every possible eventuality, and certain parts of these rules may seem vague or open to a range of interpretations. The framework of the rules is designed to allow staff the flexibility to effectively deal with troublesome users, and the spirit of the rules is at least as important as (if not more important than) the letter of the rules. In all cases, however, staff are expected to act with the best interests of the site and the community in mind.
The following actions will never result in banning:
- Writing a poorly-received SCP;
- Voting on any particular article as an expression of opinion on its quality or merits;
- Respectful disagreement with users or with staff decisions.
The following actions can result in an immediate permanent ban:
- Vandalism;
- Blatant and obvious trolling;
- Harassment of another site member;
- Sockpuppetry;
- Other severe misconduct.
Expectations of Behavior
- Rule Zero: Don't be a dick: Really, everything else follows as corollaries from this simple rule.
- Arguments and Maturity: You may question the actions and opinions of other users and staff as long as it is done in a calm, mature, and civil fashion.
- Comments: You can comment on any entry provided you are respectful to other users. All comments must follow the Criticism Policy. No personal attacks or trolling will be tolerated.
- Voting: You may vote on any article on the site for any reason you like, provided your reasoning is based solely on the content of the article. Voting for an article for any other reason, including (but not limited to) your personal opinion of the author, attempting to artificially manipulate the results of contests, or attempting to manipulate statistics, are prohibited.
- Upvoting your own article: You can upvote or even downvote your article as you like.
- Brigading: Advocating for voting on an article (negatively or positively) for reasons other than its content is strictly against the rules. N.b not every call to check out an article by someone who dislikes it is brigading. Context and intent are crucial in determining whether or not an incident is considered brigading.
- Forum Activity: Don't make contentless or excessively short posts (spam), don't bump threads (since bump posts are essentially spam), and don't post on threads more than a few months old if you're not contributing substantially to the conversation.
- Edit your previous posts using the "edit" function under the "options" tab to the lower right of every comment.
- Any images posted to forum or discussion threads must be collapsed (collapsible coding can be found in the "Formatting" tab of this guide).
- "Fast Threads" and forum games are not permitted, apart from certain exceptions. Please do not start new forum game threads without mod approval.
- Posting: While posting a poorly-received SCP will not itself get anyone in trouble, spamming the site with a bunch of substandard articles could. If staff tell you to slow down or stop posting, you need to listen. Getting feedback on your articles before posting (a good idea in general) can help guard against the impulse to rapid-fire post a bunch of articles.
- Plagiarism: You may not attempt to pass off another user's article as your own work. Doing so will result in the work being summarily deleted. Lifting words and ideas from other literary works, however, is more murky. Many of these apparent cases of plagiarism are permissible with simply a citation of the original source. Since the whole question of literary plagiarism vs. academic plagiarism is complicated and well beyond the scope of this page, when in doubt, ask staff.
- Using images: Images included in your article must follow the rules of our Image Use Policy. You must include the source of your images on the discussion page, and this source must be in compliance with our site policy and license. If you have any questions, contact the Licensing Team.
- Editing:
- Responding to edits of your articles: You may alter the contents of your own articles at will, including reverting any changes made by other users. Please do not edit or remove tags added by staff members.
- Editing others' articles: You may make minor edits for grammar or spelling to other peoples' articles. Please fill out the 'Short description of changes' box with a summary of the changes you made. Major edits require permission from the original author or the Rewrite Team. Stylistic and tonal edits are considered major edits.
- Collaborative logs: You are free to add content to open collaborative logs. These pages are tagged as "collaboration". Content can be removed by the page owner or by the Rewrite Team. Please do not take it upon yourself to fix unauthorized or bad edits to any page — contact the original owner or the Rewrite Team about any entries that you feel are inappropriate or otherwise substandard.
- Donations: Anyone interested in setting up donation links must read and abide by the official donations policy.
Interacting With Staff
- Moderative Posts: Moderative posts will have a specific title. These titles are used to indicate specific types of posts, and should only be responded to in certain situations. This exact text will be in the subject of the post:
- Call for Rewrite: Anyone wanting to volunteer to rewrite a page or discuss the rewriting of a page may respond to this post.
- Deletion Vote: Anyone wanting to request a stay of deletion or ask for the opportunity to rewrite may respond to this post. Do not vote for deletion unless you are staff.
- Stop Order - Do not respond to this post unless you are staff.
- Closed - Do not respond to this post unless you are staff.
- Open - Anyone may respond to this post.
- Staff Requests: If a staff member asks you to change something about your behavior, you are expected to do so. This may take the form of Staff Posts replying to you in the forums; therefore, you have the responsibility of returning to recent conversations (or checking Recent Forum Posts) to find out if staff are trying to give you pertinent instructions.
- Ended Discussions: If a staff member ends a discussion, it is over. Do not try to get the final word in. Attempting to continue a conversation that has been given a Stop Order is prohibited.
- Staff Decisions/Appealing: You are expected to respect Staff decisions, even if you disagree with them. If you feel you are being treated unfairly, you have the right to appeal to a different staff member. If the situation is found fair, do not continue to appeal to other staff members in hopes of getting a different response.
If you feel a user has violated any of the rules on this page, please contact a staff member.
Other things that can get you in trouble
In addition to the prohibited items listed above, the following actions will also lead to disciplinary action against you:
- Behavior that is indistinguishable from trolling: When it comes to trolling, staff take an "if it looks like a duck" attitude, mainly because the end result is the same and we don't want that kind of behavior here.
- Attempting to organize, calling for, and/or participating in a raid on another site: Do not use the wiki or related social media channels to call for other users to join or otherwise interact with any other site for the purpose of disrupting their normal operations. Not only is this immature and uncivil behavior, raids of other sites from SCP sites or channels opens the site up to backlash and reprisals.
- Stirring up shit: Not a legal term, here it means "an established pattern of constantly toeing the line of unacceptable behavior". Such a pattern of behavior will eventually lead to disciplinary measures. (Note that, since this is technically a prohibition of behavior that would otherwise be allowed, the pattern of behavior must be well-established, well-documented, and ultimately determined to be a net negative for the site.)
The Disciplinary Process
The normal policy for punishing offenders breaks down like this:
- Warning
- Membership Revocation
- Short Ban (usually week-long to month-long)
- Long Ban (month-long to year-long)
- Permanent Ban
Before being banned, you will usually be warned to change your behavior. If a staff member has to talk to you about your behavior or a mod post is made about your behavior, and you disregard these instructions, then staff will escalate punishment as outlined above.
The most common way to receive a ban is by violating one of the rules mentioned above. Additional violations equal longer bans. An instant permanent ban only results from vandalism, blatant and obvious trolling, harassment of a site member, sockpuppetry, or other severe misconducts.
Except in the most egregious cases, you have the right to appeal your ban. Appeals take place in Site17 and are subject to being logged.
Note: After banning, you will have to reapply for site membership. If you want to rejoin the community, you must follow the same process as all new members.
Any and all of these rights, obligations, and punishments are subject to alteration, deletion, or addition after review by the Staff.
…or if we go seventy-two hours without additional commentary in this thread.