LEGO Message Boards Wiki:Policy/All

This page lists all of the policies on the LMBW. It may be more beneficial to visit the more organized policy page when reading the policy.

General Policy
This is LMBW's general policy that applies to the entire wiki.


 * All bad language is unacceptable. The bad language will be defined by the administrators/moderators, not by the user using the language. If you are unsure if a word is bad, then just do not use it.
 * Do not troll or tease other users. Trolling is when you make fun of other users, or do things just to get them upset. This is completely unacceptable, and will not be tolerated.
 * Do not solicit sensitive personal information from other users or give away another person's sensitive personal information. It is strongly suggested that you not share your own sensitive personal information, and giving out your home address or phone number is not permitted.
 * Spamming of any form is not permitted. If you have spammed, the spam will be removed, and you will be informed that it was considered spam.
 * Any subjects that typically cause flame wars should be avoided. This includes subjects like politics and religion.
 * If a user requests that you stop doing something, then you are required to stop unless there is a good reason you should continue. Also, if a user continually makes unreasonable requests, then the situation will be resolved by an admin.
 * Do not impersonate other users or use duplicate accounts or other IP addresses for the purposes of circumventing bans, or pretending to be a completely different user. You also may not vote twice on any poll or community discussion using any method, or use a duplicate account or IP address to promote or discredit either side of a community discussion or vote. Only administrators have the authority to enforce this rule, and moderators should contact an admin if there is evidence that a user on chat is a dupe.
 * Chat logs of users breaking the rules or doing humiliating things should not be posted on blogs. They should be given to an admin in private, and should not be given to the community in any way. Humorous logs may be posted if they are not intended to humiliate anyone.
 * Everyone is responsible for his or her account. If the account is used to violate policy, appropriate measures will be taken, such as kicking, banning, or even blocking. All users have the responsibility to ensure that their account is not misused by hackers, siblings, friends, or anyone else who might use the account to violate policy. We strongly advise that everyone makes sure to use strong passwords and logs out when leaving the computer.
 * When creating blogs or forums, or when posting on blogs, forums, and message walls, there are a few rules to remember.


 * 1. They must have a point: do not submit pointless, spammy content.


 * 2. Keep them clean: do not post any content that is suggestive, graphically violent, or profane.


 * 3. Be civil: do not insult people, start flame wars, be excessively negative or in any other way be uncivil.


 * 4. The administrators reserve the right to delete content that they believe violate these rules. If your content was deleted, do not repost it.


 * No part of this wiki may be used to plan disruptive behavior on other wikis or websites. This includes, but is not limited to, planning chat invasions, vandalism, or trolling.

Chat Policy
The chat policy is a separate part of our general policy. The point of having a chat policy is so the moderators know what they have the authority to enforce. All general policies also apply to chat, but moderators are only able to enforce the policy in chat. These rules apply to both public and private chat.

Moderators
 * All YouTube links or videos from other hosting services must be approved by a moderator before being posted publicly in chat. Optionally, you can use ViewPure or YouTube Clean to bypass this policy. However, you are still held responsible if the content of the video is inappropriate.
 * You should talk to all users in a respectful manner. This includes trolls, friends, people you suspect of being dupes, and even a moderator who is threatening to ban you. You can be banned, or have an extended ban time for not doing this.
 * Do not use asterisks (*****) or other common forms of blocking bad language. If you use it in an offensive way, it is still considered bad language.
 * Do not solicit sensitive personal information from other users or give away another person's sensitive personal information. It is strongly suggested that you not share your own sensitive personal information, and giving out your home address or phone number is not permitted.
 * Controversial issues such as politics and religion may be discussed in private and public chat to a limited extent, but if the discussion becomes hostile or creates a disturbance in chat, the discussion may be immediately stopped by a moderator.
 * Do not spam or flood chat. The chat moderators have the authority to determine what is spam and what is not.
 * The use of non-English languages in public chat, with the exception of widely known phrases (e.g., "hola", "danke"), is prohibited.
 * If a user requests that you stop doing something, then you are required to stop unless there is a good reason you should continue. Also, if a user continually makes unreasonable requests, then the situation will be resolved by a moderator.
 * Explicit or suggestive comments are prohibited.
 * Chat may not be used to plan disruptive behavior on other wikis or websites. This includes, but is not limited to, planning chat invasions, vandalism, or trolling.
 * All moderators are also required to follow the policy. There are no exceptions.
 * Do not kick or ban users as a joke no matter what - even if you let them back in immediately.

Personal Attack Policy
Personal attacks are not tolerated on any part of this wiki, whether it be blogs, message walls, chat, forums, or anywhere else.

Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to explain what a personal attack is, to establish that personal attacks are not acceptable, and to outline what action will be taken by administrators if users issue personal attacks.

What is a personal attack?
A personal attack is an insult or other form of abusive attack—a mean-spirited, rude, derisive or gratuitously negative remark about or to another user. Examples of personal attacks include, but are not limited to:


 * Negative comments about other users on basis of race, sex, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age or ability.
 * Profanity directed at another user.
 * Comments deriding a project other users have invested effort in.
 * Threats of violence, such as death threats, or "I'm going to hurt you" comments.
 * Threats of vandalism or hacking.
 * Slanderous, libelous or calumnious statements directed against another user.
 * Assertions of superiority, such as "I'm better than you" or "you have no life".
 * Name-calling.
 * Attempting to dismiss or discredit users' views based on their affiliations.
 * Generalizing entire groups in order to criticize individual users.
 * Expressing contempt for another user.
 * Unnecessary hostile comments.

Jokes
Adding a tongue smiley or other emoticons or inserting "JK" after a comment does not make it okay. Even though you may view it as a joke it may still be viewed as derisive or derogatory by the user being joked about. If there is a good chance what you are about to say will offend someone, then don't say it.

Death threats or other threats are not okay merely because they are "jokes". Sometimes it is very difficult to tell if someone is joking or not in online communication, and consequently all threatening comments are prohibited, regardless of intent or purpose.

This section should not be construed to mean that jokes are not allowed; rather it is intended to encourage users to be careful to not make unkind joke at others expenses as well as making it clear that veiling personal attacks as "jokes" will not be tolerated. Furthermore, it should be noted that if two users insult one another with a mutual understanding that such actions are not hostile, and they do it for amusement, no warning is necessary unless the insults used are profane or their behavior violates policy in a different way.

What are not personal attacks?
Not every negative comment is necessarily a personal attacks. Constructive criticism, debating, and expressing disagreement with an idea are examples. Remember to criticize the idea, action, or attitude, not the person. Keep discussion limited to the content, not the users, when debating.

Consequences of making personal attacks
Users who make personal attacks on blogs, blog comments, forum comments, message walls or anywhere else on the wiki may be blocked by an administrator, depending on the severity of the personal attacks, how many were made, and if the user has made personal attacks in the past. Warnings will usually be issued for first time offenses, but the administrators reserve to block any user making personal attacks according to policy.

Personal attacks on chat may result in the offender being warned, kicked, or banned from chat according to policy.

Common sense
Moderators and administrators should employ common sense when enforcing this policy. If no one is offended or hurt by something that might be a personal attack, and no disruption is caused by it, no action is necessary. This policy should never be used merely as an excuse to ban or block someone, nor should it be used to cause a problem where none exists.

Editing Policy
Mainspace articles are intended to be about the LEGO Message Boards only.

All edits should follow the Manual of Style. This page gives some additional requirements and guidelines for editing.
 * Edits may only be reverted if they decrease the quality of the article, or if they violate the manual of style.
 * You may not add or remove an article quality template or category on a page unless you have the authority to do so. This includes templates and categories such as Good Article, Stub, etc. This ability is restricted to patrollers and admins, but there are some categories and templates that may only be added or removed by admins.

Deletion Policy

 * Candidates for deletion should be used in all possible cases. The only exception is if an article qualifies for speedy deletion.
 * An article may be tagged for speedy deletion, or speedily deleted by an admin if one or more of the following is true :
 * The article is spam, and is irrelevant to the LMBs.
 * A blog author requests that his or her blog be deleted.
 * If a blog, forum, talk page, or other form of communication directly violates our policy.


 * If someone has added a delete template to a page, you may not remove it until the discussion for it has ended. However, if a user is simply spamming these templates, the template may be removed immediately by a patroller or admin. If the decision was to keep the page, the delete template should not be added to the same page again for the same reason as before.
 * Reasons for deletion are highly recommended, but not required.

Bot Policy

 * Bots are not restricted to any specific user group. All administrators, moderators, and users have the right to create a bot with approval.


 * There are two different user rights for bots. Bot op stands for bot operator, who is the owner of the bot. Bot supervisor is a user with the minimum right of rollback, who makes sure that bots are used appropriately.


 * Bots must be approved by either the entire community, by the administrators, or by the bot supervisors.


 * The name of the software used by the bots must be public. The actually software does not have to be public, simply the name.


 * Bot ops are encouraged to use a task list whenever possible. This allows for the bot supervisors to easily track a bot’s edits, and improve the organization of bot operations.


 * Bots should always use separate accounts than the bot op’s main account.


 * Only registered bots may use software intended for bots. If an account is not flagged, then any automated editing software may not be used with that account.

See LEGO Message Boards Wiki:Bots for more information on this topic.