Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:Rules

These are the rules of the Plants vs. Zombies Wiki.

General

 * No bullying of any sort will be tolerated on this wiki. This includes calling someone's opinions "stupid", harassing people continuously after being asked to stop, or directing any words that could be taken negatively at someone. The first time you are caught bullying someone, you will receive a warning. After that, if you continue, a one-week, then a two-week, a month, a year, and finally a permanent ban will do.
 * You must be at least 13 years old. If you say you are under 13 or heard about it on another wiki, you will be blocked until your 13th birthday. More about that on this blog. This is not our rule; we have to have this rule according to Wikia and the United States's Children Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
 * Never ever reveal your own personal information, especially the following: Your address, phone number, password, or credit card number. We never ask for these, and we do not want you telling us these. These are for your own personal safety.
 * Do not link, upload, or suggest versions of Plants vs. Zombies or other games to people. This is pirating, an illegal action in which will result in a block on this wiki, along with probably a global block if needed.
 * No cussing or profanity of all kinds. You can use asterisks (*) for censoring, but it is still not recommended to you to do it.
 * Some swear words are not swear words worldwide, so you can say them as long as you do not use them purposely to annoy or offend a user who it is a swear word to. If you use the worldwide swearing, you get a block without a warning. One week for minor, one month for medium, three months for major and six months for racist cusses.
 * Note that saying "go to hell" to another user will still warrant administrative action, as that is harassment. Using "hell" as in "it is hell to fight against Gargantuars" is okay, as it is not meant to be rude.
 * No spamming or vandalism. This includes spamming minor edits to get badges; please only make two or three edits in a row per page.
 * Articles are not a place to put your opinion or speculation. Keep it on your userpage, your blogs, or in forum threads.
 * Fanon is not accepted on the wiki. There is a wiki for fanon Plants vs. Zombies content.
 * Do not impersonate people by creating an account or renaming an existing account to something similar, then act like them. Roleplay (acting like a plant, zombie, or other NPC) is excluded.
 * Please use U.S. standard English ("gray" instead of "grey") on articles, discussions, and in polls left on Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:Polls.
 * No undoing/reverting good edits without a good reason.
 * No offensive or inappropriate content (include harassment, racism, sexism, or any types of bigotry).
 * Two accounts are not allowed. It is an exception if you forgot your password on an account or if you want to create a bot. A bad name is not a reason to have two accounts, as renaming your account will allow you to change your username without the need to create a second account. In addition, test accounts, backup accounts, and bots are also permitted, as long as they are not abused (for example, Brainulator9 uses the backup/test account Brainulator10 and the bot account BULBot). For more information, see Wikipedia's guidelines on sockpuppetry.
 * No advertising is permitted.
 * Backseat moderating, mini-modding, or both, is prohibited. That means you must not tell someone to stop doing something that breaks the rules. Just report them to administrators, bureaucrats, chat moderators (if on chat), or if applicable and/or as a last resort, VSTF members and Wikia Staff. If you backseat moderate, you will get a two week block after seven warnings.
 * Do not leave links to the same page, or redirects leading to the same page. This will not get you blocked immediately, but they are annoying.
 * Keep editing to your userpage at a minimum. Mainspace edits are more important.
 * Do not create duplicate pages.
 * Do not make pages in the Plants vs. Zombies Wiki/Project namespace without permission from the administrators.
 * You may make templates for your userpage, but ask a staff member before making a template for further use in the wiki. If the template was not permitted, you can just copy the source onto your userpage.
 * All opinions must be respected, unless they are nasty.
 * Just because something isn't listed here and it is not appropriate to do, that doesn't mean you can do it without a punishment.

Event-specific rules

 * April Fools' Day (April 1) is not a justifiable time to vandalize. Vandalism then will be considered the same as vandalizing any other time.
 * If you do prank on April Fools' Day, don't make it offensive or inappropriate.
 * On closed beta instances, do not update the articles with information from the game. It's closed for a reason.
 * Public information (such as posts from PopCap) is accepted.
 * Speculation about new features should be kept off mainspace. Userpages and blogs are the best places for these.

Article rules

 * See Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:Manual of Style.

Talk pages

 * On talk pages (both user talk pages and article talk pages), always sign your comments.
 * Do not leave messages on talk page archives.
 * Do not remove messages on other users' talk pages.
 * Inappropriate talk page behavior should be reported to admins rather than removed.
 * Do not remove warnings on your talk page.

Discussions

 * Only autoconfirmed users joined this wiki, made mainspace 25 edits, and have been on the wiki for at least two weeks can participate in votes about wiki maintenance, management and request for user rights.
 * In certain circumstances, when a user is forced to get a new account, he or she is able to vote if that user already had 25 mainspace edits on the former account. That account must not be used for sockpuppetry.
 * Anyone can vote in votes not related to the wiki, such as conclusions about the best plant.
 * Your vote is not a right; it is a privilege. If you try to vote multiple times, ignore voting rules, or are blocked for a contribution-based offense, you will lose the ability to vote for one week.
 * Any user in which can vote can create a discussion about minor wiki management, such as about whether or not a certain page should exist.
 * Major changes, such as changing the wiki theme or policies, each bureaucrat and admin vote gets three points, each forum moderator, chat moderator, and rollback gets two points, everyone with at least 25 edits gets one point.
 * Discussions are closed after five days when it was highlighted.
 * Discussions can be closed earlier if one side gets extremely high number of votes.
 * Discussions can be restarted after one month. This is to be used exclusively for disputed or tied results.
 * Do not do any actions related to the discussion content before discussion ends.
 * If the reason of the vote is ridiculous, for example, against somebody, the vote will be counted as invalid.

Forums

 * All talk page and general rules apply on the forums, with the exception of signing posts.
 * Do not spam on the forums.
 * No fighting in the forums.
 * No discussions about Plants vs. Zombies Character Creator plants and zombies. None of them are real.
 * A maximum of six quotes can be used in a single post. Anything over six will be reduced to six or less.
 * Don't post in all caps (e.g STOP HARRASING ME!!!). Abbreviations on the short note are exempted.

Uploads

 * See Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:Image Policy for general uploads. See Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:User Uploads for the uploading of Zombatars and Player Towns.

Promotion rules

 * See Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:Requests for user rights.

Chat

 * Follow the above rules.
 * No spamming or trolling in chat.
 * No flaming.
 * If you are a chat moderator, don't abuse kicking or banning privileges.
 * No random gibberish or hidden cussing.
 * No "door spamming" on chat. Door spamming consists of rapidly exiting and entering chat to fill up the chat log.
 * Spoilers are not permitted in main chat. You may give away spoilers in a private message, but only if you have permission from the person you are telling it to.
 * Keep private things in private messages.
 * Don't abuse the emoticons.
 * Don't abuse caps.
 * Role-playing is not allowed. There is a wiki for it. This results in an immediate kick.

Bot rules

 * You must have permission from a bureaucrat before you can create a bot.
 * If the permission is accepted, ask Wikia Support via Special:Contact/general and don't edit on the bot account until it is promoted.
 * Follow all the above rules. Just because bot edits are usually hidden doesn't mean no one can catch it misbehaving.
 * No editing the bot's user page or talk page unless it is your own bot.
 * If a bot is having a problem, report to an admin immediately.

Rollback rules

 * Follow the above rules.
 * Don't revert good edits.

Forum moderator rules

 * Follow the above rules.
 * Only close forum threads if they are spam or vandalism, your own, or if you have permission from the author.
 * No abusive editing of replies.
 * Do not open up announcement forums for replies. They are an announcement, and thus, are not meant for replies.

Admin rules

 * Follow the above rules.
 * No abusing power.
 * No adding unfair rules.
 * If a staff member has not edited for two weeks, they are considered inactive.
 * If they haven't edited for three months, they may be demoted if the active administrators decide to do so.

Bureaucrat rules

 * Follow all of the above rules.
 * No using your powers to take a good user's rights.
 * No "Wikia dictatorship".
 * Do not remove an inactive user's rights without a vote by the active admins.
 * No "friendship promotions" or "rivalry demotions".