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 block, then two-weeks, a month, a year, and finally a permanent ban from the wiki.
 * You must be at least 13 years old to join Wikia. If you say you are under 13 or heard about it on another wiki, you will be blocked until your 13th birthday. More information is available 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 reveal your own personal information, especially your home 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, unless if it is one of the free editions of Plants vs. Zombies, such as Plants vs. Zombies 2, but not limited to its betas, release candidates, and soft releases, unless if the later releases of these editions are paid. 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 any kind is allowed on mainspace, forums, or blogs. You can use asterisks (*) for censoring, but it is still not recommended for you to do it. This also includes naming images swears.
 * You are allowed to use swear words on the chat, but only if it is not directed at another user.
 * 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 content 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 (including 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.
 * First offense is 1 month ban on main account, any other is infinite ban on main account.
 * No advertising is permitted.
 * Backseat moderating, also known as mini-modding, 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 doesn't mean you can do it without a punishment.
 * Any copyfraud (copyright-stealing) is strictly prohibited, especially if you copy-paste one of our whole articles without permission from administrators.
 * Do not fluff edit. Fluff editing is where one "cheats" at making an edit that is obviously unnecessary or when one removes things from an article and puts them back just for the sake of editing.
 * When reverting or undoing an edit, always try to assume good faith if the edit is not obvious spam/vandalism.

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 is 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 page rules

 * 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 or blocking templates on your talk page. Violation will result in an immediate one month block.

Voting

 * See Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:Voting rules.

Promotion rules

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

Forums

 * All talk page and general rules apply on the forums, with the exception of signing posts.
 * Spamming and fighting are prohibited on the forums.
 * Do not make discussions about Plants vs. Zombies Character Creator plants and zombies, as 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, unless it is a quote building thread.
 * Do not post in all caps. Abbreviations on the short note are exempted.
 * Only discussion moderators may create continuing threads where the previous ones are too long.
 * Only create the continuing thread when the previous one has over 300 replies.
 * On reporting station threads, only discussion moderators can decide if the community should vote to block the rule-breaker.
 * If there are 300 replies, a new discussion will be created.

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.

Distribution of hacked Plants vs. Zombies 2 OBB/RSB files

 * They must not contain premium plants unlocked via normal means (Snow Pea by beating a level, for one).
 * They must stay off of mainspace, even they cannot be in comments. Put them in blog posts or in forum posts.
 * Everything changed inside of the modded OBB/RSB must be clearly stated so that people know exactly what they are getting.
 * They provide a link to a clean copy of the OBB/RSB which can be put in a separate closed thread on the forums and can be linked to, only opened when we are putting a new clean version in), just in the case that someone loses their backup file.
 * It must be stated which version(s) the mod is compatible for.

Chat

 * Follow the above rules.
 * Do not spam, troll, or flame in chat.
 * Do not abuse ChatAnnounce, kicking, or banning privileges.
 * No random gibberish is permitted.
 * Do not "door spam" on chat. Door spamming consists of rapidly exiting and entering chat to fill up the chat log.
 * Keep private things in private messages.
 * Role-playing is not allowed. There is a wiki for it. This results in an immediate kick.
 * You are allowed to use swear words on the chat, but only if it is not directed at another user.
 * Do not scream or shout (capitalizing all the words in a sentence).
 * You may share links to the sites that can shock any visitor only if you give a warning about any conditions about it. Failure to give a warning to these types of links will result in a kick for first offense then chat ban on any other offense.
 * Do not request backgrounds with a .gif extension. They tend to be laggy, so they cannot be accepted.
 * You are allowed to reference adult content on the chat but you cannot do it excessively.
 * Everyone can use any font which is readable for their chat messages in chat. However, all background, custom color, and decoration combinations in chat should not be too bright or dark.

Bot rules

 * You must have permission from a bureaucrat before you can create a bot.
 * If the permission is accepted, a bureaucrat will promote the bot, but 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.
 * Do not edit 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 or its owner immediately.

Rollback rules

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

Discussion moderator rules

 * Follow the above rules.
 * Only close threads if they are spam or vandalism, your own, or if you have permission from the author.
 * Do not abusively edit replies.
 * Do not open up announcement forums for replies. They are an announcement, and thus, are not meant for replies.

Administrator rules

 * Follow the above rules.
 * You may not abuse power.
 * You may not add unfair rules.
 * "Friendship unblocks" and "rivalry blocks" are prohibited.
 * 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.
 * You may not use your powers to remove another user's rights if unwarranted.
 * "Wikia dictatorship" is prohibited.
 * Do not remove an inactive user's rights without a vote by the active admins.
 * "Friendship promotions" and "rivalry demotions" are prohibited.