To discuss, change or revoke a policy, please start a thread in the Community Discussions forum.
| Policies and Guidelines | |
|---|---|
| General Behavior Policies | |
| Main policies: Alternate and Multiple Account Policy · Creation Policies · Discussion Policy · Fanon Policy · Image and file policy · Notability policy · Retirement Policy · Unreleased games policy | |
| Manual of Style | |
| Guidelines: Assume good faith · Be bold · Neutral point of view · Please don't bite the Newbies · Snowball clause · Simplified ruleset · 5 pillars · Spoilers | |
| All Policies and Guidelines → |
The Sims Wiki has adopted the following user rules that apply to everyone who edits the wiki. These rules exist to foster peaceful and efficient collaboration between all users. Most of these rules are straightforward and easy to follow. It is the responsibility of all users to follow these rules. Some specific areas of the wiki have their own rules/guidelines for their use; some of these are mentioned in these rules, but users who participate in those areas should also familiarize themselves with those specific policies.
The administrative team can step in and warn, restrict, or block users who violate these rules. Administrators should assume that users are acting in good faith, and not enforce these user rules too heavily if users are judged to have merely broken them accidentally. However, administrators do reserve the right to use all tools at their disposal to address rules violations that are done deliberately.
Questions or concerns about these rules or about other wiki policies can be directed to a member of the administrative team. This can be done through a direct contact on an administrative team-member's talk page, through a post on the administrators' noticeboard, or via contact with a team-member on the wiki's Discord server.
User rules
Rule 1 - no vandalism
Vandalism is prohibited. Vandalism is defined on The Sims Wiki as an intentional action meant to be detrimental or harmful to the wiki. Examples of vandalism include deliberately removing correct information or adding false information to pages; deliberately adding nonsense or gibberish to pages; deliberately erasing all the content from pages; or deliberately adding spam or advertisements.
An action taken in good faith is not vandalism, even if it's misguided, disruptive, or goes against consensus. Editors should always strive to assume good faith, even if the edit "harms" the wiki, unless is is clear that the edit was intended to be negative.
Rule 2 - no profanity, obscenity, or hate speech
The Sims Wiki is meant to be a welcoming place, free of obscenity and hate speech. Users may not add profane content, including text, files, or external links, anywhere on the wiki. Users may also not add any content that is bigoted, sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, hateful, or intolerant of any ethnicity, culture, or religion.[note 1]
Rule 2A - profanity in usernames
Profanity is not allowed in usernames of anyone who edits The Sims Wiki. If a user is blocked for an inappropriate username and requests a rename through Fandom, they can request an unblock once their name is changed to something appropriate.[note 2]
Rule 3 - do not use multiple accounts
The use of multiple Fandom accounts on The Sims Wiki by the same person at a time is generally not allowed. The use of multiple accounts for malicious reasons is called sock puppetry, and is prohibited. There are notable exceptions to this rule, as detailed in the full AMA Policy.
Rule 3A - bot accounts
Bots[note 3] must be approved by the Administrators in order to operate on The Sims Wiki. For more information about how Bots are approved, see here. This rule does not apply to bots owned or operated by Fandom Staff or other official personnel such as SOAP.
Rule 4 - no edit warring
Editors should not continually override or revert the contributions of other editors if there is a disagreement about the content of a page; this is called an edit war. Editors should resolve disagreements through discussion and consensus. The Sims Wiki has no strict rule (like Wikipedia's three-revert rule) regarding the number of reversions or counter-edits needed to classify a conflict as an edit war. Administrators or content moderators may protect pages that are in dispute until users can come to an agreement about the contents of the page.
Rule 5 - no personal attacks
Disagreements between users should not devolve into incivility, personal attacks, insults, inflammatory language, baseless accusations, or threats. Editors who are engaged in a disagreement are expected to remain civil, focus on the topic of discussion, and to take a break and walk away if needed. Retaliatory personal attacks made against an attacker are also prohibited. If you have received a personal attack, contact an administrator for assistance.
Rule 6 - no penalty evasion
A user that has been blocked from editing or put on an editing restriction is not allowed to evade those penalties. Users who are restricted should discuss their restrictions with administrators if they disagree with them, and blocked users should use the block appeal process if they disagree with their blocks. Penalty or block evasion is almost always considered a severe rule violation.
Rule 7 - image and file rules; copyrights
The Sims Wiki has adopted specific rules and guidelines regarding the uploading of images and other files to the wiki, especially as it relates to copyright and licensing. Users uploading files are expected to provide proper copyright information, not to upload content which violates another person's or entity's copyright, and to ensure that the content they're uploading adheres to the wiki's user rules.
Rule 8 - unreleased games and unconfirmed games
With the limited exception of The Sims game rumors, The Sims Wiki does not peddle in rumors about upcoming game titles. Users should not create pages or page sections claiming that a new game, game pack, expansion pack, stuff pack, DLC, or other content pack is forthcoming unless they can provide reputable proof or sources to back up the claim. Additionally, The Sims Wiki has adopted more strenuous requirements for references and citing sources for the period between when a game, game content, or a content pack is announced, and when it is officially released.
Rule 9 - fanon rules
The Sims Wiki has a Fanon namespace, for the creation of pages about player-made Sims, families, locations, and more. Most of the normal wiki styles do not apply in that namespace, but a separate policy applies instead. Users who create fanon have a degree of ownership over their creations, so editing another user's fanon pages is generally not allowed.[note 4]
Rule 10 - user pages
Users are given wide latitude over what they include within their own user space.[note 5] However, all contributions to one's user space must be generally appropriate (see Rule 2) and may not attack others (see Rule 5).
Editing another user's user page or other pages in their user space (except for user talk pages) without their permission is discouraged. However, editing another user's page is allowed in order to revert vandalism or unwanted edits by other users, to perform uncontroversial maintenance, to post special awards, or to correct violations of policy.
Rule 11 - Fandom Terms of Use
The Sims Wiki is hosted on the Fandom wiki network. Fandom has Terms of Use that apply to everyone who edits on any Fandom wiki. Anyone who edits here or anywhere else on Fandom agrees to follow the Terms of Use. Any behavior which is in violation of the Terms of Use may be reported to Fandom Staff, or Fandom Staff make take action independently of The Sims Wiki's administrative team.
Rule 11A - underage users
Part of Fandom's Terms of Use require all editors to be at least 13 years old (or 16 years old in certain countries/jurisdictions). If administrators become aware that a user is under 13 years old, that user may be blocked from editing the wiki and/or reported to Fandom staff. Administrators and other users should not seek to know the age of users, as this is a violation of privacy.
Rule 12 - misuse of user rights
Users who obtain more advanced user rights—rollbackers, content moderators, administrators, and bureaucrats—are required to adhere to all user rules. Users with advanced user rights who break wiki rules or who misuse or abuse the tools and rights granted by their roles are subject to having those rights revoked, and may also face additional sanctions up to or including blocks from the wiki. Bureaucrats reserve the right to revoke user rights of rollbackers, content moderators, and administrators if those users violate wiki policy or severely undermine the community's trust. Incidents of bureaucrats violating wiki rules or community trust may be reported to Fandom staff for assistance.
Rule 13 - gaming the system
No set of rules can ever cover 100% of all cases. Users should follow the "spirit" of these and other policies, and not get hung up on the technicalities of the "letter" of the policy. Users who deliberately try to "win" conflicts or arguments, or to evade sanctions, by selectively applying/interpreting policies are said to be "gaming the system." This type of behavior is not acceptable.
Interpretation of rules
Administrators or content moderators (if applicable) are given leeway in interpreting these rules and enforcing them when necessary. Any disagreement with interpretation of these policies should be brought to the attention of the initial administrator or moderator. If this does not resolve the disagreement, a user may ask for the assistance or interpretation of another administrator, ask for input from the administrative team collectively, or start a community discussion. If a user is blocked from editing as a consequence of these rules, they may appeal their block to a neutral administrator using the unblock request process.
Amending the rules
Major changes to these rules require a community discussion and support from the wiki community. Changes to these policies can be discussed on the talk page or on the community discussions forum. Amendment discussions should follow the wiki's discussions procedures.
Minor changes—such as maintenance tasks, updating page links, correcting errors or typos, etc.—do not require a community discussion. Edits are permitted to this page as long as they do not significantly alter the meaning or impact of a particular rule.
History
This section documents the history of major changes to these policies. A full history of all edits to this page is available here.
- 4 December 2024 - These general policies were adopted following a community discussion. These policies replaced the previous general policies.
Notes
- ↑ The use of hate speech is also a violation of Fandom's Terms of Use (see Rule 11).
- ↑ Also note, The Sims Wiki's policy on alternate and multiple accounts states that, "A user that is blocked from editing The Sims Wiki because of an inappropriate user name may create a new account with an appropriate user name; this instance does not constitute 'sockpuppetry'... but only in cases where the block against the account was because of an inappropriate user name."
- ↑ Automated or semi-automated software, and/or accounts hosting this software
- ↑ There are reasonable exceptions to this rule. For example, users can edit another person's fanon in order to revert vandalism, to assist the fanon creator in using templates, to fix clear errors/mistakes, to perform uncontroversial maintenance, or when the fanon creator gives their permission. Users who edit another person's fanon should be given the benefit of the doubt unless the action was clearly unwanted, obvious vandalism, or a major change that the creator did not request.
- ↑ A user's "user space" is defined as any pages that begin with 'User:<name of user>' or 'User talk:<name of user>'
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