Bloons Wiki:Policies

Policies are the backbone of the wiki. All users, regardless of status and position, are expected to follow them. Any requests for additions or alterations to these policies should be discussed on the talk page.



All Editors Are Equal
All editors, regardless of status and position, are treated equally, and no one editor is more important than anyone else. Everyone’s opinion is weighted as equal.

Assume Good Faith
Assume that when an editor makes an edit, it was to help the wiki. If you are positive someone made a non-constructive edit, has misspelled words, or has poor grammar, then feel free to correct it. When disagreeing with people, remember that they are probably thinking they are helping the wiki. Consider using message walls appropriately to explain yourself and give others opportunity to do the same. This can avoid problems and prevent them from escalating.

Be patient with newcomers. They may not know how to edit a wiki or what's supposed to be added as content.

English Only Policy
Bloons Wiki is an English wiki. Its infrastructure does not support content in other languages. Doing so would entail different sub-domains and monitoring routines to track changes between different language versions of pages and alert translators. Therefore, non-English content is against policy and can be tagged for speedy deletion.

This only applies to main content. Members are more than welcome to use languages other than English on their userpage, blog posts, and the forums, provided that they also post an English translation. Communicating to others on their message walls in a different language is acceptable, as long as the person being messaged also speaks the same language.

User Treatment Policy
Bloons Wiki is a friendly and positive community; everyone should treat each other with respect. As the wiki welcomes an audience of all ages, the use of vulgar and profane language is not supported here. While jokes made by users are usually in good fun, jokes that can be considered offensive should be avoided. If a user breaks this rule, after several warnings, he or she will be subject to a block.

Be Bold
A wiki is a place where anyone can edit - and make decisions to add content. Don't be afraid to make edits and change things. Instead of noticing a change and worrying about it, remember that we want you to be bold and edit the page yourself. You will not be reprimanded if you do something wrong, other editors must assume good faith and will undo your edit or edit it if required.

While boldness in contributors is encouraged, it is very important that editors not edit recklessly. It is important not to be insulted or insult other users if your changes are reverted or enhanced. Any edits can be fixed if an unforeseen error occurs, but there are some significant changes that can be long-lasting and that are harder to fix if need be. If you have questions about anything, just ask around for advice, we'll be glad to help.

Style
Articles should follow the format, grammar, and other rules demonstrated in Bloons Wiki:Manual of Style. Please refrain from using the impersonal "you" in articles as in the examples below:
 * "In Bloons Tower Defense 4 if you buy NK Coins you can purchase premium upgrades."

Try to replace you with something else. Instead, use third person, like:
 * "In Bloons Tower Defense 4 if the player buys NK Coins they can purchase premium upgrades."

Do not delete discussions
Do not remove discussions from a talk page or user message wall unless it is blatant vandalism. Old talk pages should be archived instead of being deleted. Discussion pages are an integral part of a wiki; they are a place for users to decide which direction an article should go in, what to include and not to include, and to place any other kinds of comments. User message walls are a place where users can communicate about a wide variety of things, as well as receiving messages from other users regarding edits, and messages from administrators about problems. Keeping discussions can be very useful. For example:
 * Keeping old discussions may prevent the same debate from happening repeatedly. For example, if two different sources provide differing information, leaving the discussion may prevent it being brought up repeatedly.
 * Providing a record of a user's actions and discussions with other users. Although it is possible to view the page history, it is much easier to look over a discussion.

Signatures
Signatures are an essential part of wiki discussions, indicating which comments are posted by which editors. While signatures should not be used on article pages, editors are required to sign off their posts on Talk pages and Forum threads. The default signature, including name and timestamp, can be generated by using ~ or using the signature button on the edit bar. Editors are permitted to use custom signatures. However, these are required to follow a set of User Signature Guidelines. Signatures must clearly state the user's name.

Manual of Style
The Manual of Style is a guideline to formatting edits in a standardized fashion. Try making your edits as consistent with the rest of the articles as possible. Not only will it make it easier to feel the underlying structures of each page, consistent formatting on pages will help improve the chances to easily pinpoint any major needs to restructure articles, thereby improving potential to make those changes promptly and smoothly without accidental oversights in omitted or otherwise incomplete re-formatting endeavors. It's just a good habit to follow the Manual of Style for the sake of making it easier for everyone.

Be Patient
All users should be patient with other users. Don't just assume your idea is always right. Take the time to think about what the other user's perspective is before you make any further action.

Talk Pages
Talk Pages on mainspace articles are designed to be used as discussion of the article itself, not for making comments about the topic itself. When contributing to a Talk Page, please make sure to create a new Header 2 with an appropriate name, then write down your message down and finish it off with a signature. If you want to make interesting comments about the topic(s) featured in the article, you should try the Discussions and link the article to that discussion thread.

Stay On-Topic
It is highly recommended for all users to stay on-topic whenever they speak to another user or post something in the Discussions. It's just a good habit to only speak relevant information. If you want to switch topics on the same messageboard, you should clearly state your intention to request speaking out a different topic while also keeping awareness of any past discussed topics in that thread too.

No All-Caps
"All-caps" is the capitalization of multiple words, and is often used by younger editors as a way of complaining or expressing uncontrolled excitement (for example "I WANT ICECREAM!"). Don't use all-caps whenever you write anywhere. Bloons Wiki will not tolerate this, and the Abuse Filter is even designed to block anyone from inserting excessive all-caps.

Why does Bloons Wiki discourage use of all-caps? For one, all-caps is very unprofessional, and two, it can be annoying to look at. Imagine doing the same thing to your teacher. If you posted all-caps to your teacher about anything, like suppose you were sending an email to them about that horrendously difficult History homework, your teacher would think you're misbehaving. That teacher would probably send you to the Discipline Committee to deal with your outbursts. You wouldn't want that to happen to you in real-life, right? So don't spam your messages with all-caps on Bloons Wiki.

Image Categorisation
Image categorisation is an ongoing project on the wiki. All images should be categorised accordingly after being uploaded. This means that all relevant categories should be added to images. For example, File:ZOMG 2.png should have the categories Zeppelin Of Mighty Gargantuaness (Z.O.M.G.) images (proper article name) and Bloons TD 5 images.

A user's personal images should have the category Category:<> user images. For example, User:BloonsBOT's images should be marked with Category:BloonsBOT user images.

Idea Page Policy
Any mainspace pages about unofficial content are strictly forbidden on the wiki. The best spot to place any ideas is in blog posts, user pages or the Bloons Suggestions forum board. All of us enjoy creative ideas on the Bloons Universe, but Bloons Wiki simply cannot have ideas on mainspace articles. But why? This question is asked all the time.
 * Readers will be confused on what information is official or unofficial. This will certainly cause trouble and irritation for everyone. No wiki wants this, and the Bloons Wiki is no exception.
 * Having idea pages is more open to vandalism than pages with official content. The creators of idea pages would prefer that they are the only ones to edit it. This may result in a constantly vandalized page and an angry contributor, which is also what Bloons Wiki wants to avoid.

Vandalism
Vandalism is the most common reason for blocks on the wiki, and is defined as any edits made out of bad faith. This includes adding inappropriate or nonsensical words to articles, blanking pages, creating spam pages, purposefully changing correct information, and uploading inappropriate, pornographic, or spam images. Users who commit vandalism are usually warned first, and then blocked for at least three days if the non-constructive edits continue. Repeat offenders may be blocked for longer periods of time as appropriate.

Blocking
Administrators may determine, for a number of reasons, that blocking an editor is required to maintain the wiki, or to enforce policies. The duration of blocks may vary, depending on the severity of the offense committed. Blocking Guidelines are used as the general standards for determining block durations, but administrators also use their own discretion on a case-by-case basis.

Sockpuppetry
Sockpuppetry is the act of creating one or more alternate accounts that a user may use to create confusion, deception, or disruption. Such alternate accounts are known as sockpuppets, and are forbidden on this wiki.

Pages for Deletion
Many deletions on the wiki are a result of speedy deletion. See the Pages for Deletion Policy to check to make sure if a page meets the criteria to be speedy deleted. If a user thinks that an article should be deleted, but it does not meet the criteria, than he or she may bring it up at the Support Forum, or an administrator's message wall.