Inappropriate Behavior

We want the members of the community to get along with each other, but with any community, there are always those who will disrupt it. Whether from ignorance or malice, those who engage in inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated. The following are a few examples of common misbehavior that may result in administrative action. Administrators are not limited to acting just on these offenses, and may restrict a user's access to the Wiki if they find someone is disrupting the community.

General Rule to Follow
Comments should not contain vulgar language or profanity or contain inappropriate words, inappropriate sexual references/imagery or other vulgar statements/imagery in the comments section or other parts of the wiki pages. Violation of this rule will result in a temporary or permanent ban from About Everything Wiki and the comment will be promptly removed. This rule also applies to acronyms, abbreviations and emoticons. More details at Comments and Messages.

Personal Attacks
Personal attacks are arguments that focus on attacking another user personally, rather than addressing his arguments regarding the subject matter. Personal attacks are completely inappropriate in all conversations that take place in About Everything Wiki (Comments, Talk Pages, Forums, etc.). Users who participate in personal attacks are immediately subject to administrative action, including banning. Warnings may be given, but are not guaranteed.

Appropriate Behavior: If you are the target of personal attacks, do not reciprocate. Contact a About Everything Wiki staff member so that offenses can be handled administratively. Any personal attack, even one in retaliation, is subject to administrative penalties.

Edit Wars
An edit war is the act of two or more parties adding and/or reverting an article's content to suit their own view of the subject. The content is changed by one user, then changed back by another, effectively "warring" over whose edit is best.

Depending on the severity of the edit war, administrators will decide if a ban is warranted, or just a warning. Edit wars that do not stop after a warning may result in being banned from the About Everything Wiki. In the case of edit wars where vandalism or spam is involved, those adding the offending material will be immediately banned pursuant to policies on vandalism and spam.

Appropriate Behavior: Avoid taking part in an edit war. If you believe the content being added is incorrect or inappropriate, please inform an administrator that you believe an edit war may be starting, and take your suggestions to the article's discussion page.

Sock Puppetry
Sock puppetry is the act of creating secondary accounts for yourself, or having friends create new accounts, for the purpose of adding weight to an argument. This is inappropriate. Newly created accounts may be taken less seriously in a discussion for this reason. Users that are found to be participating in sock puppetry will be dealt with at the administrator's discretion and are subject to warning or bans if necessary.

Appropriate Behavior: Contact an administrator if you suspect someone is using sock puppetry.

Spam
Spam is adding material to an article that is superfluous to its content, and is most likely unrelated. Some examples of spam are: (i) advertisements; (ii) unnecessary code; and (iii) "fake items" or other false articles. Spam is not tolerated and will be dealt with in the strictest of manners by the administrators. Users who add spam to pages may be warned or banned.

Appropriate Behavior: If there's no doubt that the material is spam, remove or revert the change (if an edit war develops please follow the above guidelines). If you see material being added to a page that you suspect is spam, contact a About Everything Wiki staff member.

Vandalism
Vandalism is the act of creating or changing a page to either destroy, alter, or intentionally pervert the information in an article. Users who perform acts of vandalism will be banned. This is usually a permanent ban, but administrators reserve the right to impose a shorter ban at their discretion.

Profanity
Profanity is the act of expressing inappropriate behavior or language. If used in this wiki, many users might learn or pick up bad language. Users who perform acts of profanity will be banned or given a warning, but administrators get to decide the punishment

Appropriate Behavior: If you find a new or existing article that contains vandalism, remove or revert the change (if an edit war develops please follow the above guidelines). If you know which user performed the vandalism, please be sure to inform a staff member. Do Not confront the offender about his actions, as vandals usually do what they do to "get a rise" out of people. Simply revert the damage and report the offender to an administrator in order for the offender to be banned.