Rules and Policies

Welcome to South Park Archives! Like any other community, there are a set of rules to follow when editing here. Below is a summarized list of rules, followed by a detailed elaboration of each one.

*We do not track offenses or "strikes".*
*You **can** and **will** be banned the first time.*
**Summary**

* **User Conduct**
	+ South Park Archives is **not** a social network.
	+ The character template should not be used on personal pages.
	+ South Park Archives may not be used to advertise businesses or boost SEO rankings.
	+ Be polite when interacting with other users. We are all here to work together.
	+ Follow the Manual of Style , the preferred way of how things are to be organized.
	+ Do not start edit wars. Be ready to discuss your changes with others.
	+ Do not flame or insult other users. Send them a polite message if you have a dispute.
	+ Do not boost for the achievement badges. Badges are meant as a guideline.
	+ Do not edit others' user pages, as they are generally considered property of the user.
	+ Do not vandalize any page. Do not remove all the content from a page.
	+ Do not plagiarize content from Wikipedia. Write it in your own words.
	+ Multiple accounts used for block-evasion are forbidden, and are against Wikia TOS.
* **Forums, Top-10 Lists, and Article Comments**
	+ Article comments are **only** for discussions on how to improve the article.
	+ Forum messages may discuss anything *South Park* related.
		- Forum messages must be placed in the correct boards.
	+ Comments on Top-10 pages may discuss anything related to the list.
	+ If your message wall becomes too large, you may clear it out by clicking *More* and then *Remove* on each message.
		- Don't remove messages from administrators.
	+ Top-10 lists may only be created administrators and may only be edited by users with greater than 250 mainspace edits.
* **Content**
	+ All content must be related to South Park .
	+ All content must be objective. Use the forum to discuss your opinions.
	+ All content must be canonical. Do not post fanon information on mainspace pages.
		- For more information on canon and fanon, please see: Canon and Fanon
	+ Use the edit summary as you submit your edit. It lets others know what changed in the article.

**Detailed Elaborations**

## User Conduct

* South Park Archives is not a social network. Although we are a community of *South Park* fans and enthusiasts, we are all here to document all knowledge *South Park*. Utilizing South Park Archives as a means for pure social interaction, I.E. using it as a social network, is frowned upon.
* The character template is meant for, as the name suggests, character pages.
* South Park Archives may not be used to advertise businesses or boost SEO rankings. Links to external sites for personal gain, that are irrelevant to the wiki, can be removed at any time for any reason.
* Be polite when interacting with other users. We are all here to work together as a team and as a community. Being polite will go a long way and will make South Park Archives a happier place to edit.
* Follow the manual of style, the preferred way of how things are to be organized. While the help pages will help you to understand how to use basic wikia markup, the manual of style will tell you how to apply it on South Park Archives according to how everything else is organized.
	+ The manual of style is located here: Manual of Style
* Do not start edit wars. Be ready to discuss your changes with others. If you disagree with another editor, discuss the issue on either the user's wall or article's comments. Repeatedly reverting each other's changes, known as "edit warring", is bound to aggravate the conflict instead of solving it. If you cannot reach a consensus, ask an Administrator to mediate.
* Do not flame or insult other users. Send them a polite message if you have a dispute with another user. Talking things out and working out your differences can go a long way towards a mutual understanding.
	+ Do not, under any circumstances, harass South Park Archives users outside of South Park Archives.
* Do not edit others' user pages, as they are generally considered property of the user. You are, however, more than welcome to put whatever you'd like on your own user page, so long as it doesn't violate any rules or isn't offensive. If you have an issue with another user's user page, contact an Administrator.
* Do not vandalize any page. Do not remove all the content from a page. It is considered vandalism to remove all the content from a page or to add irrelevant information to the page.
* Do not plagiarize content from Wikipedia. Write it in your own words. The goal is to write the key ideas in your own words so that you don't plagiarize. This improves your overall credibility.
* Do not boost for the achievement badges. Badges are meant as a guideline and are in no way to be considered as status symbols. Use them for yourself and feel proud of yourself, do not use them to impress others.
	+ **What is Boosting?** Boosting is the process of making either useless or malicious edits just to heighten the count of edits they have made.
	+ **What is not Boosting?** Some things may appear to be boosting, but is not always so. Edit wars between a normal user and a vandal, who is trying to vandalize a page, and the user who is quickly undoing his edits. If the user is signing in and out to vandalize/undo, we can tell by the IP address.
	+ Additionally, valid contributions with the aim of garnering an achievement are allowed. Contributors should exercise great caution in ensuring that these additions are pragmatic, useful, and accurate. Such instances will be investigated and reviewed by an administrator.
* Multiple accounts used for block-evasion are strictly forbidden and are against Wikia TOS. If you create an addition account to evade a block, it will be permanently blocked and your primary account runs the risk of having it's block duration extended indefinitely.
	+ If you wish to utilize a secondary account for another purpose, please contact an Administrator.

## Forums, Top-10 Lists, and Article Comments

* Article comments are only for discussions on how to improve the article. It is ill advised to discuss other topics not pertaining to the article in its comments section. If you'd wish to do so, please leave a message on the forum.
* Forum messages may discuss any topic related to *South Park* on two conditions. The first being that the information is relevant to the show and the second being that the message is placed in the correct board for the subject.
* Comments on Top-10 list pages may discuss anything related to the Top-10 list on two conditions. The first being that it conforms to the **User Conduct** rules, and the second being that it is not spam and is relevant to the list.
* If your message wall becomes too large, you may clear it out by clicking *More* and then *Remove* on each message. Messages, such as warnings, from administrators should not be removed without permission from the messaging administrator. You may contact any administrators involved in the message thread.
* Top-10 lists may only be created administrators and may only be edited by users with greater than 250 mainspace edits. Any lists created otherwise will be deleted, regardless of content. A similar approach is used for editing top-10 lists.
	+ If you have a suggestion for a new Top-10 list, please message an Administrator with the topic and at least 10 list items.

## Content

* All content must be related to *South Park*. For example, Family Guy has been referenced several times though out the show. It is okay to add content about those references but not okay to add content about Family Guy's episode plots, character details, etc.
* All content must be objective. Use the forum to discuss your opinions. For example, it would not be okay to add "I think Craig is a really cool character and he is the most popular character ever!" to Craig Tucker's page.
* Use the edit summary as you submit your edit. It lets others know what changed in the article, even if it's just a minor change. This makes it easy for users to back track a page's history.

## Administrators

### Becoming an Administrator

Becoming an admin is not an easy task. To become an administrator, you must have completed all of the following requirements:

1. **You must have at least 1000 mainspace edits in content namespaces.**
	1. Content namespaces are: (main), Category, and Template.
2. **You must be relatively active and contribute regularly.**
3. **You must have never been blocked, both on the wiki and on the chat.**

For you to become an administrator, someone with bureaucrat rights must make you one. The minimum requirements for becoming an administrator are 1000 edits in content namespaces, as well as a continued, regular activity of at least 3 months on this wiki.

If you meet these requirements, and want to become an admin, you need to start a forum thread, titled "Adminship request - [your username]", where members of the South Park community will be able to discuss whether or not you should be made an admin. In the thread, say why you think you should be made one. The final decision will be up to the bureaucrats, after the community has had its say.

Please note that administratorship is not a reward for good contributions, nor a promotion to have more authority than other users. Simply put, an admin is a user who is being trusted with access to certain technical features to aid in maintenance. Not everybody who meets the requirements will automatically become an administrator; admins are appointed on a per-need basis.

### Rules for Administrators

* If an administrator is involved in an editing dispute, he or she should not use admin abilities or status to solve it. Ask another user or admin to mediate.
* Administrators are allowed to undo each other's administrative actions. However, it is expected that the one who reverts an action explains the reason for the revert. If consensus cannot be reached, a third admin should be asked to mediate.
* Admins should ask other admins to mediate if they feel a user should be blocked or banned for any reason. Vandals and users with unacceptable names (i.e. users that have flaming or personal information in their name) are excluded from this rule.