Discussion policy

**Discussion** is used on the **OSRune Wiki** as means to discuss any improvements to the wiki, and to facilitate general interaction between members of the community. It is considered an important aspect of the wiki and has thus been placed under some guidelines to help sustain a happy, wholesome, and social online community.

Discussion should be used before any major changes, where practical, and consensus, defined as at least a supermajority in agreement, should be sought.

## **General**

These are the universal rules that apply to all pages with discussion features. Any messages that break these rules will be removed on the spot and its poster may face consequences.

## **Conduct**

**Users must be civil in all interactions.** Incivility consists of aggressive behaviors that disrupt the wiki and lead to unproductive stress and conflict.

* **Always show respect for other users and their opinions.** This wiki stands by the belief that every human being is entitled to their opinion. Users will not make personal attacks on other users, nor attempt to silence their personal views. Such behavior is intolerable and will have immediate consequences.
* **Always use appropriate language.** Because we're a wiki about a subject primarily targeted to children, any words or phrases above a PG rating is considered inappropriate for this site. Please show respect to our readers and other users by never using such language.

*For more information, read this **Wiki Announcement***.

* **Use proper text formatting.** Please avoid posting messages (entirely or in large part) in ALL CAPS, **bold**, *italics*, or any other format separate from regular text format. Such messages tend to give off an inappropriate sense of anger or excitement that may be taken as spam or a troll post.
* **Keep all messages relevant to the topic.** Messages on should always stay on-topic to the given subject, not act as a social conversation between users.

**EXCEPTION:** User message walls generally do not apply to this rule. However, if there is a case where a conversation is getting too topically out-of-hand, an admin may interfere.

* **No spamming, flaming, or trolling.** Spamming encompasses any messages that take up space and do not instigate conversation (e.g. nonsense posts, double-posts, etc).

Flaming and trolling includes any messages that are angry/hostile in nature and are unreasonable. Any assertions or criticisms made should sound reasonable and be properly backed up with reasoning and evidence.

* **No advertising.** Do not comment on a page simply to tell about or link to your fan-made material, website, blog, or anything else unrelated to the wiki. Any messages that are advert in nature or contain non-discussion-related links or material will be removed.

## **Content**

### **Message Walls**

Message Walls are not primarily intended to be a facility for social interaction. They are to facilitate individual messages relevant to the users' activity on the wiki. As such, utilizing them for the purposes of social interaction is expressly conditional, and moderating action may be taken if threads do not meet the following guidelines:

* The given topic is inappropriate, and does not adhere to policy or the principles of common decency and maturity, as is encouraged and typical of the wiki community.
* The discussion is consistently out-of-scope with the site, with no meaningful elements relating to the series or the wiki, and will most likely grow to unmanageable proportions if allowed to continue - such that other editors may be unjustly inconvenienced.
* The subject matter is unacceptably tangential and has strayed into the realm of sharing detailed personal information, which should not be discussed on the public Message Wall system.
	+ For the purposes of pervasive social interaction, which usually does not fall under the above criteria, please use the community forums or private messages.
* Message Walls must be the primary way to reach a user on-wiki. User space pages for the purposes of discussion are permitted, but their use may not diminish in any way the emphasis on or the functionality of Message Wall.

**For more information, check out the other policies on our Wiki below.**