Meta:Rules

Welcome to the official **rules** page of the Video Game Character Database. When breaking a rule, you will receive two warnings before being blocked. Depending on severity of rule, or how severely a rule was broken, an admin may decided to skip the warnings.

## General

### No Bullying Others

Users may not use hate speech, harass, or make fun of others. This includes sending mean messages, comments, and chat.

### No Spam

Do not clutter the wiki with pointless comments, forum posts, etc. Comments should pertain to the page they are posted under. Spamming in the chat is also not allowed.

### No Sockpuppeting

Please do not create multiple accounts and pretend to be another person, for whatever reason. This is especially not allowed if done to get around warnings or bans.

### No Trolling

Trolling, including intentionally starting drama, is not allowed. Please do not "feed", or respond, to a user who appears to be trolling. This usually makes the situation worse, and will also result in a warning.

### Limit Swearing

Keep swearing to the chat only. If you feel the need to use profanity out of the chat, such as in comments or forum posts, please censor it. If you are putting a quote on a character page that contains language, please put the Mature warning template at the top of the page.

### Do Not Use Someone Else's Account

Unless given permission, you should not be using another user's account.

### Keep Links Appropriate

If you are linking to another website, the link should be appropriate. This means the link should not lead to an illegal site or a site contain pornographic/explicit content. Links should also not be used for advertising purposes.

### No Advertising

Please do not advertise yours or somebody else's content, even in forum posts and the chat. If you are talking about content you make, and someone asks for a link, you are allowed to post it.

#### Example

**This is not allowed:** "Hey guys!! Please check out my youtube channel! It's name is IAdvertiseMyChannel!"

**This is:** Person 1: "Yeah I've done drawings before, it's actually a really long process!"

Person 2: "Woah you do art? That's awesome, can I have a link?"

Person 1: "Sure! My deviantart account is IDontAdvertise."

### Do Not Do An Admin's Job

If you are not an admin, you should not be trying to enforce the rules. If you see an issue, please comment on an admin's talk page explaining the issue. A link to the page is a good thing to include when reporting to an admin.

## Creating Content

### Uploading Images/Videos

When uploading an image or video, it should follow the rules above. It should not contain pornagraphic content, and nudity should be kept to a minimum. Violence should also be kept to a minimum.

Use this list when you are unsure if the content is allowed.

* Images/Videos should not contain nudity or violence with a real person.
* Images/Videos should not show genitalia or an excessive amount of nudity, nor should any explicit sexual content be shown.
* If an image on a page contains violence or partial nudity, please add the Mature warning to the top of the page.

If you are still not sure if an image is allowed, contact an admin about it. Text should also not contain overly explicit content. It is up to an admin to decide what is too much. If a page does contain content like this, please put the Mature warning at the top.

### Editing A Page

When editing a page, your edit should be on topic and in the right section. Do not spam edits.

### Creating A Page

When creating a page, the page should follow all of the above rules. It should also follow these guidelines:

* The character should originate from a video game. Although characters like Batman and Goku have appeared in many games, they did not originate in them and therefore should not have pages.
* The character should be notable. The character should be a main character, or impact the story in some way. Minor characters should appear in a minor character list page, such as List of Minor Sonic the Hedgehog Characters. If it is a common enemy, it should appear in an enemy list page, such as List of Super Mario Enemies.

When including trivial information, citations are very welcome. If information is not verifiable, it will likely be removed from the page. You can view an example page here.

When creating new categories, it should fit in one of these categories:

* (Company) Characters: For characters that belong to a certain company, i.e. "Bethesda Characters". If a company has only have created one game series, a company category is usually not necessary. I.E. Yacht Club Games has only ever developed Shovel Knight games, meaning a "Yacht Club Games Characters" category would not be necessary.
* (Series) Characters: For characters that are from a certain series, i.e. "Halo Characters". Even if it is just a single game in the series, it can have its own category, i.e. "Rivals of Aether Characters".
* (Genre) Characters: For characters that have appeared in games of a certain genre, i.e. "Fighting Game Characters". Subgenre category pages should be added to their parent genre category, i.e. "First-Person Shooter Characters" should a subcategory of "Shooter Characters".
* (Species): For characters who are a certain species, such as "Humans" or "Dogs". Some species don't warrant their own category, such as species that aren't very commonly used (like Bobcats) or it's a species that is only in one franchise (like Inklings).
* Characters Voiced by (Voice Actor): This is a category for characters who are voiced by a specific actor. A voice actor should voice multiple characters to warrant their own category, such as Matthew Mercer or Charles Martinet.

If you feel a category is missing that doesn't fit one of the above types, make a forum post about it. People can vote on it to decide if it should be created.

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