Sonic Archive:General rules

Your user account is a special privilege. On the Sonic Archive, everyone is open to have an account and contribute to the ever-growing archive on the  series. These general rules are designed to encourage respect and civility among those who help build our Archive.

Show Respect
There is one rule that is most important on the Archive, from which all others derive: Respect. We expect respect from you in this community. You can expect respect from this community. Respect is fundamental to the entire project here.

As you contribute to the Sonic Archive and meet people, there will certainly be times when you will disagree with a policy here, a decision there, or a person's ideas for an article. In those inevitable confrontations, you must demonstrate respect towards those you disagree with. Seek to understand those you disagree with, and to keep a civil conversation going until an agreement is reached. We each must agree where we can, compromise where we can't, and work together to build the most professional and complete Sonic Archive.

Content
If you contribute to the Sonic Archive, you may add only official information on the Sonic the Hedgehog series. This means that if it's in the games, published in a manual, or mentioned in an interview, it's official and permitted. Do not add anything that is purely speculation or a personal opinion. Do not add content and information that is based on leaks or sources not authorized to post that information, such as stemming from stolen products or data.

Do not add content that is offensive or derogatory on the basis of sex, race, religious beliefs, age, nationality, ethnicity, physical or mental capability, or sexual orientation. Do not add content that is pornographic in nature, graphically violent, puts you, other editors, or the Sonic Archive at legal risk, or otherwise is uncomfortable to readers.

Media
Images and audio tracks may be uploaded in accordance with our Media policy. Images must be official and in a .png format. Audio tracks should be no more than 30 seconds and be in a .ogg format. Only officially released media may be uploaded to the wiki.

Do not upload fan art, including your own. This includes images that have been edited from their original form to highlight certain objects or characters in the image (exceptions exist in a case-by-case basis; you may talk to a member of the staff). Do not upload videos.

Plagiarism and References
Plagiarism is prohibited on the Sonic Archive. You may not add information to the Archive that has been taken from another website, including other wikis like Wikipedia, without including an appropriate attribution to the source, whether in an edit summary or as a reference.

The Sonic Archive's original content may be used in accordance with the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) License. Please remember to attribute the Archive when reusing content. Many users have made great efforts to build each article, which can be seen on each article's history logs.

Spam
Spam is strictly prohibited. Spam is defined as large amounts of content with the purpose of selling a product, or adding content mostly featuring links for people to click on, often leading to sites that download malware or feature obnoxious ads. Linking to your other sites is okay; linking to pages that cause damage, financial or otherwise, is not. Users who add spam, whether to articles or to their own userpage, will be banned immediately.

Forums
The wiki has several forum boards, found at Sonic Archive:Forums. Please keep the content of the forums appropriate for each forum board. As with articles and your userpage, do not post content that is offensive, pornographic, or graphically violent. Review the forum rules for details on using the forums.

Staff
You are expected to show respect to those elected or chosen as members of the Sonic Archive Staff. They each have every intention, as ever user does, to improve the Archive, and they lead the community in accomplishing its goals. Members of the staff don't have sole authority on the Archive; all members of the community are welcome to contribute ideas on policies and formats.

If you feel a member of the Sonic Archive staff has violated site rules or is improperly imposing their will, you may express your feelings in the forums, or to another member of the site staff or another experienced user. Action should be taken according to staff disciplinary guidelines found in the Staff Policy. Do not engage in attacking the staff member (See Personal Attacks).

Personal Attacks
Personal attacks, defined as any statement intended to offend another user or users, to harm their reputation, or to diminish their efforts or contributions to the Archive, are strictly prohibited. They will be dealt with the affected parties and the offending user(s), with another administrator mediating as follows:
 * The affected user should notify an administrator. Do not retaliate with attacks of your own. Their offense doesn’t justify yours.
 * An administrator will warn each offending user, placing the PersonalAttack template on their talk page.
 * Both the offending user and the affected parties must resolve their differences, according to the decision of the administrator involved. This may include reporting to the forums and working together on a specific topic or assignment.
 * Repeated offenders will be dealt with according to the General Discipline guidelines.

General Discipline
The primary purpose of disciplinary action on the Sonic Archive is to:
 * Protect the Archive, its content, and its users;
 * Help the disciplined person improve and contribute effectively.

To that end, the following guidelines are in place for dealing with those who refuse to adhere to the rules and policies on the Archive. The Archive generally practices a Three-Strikes policy: a user may make the same offense three times before being blocked or banned, as the case may be. Note that the guidelines are followed on a case-by-case basis, and some incidents may not require multiple warnings.
 * An initial warning is placed by an administrator on the offending user’s talk page using Warning 1. The user is given the opportunity to explain their behavior and commit to change. This template should be placed only by an administrator or moderator, or by a user who has been authorized by an administrator.
 * A second warning may be placed using Warning 2. This should be done if the user ignores the initial warning and persists in an inappropriate behavior or escalates such behavior. Only administrators and moderators are authorized to place this warning.
 * A final warning is placed by an administrator using when behavior continues to escalate and a block is imminent.

After a third warning, a user who continues in unacceptable behavior can be blocked or banned by an administrator. The action taken should be in relation to the offenses:
 * A block, which is a temporary restriction of editing on the Archive, should be levied for first-time offenders who may need time to cool down after a disagreement. Blocks can vary in time, but shouldn’t be more than a few months at a time. An administrator may block a user and place the Block template on their talk page.
 * A ban, also referred to as a perma-ban, is a permanent restriction from editing the Archive. Bans should be placed on continuing offenders, those who have already been blocked, or those who have engaged in malicious behavior with no intention to change or improve. Bans are rarely, if ever, revoked. Administrators may ban a user and place the Ban template on their talk page.

Conclusion
We are excited to have you on the Sonic Archive, and hope that as we work together, exhibiting respect for one another, we'll be able to build the greatest resource on the Sonic the Hedgehog series out there. If you have any questions on the rules, you can keep reading one of the pages below, or ask a member of the Sonic Archive staff.

More information

 * Help:Getting Started - A guide for new visitors to the Sonic Archive who want to help.
 * Sonic Archive:Policies - a list of all our policies on editing and contributing.
 * Sonic Archive:Green Hill - our community portal, the best place to start editing and meeting the community.
 * Help:Contents - a list of the wiki's help guides.