Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:Rules

These are the rules of the Plants vs. Zombies Wiki.

General

You must be at least 13 years old to join Wikia. If you say you are under 13 or heard about it on another wiki, you will be blocked until your 13^th birthday. More information is available on this blog. This is not our rule; we have to have this rule according to Wikia and the United States's Children Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
Never reveal your own personal information, especially your home address, phone number, password, or credit card number. We never ask for these, and we do not want you telling us these. These are for your own personal safety, and will result in indefinite ban.
Do not link, upload, or suggest versions of Plants vs. Zombies or other games to people, unless if it is one of the free editions of Plants vs. Zombies, such as Plants vs. Zombies 2, but not limited to its betas, release candidates, and soft releases, unless if the later releases of these editions are paid. This is pirating, an illegal action in which will result in a block on this wiki, along with probably a global block if needed.
No cussing or profanity of any kind is allowed on mainspace, forums, or blogs. However, minor swears, such as crap, are allowed. You can use asterisks (*) for censoring, but it is still not recommended for you to do it. This also includes naming images swears and swearing in edit summaries. Usually, an abuse filter will prevent such action from occurring should you do it.
- You are allowed to use swear words on the chat, but only if it is not directed at another user.
- Some swear words are not swear words worldwide, so you can say them as long as you do not use them purposely to annoy or offend a user who it is a swear word to, or if it is major. If you use the worldwide swearing, you get a block without a warning. One week for minor, one month for medium, three months for major, and six months for racist cusses.
- Note that saying "go to hell" to another user will still warrant administrative action, as that is harassment. Using "hell" as in "it is hell to fight against hordes of Gargantuars" is okay, as it is not meant to be rude.
No spamming or vandalism. This includes spamming minor edits to get badges; please only make two or three edits in a row per page. Page blanking will usually not be allowed by abuse filter. If you use your account to only vandalize, you will get an indefinite block.
Articles are not a place to put your opinion or speculation. Keep it on your userpage, your blogs, or in forum threads.
Fanon content is not accepted on the wiki. There is a wiki for fanon Plants vs. Zombies content.
Do not impersonate people by creating an account or renaming an existing account to something similar, then act like them. Roleplay (acting like a plant, zombie, or other NPC) is excluded.
Please use U.S. standard English ("gray" instead of "grey") on articles, discussions, and in polls left on Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:Polls.
No undoing/reverting good edits without a good reason.
No offensive or inappropriate content (including harassment, smoking or drug related, racism, sexism, or any types of bigotry).
Two accounts are not allowed. It is an exception if you forgot your password on an account (or a backup account), or if you want to create a bot. A bad name is not a reason to have two accounts, as renaming your account will allow you to change your username without the need to create a second account. In addition, test accounts, backup accounts, and bots are also permitted, as long as they are not abused (for example, Brainulator9 uses the backup/test account Brainulator10 and the bot account BULBot). For more information, see Wikipedia's guidelines on sockpuppetry.
- First offense is 1 month ban on main account, any other is infinite ban on main account.
- An exception to this rule is that if the reason of making a new account is because of being globally disabled due to being underaged. If they have turned 13 or above, they will be allowed to make a new account. Otherwise, sockpuppets of currently underaged users will still get blocked.
Advertising for other websites, purchasable products, services, or other promotional content is prohibited. Promotional or advertising-only accounts will receive an indefinite block.
Backseat moderating, also known as mini-modding, is prohibited. That means you must not tell someone to stop doing something that breaks the rules. Just report them to administrators, bureaucrats, chat moderators (if on chat), or if applicable and/or as a last resort, VSTF members and Wikia Staff. If you backseat moderate, you will get a two week block after seven warnings.
Do not leave links to the same page, or redirects leading to the same page. This will not get you blocked immediately, but they are annoying.
Keep editing to your userpage at a minimum if possible. Mainspace edits are more important. You will not get banned if you do this, but it is highly advised you make mainspace edits.
Do not create duplicate pages. While not a bannable offense outside of spamming, this only serves to clutter the wiki.
Do not make pages in the Plants vs. Zombies Wiki/Project namespace without permission from the administrators.
You may make templates for your userpage, but ask a staff member before making a template for further use in the wiki. If the template was not permitted, you can just copy the source onto your userpage.
Just because something is not listed here and it is not appropriate to do does not mean you can do it without a punishment.
Any copyfraud (copyright-stealing) is strictly prohibited.
Do not fluff edit. Fluff editing is where one "cheats" at making an edit that is obviously unnecessary or when one removes things from an article and puts them back just for the sake of editing. Doing this excessively can result in warnings or block. Additionally do not edit only on one article, as it will be considered edit farming.
When reverting or undoing an edit, always try to assume good faith if the edit is not obvious spam/vandalism.
As of July 10, 2017, the Discord server is now considered official, meaning all rules will apply there as well.
- Discord servers other than the official wiki one are still not considered "valid," including Direct Messages, as they are still considered "off-wiki." Thusly, what one says or does in these can not be validly used to promote, demote, support, oppose, or punish a user.
If you plan on using autoplaying music:
- Do not use autoplaying music in articles, since it annoys the reader. Such offense will result in immediate warning.
- The player button should not be hidden, so it cannot be paused. It is also not recommended to have the autoplaying music player be placed at the bottom of the page.
- You must ensure the loudness to be acceptable. If it is too loud, it will be reverted and if you try to re-add it, you will be warned and then banned. If the loudness is questionable, you should probably not use it.
Do not create clickbait or pointless blogs. These blogs either have an interesting title, but lead to bad or spam content in the blog. Pointless blogs are usually blank or contain very little text that does not explain anything, and is usually only made for the "make your first blog" badge. These will be deleted and may result a warning.
While shipping users are not banned, please follow the user treatment policy. In short, do not ship users unless you were given permission or if it is a harmless joke.
If you are banned twice, next banning offense will guarantee indefinite ban.

Event-specific rules

April Fools' Day (April 1) is not a justifiable time to vandalize. Vandalism then will be considered the same as vandalizing any other time.
If you do prank on April Fools' Day, don't make it offensive or inappropriate.
On closed beta instances, do not update the articles with information from the game. It is closed for a reason.
- Public information (such as posts from PopCap) is accepted.
Speculation about new features should be kept off mainspace. Userpages and blogs are the best places for these.

User treatment policy

See Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:User treatment policy.

Article rules

See Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:Manual of Style.

Strategy rules

See Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:Strategies.

Trivia rules

See Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:Trivia policy.

Talk page rules

On talk pages (both user talk pages and article talk pages), always sign your comments.
Do not leave messages on talk page archives.
Do not remove messages on other users' talk pages.
Inappropriate talk page behavior should be reported to admins rather than removed.
Do not remove warnings or blocking templates on your talk page. Violation will result in an immediate one week block.

Promotion rules

See Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:Requests for user rights.

Forums

All talk page and general rules apply on the forums, with the exception of signing posts.
Spamming and fighting are prohibited on the forums.
Do not make discussions about Plants vs. Zombies Character Creator plants and zombies, as none of them are real.
Do not post in all caps. Abbreviations on the short note are exempted.
Only discussion moderators may create continuing threads where the previous ones are too long.
- Only create the continuing thread when the previous one has over 300 replies.
On reporting station threads, only discussion moderators can decide if the community should vote to block the rule-breaker.
If there are 300 replies, a new discussion will be created.

Uploads

See Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:Image policy for general uploads. See Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:User uploads for the uploading of Zombatars and Player Towns.

Hacking

Main article: Hacking guide#Disclaimer

Distribution of hacked Plants vs. Zombies 2 OBB/RSB files

They must not contain premium plants unlocked via normal means (Snow Pea by beating a level, for one).
They must stay off of mainspace, even they cannot be in comments. Put them in blog posts or in forum posts.
Everything changed inside of the modded OBB/RSB must be clearly stated so that people know exactly what they are getting.
They provide a link to a clean copy of the OBB/RSB which can be put in a separate closed thread on the forums and can be linked to, only opened when we are putting a new clean version in), just in the case that someone loses their backup file.
It must be stated which version(s) the mod is compatible for.

Hyperlink colors

See Plants vs. Zombies Wiki:Hyperlink colors.

Chat

Follow the above rules.
Do not spam, troll, or flame in chat.
Do not abuse ChatAnnounce, kicking, or banning privileges.
No random gibberish is permitted.
Do not "door spam" on chat. Door spamming consists of rapidly exiting and entering chat to fill up the chat log.
Keep private things in private messages.
Role-playing is not allowed. There is a wiki for it. This results in an immediate kick.
You are allowed to use swear words on the chat, but only if it is not directed at another user.
Do not scream or shout (capitalizing all the words in a sentence) for more than 3 sentences.
You may share links to the sites that can shock any visitor only if you give a warning about any conditions about it. Failure to give a warning to these types of links will result in a kick for first offense then chat ban on any other offense.
Do not request backgrounds with a .gif extension. They tend to be laggy, so they cannot be accepted.
You are allowed to reference adult content on the chat but you cannot do it excessively.
Everyone can use any font which is readable for their chat messages in chat. However, all background, custom color, and decoration combinations in chat should not be too bright or dark.
You must not type more than 6 letters in a same letter consecutively.

Staff rules

Follow all the above rules.
You may not abuse power.
If a staff member has not been active for a month without a proper reason, they will be demoted.

Bot rules

You must have permission from a bureaucrat before you can create a bot.
If the permission is accepted, a bureaucrat will promote the bot, but don't edit on the bot account until it is promoted.
Just because bot edits are usually hidden doesn't mean no one can catch it misbehaving.
Do not edit a bot's user page or talk page unless it is your own bot.
If a bot is having a problem, report to an admin or its owner immediately. If you are an admin or bureaucrat, block the malfunctioning bot immediately.

Rollback rules

Don't revert good edits.

Discussion moderator rules

Only close threads if they are spam or vandalism, your own, if you have permission from the author or a vote that has finished.
Do not abusively edit replies.
Do not open up announcement forums for replies. They are an announcement, and thus, are not meant for replies.

Content moderator rules

Changing rules or passing major changes without voting on them will result an immediate warning.

Administrator rules

You may not add unfair rules.
"Friendship unblocks" and "rivalry blocks" are prohibited.

Bureaucrat rules

You may not use your powers to remove another user's rights if unwarranted.
"Wikia dictatorship" is prohibited.
- "Wikia dictatorship" is defined as:
  - Abusing bureaucrat privileges to not be punished for defying certain rules. This includes, but is not limited to:
    - Forcing members to do things unless they get a false warning;
    - Unfairly punishing members or closing threads, in order to either silence them or for acting in a way you merely dislike despite being allowed;
    - Changing rules or passing major changes without voting on them.
- If a bureaucrat disobeys the "Wikia dictatorship" rule, they could easily be punished for it.
- Attempts to remove or modify the "Wikia dictatorship is prohibited" rule without a vote is often prohibited, and could potentially count as an offense. This is to prevent cheesing this rule's existence by removing it.
- If a bureaucrat is being a "Wikia dictator," contact Wikia Staff, and they will be able to demote the offending bureaucrat.
"Friendship promotions" and "rivalry demotions" are prohibited.