Dude, Stop Wiki:Rules

As long as the rules are well understood by the users, this wiki will remain safe, peaceful and organized. This is the reason we have rules. Any violations will result in punishments depending on the severity of the violation, as well as the user's past accords.

Breaking any rule (either the first or second time) will prompt a staff member to leave a warning on your talk page. Warnings cannot be negotiated with, but they can be appealed. Different staff members have different styles of moderation, so don't always expect a second offense to only yield another warning.

Circumstances exist in which a staff member is prompted to skip warnings and immediately block the user. In most cases, this approach is restricted to troll and vandalism-only accounts. However, everything works on a case-by-case basis.

A third approach exists to being blocked. Breaking numerous (the limit is usually three) similar rules can still get you blocked. "Similar" here is defined by two categories: destructive and disruptive. Destructive rule breaks affect pages, while disruptive rule breaks affect the community and its users. The length of a block derived from similarity varies with no real established time.

Any warning or block can be appealed. While warnings can be confronted on a staff's talk page, blocks can only be appealed on your talk page. Providing an understandable reason or apology will result in a shortened or removed block length most of the time. However, staff members hold the ability to deny and discuss any appeal.

While not a rule, check the manual of style before you edit.

Feel free to discuss about the rules on the talk page.

All users

 * You must be 13 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER in order to operate an account. We have the right to block you indefinitely or until you are of able age.

Destructive rules

 * 1) Don't vandalize. Vandalism greatly damages pages' developments, and we are more than welcome to revert any vandalism and take actions against anyone that vandalizes or encourages it.
 * 2) *Userpages (ie, profile pages) are off-limits to any editors aside from the home user, unless explicitly stated otherwise by the user.
 * 3) Don't post adult content into this wiki. This wiki is meant to be read by people of all ages. Bomb threats, drug use, gore, and pornography will not be tolerated.
 * 4) *Any imagery or artwork whose main purpose is to sexually arouse will be treated as pornography. Under these conditions, fetish art is not allowed.
 * 5) Don't start or be involved in edit wars. We want the community to get along with each other. Edit warring is when 2 or more users are undoing each other's edits. To prevent one, just simply report the situation to an active administrator and just wait for them to sort it out. Pages suffering from edit wars may end up being locked for a short period of time.
 * 6) Don't add and/or create fanon materials to articles. Fanon material is defined as anything not produced by the creators or the show itself, such as fan art. You can, however, add fanon contents on the fan page, your blog posts, user pages, or the articles' comment sections.
 * 7) Don't misuse article or user templates., , , etc. should be reserved for users who are banned, pages that are stubs, legitimate candidates for deletion, etc. These will be removed if not used properly.
 * 8) *Creating duplicates of templates or restoring removed templates is also prohibited.
 * 9) Restrict spoilers to where they belong. Several methods have allowed us to calculate votes in advance. While we allow this information to surface on future event pages, they are prohibited from being published on any other page, such as contestants or teams.
 * 10) Upload files with appropriate names. The rules against profanity apply to any images and videos uploaded to the wiki.

Disruptive rules

 * 1) Don't spam. Spam is harmful and will flood the wiki activity. Spamming also makes it hard to view other contributions made on the wiki.
 * 2) Don't use profanity. Profanity is rather disrespectful on this wiki, and you may be blocked as a consequence.
 * 3) *EXCEPTIONS: Light swear words (like piss, hell, bastard, damn, and ass) are allowed when not directed at or toward another user.
 * 4) *Profanity can't be censored, by neither omission (sh*t, b****, etc.) nor the use of the spoiler text template. These will still be treated as profanity.
 * 5) Don't abuse multiple accounts (sockpuppets). While blocked, this will extend the length of your block. The mass use of sockpuppets can even cause your block to be extended indefinitely. However for unblocked users, sockpuppets are allowed under heavy stipulations.
 * 6) Every system of socks must have an established main account.
 * 7) Any socks, for any purpose, must be linked to on the user's main account.
 * 8) Every sock must also link back to the main account.
 * 9) Whenever any account is blocked, every sock is blocked indefinitely.
 * 10) Create an account with an appropriate username. Referencing sexual messages, hate speech, another contributor, profanity, or otherwise hurtful or distracting usernames is prohibited.
 * 11) *Your profile picture must also be appropriate. Cropped pornography or explicit imagery is not tolerated, and if you do not change it after being messaged by a staff member, your account will be indefinitely blocked.
 * 12) Don't harass other users. Consistently and repeatedly targeting, messaging, berating, or insulting another user(s) is considered harassment. Harassment doesn't need to be seen by the target in order to be punished.
 * 13) *Don't harass, pester, or message any of the Dude, Stop cast about the episodes or series. This can be counted as harassment. Let these people be in peace.
 * 14) Don't excessively backseat moderate people (mini-modding). Telling vandals to stop is allowed. However, bossing other users around and acting as if you hold power over them is not. This will be over-looked if your actions were in good faith.
 * 15) *Impersonating a staff member, especially in the pursuit of giving another user a false warning, is an offense of the highest degree and may result in an immediate block.
 * 16) Don't reveal all personal information. Do not reveal your credit card number, social security number, address (where you live), your password, and phone number. In case of an accidental reveal, please contact an administrator to remove it as soon as possible.
 * 17) *Revealing another user's personal information is an offense of the highest degree. This will result in an immediate block.
 * 18) Don't discriminate people based on race, creed, color, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, identity, or disability. This hurts the contributors and creates social conflicts.
 * 19) Personal attacks and otherwise cruel actions are not allowed. Whether a user is blocked or not, you have no right to be rude towards them at all.
 * 20) Don't flamebait or otherwise intimidate users. Not only does this create social conflicts between users, it makes the user targeted look bad, along with the account responsible of the attack.
 * 21) Don't use offensive jokes. Some users may take these jokes personally, and they may be upset by them. If you do joke, specify before a social conflict is created over it.
 * 22) *Triggered jokes are counted towards offensive jokes. Don't use them.
 * 23) Don't impersonate other users. Attempting to use a username or make edits attempting to mock the targeted user is discouraged, and your account may be blocked indefinitely.
 * 24) Don't discuss future episode spoilers in the comments of a page. While you can discuss spoilers on the comments of the actual future episode page, they are completely prohibited on other pages, even behind spoiler text. This does not extend to blogs or userpages.
 * 25) Don't go off-topic on a page's comments. The comments of a page should be about the page. General discussion can either go in Discussions or in a blog post.
 * 26) Don't spread rumors or gossip about other users. Also known as drama, this may flood the wiki activity and may humiliate the targeted user(s).
 * 27) Try to use English-language content. This wiki uses the English language, native or learned, at almost all times, day and night. Spamming or using other language content or characters is prohibited in comments, chat, or page edits.
 * 28) *However... there are Dude, Stop wikis in other languages (a list of them can be found on the main page) so if you speak one of those languages you can go to the corresponding wiki.
 * 29) Don't advertise in the comments or on someone else's talk or blog. Same with spamming, advertising is forbidden. Advertising can be linking to a blog post, YouTube channel, or website. Simply attempting to persuade other users to visit these targets is also advertising, even in the absence of an actual link.
 * 30) *However... uploading a video/image to the site and displaying it while staying on-topic is not advertising.
 * 31) *Also... you can advertise on your own blog posts. Someone asking for a link and you providing that link is also not advertising.
 * 32) Don't incite misbehavior. Provoking or attempting to rally other users into breaking the rules is not allowed. The same goes for threatening to break the rules.

Chat
Warnings and blocks work differently in the chat than elsewhere in the wiki. Warnings are almost always verbal, with no messages being left on the offender's talk page. Misbehavior can either be met with a warning, a kick, or a block. Simply due to the nature of the chat, any of the aforementioned three responses can be done, regardless of severity or repetition.
 * 1) In addition to the above rules, spamming emoticons is also against the rules.
 * 2) Roleplaying is allowed, but everyone in the chat that is active/not AFK must consent that a roleplay will be happening.
 * 3) Avoid typing excessive amounts of texts in large font sizes, or hard-to-see colors.
 * 4) Don't reveal or discuss spoilers for future episodes. This includes vote counts, elimination statuses, etc.

Users will give/with given powers
Be aware that even though you have been user-righted, the regular rules still apply to your account.
 * 1) Use the powers correctly, and act in good faith. Blocking is meant to be preventive, not punitive.
 * 2) Be a good example. As an administrator, not only protecting your wiki, you need to be a good example for other users to learn and might become a skilled and responsible administrators like you.
 * 3) Be humble and calm towards users' opinions. Try not to be aggressive when a user complains about your attitude or actions they see as wrong.
 * 4) Try to be serious in wiki conflicts. Administrators, bureaucrats, content & discussion moderators should be serious in social conflicts, vandalism, and other wiki conflicts. Creating, participating, or otherwise encouraging or kicking up a serious issue is highly unacceptable for a user with given powers.
 * 5) Don't abuse privileges or powers. Blocking users for no reason, or adding unnecessary protection to pages is frowned upon, and may lead to privileges being revoked.
 * 6) Block with reason. Blocking is a serious thing to do to a user to prevent harm to the wiki. Try to leave a given reason that is detailed for the block, especially if the block duration is over 1 month or indefinite.
 * 7) Make clear statements. Don't say things which are confusing or have ambiguous meanings. Your statements need to be understood easily by users, so don't make it harder for them.