Welcome to the Locke & Key Wiki staff policies. This is a list of regulations that wiki staff members abide to.
General[]
The staff of the wiki are the users entrusted with special tools to reinforce equable community collaboration. To ensure this, all staff members and users must adhere to the rules below.
- Admins are not the owners of the wiki. An admin is to work toward community benefit. They are not to abuse their powers in any way. Users of all skill levels are equal, as such, no admin is above a normal user and are simply users entrusted with powerful editing tools for their responsibilities. Awarding exclusive editing privileges to staff based on their role is also prohibited. If an admin is caught abusing their powers, they will be demoted and potentially blocked, depending on the severity of the situation.
- Users may not enforce the rules. Warning users in the stead of an administrator or moderator is considered mini-modding, and is against the rules for any user. If a rule violation is found, users should report the violation to an administrator or moderator, so the user can be warned properly.
- For major changes, consult with other staff members. If you plan to make significant changes to an article, user interface design (eg. CSS or JavaScript codes), or any similar design change, remember to consult with staff members first. Changes to the interface should follow the local manual of style and global customization policy.
Blocking[]
When blocking a user, a staff member is within their right as an administrator of this wiki to block any users being harmful, disruptive, or failure to follow the regulations. In most cases, an admin will typically will give a warning to the infractive user as a chance to correct themselves. However, a user who repeats their behavior will increase their risk of a block. If a previously blocked user resumes the action they were previously banned for, a longer block will be administered to the account without warning.
In general, users receive a block for one or more of the following reasons:
- Breaking the rules: Most users who do not follow the rules will receive a warning thread on a user's message wall to inform the user to not break the rules again. The admin can send another warning if necessary before proceeding with a limited block.
- Disruptive behavior: Depending on the frequency and the extent of offending behavior, being disruptive on the wiki may result in a block duration from a day to weeks with a warning beforehand. Hate speech and any forms of racism and discrimination are not tolerated and are strictly prohibited under the Terms of Use, and will result in an infinite block without warning.
- Under legal age: In compliance with COPPA and Fandom's Terms of Use, being under the internet consent age in your local area will result in a block and report to Fandom Staff; this will last until you are of age.
- Sockpuppetry: Attempting to circumvent a block with another account will result in the second account being infinitely blocked and an extension of the previous block.
- Vandalism, spamming, and trolling of any kind will result in an extensive block without warning. Do not ruin the experience of editors and readers.
In case a misunderstanding has occurred, the user who received the block can testify to the administrator who placed it, and discuss the other admins to see if it truly was a mistake.
- To testify, evidence that cannot be altered, such as a direct link to the URL, is required to be shown. Using false information, accomplices, and rumors will nullify your testimony and possibly lengthen your block.
Deletion[]
Admins and content moderators can delete a page as part of their moderation. In limited, special cases, there are articles, blogs or files that may be deleted on sight, if there is a sufficient reason to be deleted. If users spot a case like this, users can propose to an admin or content moderator to delete such a page simply by adding a {{Delete}} tag. A list of pages awaiting to be deleted can be found at Category:Candidates for deletion. Before deleting, be sure to check the page's history first to see if you can restore an older version and repurpose the page, instead of deleting the entire page.
The following are appropriate criteria for marking a page as a candidate for deletion:
- Off-topic, non-meaningful or relevant content or history (e.g. fan-fiction, random characters, spam).
- Copyright violation
- Vandalism
- Blank pages or short pages with little to context.
- Content that was split into multiple short pages.
- Reposted content that was already deleted according to policy
- Inappropriate content
- Duplicate images, pages, or comments
- Housekeeping purposes (i.e. deleting unused files or redirects, redirected files, empty categories, etc.)
- Broken redirects or ones caused by typos during a page move
- User blog, sandbox page, or comment on request of the user
- Any reason that breaks from the rules or guidelines not listed from above
Protection[]
Administrators and content moderators can protect and unprotect pages, including ones that do not exist. Protection of a page or image usually means that a regular user cannot modify it. The majority of pages on this community should remain unprotected to encourage all users in the community to edit. Page protection should only be implemented if it serves the betterment of the community, for reasons such as preventing persistent vandalism or "edit warring". Protection should not be used to lock a page on one version from a user's preference, to reserve the page to be edited later as an admin project, or to lock it indefinitely as "complete".
Pages that are permanently protected on this wiki are those used for display of the wiki: the main page, interface, policy pages, and templates used on the articles. There may also be cases where the page is temporarily or permanently protected for legal reasons, vandalism, or abusive re-creation.
Most pages and images are unprotected by default, only the site logo and favicons are automatically protected. You can choose to protect editing, moving, or both by checking or unchecking the Unlock further protect options, which will unlock the move protection options.
- (default) means any user can edit or move the page.
- Block new and unregistered users, or semi-protected, means new accounts have to be autoconfirmed (which they receive after 4 days) to edit and/or move pages.
- Administrators and content moderators only, or fully protected, means only administrators and content moderators may edit and/or move the page.
Pages can also be cascade protected, which will cause all images, pages, or templates transcluded onto the page to be fully protected, even if the main article is only semi-protected.
Page protection can be set for a certain length of time until it expires, or they can be set to infinite unless a staff member lifts it. A "temporary" protection may be either type to be used for a reprieve period to stop an "edit war", upon request, or protecting a page or image that has been a recent target of persistent vandalism. It is important that these protections are lifted eventually and should not be left protected for very long.