View source for BGT:Wiki Rules

Welcome to the BGT Wiki, before you begin editing may I please ask that you read the rules for this particular wiki. Please note that rules can change from wiki to wiki, so this wikis communal rules may differ from the rules of others:

== Rules ==

# No spoilers! Please don't talk about anything that happened on the show until it has been televised. Despite this rule, it is perfectly fine to discuss acts who have auditioned as long as it is done upon a Blog Post which is clearly marked as containing Spoilers and posts within the Discussions Category labelled as 'Spoilers', so that way users have the ability to make an informed decision as to whether or not they want to be spoiled surrounding acts who have auditioned for any series of the show (or if they want to watch a teaser of an act who is due to perform in an upcoming episode), however this only means acts can be named alongside whether their performances were official auditions or skits and what other shows they may have been on / notable things that they achieved during their career/s, as notating the judges verdicts for acts or whether an act receives a Golden Buzzer in such posts is disallowed.
# No vandalism - anything that is seen as vandalism such as threats of harm or spam and these actions later being carried out will result in a warning, followed by a block of at least one month. In a similar vein, any kind of hounding, baiting or trolling will also result in a warning, followed by a block of at least one month. If either of these actions is severe (10 or more bad faith edits on a page done by a singular user in a row for example) then this block will be instantaneous.
# Please only create pages relating to BGT (and related BGT shows) - this should go without saying but the fact we have this rule means it must have happened at some point.
# Please discuss categories with an admin before adding them - there isn't much point cluttering the Wiki up with unnecessary categories that don't fit with our current plans.
# Please check that a category actually is what you think it is before adding an act to it (as some categories are reserved for acts who performed in the Live Shows/non-Champions acts etc.)
# Don't post any non-PG pictures of acts (yes, even if the act did strip off in the actual show). For clarification, no images which contain genitalia or bottoms are allowed for male acts / members of acts, and no images which contain breasts, genitalia or bottoms are allowed for female acts / members of acts.
# Don't add any information on acts which hasn't been confirmed (you might assume that Bob the Singing Turkey is a shoe-in for the Semi-Finals but that doesn't mean you can add it as a fact on here if no-one actually knows that)
# In a similar vain, don't create pages for acts you think appeared on the show unless you have proof they did (by 'the show' we mean at least 'audition in front of the Judges', an act going to a local audition doesn't count)
# NO INFOBOXES!!! Yes they look nice, but for a new user/anyone who doesn't have a degree in Web Design they're incredibly difficult to get your head around. You can make your page look just as professional without needing them.
# Always remain both polite & civil when discussing subjects upon discussions boards or blog posts. In a similar vein, do not make any kind of personal attacks against other people and find a polite way to criticise another user's argument without attacking the person if you believe that you need to be critical surrounding an argument made by another user, and in doing so ensure never to use any form of bigoted language such as slurs which may degrade another person or group of people based on several factors such as their gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality, or religion etc.
#* This includes not advertising your own Wikis on this site unless there is a reasonable excuse to do so (messaging a friend on here to show them a wiki they might be interested in is fine, messaging the site's entire active user base is not). In a similar vein, you should not use this wiki in order to self-promote any social media that you may have or any kind of YouTube channel that you may have.
# If you don't know the name of an act (or can't reasonably confirm it), please don't create a page for them. If you know their first name then a page with a title such as 'James (Dancer)' or 'Bob (Singing Turkey)' will do.
# Finally, if you're going to create a page please add some information to it! Pages with just pictures and categories (and sometimes not even that) make the site look messy and lead us to having to clean it all up. We'll have to block you if you do this as it's a lot of effort on our part sorting it out.

== Additional Guidance ==
- Try your best to stick to the formulas that pages are written to. A general guide for user pages can be found [[User blog:PeteFromLeeds/A Guide to Adding Information to Pages: 2020 Update!|here]], for other pages (e.g. series/auditions) just take a quick look at the format of other pages of its kind. 

- Anyone is welcome to join this community, regardless as to whether they have auditioned in the past. If an act edits their page in relation to their audition information this edit should be respected, however if an act adds information that does not quite fit the standard of their page, then this should be rewritten by an admin. 

- Before you make a page ensure to check to see if an act already has a page, and before you link to a page ensure you spell the name of the act you are linking to correctly so that confusion is not caused.

- Do not rename a page without a valid reason to do so, and if you do so with a valid reason ensure to change the acts name and links upon any other page that their name is visible upon as it is likely it was also be linked here. 

- If you are unsure how to edit something, add an image, add a category, or reference please ask either an admin or the wikis community as these people will attempt to help & support you in your learning experience.

- Take any suggestions that any admin or any other member of the community gives you into account.

- Before making a page surrounding the music any act sings to or utilises in some way during their performance try to find the music that they either sing or performs name and the artist who wrote the music. This could take time and so if you lack the time to do so and write 'an unknown song' then a member of the community can find the song title and artist on your behalf. The same process also applies if you are unsure as to who an impressionist is performing an impression of, or if you are unsure as to who any impersonator is impersonating.

- If you want a discussions post locked due to it veering off-topic, or the question being answered either there or elsewhere ensure to ask an admin to do so on their message wall.

- If a solo act has a stage name, wherever possible include the full name of the performer in the first sentence, for example 'Kevin McMahon (Professionally known as Kevin Quantum)'

- It is advised that you leave an edit summary after you make edits. Examples are as follows (but don't feel like you need to stick to these!):

* 'Creating Page' if in the process of creating a page; 'Created Page' when this is finished
* 'Reformulating Page' if you are making significant changes to a page; 'Reformulated Page' when finished
* 'Updated [Before BGT/After BGT/Trivia]' when making changes to the relevant section
* 'Refs' if the edit is solely adding references to a page without them (note that if content is changed then mention the section changed instead).
*'Paragraphing / Paragraphs' when solely breaking up a page into smaller, easier to read paragraphs
*'Capitalism' when solely capitalising letters on pages
*'Fix / Fixes' when conducting any kind of miscellaneous fixes such as spelling, punctuation or grammar fixes, to any kind of pages or when fixing verdicts, ovations, or buzzes on act pages, auditions pages, or episode pages
*'Added Image' when solely adding any kind of image to a page
* '(Insert edit reasoning here on the last page of a batch that you are editing)' when batch creating / editing several pages for the exact same reason or for extremely similar reasons

== Links To Admin Created Specialised Blog Post Guides ==
[[User blog:PeteFromLeeds/References]]

[[User blog:Grandpa Lo70/A Guide to Referencing on the 'List of' pages and the 'Non-British Acts page']]

[[User blog:Grandpa Lo70/Episode Pages]]

== How Do I Get Promoted? ==

# You must be active for a minimum time period of six months.
# Any user can recommend other users who they believe fit to be an admin, as long as a recommended user has not been blocked for vandalism in the past, yet if the community is aware that someone were blocked in misunderstandings in the past then they can still be recommended for promotions such as Bureaucrat, Adminship, and other roles such as Content Moderators.
# Users who have been blocked for breaching this wiki's rules in the past or due to vandalism, however not users who have been blocked due to misunderstandings will be disallowed from being promoted and disallowed from recommending any other users for promotion. 
# If the active admin at the time discovers a user was blocked for either vandalism or “bad faith” editing in any other Wiki prior to their promotion, they will not be granted it and they will be disallowed for recommending any other users for promotion. If this is explained by the user who is up for promotion to be a false block due to abusive administration on another Wiki, then they will still be granted promotion and the ability to recommend any other users for promotion. 
# The active admin at the time will track each users progress towards being promoted, and once they reach the time wherein they can be promoted then they may message the bureaucrat instantly or wait a short period of time beforehand, and once the bureaucrat is active they will be responsible for providing promotions.
# The community can discuss whether they are for or whether they are against any users from being promoted through Discussions, or an admins message wall, whilst also stating why they believe that a specific user should be promoted such as being helpful and expanding the community and providing other users support when they need it if no admins are able to support them or if they are active before an admin is active, or why they believe that a specific user who is up for promotion should not be promoted such as being known for vandalising other wikis for example.

== How To Be A Good Bureaucrat / Admin / Content Moderator ==

* You should be open towards other users and responsive to the queries of new users who may need both guidance and advice. In addition to this, you should also be approachable and able to address users quickly in order to create an open & welcoming environment.
* You should not act as if you own the wiki if you have been promoted, as all this means is that you are trusted to use some excess tools which are not available to the entirety of your community in order to improve the community as a whole.
* You should not protect large numbers of content pages, as you want to encourage all of the users within the community to edit, and all page protection should be used for is for the improvement of the community such as in order to prevent vandalism or edit warring. In addition to the above you should not protect pages in order to lock a page to a version you prefer, and instead allow the community to edit the page as it can always be improved.
* You should not revert edits that are made in good faith without explaining why you undid them. Due to this you should first try and reword what someone has wrote, yet if you cannot do this then you can restore a prior revision of the page. If edits are incorrect or cannot be reworded nor revised and you decide to RollBack a users edit, then you must clearly explain why you reverted the edit to the user who made the edit by dropping them a message on their message wall.
* You should respect the opinions of others and never shut them out, as everyone within the community should feel both encouraged & empowered to speak up and engage in reasonable discussions surrounding topics that have relevance to the wiki, and this also includes if their opinions differ from those of a Bureaucrat, Admin, or Content Moderator.
* You should never play favourites and provide all editors with the chance to learn and grow within your community.
* You should be able to understand your limits as whilst being promoted to a Bureaucrat, Admin, or Content Moderator can be rewarding, it can also be tiring. If you require a break or to leave the wiki, then it is okay to do this, yet you should make the other users who have received promotions aware of this by dropping them a message on their message wall which surrounds this.

== Locking Policy ==
===This Wiki's Locking Policy is as follows:===

- Any pages that are frequently vandalised will be locked in order to prevent admins from having to constantly RollBack the edits of vandals.

- Any pages wherein an admin notices an edit war occurring will be locked temporarily, until an agreement can be reached as to how a page wherein an edit war is occurring should be written is come towards by users involved in an edit war coming to a compromise as to how a page should be written. If an admin notices an edit war occurring due to someone incorrectly formatting or updating a page, then they can lock the page and explain to the person who was wrongly formatting or updating a page as to how they should have gone about their edits.

- Pages that are for use only by admins, such as the rules page and the home page alongside the latter pages templates are also locked in order to protect them from vandalism and preserve the proper display of the Wiki.

- Pages for polls will be locked if polls display a duration such as polls surrounding whether or not suggested rules should be implemented, after the time wherein an admin stated a poll would be locked, for example two weeks or a month.

- Discussions posts that admins make and wish to keep, yet do not believe are relevant any longer may also be locked.

=== Pages will not be locked under any circumstances if: ===

- An admin or moderator disagrees with another admin or moderator as this can be seen as a conflict of interest. 

- In order to preserve a revision of a page that an admin or moderator likes for them to continue editing later.

- In order to mark a page as done - there may always be extra information that can be added to a page!

Further information on the locking policy which may be missing above can be seen [[BGT:Protected_page|on this page]].

===If I believe a page's protection level is too strong, who do I contact in order to request it be reviewed?===
In order for the level of protection upon any protected page to be reviewed, you must contact an administrator or content moderator on their local message wall. If they do not respond within at least a week to a month's time period, then it is advised that you message the administrator or content moderator on their message wall on Community Central. If you believe that an admin is abusing their powers at any time (e.g. by consistently locking several pages with seemingly no reason), it is advised that you report their actions to Fandom Staff via Zendesk with links regarding their actions as screenshots are not accepted when making such reports to Fandom Staff.

== How Can I Suggest Rules Then? ==
You can suggest rules that you believe the wiki needs, noted on the Rules page that it currently lacks by simply commenting on the article's page as comments are enabled. Once you suggest a rule within a comment an admin will review your suggestion and will decide as to whether or not they believe it is required on the rules page. If an admin is unsure as to whether or not a suggested rule should be included on the Rules page, then they may take the time to ask other admins their opinions, and if they still remain unsure they could ask for the entirety of the communities opinion through a poll which will be located in the Discussions Thread Category labelled 'Polls', such polls would be titled 'Should (Insert Suggested Rule) by a Rule'?, before providing the options of 'Yes' & 'No', with such polls being open for between the length of two weeks and a month, before then being locked once the general consensus has been come towards. If there is a majority of 'Yes' votes, then it is likely the rule will be added, yet if there is a majority of 'No' votes then it is unlikely the rule will be added. If users comment that they are voting either for or against another users rule suggestion by using multiple accounts, then an admin may ask them what their main account is, in order to but count their main accounts vote (Due to this the total of votes for the options rather than the percentile of votes will be used when counting up the number of votes for the differing options).

== Blocking Policy ==
Users may be blocked due to:
* Recurring vandalism or spamming
* Deliberately misgendering (i.e. using the wrong pronouns) and otherwise disrespecting people's stated facts  about their person and identity.
* Recurring harassment, including hounding, personal or legal threats, posting of personal information, repeated messaging and ignoring another users request to be left alone
* Continual edit warring
* Making low effort edits and pages (Consistent breach of this rule can lead to a brief block being issued without any kind of prior warning being given to the user who committed the offence)
* Making a personal attack on another user
* Sockpuppetry
* Asking other users personal information such as age, location, etc.

Unless stated otherwise above, the blocking policy for this Wiki is as follows:

- On the first occurrence of a rule being broken, we will leave a verbal warning on your message wall. (in some cases this will just be a friendly note - we're aware that people make mistakes!) There is a possibility of us administering a short block (no more than a day or so) if a user is very quickly making changes (e.g. adding lots of pages to an unnecessary category) just to get your attention.

- If a user continues to break the rules upon receiving this warning, they will receive a short block in the range of a few days to a week. Further violations of the rules will lead to longer blocks.

- Any duplicate accounts with the same IP address as a currently blocked member will be blocked indefinitely.

== If I Am Blocked How Do I Appeal? ==
If you believe you have been unfairly blocked, you should select an admin (Preferably your blocking admin) and leave them a message on their message wall, and they should be able to respond in order to help clear up any kind of misunderstandings that may have lead to your block. If an admin does not respond to your message on their message wall after a prolonged period of time, then you can either contact another admin or drop the original admin who you contacted a message on their message wall on Community Central and give them at least twenty four hours to respond, yet if you know that either one or both of the admins who you contacted will not be available when you leave the message and that either one or both of them may need longer due to being away for example, then you should give either one or both of them a slightly longer amount of time of at least a week to respond. You should only send a Support Ticket to Fandom through ZenDesk surrounding blocks if you have made your best effort to discuss your block with the wikis local admins, or if you cannot manage to discuss the block, and if the block is longer than a two week period. If you meet the conditions surrounding ZenDesk then Fandom will review your situation, however when making the report a link to said discussion or discussions should also be presented.
[[Category:Lists]]
[[Category:Rules]]