Talk: Rules

With all respect, I felt the wording could improve in some areas and there could be some rules could be clarified/explained better. So here is my proposed rule page, which if approved by the admins may replace the current one. It appears the rules page can be edited by anyone, but I wanted to check in with someone to see what they thought first. If you don't like it or would like to change any parts or leave any parts the same that's okay to:

Anything below this sentence is my proposed rule-set.

Articles

• Before making drastic changes to an article (especially by removing a large amount of information), you should explain such changes, so that it will be less likely seen as vandalism (reverting blatant vandalism is an exception to this rule).
• When creating articles, make sure that the topic in mind doesn’t already have an article on the wiki (unless the article is in bad shape, and you think you can do better by starting over).
• When creating articles, make sure they are about topics officially related to Garfield. Articles on unofficial matters (such as fan fiction, or people not confirmed to have worked on any official Garfield features, even if you wish they did) should be avoided. If you’re not sure if a topic is official, try looking up official sources for confirmation. You can also ask an administrator on his/her message wall, use the forum, or bring it up in chat.

Categories

Certain categories can be used for articles, while others should not be used.

Acceptable Categories

• "Antagonists" (where appropriate).
• "Comic Strip", "Garfield and Friends", and "The Garfield Show" - used to mark articles focusing on any of those parts of the Garfield universe.
• "Male Characters" or "Female Characters".
• "Protagonists" (where appropriate).
• Season specific categories - e.g. "Garfield and Friends Season 7", "The Garfield Show Season 2".
• Species - "Humans" or specific animals ("Cats", "Dogs", etc.).

Unacceptable Categories

• "Characters" - more specific categories would be preferred.
• Combined categories, such as "Male Animals" or "Female Antagonists" - redundant.
• "Deceased" or anything to that effect (for real life people) - this sort of information belongs in the opening sentence/infobox of pages where appropriate, thus making the category form redundant.
• Trivial categories.
• "TV-only Characters" - redundant; "Garfield and Friends" and "The Garfield Show" can be used instead.
• Very specific categories - those that only apply to one article or very few articles, thus defeating the purpose of having such categories.
• "Villains" (or anything with that word) - "Antagonists" should suffice.

See also: Categories

Trivia

The following types of information are not allowed for trivia sections:

• Anything that may be considered ironic (if you feel it is important, try talking to an administrator about it first).
• Coincidental information, such as a story resembling that of something else (unless said story is clearly a parody), a Garfield character sounding like a character from another franchise (particularly if they share the same voice actor), or something occurring on the same day.
• Some information may be more appropriate on one page than on another; use your best judgement for that, and if in doubt, ask an administrator.
• Speculative information, no matter how “obvious” it may seem. You may, however, write such information in the comment sections (which can be found below each article).
• Subjective information (e.g. “he is annoying”), even if there are characters who feel likewise.

Chat

The following behaviors have no place on the Garfield wiki chat.

• Bullying
  • Harassment
  • Pestering
  • Profanity
  • Threats
• Indecent speech
  • Lewd comments
  • Overly personal questions
  • Passive aggressive behavior or spiteful words

The following behaviors do have a place on the Garfield wiki chat.

• Friendliness
  • Ask how someone is doing
  • Be willing to make small talk and have fun
  • Give others the benefit of the doubt
• Intelligent Discussion
  • Accept you may not be right on a certain point
  • Ask questions
  • Contribute what you can in the form of answers

Conduct

Do not's

• Do not ask random questions unrelated to Garfield or the wiki on message walls (this is okay on chat however).
• False or unverified accusations towards other users are unacceptable. If you have tangible proofs for an allegation, be sure to bring them up for review.
• Pornography is strictly forbidden, while controversial statements (such as those about religion, politics, conspiracy theories) and profanity should be refrained from being used.
• Providing uploads to full episodes/specials/movies of Garfield is prohibited due to copyright concerns.
• You may ask requests from others, but know they have the complete right to reject any such requests. If you try to threaten them or annoy them to get what you want that is harassment and is prohibited.
• You may not reproduce, distribute, publicly display or perform, or prepare derivative works based on any of the content including any such works without the express, written consent of Garfield Wiki or the appropriate owner of copyright in such works.

Do's

• Do assume good faith and be forgiving.
• Do give others information that would help them if you see that it would help them.
• Do help others out by asking what you can do to help them if you see they are attempting a sizable project with the pages here.
• Do warn others if you're going to embark on a project but then have to abandon it for a while.

Pictures

• Do not edit a gallery a person has begun adding photos to. If the person who began the gallery has not edited it in a month without giving prior notice of their inactivity you may ask permission from one of the admins to edit that said gallery, and then what they say will determine whether or not that gallery can be edited.
• Make sure that images you upload to articles are in acceptable condition (i.e. not blurry, grainy, overly bright, overly dark).
  • Also, avoid using pictures of a screen (e.g. TV, computer) taken from a camera, as these tend to be of bad quality.
  • If you're taking frames of an episode from a YouTube video crop it appropriately so that the black portions on either side are gone.
• Only official Garfield material may be used for articles (including image galleries), not fan-made material.
• Watermarked images are not allowed. This includes screenshots of an episode with the TV-channel logo visible.

Comic Books

• While samples of the comic pages may be uploaded to suitable wiki pages, do not upload everything from any comic issue to the Wiki, as comic books are protected by copyright.

Anything above this sentence is my proposed rule-set.

That is really it, you'll note I added a rule about editing galleries because of this comment, which was reasonable but wasn't in the rules yet. You'll also note more positive's "dos" in the conduct section as opposed to the former list of only "do not's". Also everything's in alphabetical order now. Vendellium^{Talk!Contributions}