F-Zero Wiki:User accounts

This is an enforced policy on F-Zero Wiki. This means that this page details the standard that all editors are expected to follow. To suggest any changes to this policy, please refer to the talk page.

F-Zero Wiki's Help Guide

Basic Editing Getting Started Talk pages Protected pages Images Image sourcing Moving pages Redirects Tables Citing sources References Templates (List of formatting templates) Userboxes (Userbox list)

Guidelines and Policies User accounts Scope Quality standards Image deletion policy Featured articles Interwiki policy Copyrights Privacy policy

Advanced Editing HTML Custom signatures Merging pages Archiving talk pages Media Administrators' guide

Wiki Information Staff Users Affiliates About

A user account is the data used by the wiki software to identify you, your contributions, preferences and settings. This page contains F-Zero Wiki's policies and guidelines on naming accounts, userspace content, and other relevant miscellanies.

Account naming

The vast majority of usernames you may wish to use are perfectly acceptable. When considering your username, remember that this will be the name the community will identify and recognize you as, and so, you should ensure that it is acceptable to both you and the community. This section contains guidelines to consider when choosing a username. If your account's name falls foul of these guidelines, it will be banned indefinitely upon creation. If you feel your account's name is acceptable, please contact an administrator, explaining why you feel your account has been wrongly banned.

Forbidden characters

The following characters are not accepted by the MediaWiki software in account names:

• ASCII character codes 0-31, and 127.
• <, >, [, ], |, {, }, ?, %, /, +, @
• # is not forbidden as such; however, using it when creating an account will cause the # and anything placed after it to be excluded; i.e. "My#Username" will be registered as "My" instead.

Forbidden content

Content that will result in an account being banned indefinitely upon creation. This includes, but is not strictly limited to:

• Names intended to personally insult another person.
• Racial slurs, profanities, etc.
• Names intended to impersonate another user or member of staff.
• Names containing an excessive amount of non-English characters (this causes difficulties in linking to a user's page, URL encoding, etc.).
• Names implying authority, e.g. "admin", "sysop" etc. Account names containing the word "bot" are subject to the bot account policy, and will be banned if they are not intended for use as a bot account.
• Apparently random strings of letters and/or numbers, as these give the impression of the account being intended for use by a spambot or similar automated vandalism program.

Renaming an account

If, at some point, you wish to have your account renamed, please contact a bureaucrat, explaining why you would like your account to be renamed. As mentioned above, your username is the name the community knows and recognizes you as; therefore, renaming accounts is discouraged, as it may lead to confusion among the community, and breaking of links to you in archive pages and similar. Requests to have your account renamed will be considered only if you can provide a valid and acceptable reason for doing so; requests will not be entertained if your only reason is "I felt like a change", or similar. In such cases, please use a custom signature instead.

Userspace policy

The "userspace" refers to any pages located in the "User:" namespace that bear your name; i.e. pages with a name beginning in the format "User:My Username". In general, your userpages may contain any content you desire. However, the following content is unacceptable, and will be removed by an administrator:

• Pornographic material, and links thereto.
• Spam content. This does not include a link to a personal blog or website, as long as each site receives only one link, and the sole purpose of your page is not to promote your website.
• Your personal blog itself. F-Zero Wiki is not a blogging site. Please keep blogs to sites such as Blogger and WordPress.
• Links to online gambling sites.
• Content specifically designed to insult others.
• Copyright violations.
• Pointless duplication of pages existing on the wiki.

Please do not edit your user page(s) excessively, as this may put needless strain on the server. Please make liberal use of the "Show preview" button when editing userpages. If you are unsure about any aspect of these guidelines with respect to your user page(s), please talk to an administrator.

Subpages

Subpages are pages whose names are of the format "Base page/Subpage". These are generally not used in main content pages, but are more widely used in the userspace. Within the userspace, subpages will have names of the format "User:My Username/Subpage". Subpages are subject to the same policies mentioned above. The most common use of a user subpage is as a personal sandbox, or for creating custom signatures. However, they may generally be used as one sees fit, as long as they comply to the above guidelines.

Bot accounts

Bot accounts are accounts created to be used by automated wiki editing software for performing various repetitive tasks, usually maintenance-related. A bot account should be clearly designated as such in its username, usually by taking the name of the owner, and appending the word "bot". If you would like to set up a bot account, it must be added to the "bot" usergroup before use. Please contact an administrator to have your bot account added to this group, stating your reasons for requesting a bot. When your bot is approved, please create the bot account's userpage, stating the bot's owner, software, and intended purpose.