Escape from Tarkov Wiki:Wiki Rules and Blocking Policy

Introduction
Hello and welcome to the official Escape from Tarkov Wiki! Whether you are a brand new editor looking to help or an experienced editor looking to refresh yourself, this page details our rules and blocking policies. Please make sure to abide by these rules, and if you have any questions, contact an administrator!

Basic rules

 * 1) Keep it civil: Do not make personal attacks on other people. If you need to criticize another user's argument, do so without attacking them as a person. Do not use bigoted language, including slurs which degrade another person or group of people based on gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, etc. Please also refrain from general rudeness, judgmental terms in edit summaries, especially when it comes to undoing edits, and belittling other users due to their writing style, or what they choose to include.
 * 2) Be a productive member of the Wiki: Contribute to the Wiki in line with the established processes and conventions. Need help or want to know how to contribute? Ask an administrator or check out our Discord! Disrupting the Wiki with "edit warring" over differing opinions of a topic with another user or group of users is not productive.
 * 3) Do not harass other users: If somebody asks you to stop posting certain content on their talk page, respect their wishes. It is their talk page.
 * 4) Do follow community guidelines for formatting: When a community has established formatting, it's important to adhere to that. Pay attention to the overall Wiki styling and edit the content in accordance to it.

All users are required abide by Fandom's Terms of Use and the additional guidelines found there. This also includes the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule stating that users must be 13 years of age (or 16 years of age for California and the European Economic Area) to be online.

Blocking
The following explains the blocking procedures performed by administrators and block lengths. Blocks may only be issued for violations of the stated rules of the Wiki or Fandom's Terms of Use. Keep in mind the block lengths are merely suggestions, and not concrete ban lengths as admins reserve the right to ban a user for a specific length given the context of the ban. This is not a concrete list as administrators can block a user with a consensus.

Grounds for blocking

 * 1) Vandalism - Vandalism is defined as any bad-faith edit with the intent to disrupt Wiki articles or purposely damage their credibility, or adding fake edits on purpose. Those who are found guilty of vandalism may be blocked for one (1) week or more. If they continue to do so, the ban will be extended.
 * 2) Spam - Posting irrelevant spam links in articles, making bad faith edits that make no sense whatsoever, or creating useless articles are grounds for a short-term ban. Those who are found guilty of spam may be blocked for one (1) week or more. If they continue to do so, the ban will be extended.
 * 3) Inappropriate account names - If there is a slur used in someone's name, or in general an inappropriate username in terms of rudeness / personal attacks, this is grounds for an immediate, no-warning infinite block.
 * 4) Disruption - Users who purposely join the Wiki just to cause chaos will be blocked permanently. Those who are found guilty of disruption may be blocked for one (1) week or more. If they continue to do so, the ban will be extended.
 * 5) Personal attacks - If any user is caught purposely attacking a user, insulting them, or being rude continuously, a ban will be issued to them. It will be up to the admin who is distributing the block to decide the length.
 * 6) Sock puppetry - If there are users who have been found to have more than one account, for any purpose that is not explicitly approved by an administrator, they will be infinitely blocked and have an IP block placed upon their accounts. Using more than one account to influence a spam or evade an existing block will result in action taken.
 * 7) Any rude messages left on talk pages, whether it be about the Wiki, about a certain person, etc. It will be up to the admin who is distributing the block to decide the length.
 * 8) COPPA violation - As stated previously, all users are required abide by Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule stating that users must be 13 years of age (or 16 years of age for California and the European Economic Area) to be online. While no staff member shall ever ask for personal information, if any user willingly and without prompting discloses they are underage, they will be banned until they are of age. This is either 13 or 16 years of age depending on their geographical location, but the default will be 13 years old.
 * 9) Safety of the community - Administrators can block a user using a staff consensus if they are a danger to the community. Examples include predatory behavior and outside Wiki behavior such as the Discord.

Asking to be have a ban lifted
Users who believe they have been wrongfully blocked may contact the blocking administrator in good faith on Community Central. Good faith means giving the admins time to respond with at least 24 hours. Escalating to Fandom staff when you've not given the admins a fair amount of time to respond will not be seen as a good faith effort.

Please only send in a support ticket via ZenDesk about a block if you have made a good faith effort to discuss your block with the admins. You will be required to submit a link to said discussion. If a user continues to ask for their ban to be lifted, they will not have it unless they can demonstrate they have learned from their mistakes. However, if they have committed several grounds for a ban, and have been let off the hook too many times, alongside making plans to evade their ban, they will most definitely not be even considered to be have it be lifted.

Page protection
Page protection is a technical feature in the MediaWiki software (which powers this Wiki) that enables administrators to restrict who can edit, move, or create a particular page. Although the nature of a Wiki is that articles and other pages should be open to editing by all, it is sometimes necessary to protect pages for various reasons. Some pages may be protected due to continued vandalism or continued insertion of incorrect information. They may also be protected to preserve the integrity of the Wiki. The level of protection will increase as damage done to a page increases. A list of all currently protected pages can be found here.

How to become a member of staff

 * Do you wish to work towards the betterment of the Escape from Tarkov Wiki and the elimination of spam and vandalism?
 * Do you feel that you are trusted by the Escape from Tarkov Wiki?

Then you may apply for additional rights on the admin noticeboard. However, users who have been previously blocked in the past may be automatically rejected for consideration.

Role assignment

 * 1) Only users who have been active on the Wiki for three (3) months or more are eligible.
 * 2) Each new role is assigned after a discussion within the current admin team.
 * 3) The role assignment is based on the admin team's decision, which level of power they would like to entrust the user with based on their contributions.

Role removal

 * 1) All roles can be removed due to inactivity.
 * 2) The inactivity period for the roles removal is six (6) months. If there are no good quality edits done within this period of time, the roles are removed without prior notification.
 * 3) The inactivity period can be prolonged (i. e. private reasons of the user in question).
 * 4) The inactivity period cannot be prolonged more than once before the rights removal.
 * 5) The inactivity period cannot be bypassed with making a few low effort edits per month. All edits are checked by the admin team, and if there are no quality edits, rules 1 and 2 apply.

Being a good administrator

 * Be open and responsive. Communication is key. Many users, especially new ones, will look to you for guidance and advice. Being a friendly and approachable face, as well as addressing users in a timely manner, is important to creating an open and welcoming environment on the Wiki.
 * Do not act as the "owner" of the site. Wikis belong to the community, and ideally admins should not be considered "in charge," even if they’re the founder of the Wiki. They are experienced users who are trusted to use a few extra tools for the betterment and protection of the community as a whole, not for personal gain.
 * Do not protect large numbers of content pages. The majority of pages on a Wiki 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 a version you prefer, to reserve the page to be edited later as an admin project, or to mark any page as "complete" - there is always more to be improved.
 * Do not revert edits made in good faith without explanation. Rewording should always be considered before resorting to reversion. If the edit is incorrect or cannot be reworded or revised, then a clear explanation should be provided to the user that made the edit as to why it was reverted.
 * Do not shut out the opinions of other users. Everyone in the community should feel encouraged and empowered to speak up and engage in reasonable discussions about topics that pertain to the Wiki, even if their opinions differ from that of an administrator.
 * Do not play favorites. All editors should be given the opportunity to learn and grow in the community.
 * Understand your limits. Being an admin on a Wiki can be rewarding, but it can also be tiring. If you need to take a break or leave the Wiki, it is okay. Talk to your fellow admins and let them know.