Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki:Guidelines

This page documents an official Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki policy.

It describes a widely accepted standard that all editors should follow. Changes made to it should reflect consensus.

Note: This page can only be edited by (junior) administrators. If you would like to suggest a change, please do so on the talk page.

Shortcuts:

• HHW:POLICY
• HHW:POLICIES

All users are expected to adhere to the policies of the Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki while editing on the Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki. If you disagree with any policy, feel free to discuss changes in the forum. We also expect you to adhere to Fandom's Terms of Use.

Please note: we comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and if any users who are 12 years old and below reveal their age, they will be blocked until they are 13 years old. We don't ask for personal information.

Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki rules

Main policies

• No cursing. Cursing is allowed on the official Discord server, but not on the wiki. Profanity, vulgarity and otherwise inappropriate language will not be tolerated. Additionally, offensive words (and offensive images) will not be allowed.
• Bullying, personal attacks, harassment, and other forms of misconduct are prohibited.
• No spamming on pages! If you are unclear as to what spamming is, please ask an administrator. All types of chat spam are permitted with the exception of vulgar or inappropriate spam (in Discord, spamming is allowed only in the #spam-in-general channel). Spamming will cease at its own discretion, or when two or more staff members agree that it should conclude.
• All users are entitled to their opinions, provided they are stated in a polite manner.
• If you dislike a page, do not view it. Removing the page's content or attacking the page creator will not be tolerated here.
• Don't make an irrelevant page that is not related to this website's topic. Your page will be deleted and a reminder may be given if it happens.
• If you want to request a page's deletion, insert the {{Delete}} template on the top of the page, then contact an admin about it.
• Do not write false or inappropriate information on a page.
• Removing content based on your dislike of any topic will be considered vandalism and action will be taken against the concerned user unless the page author gave you permission to edit.
• Trolling. Don't feed the trolls and make sure to report them to an administrator.
• User pages are only to be edited by the user. You can only edit their user page if you are correcting their spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
• Please keep personal information to yourself. This includes your email, school, address, and phone number. Additionally, do not request personal information from any user under the age of 18. This is also against Fandom's Terms of Use.
• Inserting offensive and/or sexually explicit content (such as images) is forbidden.
• Not reading the rules isn't an excuse for breaking them. Additionally, jokes are not an excuse to break the policies.
• Do not break templates or remove them from pages without the author's permission.
• Have fun on the wiki! The Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki community is happy to have you here. We look forward to seeing you around!
• Do not remove "reminder", "warning", "final warning", or "blocked" messages from your wall.
• Do not harass the admins in any way, shape, or form.
• Users who consistently request rights, be it on chat or on an Administrator's message wall, will not receive said rights. Users who fail to listen will be blacklisted from user rights at the discretion of the administrators.
• Minimodding is the action of acting in a position of power to do a normal task an administrator member should do, e.g. enforcing the rules. Users that aren't chat moderators or higher should not minimod. If you see someone breaking the rules, please inform a chat moderator or administrator about this.
• Users are discouraged from creating multiple accounts, otherwise known as sockpuppets. Users are permitted to have alternate accounts, provided the admins are informed prior to the account's creation and are used to the wiki's benefit. However, sockpuppeting for any other reason warrants a block depending on the severity of the offense.
• Staff members may be nominated for promotion/demotion only at the discretion of the administration team. In addition, please refrain from making "jokes" about rights, promotions, and demotions if they are not in your control.
• Users are not allowed to edit pages not created by themselves without permission, with the exception of free-editing seasons, spelling, grammar, or page organization edits.
• Please do not advocate the death of another user. Comments such as "I wish User X was dead", "User Y is in the path of the storm and will die", and "The storm killed 10 people (including user Z)" will not be tolerated. Such comment(s) will be removed, and the user will receive a reminder or warning, depending on the case.
  • Any discussion about supporting death and destruction caused by hurricanes or other events will not be tolerated and the users who persist will face consequences.
• Use clear and descriptive file names, without being excessively long, while avoiding generic, non-specific file names. "Chan-hom 2015-07-08 0425Z.jpg", for example, is better than "Image01.jpg" or "DSC0001.JPG".
• Refrain from making enemy lists on userpages, as these can start an unneeded conflict between users. Neutral/positive (friend) lists are accepted.
• Plagiarism is not allowed on this wiki. When using some content from Wikipedia, you should insert the {{Wikipedia}} template on top of the page, but it won't be allowed if most of the page has content from it. Paraphrasing is also not allowed in those cases.
• Editfarming (editing with the goal of increasing your usercane size, for example) and badgehunting (editing with the goal to get badges) are not allowed. Examples of editfarming include, but are not limited to: taking periods off pages and putting back on, adding extra punctuation, taking off info and putting back on, or adding the same info in different ways.
• The usage of the NOAA, NWS, or any logos belonging to official weather agencies in your graphics (e.g. advisories, weather outlooks, etc.) is prohibited.
  • If you're making graphics for a real basin, you must add a disclaimer stating that the graphics are not a product of any weather center and the storms in it are fictional.

Forum policies

• Forum guidelines - Follow the Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki policies while in the forums. This applies to Discussions.

Chat policy

• Chat guidelines - Follow Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki policies while talking in the chat. This applies both to the wiki chat and the Discord server

Conduct policy

• Conduct policy - This serves as an add-on to the existing guidelines on this page, and users are strongly recommended to follow it.

User block policy

Differences between blocked and banished users

Blocked users

A blocked user is a user who is blocked for the wiki for a specific amount of time (e.g. 3 months) and will not be able to edit on the wiki during this time. The user generally retains access to their message wall, but that access will be removed if the user abuses that ability. Typically this happens to users who break rules like editing articles without permission and persist after being warned. Blocked users can appeal their ban once every six months. If the ban is shorter than 6 months, they can appeal it only once.

Banished users

A banished user is a user who is essentially barred from editing the wiki until further notice. Banished users have their bans set as indefinite or infinite. This is usually only done when the user has been a long-time abuser of multiple accounts (sockpuppets). The user will not be un-banished until at least 6 months have passed and the user requests it to be reconsidered.

Infinite/indefinite blocks

Infinite and indefinite blocks are ones where the block's length of term has been set to 'infinite' or 'indefinite' by the admin placing the block. Indefinite blocks are used to prevent a specific account from editing until further notice or until a fixed ban date is set, while infinite blocks are used to prevent a specific account from editing permanently. Infinite bans are rarely given, and most bans of this kind are indefinite bans.

Appeals

Any blocked user has the right to appeal their current block. They can do so by contacting an administration member on a place like Discord or another Fandom wiki. If the user's appeal is successful, their block will be shortened or ended completely, depending on what the administration agrees on. If the appeal is unsuccessful, their block stays as it is, and the user will be able to re-appeal their ban six months after their failed appeal.

Appealing chat bans

If there is contention about a particular chat ban, banned users may reply directly to the ban notice they receive upon being removed from chat. If the issue cannot be fully addressed there, the banned user may post on the administrators' noticeboard explaining the situation and why they feel the ban was unjust.

Range blocks

Sometimes users with dynamic IP addresses may attack the wiki. In such cases, it is best to range block their IP address so even when changing their IP they still can't edit. For more information, see mw:Help:Range blocks.

Unblocking

Special:Blocklist contains a list of all currently blocked users and IPs. Admins will see a link to unblock next to each user. After clicking this, admins should type in the reason that they are unblocking the user and then click the Unblock this address button.

Voting rules

1. Your response must have good grammar and be mature.
2. You must have been an editor on this wiki for one month and have fifty (50) article (mainspace) edits.
3. You may only vote one time, and you may only vote with the following voting templates: {{Support}}, {{Neutral Leaning Support}}, {{Neutral}}, {{Neutral Leaning Oppose}}, {{Oppose}}. Other vote symbols, like {{Support Skeptical}} and {{Strongly Oppose}} are also allowed.
4. Please supply a legitimate reason after you cast your vote. Reasons that are not legitimate will have your vote be removed.
5. Votes may not be anonymous. You must have something indicating that your vote was cast by you (i.e., a signature). You can sign your posts with ~~~~.
6. Votes by users banned from chat or otherwise punished will be denied.
7. The administration may deny any vote for any reason. If your vote gets denied, you will be informed of it. Common reasons for votes being denied include being banned on the HHW Discord server, not meeting the edit threshold or being in the wiki for a short time. If you are not informed of it, politely ask an administration member about it. Please do not re-vote or send backlash to any administration members.

Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki Policies