User:Omphalographer/User pages

proposal

Wikiversity user pages are pages for organizing the work users do on Wikiversity, as well as speaking to other users. User pages are mainly for interpersonal discussion, notices, testing and drafts (see: Sandbox), and, if desired, limited autobiographical and personal content. Pages in the User and User talk namespaces are all considered part of "user space".

User subpages
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User talk pages
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What may user pages be used for?
There is no fixed use for user pages, except that usually one's user page has something about oneself, and one's talk page is used for messaging. Provided other users can quickly and easily find the pages they need, users may, within reason, freely organize their user pages as they choose.

Some appropriate uses for user pages include:


 * Providing basic information about yourself and your activities on Wikiversity.
 * This may include a limited amount of autobiographical content, particularly about any academic credentials or experience you have which is relevant to your editing.
 * Making editing disclosures regarding your personal background and biases.


 * Communicating with other users on your user talk page, and archiving that communication in talk page archives.


 * Making notes about work you are doing, have done, or plan to do on Wikiversity.


 * Hosting personal writings relevant to the Wikiversity community, like humor, essays, or comments about Wikiversity matters.


 * Experimenting with MediaWiki features in your personal sandbox or other user subpages.
 * User subpages can be transcluded and substituted just like any other page, so they can be used to experiment with creating templates.


 * Temporarily storing drafts or major revisions of works in progress which you intend to move to a content namespace at a later date.


 * Creating user styles to customize your experience on Wikiversity.

User space vs. content space
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Personal and privacy-breaching material
Some people add personal information such as contact details (email, instant messaging, etc.), a photograph, their real name, their location, information about their areas of expertise and interest, likes and dislikes, etc. Once added, this information is unlikely to ever become private again. It could be copied elsewhere or even used to harass you in the future. You are cautioned to think carefully before adding non-public information to your user page because you are unlikely to be able to retract it later, even if you change your mind.

Privacy-breaching non-public material, whether added by yourself or others, may be removed from any page (not limited to user space) upon request.

What must user pages not be used for?
Generally, you should avoid substantial content on your user page that is unrelated to Wikiversity or the wider Wikimedia community. Wikiversity is not a general web hosting service, and your user page is not your personal web site. Your user page is about you as a Wikiversity user, and pages in your user space should be used as part of your efforts to contribute to the project.

In addition, there is broad agreement that you may not include in your user space material that is likely to bring the project into disrepute, or which is likely to give widespread offense (e.g. pro-pedophilia advocacy). Whether serious or trolling, "Wikiversity is not a podium" is usually interpreted as applying to user space as well as the resource space. You do have more latitude in user space than elsewhere, but don't be inconsiderate. Extremely offensive material may be removed on sight by any editor.

The Wikiversity community is generally tolerant and offers fairly wide latitude in applying these guidelines to regular participants. In particular, community-building activities that are not strictly "on topic" may be allowed, especially when initiated by committed editors with good edit histories. At their best, such activities help us to build the community, and this helps to build our collection of learning material. However, if user page activity becomes disruptive to the community or gets in the way of the task of building that collection, it may need to be modified or removed to prevent disruption.

Excessive non-project content
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Promotional content
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You are welcome to include a link to your personal home page on your user page, although you should not surround it with any promotional language. However, if a link to your home page is the only thing on your userpage, this may be seen as an attempt at self-promotion.

Editors must not use their user space to solicit compensation for their Wikiversity contributions.

Divisive and offensive content
Statements or pages that seem to advocate, encourage, or condone the following behaviors should not be stored on user pages:


 * Vandalism or edit warring
 * Harassment, privacy breach, or defamation
 * Copyright violation
 * Acts of violence (including all forms of violence, but not mere statements of support for controversial groups or regimes)

User pages should not be used for polemical statements unrelated to Wikiversity, or statements attacking or vilifying groups of editors or persons.

Material that can be viewed as attacking other editors, including the recording of perceived flaws, laundry lists of wrongs, or collations of diffs and criticisms related to problems, should not be maintained in public view without very good reason. The compilation of factual evidence (diffs) in user subpages, for purposes such as preparing for resolving disputes, is permitted provided it will be used in a timely manner.

Learning resources and abandoned drafts in user space
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Non-free content
The same rules for copyright apply in user space as to the rest of Wikiversity. Text must be either freely licensed or out of copyright; otherwise only a short quote can be used. If you use text from another source on your user page or subpages, it should still be credited to the author, whether or not it is currently under copyright.

Do not embed non-free images, including images uploaded under a claim of fair use, on your user page or on any subpage thereof, per the Exemption Doctrine Policy. Non-free images found on user or user talk pages will be removed without warning and may be deleted entirely if they are not used in other pages. Links to non-free images are acceptable - place a colon before the word "File" to create a link, like  - which looks like File:Example.jpg.

Categories, templates that add categories, and redirects
Do not put your user page or subpages, including draft articles in user subpages, into content categories used for learning resources. User pages and subpages may be placed into administrative categories when appropriate.

Be aware that some templates may add categories to pages which transclude them. You can prevent this for draft content by placing the text  between the   and the name of the template, like this:   - which looks like welcome.

You can also force a portion of text to be ignored by adding  after it, or by adding a colon before "Category" to force a category link to act like a plain wikilink, like   - which looks like Category:Courses.

User pages and user talk pages should not be configured as redirects. However, redirects from user subpages to other namespaces are common and acceptable, particularly when a draft created in user space is moved to its final location. Soft redirects may also be used on user subpages.

Ownership and editing of user pages
Traditionally, Wikiversity offers wide latitude to users to manage their user space as they see fit. However, pages in user space belong to the Wikiversity community. They are not a personal homepage, and do not belong to the user. They are part of Wikiversity, and exist to make collaboration among editors easier.

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Removal of comments, notices, and warnings
Policy does not prohibit users, whether registered or unregistered, from removing comments from their own talk pages, although archiving is preferred. If a user removes material from their talk page, it is normally taken to mean that the user has read and is aware of its contents. There is no need to keep them on display, and usually users should not be forced to do so. It is often best to simply let the matter rest if the issues stop. If they do not, or they recur, then any record of past warnings and discussions can be found in the page history if ever needed, and these diffs are just as good evidence of previous matters.

Certain messages must not be removed by the user, as their presence is part of an administrative process:


 * Block notices and unblock requests regarding a currently active sitewide block.
 * Deletion request templates for pages currently under discussion.
 * Speedy deletion tags and objections. (An administrator will quickly determine if these are valid or not; use the link embedded in the notice to object and post a comment, do not just remove the tag.)

Editing other users' pages
In general, it is usual to avoid substantially editing another user's user page or subpages unless you have been invited to do so, or to perform routine maintenance tasks. If a user asks you not to edit their user pages, please respect their requests.

Users should also refrain from editing content on other users' talk pages other than to add messages. In particular, users must refrain from editing or removing other users' messages, other than to correct formatting issues or to remove obvious vandalism.

Protection of user pages
User pages may be protected as needed, or on request, to prevent vandalism. Custodians may protect user pages when appropriate, and are permitted to edit protected pages in user space.

Vandalism of talk pages is less common. Such vandalism, when identified, may be reverted on sight. Blocks may be used for repeated vandalism of talk pages. In rare cases, talk pages may be protected to prevent vandalism, but this is considered a last resort, given the importance of talk page discussions to the project.

Deletion of user pages
You may freely blank any pages in your user space yourself (other than the few items that must not be removed), or request the deletion of your user page or subpages by adding delete to the top of the page. Alternatively, you may simply make the unwanted page redirect to your user page. User subpages tagged for deletion will be deleted if there is no overriding reason the page must be kept.

User talk pages and user talk archives are generally not deleted, as they may contain information needed for reference by other users. Individual revisions, log entries, and other user space material may be deleted or redacted for privacy reasons or because of harassment, threats, gross offensiveness, and other serious violations. Exceptions to this policy can be made by Wikiversity custodians when appropriate.

User special pages
The Special namespace contains a number of virtual pages which contain material or controls related to your user. Many (but not all) of these pages are linked in the MediaWiki user interface; some pages of particular interest are:


 * Special:MyPage always links to the current user's user page. It can be suffixed to link to a subpage, like Special:MyPage/sandbox for the current user's sandbox.
 * Special:MyTalk, similarly, links to the current user's talk page.
 * Special:UserLogin and Special:UserLogout can be used to log in and log out.
 * Special:Contributions can be used to view a user's contributions, and can be suffixed with a username to view a particular user's contributions.
 * Special:MyContributions always links to your own contributions.
 * Special:MyUploads lists your uploads.
 * Special:Preferences can be used to change various MediaWiki preferences.
 * Special:Watchlist shows recent changes to the pages you are watching.
 * Special:EditWatchlist allows the contents of your watchlist to be viewed and edited directly.

A full list of special pages is available at Special:SpecialPages.

Official policies

Proposed policies