A Fifth Dimension:User page policy

This article describes one of A Fifth Dimension's guidelines and policies.
Please read and familiarize yourself with our common practices and rules. If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page.

This page discusses guidelines and instructions for setting up a user page in A Fifth Dimension.

In A Fifth Dimension, your user page is your own little corner of the Twilight Zone. You can use it to tell your fellow editors a little bit about yourself, your insterests in TZ, and what you are working on in the wiki. Below you will find some guidelines and instructions to help you in setting up your user page.

User pages and user space[]

If your username is Example:

Your user page is the page at User:Example (or Special:Mypage)
Your user talk page is the page at User talk:Example (or Special:Mytalk)
Your user subpages are pages of the form User:Example/Review of The Obsolete Man (Special:Mypage/Review of The Obsolete Man) or User talk:Example/Example (Special:Mytalk/Example), and are listed at Special:Prefixindex/User:Example/ and Special:Prefixindex/User talk:Example/.
Your user space is the collection of all the above.

Note: "Your" in this context means associated with you, not belonging to you.

The Special:Mypage and Special:Mytalk special pages will take each user to her or his own user and user talk pages, respectively. Others will not be able to find your user page using Special:Mypage, they will be able to visit it only by going to User:Example (for the example user).

Privacy issues[]

Main article: Help:User page

An important word of caution from Wikia:

You can describe as much or as little about yourself as you like, describe your contributions to Wikia, or keep a collection of useful links to wiki pages. Your user page is editable by others, just like any other page on the wiki.

Please keep privacy concerns in mind. While we encourage adults to use real names to build a reputation around, it is important to be aware of the long-term implications of revealing personal information on a wiki.

Consider that personal information that is entered in a wiki remains available to the public forever through the page history, even if the page is edited or blanked. A page that is deleted remains available to wiki administrators, and only Wikia Staff can delete the information permanently. In most cases this won't be an issue, but if you carelessly reveal your phone number or address, precise birthdate, or other personal information, you should know that it may be available to motivated investigators (such as identity thieves, ex-boyfriends, even potential employers) for a long time to come.

Guidelines and policies[]

For the most part, the guidelines and policies that concern other pages, like articles, also apply to user pages. They are different in some ways, though. For instance, style and layout guidelines are less applicable and some policies regarding articles, such as restrictions against using subpages, writing about yourself and observing a neutral point of view, are not required in regard to user pages. There are also some policies and guidelines that are unique to user pages:

Observe all other policies : User pages are generally subject to all of the same applications of policies that articles are—aside from the few aforementioned exceptions. This means you typically may not use your user page for any content that is prohibited on A Fifth Dimension or Wikia. Some examples of content that are definitely not acceptable on any pages in the wiki are copyright violations, pornography, excessive advertising, promotion of illegal activities, defamatory claims, threats and hate speech. See the prohibited content page on Central and AFD Guidelines and policies for more details on this.
A Fifth Dimension is not eBay

Avoid promoting products : This wiki operates under a free license (GFDL) and makes use of content that's use is justified under fair use policies, which also applies to user pages. Fair use requires that copyrighted material be used in a manner that does not create competition with the copyright holder. In general, the content of this wiki is meant for educational and research purposes and not for anything commercial, including advertising or linking to the sale of The Twilight Zone memorabilia—even when on your user page. Remember, A Fifth Dimension: The Twilight Zone Wiki is, foremost, an encyclopedia.
Avoid posting risky links : An administrator or bot may edit an external link or an internal wikilink, to avoid linking out to sites which are classified as "spam", or to link internally to invalid pages. Before adding links that may be considered by some to be of questionable intent, it is best to consult the spam blacklist to make sure it is not listed. Obviously, mainstream sites like Wikipedia, Google, Internet Movie Database and youTube are fine.

A Fifth Dimension is not a soapbox

Avoid offensive content : Content that is considered offensive, including threats and derisive comments about living persons or groups, may be removed from a user page by an administrator without warning, whether it is vandalism committed by others or any that you have added yourself.
Avoid controversy : It is generally not advised to include material that is likely to bring the project into disrepute in your user space. Also, topics that tend to regularly draw heated responses—especially when not concerned with The Twilight Zone—such as politics, religion and controversial subjects should respectfully be avoided.

A Fifth Dimension is not Myspace

Keep on-topic : While we encourage you to meet and interact with others and not hide your personality, you should generally avoid substantial content on your user page that is unrelated to The Twilight Zone or A Fifth Dimension: The Twilight Zone Wiki. Also, keep in mind that this is an encyclopedia devoted to the Twilight Zone and not a personal website, a blog, webspace provider or social networking site. Your user page is about you as a member of the AFD community, and pages in your user space should be used as part of your efforts to contribute to the project. Off-topic subjects found on user pages may be deleted.
Keep on-site : Don't use redirects to redirect your user page or user talk page to an extneral site. Interwiki redirects from user pages are generally discouraged, as well, although if you choose not to set up a user page, you can establish it as a redirect to your user talk page.
Keep "you" where "you" belongs : Your user page is intended to be about you, but details about you typically should not go in the main namespace, which is reserved for encyclopedic content. An exception would be if you are notable in relation to the The Twilight Zone franchise and someone else writes it. As an extension of this, you should not add your user page, user talk page, or user subpages to any categories in the wiki (e.g., Category:Births in 1960). This could imply that you are a part of the encyclopedia rather than one of the creators from its community. One exception, however, exists. You may add your user page to the sub-category Category:Users in the category Category:User groups, but please do not list corresponding talk pages or subpages in any category.
Keep peace within the community : While your user page is technically yours, it is not private—you can think about it as being your front yard rather than your house. This project is the work of the community and, as such, most things here are decided by consensus. As such, if a consensus is reached that some content on your user page doesn't belong there and is causing disruptions, the best solution is likely to be to remove it—no matter which side may be "correct."
Keep off other people's lawns : In nearly all cases, no other users are permitted to edit your user page and conversely, you are not permitted to edit anyone else's. Instances where this occurs are considered vandalism and will—at the very least—result in the offending content's removal by an administrator.
Keep out of your neighbor's business : Do not post personal information of other persons without their consent. This can be considered a form of vandalism, subject to being enforced by being blocked.

A Fifth Dimension is not a free web host

No alternative articles : An acceptable use of user subpages is in the development of works in progress; for instance, if you are working on a new article but it hasn't been adequately sourced or is otherwise unfit for publication currently. However, your user space is not intended to provide a sort of "director's cut" of articles that are written in ways that you disagree with. Without cooperation, the material may be removed by an administrator in the effort of resolving the conflict.
No archives for deleted content : Nor is it to be used to archive content that has been deleted. You can always make a copy on your hard drive and upload them to your own personal website, though.
No monopolies on articles : It should also not be used to as a way to protect content you have personally created from editing or permanently store content that is meant to be or worthy of being a part of the encyclopedia. If you find that your user subpage has become as useful as a normal article or project page, consider moving it into the appropriate namespace or merging it with other similar pages already existing there. If you do not like the idea of sharing content that you have created, a wiki is probably not a forum in which you should be involved. Try a blog!
No main namespace links : You should never create links from a mainspace article to any userpage, nor should a userspace essay be used as the primary documentation for any A Fifth Dimension policy, guideline, practice, or concept.

Make sure you are logged in : A case where you happen to edit your own user page while not logged in (resulting in an IP address as a name) may be considered vandalism and deleted. If this happens, you can explain the situation to an admin, but it is best to make sure that you are logged in under your own registered user name before doing any editing.

Setting up a user page[]

What kinds of things can be added to a user page? Any number of things, so long as they abide by the guidelines and policies posted above. Here are some ideas:

Personal information - If you didn't read privacy issues section, you may want to before adding this type of information.

Age
Career
Location
Languages you can speak
Real name, etc.

Contact information

E-mail address
Instant messaging
Personal homepage link, etc.

Information about your areas of expertise and interest.
A photograph or image to represent yourself - Users are allowed to upload a maximum of two images for personal use, so long as they meet the standards of the image use policy. Policy that must always be followed, for instance, are avoiding the use any images that violate copyright policy and those which can be considered offensive.
The Twilight Zone related information, for instance:

Favorite The Twilight Zone Series
First The Twilight Zone episode seen
Favorite The Twilight Zone episode(s)
Favorite The Twilight Zone writer(s)
Favorite The Twilight Zone actor(s)
Favorite The Twilight Zone quote(s)
Favorite The Twilight Zone themes or genres
Prized The Twilight Zone possessions, etc.

A Fifth Dimension related information.

Notes to the community (e.g., if you'll be away from the wiki for a while, request that an image be edited by a fellow editor)
Contributions
Edit count
User projects
Favorite pages in AFD
Favorite pages you have created, etc.

Show off your wiki skills and dress your user page up. You can use custom colors or tables to give the page its own identity.
Subpages (e.g., [[User:Username/Subpage]])

"To do" lists and reminders
Works in progress (e.g., articles not quite ready to publish yet)
Past user projects you were involved in
Test pages
List of useful links
Page for users to leave image editing requests
Sections of your user space that are big enough to require their own page

Your own reviews of episodes
Archives of past user talk discussions
List of personal TZ memorabilia
List of TZ creators you have met, etc.

Just remember: even your user page is not private. It can be viewed by any user, so don't put anything in it that you do not want to share (and more often than not, anything they wouldn't want to see).

Note that subpages are allowed for user pages (as with talk pages, and some templates) but are not permitted for articles.

Not setting up a user page[]

If you would prefer not to have a user page, then it is recommended that you redirect it to your user talk page for the convenience of other editors. In some situations, an administrator may create one for you if a link to it shows up on the list of wanted pages, but only as a redirect to your talk page.