Official Policy on TurtlePedia, p/k/a TMNTPedia, is a set of guidelines, rules, and codes of conduct to be followed by its visitors and editors. Policy is subject to change at any time.
Behavior
- Users are expected to behave as they are expected to in public. Treat other users with respect and courtesy.
- Vandalism is strictly prohibited and will result in immediate discipline.
- Handle disagreements, debates, and arguments responsibly and among yourselves. Administrators will likely not ban users simply for hurting feelings. However, if one continuously violates rule 1 (respect and courtesy) in doing so, disciplinary action will be taken. In short, an administrator may choose to issue a light warning if someone is obviously gently teasing another user, but harassment, especially repeated harassment, will be dealt with in the manner the administrator(s) see(s) fit.
- Keep editing notes concise and to-the-point, only stating what you changed or make a note if you are unable to finish what you've started. No excessive elaboration (keep to 2 sentences minimum), and absolutely no insults, retorts, or in any way disrespect other editors.
- Keep profanity and sexual references to a minimum. It is advised to keep these to actual canon occurrences within the media or to supplement an explanation of said media in context when absolutely necessary.
- If you feel like you were unjustly blocked, it is advised that you follow up with the administrator who performed the ban if possible. Alternatively, you can try messaging the lead administrator at the Facebook page or X (keep in mind that only one administrator has access to these accounts currently). These will be investigated as time allows.
- Please do not harass administrators regarding your discipline, especially on other Wikis or other Turtlepedia-affiliated sites. Lack of civility will not be a factor in your favor and may lead to harsher disciplines, especially if you attack an administrator uninvolved with the conflict.
- Do not engage in reverting wars. If an article has been reverted once already, bring up your concern with them on their talk page. Remember to keep item 1 on this list in consideration.
- The Wiki is not your own personal messenger system. Extended conversations are to be about the Turtles and/or the Wiki exclusively. There's thousands of other venues for anything beyond that. Join the Discord and message each other there personally, if you want. Part of the reason for this, is that especially with the new layout and tech installed by Fandom in October of 2020, it clogs up the Social Activity feed and prevents people from finding relevant comments for the work or the franchise; the other being that your messages here are obviously not private and can be accessed or intruded by anybody.
- No use of generative AI for anything on this wiki.
Role-playing
- Role-playing is tolerated, but not advocated.
- Keep role-playing within the Live Chat or specific blogs/discussions for role-playing. Any spillover into other discussions or articles will result in an immediate ban.
Legality: Video
- Posting links to or embedding video of any full episode/film that is not from Nick.com or an authorized vendor/channel (iTunes, Nickelodeon's YouTube page) is strictly prohibited. This is a violation of international copyright law and is not simply a clause in the TurtlePedia policy.
- Short clips are allowed, but exercise good judgment on posting these. Music videos, story analysis or synopsis videos, or anything else fan produced (including "Youtuber" content) is considered fan material and should not be posted here. The only exceptions are videos produced by TurtlePedia or Wikia admins specifically for TurtlePedia.
Fan Materials
Effective the end of July 2017, we will no longer be hosting any fan material - characters, art, stories, games, comics - at all on this Wiki. This includes "quasi-canon" or big name fan works that have involvement from TMNT staff or actors such as the Casey Jones fan film or the Image epilogue issues. The only exception are items such The Paradox of Chudnovsky - an item must have been released by someone who has the legal rights to do so.
Miscellaneous
- Users are not required or encouraged to reveal their ages, but Wiki in general prohibits use of these sites to anyone under 13 years of age.
- Use of multiple accounts is also strictly prohibited by Wikia.
- Before making the decision to make massive changes (mass merging/deletion, categories that would impact many pages), please discuss your proposal with one or more admins, or open a blog post detailing your thoughts.
- Stubs vs. Placeholders: Stubs are okay, placeholders are not. A stub is an article with a small amount of content due to lack of or forthcoming information. A placeholder is when an article is created with a tiny amount of content simply to have an article created. The latter is especially egregious when there are images available to place in the article but the article is filled with the placeholder image (Wiki-background.png). If writing a stub, please remember to add {{Stub}} or {{Unfinished}} so that others can finish the work as information becomes available. There are to be no Disambiguation Page stubs; please fill these out as completely as possible in the outset.
- Creating blank pages is strictly prohibited.
- Do not remove the designations {{Teen}} or {{Mature}} if they appear on a page.
- Please use American English spellings and American terms in all cases unless it is part of a title which is specifically spelled or titled that (i.e. if it only came out in England and is titled Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. The only reason for this is that TMNT is an American product.
Warnings
- Admins are required to give a warning before banning a user unless it is for a heinous offense (adult material, illegal material, etc.) or repeated infractions. When banning, a message on the user's talk page is to be placed indicating why. Ban duration is up to an admin's digression, but should normally be from 1-3 days unless it qualifies as the "heinous offense" or repeated infractions instances.
- Warnings are not to be removed from a user's wall; they are important for other admins to see. Removing a warning will result in a ban.
Sources and Citations
This Wiki is for factual information and licensed material only. Fan-made characters and works are not appropriate for usage in Wiki articles.
Sources and citations are mostly for information that has been recently announced (or lack thereof), or difficult to provide evidence for. They are not required for every little tidbit of information.
Comics: The Solicit on comic book pages is the publisher-written summary about upcoming issues that appear in industry trade publications. It is a solicitation to purchase. The editor written description of the action within the comic is to be titled Summary.
Broadcast: A plot synopsis is a word-for-word reposting of the synopsis used to advertise the episode (such as in a TV listing) and not a brief summary written exclusively by a user.
If an item seems like it is fan-made or cannot be easily proven by viewing a work or by a simple search, a user (likely an administrator) may use the template {{Citation}} to produce the text [citation needed], meaning that they are requesting a first-hand source for the item in question. An official source, or a secondary source with its information directly from an official source qualify as sources. Fan blogs, profiles, sites, and accounts that do not meet the criteria for the latter do not qualify. Wikipedia, IMDB, and other Wiki-esque sites that do not cite official sources do not qualify. If a proper source isn't found, an administrator may choose to delete the tagged information.
If an article needs to be given a name even if there is not a canon one available, a user may include a disclaimer at the top of the article in italics. Common acceptable non-canon names are the name of the character in an alternate continuity or a widespread fan term. Once an official name becomes available, the article can be renamed to that name, with an optional redirect pointing from the previous name(s).
Non-TMNT Entities (Crossover Characters/Real People)
TurtlePedia may cover many entities that did not originate from within TMNT, such as real people, businesses, and characters from media outside of TMNT. Backgrounds on these entities are to briefly touch on the subject's existence outside of TMNT, and not go into extreme depth. We do not need to know every role in an actor's 40 year career, we don't need the complete history of Usagi, and we don't need non-essential trivia. Leave these things to Wikipedia or a Wiki/site specifically dealing with the subject. However, it is important to know what specific roles these entities took in involvement with TMNT.
For real world people, when listing additional works outside of TMNT, please keep them to a maximum of the five best-known works they've done (not just the ones you specifically like), unless they have 20+ years of work, then keep it to 10. Do not remove items lists that hit these limits to add another in lieu. List these after their TMNT works, in bullet format, not paragraphs.