Wikipedia:User pages: Difference between revisions

Subpages

You can create subpages of these, such as User:Example/draft article on violins or User:Example/test and their related talk pages, by navigating to the red-linked (non-existent) page and clicking on the Start the ___ page link. A list of existing subpages can be seen using Special:Prefixindex (for example, Special:Prefixindex/User talk:Example/). You can usually have anything on a subpage that you might have on a user or user talk page, except for a few items (see below) that must be visible to other users if posted. Hierarchies of subpages are also possible. You can have as many subpages as you want but keep in mind that Wikipedia is not a free web host, please use subpages within reason. (See: Wikipedia:Subpages for more information)

User pages or user space

All of these pages are your user pages or user space. While you do not "own" them, by custom if used reasonably and within these guidelines, you will mostly be left to manage and set them up entirely as you wish.

You also have subpages ending in .js and .css to store any user scripts and skin customizations that you may wish to have when you edit Wikipedia. Only you and administrators can edit such pages, although anyone can view them.

Other useful pages: username policy, user page design center, archiving your talk page, and Wikipedia community information

You will be notified if anyone edits your user talk page and/or leaves you a message there. The alert and links below are automatically displayed on all pages until you view your talk page, a diff on your talk page, or its history.

The links Special:MyPage and Special:MyTalk are shortcuts that take any user to their own user and user talk pages. If someone is to visit your (or someone else's) user or user talk pages a proper page link will be needed (e.g., [[User talk:Example]]). In practice, user and user talk pages are mostly visited by clicking on user signatures in discussions, and links shown in page histories and diffs.

In addition to the usual information accessible from an article page such as page history, "Discuss this page" and the like, users visiting user and user talk pages can also click "User contributions" (in the sidebar or at the bottom of the page) to see what contributions you have made at Wikipedia over time, and "Logs" to see records of other events related to your editorship, done by yourself and by others. (Note that having your user page deleted does not delete any list of your wider contributions.)

Visitors to your user page can also click "E-mail this user" if you have opted in your user preferences to be able to send and receive email. Your email address will remain private unless you reveal it yourself, select the option to reveal it (in preferences), or reply using an email system outside Wikipedia.

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.

Users may include a user page notice on their own user pages, user talk pages, or both. Placing the template {{User page}} at the start of a user page clearly identifies the nature of the page for readers, and also helps if people find the labeled page in copies of Wikipedia elsewhere (more about this below) and want to locate the original.

Contributions can also be given a wider license - for example releasing them into the public domain or multi-licensing them - by putting a notice to this effect on one's user page, or on a subpage linked from it. Note that it is not possible to give them narrower licensing: all edits on Wikipedia, including all userspace edits, are licensed for used under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License and in most cases the GNU Free Documentation License as part of Wikipedia.

User pages may be mirrored by other sites. If there is material you do not want copied, reposted, or reused, do not post it on the site.

Certain kinds of material must not linger indefinitely in user space; see below for details. Besides communication, other uses of user space include (but are not limited to):

Significant editing disclosures (voluntary but recommended) Things other editors may find helpful to understand, such as alternative accounts (if publicly disclosed) If you are editing for or on behalf of a company, organization, group, product, or person (etc.) which you wish to be open about in order to gain a good working relationship with the editing community. (Editing must always be neutral and within encyclopedia norms. Editors tend to distrust concealed conflicts of interest and agendas. Openly disclosing such interests gains respect, invites others to help and shows a desire to edit appropriately.)

Notes related to your Wikipedia work and activities Current or planned articles, topic areas, to-do lists, reminders, articles worked on, accolades and other successes, collaborative works, draft proposals, (constructive) thoughts on Wikipedia articles or policies and how they should be changed, etc. Expansion and detailed backup for points being made (or which you may make) in discussions elsewhere on the wiki.

Work in progress or material that you may come back to in future (usually on subpages) Drafts, especially where you want discussion or other users' opinions first, for example due to conflict of interest or major proposed changes Drafts being written in your own user space because the target page itself is protected, and notes and working material for articles (Some content may not be kept indefinitely).

Useful links, tools, and scripts

User space archives Old talk page threads, etc. (Some content may not be kept indefinitely in userspace if unused.)

Matters that are long enough in length, or active enough, to allocate them a page of their own

Personal writings suitable within the Wikipedia community Non-article Wikipedia material such as reasonable Wikipedia humor, essays and perspectives, personal philosophy, comments on Wikipedia matters Disclosures of important matters such as absences or self-corrections that you would like other editors to know about, etc. Statements of congratulations or condolence for major events, especially if related to Wikipedia editorship or major life-events. (Make sure the user wants these to be publicly mentioned on the wiki, they may wish it to be private.)

Experimentation (usually on subpages) Trial pages for templates, unfamiliar or specialist markup (including LaTeX), etc., as a kind of personal sandbox. Pages to test bots and scripts without doing harm. User pages and user subpages can be transcluded and substituted, so they behave like templates, and can be tested as such.

Limited autobiographical content For example, languages you know (see Wikipedia:Babel) or fields you have knowledge in.

A small and proportionate amount of suitable unrelated material A number of users have Wikipedia and sister project content such as (free use) pictures from Wikimedia Commons, favorite Wikipedia articles, or quotations that they like. Pages used for blatant promotion or as a soapbox or battleground for unrelated matters are usually considered outside this criterion. For example: a five page résumé and advertising for your band will probably be too much, a brief three sentence summary that you work in field X and have a band named Y will be fine.

You are also welcome to include a simple link to your personal home page, although you should not surround it with any promotional language.

User pages are also used for administrative purposes, to make users aware of blocks, warnings, or other sanctions if they happen, and to notify of matters that may affect articles you have worked on or editorial issues you have been involved with. Others may also edit your user pages, for instance awarding you a barnstar or leaving notes and images for you, or adding comments and questions. Although you have wide leeway to edit your user pages, a few of these matters should not be removed (see below).

Details about yourself should not normally go in the main encyclopedia namespace (reserved for encyclopedia articles only), and encyclopedia articles should never link to any userspace pages.

In the rare case that you or something closely connected to you may have an article in the encyclopedia, that is always treated as completely separate from you as an editor. You should very carefully read the guidance on conflict of interest and generally avoid editing about yourself or matters closely related to you in any article.

If you would like to draft a new article, Help:Userspace draft provides a standard template and useful guidance to help you create a draft in your userspace, and the article wizard can walk you through all stages of creating an article with the option to save as a userspace draft too. You can use the template {{userspace draft}} to tag a userspace draft if it is not automatically done for you.

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 upon request, either by administrators or (unless impractical) by purging from the page history and any logs by oversighters (see requests for oversight).

All the userboxes can be found here.

See also the policy section Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons#Non-article space.

Generally, you should avoid substantial content on your user page that is unrelated to Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a general hosting service, so your user page is not a personal website. Your user page is about you as a Wikipedian, 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, "Wikipedia is not a soapbox" is usually interpreted as applying to user space as well as the encyclopedia itself, and "Wikipedia is not censored" relates to article pages and images; in other namespaces there are restrictions aimed at ensuring relevance, value, and non-disruption to the community. 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 Wikipedia community is generally tolerant and offers fairly wide latitude in applying these guidelines to regular participants. Particularly, community-building activities that are not strictly "on topic" may be allowed, especially when initiated by committed Wikipedians with good edit histories. At their best, such activities help us to build the community, and this helps to build the encyclopedia. But at the same time, if user page activity becomes disruptive to the community or gets in the way of the task of building an encyclopedia, it must be modified to prevent disruption.

Unrelated content includes, but is not limited to:

Writings, information, discussions, and activities not closely related to Wikipedia's goals	A weblog recording your non-Wikipedia activities. Extensive discussion not related to Wikipedia. Extensive personal opinions on matters unrelated to Wikipedia, wiki philosophy, collaboration, free content, the Creative Commons, etc. Extensive writings and material on topics having virtually no chance whatsoever of being directly useful to the project, its community, or an encyclopedia article. (For example in the latter case, because it is pure original research, is in complete disregard of reliable sources, or is clearly unencyclopedic for other clear reasons.) Communications unrelated to Wikipedia, with people uninvolved with the project or its related work. Shortcut WP:UP#GAMES Games, roleplaying sessions, secret pages and other things pertaining to "entertainment" rather than "writing an encyclopedia". Such activities are generally frowned upon by the community. Games of no educational value relevant to the project are routinely deleted at MfD. (Compare Category:Wikipedia games and Category:Wikipedia Word Association.)
Promotional and advocacy material and links	Shortcut WP:UP#PROMO Advertising or promotion of an individual, business, organization, group, or viewpoint unrelated to Wikipedia (such as commercial sites or referral links). Extensive self-promotional material, especially when not directly relevant to Wikipedia.
Very divisive or offensive material not related to encyclopedia editing	Shortcut WP:UP#POLEMIC Polemical statements unrelated to Wikipedia, or statements attacking or vilifying groups of editors, persons, or other entities (these are generally considered divisive and removed, and reintroducing them is often considered disruptive). Material that can be viewed as attacking other editors, including the recording of perceived flaws. The compilation of factual evidence (diffs) in user subpages, for purposes such as preparing for a dispute resolution process, is permitted provided it will be used in a timely manner. Users should generally not maintain in public view negative information related to others without very good reason. Negative evidence, laundry lists of wrongs, collations of diffs and criticisms related to problems, etc., should be removed, blanked, or kept privately (i.e., not on the wiki) if they will not be imminently used, and the same once no longer needed.
Personal information	Shortcut WP:USERBIO Personal information of other persons without their consent. Inappropriate or excessive personal information unrelated to Wikipedia.
Wikipedia content not suited to userspace	Shortcut WP:UP#NOTSUITED Images which you are not free to use (usually fair use images; see below). Categories and templates intended for other usage, in particular those for articles and guidelines.

In general, if you have material that you do not wish others to edit, or that is otherwise inappropriate for Wikipedia, it should be placed on a personal web site. Many free and low-cost web hosting, email, and weblog services are widely available, and are a proper place for content unrelated to Wikipedia. For wiki-style community collaboration, you can download the MediaWiki software and install it on your own server if you want full control, or use one of many online wiki farms.

Statements or pages that seem to advocate, encourage, or condone these behaviors:^{[Note 1]} vandalism, copyright violation, edit warring, harassment, privacy breach, defamation, and acts of violence (includes all forms of violence but not mere statements of support for controversial groups or regimes that some may interpret as an encouragement of violence).

These may be removed, redacted or collapsed by any user to avoid the appearance of acceptability, and existing speedy deletion criteria may apply. To preserve traditional leeway over userspace, other kinds of material should be handled as described below unless otherwise agreed by consensus.

Do not put your userpage or subpages, including draft articles, into content categories.

Especially, note that templates and stub notices often add categories themselves. You can prevent this while the article is being drafted, by putting tlx| between the {{ and the template name, like this: {{tlx|stub|any parameters}}

You can also force a portion of text to be ignored by adding <!-- in front of it and --> after it, or by adding a colon before "Category", like this: [[:Category:Bridges]] to force a category link to act like a plain wikilink.

User talk pages should not redirect to anything other than the talk page of an account controlled by the same user.

Userspace is not a free web host and should not be used to indefinitely host pages that look like articles, old revisions, or deleted content, or your preferred version of disputed content. Private copies of pages that are being used solely for long-term archival purposes may be subject to deletion. Short term hosting of potentially valid articles and other reasonable content under development or in active use is usually acceptable (the template {{userspace draft}} can be added to the top of the page to identify these). When a userspace page reaches a point where it can be included as an article consider moving it into mainspace or using its content appropriately in other relevant articles. Unfinished draft articles may also be moved to Wikipedia:WikiProject Abandoned Drafts for adoption by other editors if the original author no longer wants them or appears to have stopped editing.

Userspace is also not a substitute for project space (Wikipedia:...), nor should a userspace page be used as primary documentation for any Wikipedia policy, guideline, practice, or established concept. If your user page related to the project becomes widely used or linked in project space, or has functional use similar to a project page, consider moving it into project space or merging it with other similar pages already existing there.

Do not include non-free images (copyrighted images lacking a free content license) on your user page or on any subpage thereof (this is official image use policy and the usual wide user page latitude does not apply). Non-free images found on a user page (including user talk pages) will be removed (preferably by replacing it with a link to the image) without warning and, if not used in a Wikipedia article will be deleted entirely).

There is also broad consensus that you should not have any image in your userspace that would bring the project into disrepute and you may be asked to remove such images. Content clearly intended as sexually provocative (images and in some cases text) or to cause distress and shock that appears to have little or no project benefit or using Wikipedia only as a web host or personal pages or for advocacy, may be removed by any user (or deleted), subject to appeal at deletion review.^{[Note 2]} Context should be taken into account. Simple personal disclosures of a non-provocative nature on sexual matters (such as LGBT userboxes and relationship status) are unaffected.

The same rules for copyright apply on userpages as in article space. Text must either be non-copyright or out of copyright, otherwise only a short quote can be used. If you use text from another source on your userpage, it should still be credited to the author, whether or not it is in current copyright.

The Wikipedia community strongly discourages simulating the MediaWiki interface, except on the rare occasion when it is necessary for testing purposes.

CSS and other formatting codes that disrupt the Wikimedia interface, for example by preventing important links or controls from being easily seen or used, making text on the page hard to read or unreadable (other than by way of commenting out), or replacing the expected interface with a disruptive simulation, may be removed or remedied by any user. Inappropriate internal or external links that unexpectedly direct the reader to unreasonable locations or violate prohibitions on linking may also be removed or remedied by any user. Text, images, and non-disruptive formatting should be left as intact as possible. Users of such code should consider possible disruption to other skins and to diffs and old revisions.

This section applies to all pages within your user space.

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

Other users and bots may edit pages in your user space or leave messages for you, though by convention others will not usually edit your user page itself, other than (rarely) to address significant concerns or place project-related tags. Material that clearly does not somehow further the goals of the project may be removed (see below), as may edits from banned users. Most community policies including No personal attacks and Biographies of living persons will apply to your user space, just as elsewhere. (Purely content policies such as original research, neutral point of view etc., generally do not, unless the material is moved into mainspace.)

As with all other edits, user space contributions are irrevocably licensed for copying and reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License and GNU Free documentation license.

Finally, a small number of notices and tags, if placed, may not be moved to a less visible subpage or deleted without discussion.

Policy does not prohibit users, whether registered or unregistered users, from removing comments from their own talk pages, although archiving is preferred. The removal of material from a user page 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 if needed.

A number of important matters may not be removed by the user—they are part of the wider community's processes:

• Sanctions that are currently in effect, including relevant information about a currently active block or ban where an unblock is being requested, declined unblock requests, ArbCom-imposed edit restrictions, and confirmed sockpuppetry related notices
• Miscellany for deletion tags (while the discussion is in progress)
• Speedy deletion tags and requests for uninvolved administrator help (an administrator will quickly determine if these are valid or not; use {{hangon}} to object and post a comment, do not just remove the tag).
• For IP editors, templates in Category:Shared IP header templates and notes left to indicate other users may share the same IP address.
• {{Noindex}} added to user pages and subpages under this guideline (except with agreement or by consensus). Note this can safely be removed from talk pages and subpages where it has no effect. (see below)

Note that restoring talk page notices is not a listed exception to the three-revert rule.

In general, it is usual to avoid substantially editing another's user and user talk pages other than where it is likely edits are expected and/or will be helpful. If unsure, ask. If a user asks you not to edit their user pages, it is probably sensible to respect their requests (although a user cannot avoid administrator attention or appropriate project notices and communications by merely demanding their talk page is not posted to).

If the community lets you know that they would rather you delete some content from your user space, you should consider doing so—such content is only permitted with the consent of the community. Alternatively, you could move the content to another site, and link to it.

Although other editors will aim to respect your user space, if corrective action is needed and not undertaken the inappropriate content will eventually be removed, either by editing the page (if only part is inappropriate), by redirecting the page to your main user page (if entirely inappropriate), or by community discussion at Miscellany for deletion. Inappropriate content may be removed from any page in your user space, including your user talk page.

The best option if there is a concern with a user's page is to draw their attention to the matter via their talk page and let them edit it themselves, if they are agreeable. In some cases a more experienced editor may make non-trivial edits to another user's user space, in which case that editor should leave a note explaining why this was done. This should not be done for trivial reasons. If the user does not agree, or does not effectively remedy the concerns, or the matter is unsure or controversial, then other steps in this section can be taken including uninvolved user opinions or proposing the page for deletion.

If the material must be addressed urgently (for example, unambiguous copyright, attack, defamation, or BLP reasons, etc.), the user appears inactive, the edit appears unlikely to cause problems, or you are quite sure it is appropriate, then remove or fix the problem material minimally and leave a note explaining what you have done, why you have done so, and inviting the user to discuss if needed. If the entire page is inappropriate, consider blanking it, or redirecting the subpage to the userpage, or to the most relevant existing mainspace or project space page.

Unsuitable pages, media and images in userspace may also be nominated for deletion or (if appropriate) speedy deleted, but special care should be taken as the user may be expecting leeway and take it personally, and there are a few exceptions. Users with a strong editing record and/or most of their contribution edits outside their user space should be given a little more leeway in this regard than users whose edits consist solely or mostly of user space edits or promotional-style activity. See Deleting user pages below.

Editors may add {{noindex}} (optional "|visible=yes") to a userspace page that is a source of concern, which will remove it from search engines and can also provide a lightweight alternative to deletion, or prevent external indexing during discussion. It will not affect the page for legitimate userspace purposes or on the internal search engine, and should not be used to make a point, nor removed without discussion or consensus. See {{subst:uw-userspacenoindex}} for a suitable user talk note template.

When a user leaves Wikipedia, their user and user talk pages are usually unaffected and may be edited again at any future time. Some users place the {{retired}} template on their user and talk page to let others know that they are away for an extended period or permanently. Blanking user and user talk pages (i.e. overwriting with a blank page) is always acceptable provided non-removable notices (if any) are left intact.

Wikipedia's community traditionally offers a "right to vanish" as a social courtesy, to users who are permanently departing Wikipedia and will sever all ties with the site.

Summary of key points: While some help can be given, it is not possible for your edits to be removed entirely and account deletion would potentially violate copyrights by allowing for inaccurate attribution and authorship claims. Certain important templates may need to be retained on user and user talk pages. Also pages that may be of value to the wider community or whose deletion is opposed by other users might be undeleted during a deletion discussion. Pages remain licensed for reuse even after deletion, and may occasionally be cited or deemed to contain useful content. If a "vanished" user returns old pages associated with them may be undeleted or unblanked, and could be linked to any new account they create and disclosed at RFA; if this would be a problem consult ArbCom by email beforehand. Of course the return of users in good standing or reformed "problem users" is welcomed if they happen to change their mind.

Users who have left Wikipedia may be added to Wikipedia:Missing Wikipedians after a certain amount of time, usually 3 months without an edit.

As with article pages, user pages are occasionally the targets of vandalism, or, more rarely, edit wars. When edit wars or vandalism persist, the affected page should be protected from editing.

Most user page vandalism occurs in retaliation for a contributor's efforts to deal with vandalism. Administrators may protect their own user pages when appropriate, and are permitted to edit protected pages in user space. Sometimes a non-administrator's user page may be the target of vandalism. Such pages should be listed at Wikipedia:Requests for page protection and may then be protected by an administrator.

In cases in which semi-protection is insufficient to prevent vandalism to a non-administrator's user page, an editor may create a .css suffixed sub-page containing their user page content within their user space, transclude the sub-page into their main user page, then request that an administrator fully protect their user page. (for instance, create User:Example User as {{User:Example User/userpage.css}}.) This method will completely prevent further vandalism by limiting user page editing to yourself, and administrators. Note that the addition of inappropriate content to your user page after locking other editors out is considered a serious offense.

Repeatedly inserting copyrighted content or other inappropriate material on your own user pages after being notified not to do so, or misusing user space following a block (e.g., for personal attacks or tendentious editing) are both considered disruptive and may lead to the pages being protected to prevent further disruption. User pages may also routinely be protected in the event of a ban.

Vandalism of talk pages is less common. Usually such vandalism should merely be reverted. Blocks should be used for repeated vandalism of talk pages, where policy permits. In rare cases, protection may be used but is considered a last resort given the importance of talk page discussions to the project.

The usual deletion processes are miscellany for deletion for pages, files for deletion for media and images, and (if within speedy criteria) speedy deletion.

For issues only affecting specific revisions on a page (where other page versions are fine) RevisionDelete is usually more appropriate.

In general other users' user pages are managed by that user. Except for blatant or serious matters, it is preferable to try contacting the user before deletion (see above). However, unambiguous copyright violations, attack pages, promotional text, and privacy or BLP violations can be speedy deleted using a suitable template, such as {{db-attack}}, {{db-copyvio}} or {{db-G11}}, other pages likely to require deletion (or where remedial action is not taken) may be submitted to deletion discussion.

Take special care to speak appropriately and explain the concern; many users will take it as a personal affront or attack if an unknown user announces they are going to delete a userspace image or page and an uncivil or heavy duty approach can discourage new users who are unaware of expectations and might enjoy contributing. Remember that a limited amount of personal information (perhaps a short biography) and a freely licensed tasteful personal photograph or two are usually allowed if the page reasonably complies with other requirements.

Simple use as a personal web page is not in itself a speedy deletion criterion, although clear advertising and promotional use is. The only CSD exceptions are that test edits and the re-creation of deleted material (within limits) are permitted in user space. A user's contributions that consist solely of a lone edit to their user page should not normally be speedy deleted unless it consists solely of spam or other speedy deletable material. They may have simply created their page as their first edit, and could return at any time. Such pages should be sent to Miscellany for deletion and the user notified as normal.

You can freely blank any pages in your user space yourself (other than the few items that must not be removed) and request the deletion of your user page or subpages that have not had other significant contributors (by adding {{db-user}} to the top of the page). Alternatively, you might consider simply making the page redirect to your user page. This is normally sufficient for most people's needs. Subpages tagged for deletion will be deleted if there is no overriding reason the page must be kept.

Blanking of user subpages may be interpreted as a deletion request. If you want to keep the page history, leave a note to that effect on the blank page (e.g. "blanked to page history – please do not delete"). If you want it deleted completely then use {{db-user}}.

Your talk page, pages which were moved into your user space from somewhere else, and user talk archives created by page move, may not be deleted in this way. These must be listed at Articles for deletion if they originated as articles, or Miscellany for deletion for anything else. To move them back where they came from, ask at Wikipedia:Requested moves.

• Category:Wikipedians
• Wikipedia:How to use your user space
• Wikipedia:On privacy, confidentiality and discretion
• Wikipedia:User page design center
• Wikipedia:Userfication
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Keep It Simple
• Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Tobias Conradi#Userspace - affirms much of the stated guideline, although consensus has added subsequent details or tightened since then.