User talk:FT2/User pages

What's changed
Mainly, a lot of cleanup and copyediting. Many paragraphs had unnecessarily long wording or were not clear and to the point. Some matters were repeated or scattered over several sections. Section titles were wordy. Actual changes are small and should not be contentious, mainly they reflect its existing spirit and well known norms, and help to explain points or fix omissions:


 * 1) A rewritten nutshell + intro to explain it better.
 * 2) Anchors have been preserved.
 * 3) Proposed rename to "User page s ", rather than the ambiguous term "User page" (which may seem to just cover the one actual user page). This greatly simplifies the guideline.
 * 4) Added: "for anything that is compatible with the Wikipedia project and agreeable to the community " because many things could be (wrongly) argued to be "compatible" with the project and ultimately it is the community's agreement that is the test whether content is suitable or not.
 * 5) Simpler explanation of subpages. A huge amount of space was taken up duplicating WP:SUBPAGE stuff, or common uses of user pages generally.
 * 6) Noting users have .js and .css subpages for scripts and skin customizing.
 * 7) General guidance summarizes general information about user space:
 * Added general observation:
 * "There is no fixed use for any of your user pages, except that in the vast majority of cases your user page traditionally has something about you, and your talk page will be where messages can mainly be found and will appear. Provided other users can quickly and easily find the pages they need, you are free to change any of these within reason."
 * Created 3 subsections covering userspace v. mainspace (covers distinction between the two, and existing sections on drafting and on notable users with articles), personal and private material, and information linked from userspace pages. Contents mostly existed in original version.
 * Added statement
 * "Once added this information is unlikely to ever become private again. It could be copied elsewhere or even be used to harass you in future. You are cautioned to think carefully before adding non-public information to your user page that you may wish to retract in future."
 * Noted that privacy breaching material can be removed by oversight.
 * As well as contribs and email, user logs are also reachable from user pages.
 * 1) Users can often find other users from history and diff links, not just signatures.
 * 2)  in a collapse box for neatness.
 * 3) Better explanation of licensing issues.
 * 4) Hat note above acceptable uses: "Note that certain kinds of material must not linger indefinitely in user space, see below."
 * 5) Summarized acceptable uses, some rewriting and additions/clarifications. Lots of use of "reasonable" etc.
 * 6) Summary after table:
 * "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. While you have wide leeway to edit your user pages, a few of these matters should not be removed (see below)."
 * 1) Unrelated content examples also in a table, also some rewording (not so much).
 * 2) Proper shortcuts for UP#GAME and UP#POLEMIC.
 * 3) List under "Ownership" condensed as short paragraph.
 * 4) Cleaner explanation of "users can remove warnings"
 * 5) List of "things that cannot be removed" bulleted. Two items added that should not be removed:
 * ''"Speedy deletion tags and requests for uninvolved administrator help (the patrolling 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, "notes left for other users sharing the same IP address."
 * 1) "Editing of other editors user pages" is a short section explaining the norms about editing others' user space.
 * 2) "Handling inappropriate content" is cleaner ("on your pages" / "on others' pages").
 * Added prefix wording " Although other editors will aim to respect your user space, if corrective action is needed and not undertaken..."
 * Noted seeking other input ("uninvolved user opinions") is a useful approach (as always).
 * Rewrote explanation of when summary handling or deletion may be appropriate:
 * "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"
 * 1) Addition: "Users with a strong editing record and/or most of their contribution edits outside user space..." to reflect that many SPAs do edit outside userspace, a decent editing record plus non-userspace editing is the better criterion here to avoid giving promotional users the scope to 'lawyer.
 * 2) Explained "When a user leaves Wikipedia, their user and user talk pages are usually unaffected and may be edited again at any future time."
 * 3) Noted the retired template.
 * 4) Summarized Right to Vanish in the context of deleting user pages.
 * 5) Summarized licensing issues on user page contribs.
 * 6) Added: "Pages remain licensed for reuse even after deletion, and may occasionally be cited or deemed to contain useful content" (otherwise it may be assumed deleted content can never be used again)
 * 7) Deletion: trimmed section to contain all aspects of deletion (and only limited coverage of other things).
 * 8) Extra shortcut WP:UP#DELETE (for user pages deletion information)
 * 9) Noted RevisionDelete for redaction.
 * 10) Rewritten much of "Deleting others' user pages".
 * 11) Addition: " In general other users' user pages are managed by that user. Except for blatant or serious matters, it is preferable..."
 * 12) Removed "Only tag for deletion your own personal pages [implicit in section title], and only if you have a genuine reason for requesting it be deleted [The guideline itself is specifying main reasons you cannot ask; the patrolling admin will evaluate if it's appropriate]."
 * 13) Summarized the bit about "user pages cannot be deleted if moved from elsewhere".

There may be others but those are the main ones.

Note that noindex points which were confusing before would now fit in without confusion.

FT2 (Talk 22:06, 7 March 2010 (UTC)