CrezT

Welcome

Hello, CrezT, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions to this free encyclopedia. If you decide that you need help, check out Getting Help below, ask at the help desk, or place {{Help me}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or or by typing four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your username and the date. Also, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Below are some useful links to facilitate your involvement. Happy editing! GoneIn60 (talk) 12:53, 22 May 2016 (UTC) Getting started Introduction Contributing to Wikipedia The five pillars of Wikipedia How to edit a page Intuitive guide to Wikipedia Finding your way around Table of contents Department directory Help directory Editing articles How to develop an article Simplified Manual of Style Getting help Frequently asked questions Cheatsheet Our new user help forum, the Teahouse Where to ask a question Help pages New contributors' help page Article Wizard – a Wizard to help you create articles How you can help Community Portal Join a WikiProject Follow Wikipedia etiquette Practice civility Discover what's going on in the Wikimedia community

Hi

You are new to Wikipedia and you are obviously passionate about e-cigs. I want to make sure you are aware of some things. First, Wikipedia is governed by a set of policies and guidelines that cover what kind of content we generate, and that also cover editor behavior. Above you were given a welcome message that introduces you to the policies and guidelines. Please take some time to read them. Please also read WP:TPG which describes how editors should conduct themselves on article Talk pages.

One of the cardinal rules here, is that we discuss content, not contributors. This is super important always but it is especially important on contested articles. Your comment here stepped well over that line.

Some articles that are very contested, to the point where they disrupt the community over a long period of time, end up at our "supreme court" which is called Arbcom. The e-cig article is such an article; the set of editors who were terribly locked in conflict were brought to Arbcom and sorted out. (Other articles that have been to Arbcom include articles about the israel-palestine conflict, abortion, Northern ireland, stuff that is hotly contested in the real world and is in Wikipedia too)

When Arbcom takes a case and "rules" on it, Arbcom often puts in place a special set of rules for the topic, since topics that are controversial tend to remain controversial, and new editors will come along and the old problems could come back and disrupt the community yet again. These special rules are called "discretionary sanctions". What this means, is that people involved in the article need to be on their best behavior. If they are not - if they start falling into a pattern of bad behavior like attacking other editors instead of talking simply about the content, based on the policies and guidelines we have about content, then they can be sanctioned.

I am providing you with formal notice of this below. Please do take this on board.

This message contains important information about an administrative situation on Wikipedia. It does not imply any misconduct regarding your own contributions to date.

Please carefully read this information:

The Arbitration Committee has authorised discretionary sanctions to be used for pages regarding Electronic cigarette topic area, a topic which you have edited. The Committee's decision is here.

Discretionary sanctions is a system of conduct regulation designed to minimize disruption to controversial topics. This means uninvolved administrators can impose sanctions for edits relating to the topic that do not adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, our standards of behavior, or relevant policies. Administrators may impose sanctions such as editing restrictions, bans, or blocks. This message is to notify you sanctions are authorised for the topic you are editing. Before continuing to edit this topic, please familiarise yourself with the discretionary sanctions system. Don't hesitate to contact me or another editor if you have any questions.

Jytdog (talk) 15:30, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

May 2016

Hello and welcome to Wikipedia. When you add content to talk pages and Wikipedia pages that have open discussion (but never when editing articles), please be sure to sign your posts. There are two ways to do this. Either:

1. Add four tildes ( ~~~~ ) at the end of your comment; or
2. With the cursor positioned at the end of your comment, click on the signature button ( or ) located above the edit window.

This will automatically insert a signature with your username or IP address and the time you posted the comment. This information is necessary to allow other editors to easily see who wrote what and when.

Thank you. GoneIn60 (talk) 20:10, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

Terms of Use of Wikipedia

Please see the Terms of Use which are at the bottom of every page when you click "edit". In the big blue box at the top, please see the third set of bullets headed "Under the following conditions", and see the last bullet there where it says "Terms of Use and Policies – You adhere to the below Terms of Use and to the applicable community policies when you visit our sites or participate in our communities."

If you now look at WP:PAG you will see what the policies and guidelines are for the Wikipedia community, how they are created and changed and how they are used. For a list of the policies and guidelines, please see WP:List of policies and guidelines.

That is the basis for what I wrote. I have an as-brief-as-it-can-be primer on the most important policies and guidelines governing content and behavior, if you want me to post it here for you. Jytdog (talk) 22:16, 25 May 2016 (UTC)