These rules aren't fast and hard, and can be changed. We're working on the Good Faith policy and we want to build a community of editors and maintain a database of news and information. But we still have to have some set things, if only because some rules are not, in fact, meant to be broken.
Fandom's Terms Of Use
Read and abide by the Fandom Terms of Use. These rules govern all of Fandom and if you are ever found in violation of their rules, we will report you immediately.
General Rules
A quick summary of this whole article: If You're Not Here To Help, You Will Be Removed.
We expect all editors to contribute in line with established processes, policies, and conventions. Need help, clarification, or support? Ask an administrator!
Just the Facts. Don't Play Around.
We're here to talk about the facts from the stories, dolls, products and company. We're not here to read essays on how others feel about releases or characters. If you hate Blaire's release? That's nice. But you don't get to edit her Wiki page to say you hate her (or that most collectors hate her; avoid weasel words).
Any personal statements or fandom things like "the Pre-Mattel version of this doll is better" or "this accessory set is plastic garbage" or "where is the quality" or "this doesn't look like a real facemold" or "the fandom thinks so and so is autistic" or "it was my friend who gave AG the idea for Nellie" or anything like that and we'll warn and/or block you. We can discuss controversies and issues--we are not expected to be utterly neutral about issues that come up--but you do have to be respectful, professional, and mature.
False information, fandom natter, lies, and other such vandalism will be swiftly removed and those who do it blocked immediately on the first offense for a month minimal; the level of vandalism can escalate the ban, up to and including permanent. Even on the first offense.
Follow Formatting Guides
We value Quality Over Quantity.
While things are articulated at our page with policies on article creation and formatting and image uploading and use, the short version is that it doesn't matter if you are the first to create an article, edit an article, or upload a picture. It matters if you are the first to create a GOOD article, edit it WELL, and upload PROPER images.
No Unauthorized or Pirated Media Sources
Like any fan-run wiki, we ride a fine line between offering information and committing violations. Full text, full song lyrics, too many images from any book, and/or full data on book and movie contents (to name just a few things that constitute a copyright violation) can and will result in a violation of American Girl's copyright. We use images as fair use information, discuss media to inform rather than redirect away from legitimate sources, and always with encouragement, in the case of media--books, songs, movies, etc--to use first hand sources without using any methods of copyright violation or piracy.
American Girl built itself, in part, on the books and other media that flesh out the characters. Pirating that media shorts the finances and publishing of authors that create these stories, wrecks the the slim margins on publishing, and risks the careers of everyone else involved in a book's publishing and creation. Story creation isn't free. Writing is an art, and artists deserve to be able to use their work to support themselves. AG built itself on the stories, not the stuff, and here we respect the stories.
American Girl isn't a Big Five Publisher. Contrary to popular belief, book publishing--even for a company as "big" as Mattel--does not make tons of money for authors or the publishing division unless they're only about publishing, and thus the margins on it are thin. Authors have to earn against their royalties. Editors, graphic artists, researchers, and agents want to earn a living. Businesses aren't one big money pool, and screwing over a company's publishing department only screws over the publishing department. If a book doesn't sell for whatever reason, it means other books end up struggling or cancelled. Mattel isn't going to take from Barbie Publishing or Hot Wheels and move that money to AG Publishing if they lose money. Large companies cannot take from the "toy" money section to cover the "book" money section if theft screws over the book section by pirating.
Pirating books creates an environment where books end up underselling and series and variety of books are cancelled, because companies aren't going to put money where they aren't seeing money come in. And it affects authors directly. Why don't we have as many series--not just AG, but overall--as we used to? Why does no one after Kaya have those luxurious, deeply researched, highly credited Welcome to World Books? Why are Historical Character Mysteries gone, along with other books? Because the work behind a book--any book--costs money. And pirating said book(s) means that the publisher sees lowered sales on the books--and when the book fails, the company sees no need to keep making those kinds of books. The credited photos of images in a factual book--any book--require licensing, and that licensing isn't free.
We here at the American Girl Wiki never and will never endorse any method of book, movie, and/or text access that violates American Girl's publishing copyrights. Violations of copyright of any kind put the continued existence of the Wiki at risk, from books to song lyrics. Yes, quite a few books are out of print directly from the company. It's still much easier to access secondhand books than secondhand items. Libraries are free and several are worldwide and don't require residency. Use Libby and Hoopla. E-Books exist. Streaming is possible. Go on Amazon or to a local used bookstore or other used places and buy used. Folk can buy retired books--they're generally cheaper than retired clothes and easier to locate.
Copyright violations include uploading entire episodes of any videos of shows, movies, and visual media. Yes, the entire WellieWishers series is on YouTube. And that's where it'd better stay. We aren't in any position to host a full video nor do we want to be. Any data about any visual media needs to point to the place it is legitimately available. Not a secondary hosting, not any uploads here, and for the love of little green aplpes, not full text lyrics. Lyrics are copyrighted data too. The reality is that no videos should be uploaded here at all. Images of items and characters are best done with still images, and clips from shows and movies are not wanted nor necessary.
Any and all violations of copyright start at two weeks for full text and a month for video uploads. Repeated violations will result in longer blocks and full bans. If an editor's sources are found to be accessed via pirating, such as unauthorized book storage drives or uploaded pirated films, they will be fully banned from editing until they can confirm to the head admin without any doubt they are not using these illegal resources. If a contributor is found to be hosting a piracy drive at any time, they will be banned indefinitely and not reinstated.
Media Pirates get banned. No Negotiations. If you want books to exist, stop pirating them..
Drama Deposited at the Door, Please.
We highly suspect some people editing this wiki will not like other people editing the Wiki. In fact, we're sure of it. That being said, please keep drama to yourself. You come here for the edits and to help out. You don't have to like someone to edit. You don't have to like anyone. But you do have to behave.
This is Not A Fandom Hub
The AG wiki is a factual, collaborative community resource for the topic at hand. It is not a fandom hub. There's many places for that kind of interaction, and it's not here.
The AG Wiki is not a free place to advertise your related website, YouTube channel, Personal Pages and Blogs, social media account, Etsy shop, etc. Spamming links to petitions, unrelated blogs, photostories, original outfits or dolls, patterns for sale, YouTube Channels, etc. is grounds for removal and blocks. If your only edit is to promote yourself on your userpage, the page will be blocked and you will be warned to contribute.
We don't allow natter or open chatter on talk pages; see our policies on User-Talk Pages. Nor do we have or ever will have have comments enabled on articles, as they would inevitably devolve into the kind of inane chatter that we don't want to have here. There are to be no fandom pages or fan links in articles unless they have been vetted to be informative and helpful by admin, with last word of admin being final. There is to be no role-play anywhere.
We are not a webhosting space or a blog. We don't want or need pages, articles, or images about your original content. Be it your created dolls, your photostories, your crafts, your social media on main pages, your head canon, your playlists, your AU crossovers, anything you've made for your dolls, custom dolls (even if created officially) or anything else fan or consumer made. The pages on the modern dolls will never have a "listing" of users' dolls, or people will be scrolling for days and wasting time. If you would like to list your dolls or have things about you here, please make yourself an editor page by creating an account and list them there, but note that your primary purpose here is not enhancing your user page. Not to mention that any such vanity content can lead to further consequences and risks e.g. cyberbullying or harassment, especially if personal content is divulged. To sum it up, please leave any vanity stuff elsewhere, or if you must indulge, on user-space/editor pages. It's for your own good, trust us.
Be a Big Kid and Accept Editing
The essence of a Wiki is that stuff will get edited. This means that if you write a whole article on the plot of a book and someone comes and changes some things in it or removes sections that don't fit, don't get mad and don't cry about it. This is a Wiki, which means everyone should feel free to contribute without thinking they will upset someone--and that edits are going to get taken down, deleted, or removed if they're poorly done. Be a Big Kid when editing, and accept your edits may be tweaked, turned, transformed, or purged completely.
If you feel that we need to discuss things, that's what the discussion and talk pages are for. Disrupting the wiki with "edit warring" over differing opinions of a topic with another user or group of users is not productive and will get pages locked and users who attempt to circumvent locks blocked or banned. Do not throw tantrums if your edit was removed, revamped, or deleted. If your edits get removed, that's part of being a Wiki. Deal, and don't get mad.
Do not contact another admin to attempt to undermine admin warnings, edits, or corrections.
If you don't want your work edited, then editing a wiki is not for you. Create a blog.
No Bigotry or Harassment
Even though you are online, this is still a community made up of real people. Every good-faith editor is a person and should be treated as such.
No prejudice and bigotry. No racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, ableism, religious oppression, or any -isms. Don't complain that American Girl is now "woke" or "kowtowing to social justice, cancel culture, and Critical Race Theory"--especially if you can't define those terms without being racist. Admin knows the dogwhistles.
Do not harass other users. If somebody asks you to stop posting specific content on their talk pages, respect their wishes. Admins may post as needed to correct users and cannot be told not to interact with others. Talk pages are not for open natter not related to the project (saying hi, discussing collections/opinions, or asking for or providing chains of personal/offsite links). As stated above, this is not a fandom hub.
Do not make personal attacks on other editors. If you need to criticize another user's argument or edits on this wiki, do so without attacking them as a person. Remain firm but tactful about errors and issues. Do not use bigoted language, including slurs which degrade another person or group of people based on gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, ability/disability, etc.
Do not threaten anyone with doxxing, spamming, hacking, "exposing" etc. here or through other means such as e-mail or social media. Doing so is an automatic permanent banning.
No Non-AG Dolls or Products
You may discuss the following here: All and any things that are American Girl produced and/or Licensed. AG Historical/BeForever dolls and characters, modern lines, Girls of the Year, Bitty Baby, Bitty Twins, Hopscotch Hill, Girls of Many Lands, AG Minis, WellieWishers, AG Original Fiction lines, etc.
Therefore, No Off Brand Dolls. This includes but is not limited to: Life of Faith, Magic Attic, Karito Kids, Springfield Collection, Our Generation, My Life As, Maplela, A Girl for All Time, Disney ILY, or even other brands of Gotz dolls. No other types of 18" dolls. We only focus on authentic American Girl characters and items. There are other resources for all brands of 18" dolls available.
Amelia's Notebooks and Angelina Ballerina are mentioned under Miscellaneous Products, and will slowly be expanded as more information can be sourced within our guidelines. Götz and other brands or companies are included when discussing licensed products or background data.
No Rumors, Leaks, or Hearsay
We don't want anything that is a rumor or speculated. Old Prototypes of Mia? Yes. Leaked Hints about new GotY? No thank you. We're here for facts and until rumor becomes fact, it's not fact. And if we see anything about some doll coming out representing the 9/11 attacks, we'll probably eat your face.
See more at Rumors, Leaks, and Hearsay.
Write Like an Adult.
This Wiki is intended to be a good resource for any and all people who want to learn or educate people about AG. So write like you're writing for an audience to inform them. No netspeak, no gross misspellings, no illegible typing, etc. Try and be as articulate as possible without using your words to obscure. We don't expect everyone to be a novelist, but we do expect a certain level of grammar and skill; additionally, we don't want writing that is overly flowery, "purple", or particular.
There's no age limit for editing or usernames that don't violate the Fandom Terms of Use. We do however disallow editing from persons under thirteen or anonymous contributions. As Wikia is hosted in the United States and is therefore subject to U.S. law, COPPA privacy rules for children and minors apply.
Rule Updates and Enforcement
Rules and Policies will be clarified as needed with or without front-page announcement, announced in news when large or long changes are implemented (rather than slightly clarified) or major clarifications due to violations, and apply to all users at the moment of implementation.
Violations will result in warnings and bans/blocks, up to and including permanent blocks.