We expect all editors to contribute in line with established processes, policies, and conventions. Need help, clarification, or support? Ask an administrator, and we'll be happy to get you on the right paths to great editing.
TL;DR of the Rules
(but still read it anyways)
A quick summary of our regulations in total:
- If You're Not Here To Help, You Will Be Removed.
- If You Can't Follow Rules (after being redirected), You Will Be Removed.
- The Rules Apply From Your First Edit and/or Correction; if you can't or won't do better, You Will Be Removed.
These rules aren't fast and hard, and can be changed as needed (with some that are set specific). We assume good faith and want to build a community of editors who are helping the project 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. The rules and regulations have come into play from years of maintaining the Wiki, and our policies have developed over the course of many years, with several in place to avoid repetitive conflicts that have plagued the mission at hand, resulted in edit loops and long-suffering admins in the past, and breached copyright. Fan wikis ride a delicate balance of information and copyright, and we err on the side of respecting IP while informing.
The ability to edit this or any other wiki is a privilege, not a right. The standards are set this way to allow us to be a dependable resource on American Girl facts.
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.
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 information, to make edits and/or 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.
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 All Formatting Guides
We have extensive policies on article creation and formatting and image uploading and use, and value Quality Over Quantity. Our style guide has been set up over the years to make information clear, concise, and informational.
We will not snap your head off immediately for errors in layout or image uploads, but errors and violations can and will be reverted immediately -- especially in the case of images. 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, are helping to edit it WELL, and upload PROPER images.
Write Like an Adult
This Wiki is intended to be a good, informational resource for any and all people who want to learn or educate people about AG, be they a fan since 1986, a deep cut collector, someone who just wants to remember what shoes came with their Molly doll they got Christmas 1995, or a grandparent looking up data for this thing their grandkid asked for for Winter Holiday. You're not telling people your secret society rules or trying to gatekeep company data for a flex to prove you've had your Kirsten longer than everyone else (complete with never unbraided factory hair braids).
We expect people to write like they're writing for an audience to inform them, not for a fan who knows everything or a social media post for their besties who know all the shorthand of what GotY, PC, or "a #4" stands for. Don't use netspeak, gross misspellings, illegible typing, current or past slang for emphasis, etc. Try and be as articulate as possible without using your words to obscure. We don't expect everyone to be a skilled novelist or an English major, but we do expect a certain level of grammar and skill that shows you know your way around a keyboard. 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 Fandom is hosted in the United States and is therefore subject to U.S. law, COPPA privacy rules for children and minors apply.
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 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. AG hasn't opted to make one.
See more at Rumors, Leaks, and Hearsay.
No Non-AG Dolls or Products
You may discuss the following here: All and any things that are American Girl produced and/or Licensed. This includes 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 Club, 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. We can't be everything to everyone.
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, with brief informative paragraphs; there is one major exception.
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.
American Girl is for Everyone. No prejudice and bigotry will be allowed at any time for any reason--which includes 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. Which you can't. 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 and report to Fandom.
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. Use the Internet Archive Library, which is a library and has rules about book access and short term-checkouts. 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 doll 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 apples, 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 on Google 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.
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 American Girl Community is large enough that there are dozens of places to talk dolly shop and squee about AG. We're hosted on Fandom the site but we, frankly, don't have the resources or ability to handle the kind of influx of moderation and monitoring that the American Girl fandom requires, and the wiki being anything akin to a forum or social media site would mean a stress on our admins and content mods.
We were founded before these were options here at Fandom, and most of AG's fanhubs continue to this day in one place or another, be it Tumblr, Instagram, a old forum, a new group chat, or a personal Discord that you chatter with other fans in real time.
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 fandom 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.
Don't post your name on main article pages--user or otherwise. Articles should not say who contributed images or data on the direct article. No one owns what they add to articles. Direct credit is limited, at most, to the image page itself, and only as much credit as needed. If seen, it should and will be removed.
Do not engage in excessive self-promotion. We are not a free host to advertise your related (or unrelated) website, YouTube channel, blog, social media account, etc.
We are not a webhosting space or a blog hub; blogs have been turned off. We don't want or need pages, articles, or images about your original content. Be it your created dolls, opinions, 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.
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.