Uncyclopedia:Userspace
Userspace means the Uncyclopedia pages that "belong" to you. In your userspace, you can experiment with things that would not fit in the main encyclopedia, and other Uncyclopedians should mostly only contribute with your invitation.
There is an infinite number of names for pages in Uncyclopedia. As you are <insert name here>, any page whose name begins with "User:<insert name here>/" is a page in your userspace. After the slash, you can type whatever name you want to give to the page. If you are writing an article for the main encyclopedia, you'll type after the slash its eventual name in the encyclopedia.
Only Uncyclopedians (who pick a user name) have full use of a userspace. Anonymous users such as 1.2.3.4 can create a page, such as "User:1.2.3.4/Rutabaga" but it will be deleted, though you can ask to get it back after you register. The only valid use for the talk page "User talk:1.2.3.4" is to invite the person to register. In particular, users who wish to stay anonymous ought not to ask for or be given help or reviews of what they write. That, like uploading photos, is a benefit of membership.
How user pages work
The only thing special about pages in userspace is that there is a small link in the upper left corner that lets you go directly to the parent page. Usually, the parent of a page in userspace is the user's user page.
The rule that userspace pages are owned by that user is an agreement among Uncyclopedians and not a hard restriction. Break one of the rules (they are coming right up, below) and you will see how fast your edits can be undone and your page can be deleted.
Like every other page, each page has an associated talk page, and both of them have a page history where you can retrieve the text as of any point in the past.
- Your user page
A page that is just your user name with no slash afterwards (User:<insert name here>) is your user page. You can use it to introduce yourself to other Uncyclopedians — to whatever level of detail or truthfulness you are comfortable. You can show us your sense of humor or you can play it straight. One thing you should disclose is where in the world you are (what time zone), or better yet, what time of day (UTC) you tend to be on Uncyclopedia.
Other Uncyclopedians should not edit your user page. However, if someone has nominated you for an award, a box can be put on your user page to announce to other people that they can vote on you. When the vote is done, another Uncyclopedian may remove the box, or place a different box on the page to show that you have won the award. If you want to refer to your award in a different way (or deny it completely), you can edit this as you wish.
- User page as advertisement
You may use your user page to tell other Uncyclopedians how they can reach you, and you can disclose other projects and wikis that you work on. (But you must not do so inside a custom signature.) If you add a pointer off-site, an Abuse Filter will ask you to confirm that that is what you intend to do. You may describe your career or hobbies.
You must not write an advertisement to induce readers to click somewhere else instead of Uncyclopedia, or to buy your herbal medicine or to ring you up for unique travel services. If your first edit is along these lines, Admins are likely to conclude you have no real interest in contributing to the humor wiki and permanently block your account from editing.
- User page as scorecard
Some people have registered and done nothing but use their user page to prepare scorecards of the latest tournament on television. These people are using Uncyclopedia as a free desktop publishing tool with no intention of ever contributing articles of general amusement. Admins tend to delete their work and, if they persist, to delete their accounts.
- User page as sandbox
Some Uncyclopedians use their user pages as a personal sandbox, to experiment with an article that someday will go in the main encyclopedia. Unlike Uncyclopedia:Sandbox, no one else will clear it out or interfere with your work (but see below).
You can even use your user page as an article that would not fit in the main encyclopedia, such as fan-fiction, an article that is too short for the encyclopedia, and an "encyclopedia article" all about yourself. But all creations in your userspace are subject to rules set out below.
- Your user talk page
The same page in the User talk: space (User talk:<insert name here>) is your user talk page. It is to communicate with other Uncyclopedians. If you do actual editing, an Admin or a Welcomer will put a message here with basic rules and a directory of reference pages. Your user talk page works like any other talk page. Other users are allowed to post to it and you are not allowed to delete or edit their posts.
Creating articles in userspace
If that explanation was too complicated, just fill in the form and click the button to create a page in your userspace.
When you create an article in the main encyclopedia, you are supposed to attach {{Construction}} or {{WIP}} (Work In Progress). This warns Admins that the article isn't ready yet, so they don't delete it. It also puts a time bomb on the article so that if you disappear for a week, they do delete it. You should not remove this tag without getting someone else's opinion on the quality of the article.
In contrast, when you create an article in your userspace, you do not need to put a tag on it and you can edit it at your leisure.
Other Uncyclopedians can read your draft, but should not help you with it without your invitation. However, other Uncyclopedians are welcome to tell you their opinion of it, or give you recommendations, either on your user talk page, or on the talk page associated with the article you are writing.
- Format
When you create an article in userspace, the displayed page title is wrong (it has your user name in it). Don't worry about it. Similarly, if you include {{Wikipedia}} to point to a corresponding article on Wikipedia, the name displayed will be wrong, and it will point to a Wikipedia page (also including your Uncyclopedia user name) that probably doesn't exist. Don't worry about this either.
Do not include a first-level head with the correct page title. For example, if you have created "User:<insert name here>/Rutabaga", don't start with a heading that says "Rutabaga". When the article goes to the main encyclopedia, the displayed page name will do the job. To display a different title in your article, use the {{Title}} template.
- When to keep an article in userspace
If you are creating an article that would be of interest only to you and your friends, please keep it in userspace...permanently. Read our vanity policies for more details on this. Likewise, if you are creating an article on a fictional topic that nobody will think to look up, consider looking for a fiction wiki, or keep it in your userspace. We are a parody of Wikipedia, so we imitate some of Wikipedia's policies, such as insisting that an article be notable to the general reader. Usually, we only want articles in the main encyclopedia about subjects of enough general interest to have an article on Wikipedia.
Prohibitions in userspace
We don't want material that is obscene, pornographic, abusive, or otherwise violates any law or right of any third party, or content that promotes hostility toward groups or encourages criminal conduct. We are in the business of making fun of everyone and everything, even groups that, in modern countries, have the right never to have to risk being offended. But we insist that you use Uncyclopedia to entertain the typical reader, and not for meanness and advocacy.
- Cyberbullying is prohibited even in userspace. This means writing unkind things about anyone not famous enough to have a page in Wikipedia, or disclosing personally identifying information. Vanity is permitted in userspace, but we are not interested in arguments that you were merely writing unkind things about yourself, as we have no way to know.
- Pornography, including nip-slips and butt-cracks, must have a clear comedy purpose, no matter how famous the photo was, the fact that the photo has its own article in Wikipedia, or the claim that there is no way for the article to hang together with the photo removed.
- Rants and Wiki Wars. We do not permit Uncyclopedia to be used as a soapbox or a weapon in a grievance among users of other websites. It's not of general interest, it is usually unfunny, and it draws us into someone else's soap opera.
- Threats that have any chance of being taken seriously. Despite a recent U.S. court ruling that it is simple free speech to advocate that someone else commit an assassination, it is not welcome here and we will not wait to see if you are the one author who can make it humorous.
- Shock links. Amusing yourself at the expense of our readers is not the same as amusing our readers. It is vandalism.
Finally, if Admins have warned you to stop doing something comparable, just stop doing it. We don't have the time to argue about whether you technically violated our rules. If you do not stop doing it, Admins will conclude that you cannot be guided to become a useful contributor, and what they will do about it is pretty obvious.