The Sonic News Network Chat is a feature on the wiki where users can talk in real time to other users. The chat is designed to give members of the community a place to talk about anything, even topics not relating to Sonic or the wiki. It serves as a social hub and lets users get to know each other better.

Rules

As with the rest of the site, the chat feature has its own rules and guidelines. All of the main site policies remain in effect on the chat, including:

• Practice open-mindedness and assume good faith
• Be nice
• Don't feed the trolls
• No personal attacks

In a social setting, these key guidelines are even more important. Please avoid vulgarity and swearing, and do not persistently use ALL CAPS as this indicates shouting (and shouting all the time is rude and annoying).

Chat also has some additional rules of its own. These are:

• Chat is intended for the use of Sonic News Network contributors. People that don't edit on the wiki may be asked to leave the chat.
  • As a rule of thumb, 100 edits on the wiki is a minimum in order to use the chat, at least half of which need to be made in our "mainspace" (that is, on articles that do not have prefixes like User:, Forum: or Talk:), which is where the main content of our Wiki is located. However, if these edits are found to be unconstructive, then a user might still be banned from chat. (To see how many edits you've got, visit Special:Editcount.)
• Please do not give away personal information, either about yourself or anyone else.
• Do not use the main chat for roleplaying. We only have one chat feature, and using it for roleplaying means that other editors cannot use it. If you would like to roleplay, please take it somewhere else or use the private message feature of the chat.
• Please do not use the chat to advertise. If you want to share links with the community on chat, give a description about what you are linking to.
• Try to avoid making multiple posts to say one thing. Doing this excessively is considered spam.
• Do not pretend to be another user.

These rules are enforced both by the wiki's admins and specially-appointed users called chat mods. Admins and chat mods have the ability to ban users on chat, meaning that they are indefinitely (but reversibly) prevented from using the chat feature. Users who break the rules will be warned in the first instance, and may be 'kicked' if they continue to break the rules after warnings. A kick will cause the user's window to close and refresh, which is also helpful if the user is experiencing connection issues.

If you wish to dispute a warning you have been given, do so calmly and politely. Arguing is counter-productive, and may lead to the ban you're trying to avoid.

If you've been banned and you want to oppose the decision, you can still contact an admin on their talk page. Do not involve other users, but explain to an admin what happened and why you feel the ban should be overturned. The admin will consider your case and respond in due time.

If you witness rule breaking when no admin or chat mod is present, copy and paste the text from the chat window onto the talk page of an administrator. They will investigate.

We hope to see you on the chat soon!

Emoticons

Emoticons are images that are used on the chat to express emotions, and various other purposes. The Sonic News Network has a system where anyone (who meets the edit requirements to get on chat) can request for an emoticon to be added to the chat. Only administrators can add emoticons, so that if an emoticon is deemed too inappropriate for chat, they will not add it. Emoticons also have certain restrictions. The following are additional rules regarding chat emoticons:

• Emoticons must be 19 pixels by 19 pixels or smaller. Any emoticon above this size may not be added to chat.
• Emoticons must comply with our art policies. For more information, see our policy page.
• Emoticons may not have above five triggers dedicated to it.
• Emoticons that are of poor image quality will not be added.
• If the users on chat feel that an emoticon is being used in a fashion that break our policies, it will be removed.

A list of emoticons can be found at MediaWiki:Emoticons.

Chat Moderators

These users, along with the Administrators, can use the kick and ban features to ban users from the chat. They can also unban a user from chat via Special:UserRights. To see a list of all chat moderators, including inactive chat moderators, see Special:Listusers/chatmoderator.