Guidelines for using the wiki

From STS Roundtable

Contents 1 People and Process 1.1 Administration 1.2 Respect All Contributions and Contributors 1.3 Editing Approach 1.4 Adding Information or Opinions 1.5 Legal Threats 1.6 Ownership of Articles 1.7 Personal Accounts 1.8 Username 1.9 Vandalism 2 Content and Style 2.1 Attack Pages 2.2 Articles about living persons 2.3 Neutral Point of View 2.4 Source Verifiability 2.5 Enforcing Policies and Guidelines 2.6 Copyright 2.7 Reusing Wiki Content

People and Process

Administration

Our administrators, like all editors, are not perfect. Yet, they serve as role models within the community, and will make an effort to set a good general standard of civility, fairness, and general conduct both to editors and in content matters. Other contributors are expected to follow this lead.

Respect All Contributions and Contributors

Disrespectful rude, or otherwise hurtful comments are unacceptable. Take care not to offend people, intentionally or unintentionally. Treat the work and words of others as you would wish yours to be treated.

Editing Approach

Add comments and information in neutral manner. Do not make personal attacks. Such actions damage the community and discourage contributions. Comment on content, not the contributor. Keep the dialog content based. If your edits are challenged, discuss it with the challenger and look for consensus or compromise. Remember that this is collaborative work, not a forum for just your opinion.

Adding Information or Opinions

Improve pages wherever you can, and don't worry about leaving them imperfect. It is advisable to explain major changes. Your edits will be challenged at times; treat this as an opportunity for further dialog and learning, not as an opportunity for a fight.

Legal Threats

Use dispute resolution rather than legal threats, for everyone's sake. We will make every effort to respond quickly to complaints of defamation or copyright infringement.

Ownership of Articles

You do not own articles created or edited on this wiki. If you create or edit an article, know that others will edit it, and within reason you should not prevent them from doing so.

Personal Accounts

Do not use multiple accounts to create the illusion of greater support for an issue, to mislead others, or to circumvent a block; do not ask your friends to create accounts to support you or anyone.

Username

Choose a username according to the guidelines in the tutorial, one that you'll be happy with. We recommend that all participants in this wiki create a username that will help identify them to others, one that includes the surname.

Vandalism

Vandalism, according to Wikipedia, is any addition, deletion, or change to content made in a deliberate attempt to compromise the integrity of the work. It is unacceptable on this wiki.

Content and Style

Attack Pages

Any article, page, category, redirect or image created for the sole purpose of disparaging its subject is an attack page. These pages are subject to being deleted by any administrator at any time.

Articles about living persons

These require an even higher degree of sensitivity than other articles in the wiki. They must include high-quality references, particularly about details of personal lives. Like the Wikipedia guidelines, we follow the policy that "Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material — whether negative, positive, or just questionable — about living persons should be removed immediately and without discussion from … articles, talk pages, user pages, and project space."

Neutral Point of View

Articles, including reader-facing templates, categories and portals, should be written from a Neutral Point of View.

Source Verifiability

Articles should therefore cite sources whenever possible. Any unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Deletion Policy: Articles, images, categories, or other content that is disruptive, lacking content, abusive, offensive, or inappropriate.

Enforcing Policies and Guidelines

Wiki administrators are tasked with enforcement of policies and guidelines, and will carry out this responsibility as fairly as possible. Most decisions about enforcement will be made with rough consensus, though they may not always match the choices others might make. If you have questions about their decisions, contact them at wikitech@stsroundtable.com.

Copyright

Material which infringes other copyrights must not be added. The legalities of copyright and "fair use" are quite complex. We have zero tolerance for copyright violations. Please avoid uploading ‘nonfree’ images; if you do upload images, fully describe their sources and copyright details on their description pages. The cases in which you can declare an image "fair use" are quite narrow. You must specify the exact use of the image, and only use the image in that one context.

Reusing Wiki Content

STS/RT wiki material may be freely used under the Creative Commons License. No material may be used without attribution.