Tutorial (Remember)

There are some things to remember when editing STS Roundtable.

Editorial policies

Subject matter

The STS Roundtable wiki is an editable reference work devoted to socio-technical systems learning and community. Hence, articles should consist of reference information about "notable" subjects. What exactly constitutes notability is the subject of constant debate on the STS Roundtable wiki.

Neutral point of view

STS Roundtable's editorial policy is the "neutral point of view" often abbreviated "NPOV." This policy says that we accept all the significant viewpoints on an issue. Instead of simply stating one perspective, we try to present all relevant viewpoints without judging them. Our aim is to be informative, not persuasive. Our policy does NOT mean that our articles are expected to be 100% "objective," since in any dispute all sides believe their view to be "true."

It is OK to state opinions in articles, but they must be presented as opinions, not as fact. Also, it is a good idea to attribute these opinions, for example "Supporters of this say that..." or "Notable commentator X believes that..."

You might hear STS Roundtable wiki users referring to an article as "POV." This is slang for a biased article, or one obviously written from a single perspective. Advertising would fall in this category, as would a political diatribe. In a less extreme case, an article might have "POV" problems if it spends significantly more time discussing one view than another view of equivalent significance, even if each view is presented neutrally.

If you are going to spend time on controversial articles in subjects like the common save the world philosophy of STS or the talking heads phenomenon, it is important that you follow the neutral point of view policy. If you are going to spend your time on less emotional subjects, it is a less pressing concern.

Citing sources

STS Roundtable requires that you cite sources for the information you contribute. All sources should be listed in a section called "References". If any websites would be of particular interest to a reader of an article, they should be listed and linked to in an "External links" section, and books of particular interest should be listed in a "Further reading" section, but only if they were not used as sources for the article. Citations help our readers verify what you have written and find more information.

Copyrights

Do not submit copyrighted material without permission. When adding information to articles, make sure it is written in your own words. Remember that all information found on the Internet is copyrighted unless the website specifically states otherwise.

English dialects

All common forms are welcome on STS Roundtable. An abridged version of the related policy could be stated as:

1. Do not edit a page simply to "correct" the spelling in either direction.

2. If the subject is related to the U.S., then U.S. English is preferred:

Child labor laws in the United States

3. If the subject is related to an organization using British English (UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, UN, etc.) then British English is preferred.:

On-licence

4. If the subject is not regional, the original contributor's usage should be followed.

5. The usage should be consistent throughout an article, unless it mentions both US- and Britain/Commonwealth-related topics. In that case, Policies 2 and 3 prevail.

6. When you create a new article, generally the most commonly used title is preferred. A simple way of testing this is to try a Google Test either on the actual Google or on a different search engine to your preference, and see which generates more results.

Conduct

STS Roundtable encourages an atmosphere of friendliness and openness. Of course, in practice there are sometimes disagreements and even an occasional heated argument, but members of the community are expected to behave in a generally civil manner.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that you should always assume good faith on the part of other editors. Do not assume that someone is acting out of spite or malice. If someone does something that upsets you, leave a polite message on the relevant article's talk page or on the user's talk page, and ask why. You may find that you have avoided a misunderstanding and saved yourself some embarrassment.