Wikinfo:Policies and guidelines

From Wikinfo

Wikinfo is developing a body of policies and guidelines to work toward our goal of creating an information resource. While we strive to build consensus, Wikinfo is not a democracy, and its governance can be inconsistent. There can be disagreement between those who believe rules should be explicitly stated and those who feel that written rules are inherently inadequate to cover every possible situation. We will follow the spirit of our policies while attempting to also set forth explicit written rules.

Those who edit in good faith, show civility, seek consensus, and work towards the goal of creating a valuable information resource should find a welcoming environment.

Contents 1 Key policies 2 Imported framework 3 Founding vision 3.1 Goal, purpose, policy and guideline 4 Contributing to policy 5 Policies, guidelines, essays 6 How are policies enforced? 7 See also

Key policies

You don't need to read every Wikinfo policy before you contribute. However, the following policies are particularly important to the project, and the sooner you understand and use them, the better:

1. Wikinfo works by building consensus. Consensus is an inherent part of the wiki process. (See Wikinfo:Consensus)
2. Wikinfo is an encyclopedia, but also a dictionary, a web portal, a compilation of quotations and source texts, contains signed articles, original research and other useful information.
3. Respect other contributors. Wikinfo contributors from any country or culture are welcome. Wikinfo has a strong commitment to expression of all viewpoints. Treating others with respect is key to collaborating effectively. (See Wikinfo:Civility, Wikinfo:Etiquette, Wikinfo:Dispute resolution.)
4. Don't infringe copyrights. Wikinfo is a free information resource licensed under open source licenses. Unless otherwise specified the default license is the GNU Free Documentation License. Submitting work which infringes copyrights threatens our objective to build an information resource that can be redistributed, and could lead to legal problems. (See Wikinfo:Copyright.)
5. Encourage expression of all points of view. The leading article on most subjects, especially biographies, should present a Sympathetic point of view. Critical or alternative points of view should also be presented, but in separate, prominently linked, articles.
6. Information should be based on identifiable sources. Use of reliable published sources which are properly cited is encouraged (See Wikinfo:Crediting the source).
7. Original research which draws from personal knowledge or which reformulates information in a creative way is welcomed and encouraged.
8. Compassion and accomodation. It is important to accommodate the needs of our users, some of whom have run afoul of the strict rules of Wikipedia.

Imported framework

A great deal of energy has been expended on Wikipedia with respect to policies and guidelines. It is helpful to our users, many of whom also edit or have edited on Wikipedia, to adopt the Wikipedia policies which are compatible with Wikinfo. Suitably adapted, those policies form the basic framework of Wikinfo policy

Founding vision

Wikinfo was created to address fundamental policy problems which existed on Wikipedia. Foremost was the struggle which exists there to control article content in order to advance a point of view. Wikinfo addresses that issue by insisting on a positive point of view for the main article on a subject, supplemented by articles setting forth critical or alternative points of view. Thus there is no advantage or prospect of winning the struggle over content. All viewpoints are expressed with a positive or sympathetic viewpoint occupying the position of main article. (Much of this was developed during a struggle over the article Chiropractic medicine on Wikipedia, see History.)

Encouragement of original research and reformulation of knowledge in ways which differ from the standard canon also originated in problems encountered while editing Wikipedia.

Likewise, a number of the considerations raised by W:Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not and other unproductive policies resulted in the insight that "turning Wikipedia on its head" offered opportunities for a better information resource.

Goal, purpose, policy and guideline

The vision or goal of Wikinfo's founder is set out on this page. The broad methods that will achieve the goal are are called Policy. Policy is to be understood by editors and applied. Generally stated, Wikinfo's policy is SPOV, but policy guidence exists for origianal research, for signed articles and other creative actions. Beneath vision and its resultant policy lie guidelines. Guidelines are specific instructions, such as how to create new articles, how to edit the content of an article, how to place references and links, and to create a good article. A full list of these data are here.

If Wikinfo were building a bridge, vision would be a statement of where the bridge would be built and how it would be useful. Policies would call out the the quality of steel to use and would speak of the standards the brige would be built to. Guidelines would spell out how to do specific actions, such as how to order steel, where to route the steel and where to store it when it arrived, and so on. Guidelines are specific, while policy is to be understood and then applied. Vision, or the goal, is the reason for its all happening in the first place.

Contributing to policy

Wikinfo users are encouraged to contribute to developing Wikinfo policy as experience is gained. It is important that such contributions advance the general direction of the founding vision, a more comprehensive resource characterized by greater opportunity for creativity.

Policies, guidelines, essays

Pages about how Wikinfo works belong in the Wikinfo:Wikinfo namespace. They may be policies which are binding and enforceable, guidelines which are a guide to editing, essays which are observations or expressions of opinion, or some other expression which is about Wikinfo, rather than being a part of it.

• A Wikinfo:Guideline is any page that recommends, or recommends against, an action to be taken by editors. Guidelines are not set in stone and should be treated with common sense and the occasional exception. Amendments to a guideline should be discussed on its talk page, not on a new page — although it's generally acceptable to edit a guideline to improve it. Disputes over the wording of a guideline are resolved by considering and discussing objections and counter-proposals and coming to agreement, often using compromise language; such a dispute does not "suspend" the guideline or "turn it into" something other than a guideline.
  • A Wikinfo:Naming convention or Wikinfo:Style guidelines is a specific kind of guideline, related to proper naming, or the way articles should be written. Note that guidelines are subcategorized merely for convenience, and that there is no practical difference between several "kinds" of guidelines.
• A Wikinfo:Policy is similar to a guideline, only more official and less likely to have exceptions. As with guidelines, amendments should generally be discussed on their talk pages. One should not generally edit policy without seeking consensus first.
• A process is a central and organized way of doing things, generally following certain policies or guidelines (e.g. the "deletion policy" tells us how the "deletion process" works)
• A Wikinfo:proposal is any suggested guideline, policy or process for which the status of consensus is not yet clear, as long as discussion is ongoing. Amendments to a proposal should be discussed on its talk page (not on a new page) but it generally is acceptable to edit a proposal to improve it. Proposals should be advertised to solicit feedback and to reach a consensus.
• A feature request is anything that requires a change to the Wikinfo software. These should be made at Wikinfo:Village pump.
• A Wikinfo:How-to or Help:Help page is any instructive page that tells people how to do things. These will, of course, be edited by people who have suggestions on how to do things differently. A how-to differs from a guideline in that the former explains how to perform a certain action, and the latter explains when or why certain actions are recommended.
• An Wikinfo:Essay is any page that discusses issues. Essays tend to be opinionated. Essays need not be proposed or advertised, you can simply write them, as long as you understand that you do not generally speak for the entire community.

See Wikinfo:Template messages/Project namespace for the templates associated with each type.

How are policies enforced?

You are a Wikinfo editor. Since Wikinfo has no editor-in-chief or top-down article approval mechanism, active participants make copyedits and corrections to the format and content problems they see. So the users are both writers and editors.

Individual users thus enforce most policies and guidelines by editing pages, and discussing matters with each other. Some policies, such as Vandalism, are enforced by Administrators by blocking users. Administrators have the power to deal with highly disruptive situations.

Some features of the software which could potentially be misused, such as deleting pages and locking pages from editing, are restricted to Administrators, who are experienced and trusted members of the community. See Wikinfo:Administrators' reading list for further information.

See also

Wikinfo:Village pump for discussion of new ideas and proposals.

Adapted from the Wikipedia policy page "Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines" http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Policies_and_guidelines&oldid=126214465