User:Ricken/SandboxPG/What AmtWiki is not

AmtWiki policies and guidelines
Policies List · Guidelines List Edit

AmtWiki is an online encyclopedia, chronicling the history and culture of Amtgard. It is also an online community of people who build and utilize said wiki. Therefore, there are certain things that AmtWiki is not.

Content

Information should not be included on AmtWiki solely because it is true or useful. Consensus is that the following are good examples of what AmtWiki is not. The examples under each section are not intended to be exhaustive.

AmtWiki is not a dictionary

AmtWiki is not simply a dictionary, but a guide to the terminology and broader culture of the Amtgard community. Main articles should begin with a definition of the subject, but should then expand to include additional content. Articles that pnly include a dictionary definition are considered incomplete, and should either be expanded or included in a larger page.

AmtWiki is not a record-keeper

Amtgard has many online resources for keeping track of records, including the ORK, and kingdom or chapter websites. These places have the function of keeping track of attendance records, awards, currency, and other minutiae. The AmtWiki is not appropriate for any of these. Major (masterhood or higher) or unique awards, or the awarding of titles, is appropriate material, as these represent important accomplishments and are worth including the personal summary of player pages.

AmtWiki is not a blog, web hosting service, or social networking service

AmtWiki is not a social networking service like Facebook or Twitter. You may not host your own website, blog, wiki, or cloud at AmtWiki. AmtWiki pages are not:

• Personal web pages. Amtgardians have their own player pages. Biographical information is allowed, but user pages should not function as personal webpages or be repositories for large amounts of material, especially that is irrelevant to Amtgard. If you are looking to make a personal webpage or blog or to post your résumé, please make use of one of the many free providers on the Internet or any hosting included with your Internet account. The focus of user pages should not be social networking, or amusement, but rather providing a historical record of the people of Amtgard.
• File storage areas. Please upload only files that are used (or will be used) in encyclopedia articles or personal pages; anything else will be deleted.
• Content for Amtgard-unrelated projects. Don't store material unrelated to Amtgard, including in userspace.

AmtWiki is not a soapbox or means of promotion

AmtWiki is not a soapbox, a battleground, or a vehicle for propaganda, advertising and showcasing. This applies to usernames, articles, categories, files, talk page discussions, templates, and user pages. Therefore, content hosted in AmtWiki is not for:

• Advocacy, propaganda, or recruitment of any kind: commercial, political, religious, or otherwise. An article can report objectively about such things, if within the scope of AmtWiki. You might wish to start a blog or visit a forum if you want to convince people of the merits of your opinions.
• Scandal mongering, promoting things "heard through the grapevine" or gossiping. Articles and content about people are required to meet an especially high standard, as they may otherwise be libellous or infringe the subjects' right to privacy. Articles must not be written purely to attack the reputation of another person.
• Advertising, marketing or public relations. Information about companies and products must be written in an objective and unbiased style, free of puffery. External links to commercial organizations are acceptable if they identify organizations which are the topic of the article. AmtWiki neither endorses organizations nor runs affiliate programs. Those promoting causes or events, or issuing public service announcements, even if noncommercial, should use a forum other than AmtWiki to do so.

AmtWiki is not a mirror or a repository of links, images, or media files

AmtWiki is neither a mirror, nor a repository of links, images, or media files. AmtWiki articles are not merely collections of:

• External links or Internet directories. There is nothing wrong with adding a few useful content-relevant links to the external links section of an article; however, excessive lists can dwarf articles and detract from the purpose of AmtWiki. On articles about garb, for example, it's appropriate to add links to free instructions detailing how to make the garb in question.
• Internal links, except for disambiguation pages when an article title is ambiguous, and for lists for browsing or to assist with article organization and navigation.
• Photographs or media files with no accompanying text.

AmtWiki is not a journal

Some people like to write roleplaying journals or texts concerning their Amtgard persona(s), or active roleplay between multiple personas. While such writings can add to the game of Amtgard, or help develop the persona biographies that are listed on player pages, these writings on their own are not appropriate content to be hosted on AmtWiki. Links to writings hosted outside of the wiki are appropriate content for player pages. In addition, players may include a "persona biography" on their own player page, in a similar vein to the player biography allotted in the player template.

AmtWiki is not censored

AmtWiki may contain content that some readers consider objectionable or offensive—​​even exceedingly so. Attempting to ensure that articles and images will be acceptable to all readers, or will adhere to general social or religious norms, is incompatible with the purposes of an encyclopedic wiki.

Content will be removed if it is judged to violate AmtWiki policies (especially those on biographies of players), the laws of the United States (where AmtWiki is hosted), or the rules of Amtgard Inc. itself (who owns the server space that the wiki is hosted on). However, since most edits are displayed immediately, inappropriate material may be visible to readers, for a time, before being detected and removed.

Some articles may include images, text, or links which are relevant to the topic but that some people find objectionable. Discussion of potentially objectionable content should usually focus not on its potential offensiveness but on whether it is an appropriate image, text, or link. Beyond that, "being objectionable" is generally not sufficient grounds for the removal or inclusion of content.

AmtWiki will not remove information or images concerning a non-Amtgard organization merely because that organization's rules or traditions forbid display of such information online. Such restrictions do not apply to AmtWiki, because AmtWiki is not a member of the organization.

Community

The above policies are about AmtWiki's content. The following policies apply to AmtWiki's governance and processes.

AmtWiki is not a free-for-all

AmtWiki is free and open, but restricts both freedom and openness where they interfere with creating an encyclopedia. AmtWiki is not a forum for unregulated free speech. The fact that AmtWiki is an open, self-governing project does not mean that any part of its purpose is to explore the viability of anarchist communities. Our purpose is to build an encyclopedia, not to test the limits of anarchism.

AmtWiki is not a democracy

AmtWiki is not an experiment in democracy or any other political system. Its primary (though not exclusive) means of decision making and conflict resolution is editing and discussion leading to consensus — not voting. Straw polls may sometimes used to test for consensus, but polls or surveys can impede, rather than foster, discussion and should be used with caution.

AmtWiki is not a bureaucracy

While AmtWiki has many elements of a bureaucracy, it is not governed by statute: it is not a quasi-judicial body, and rules are not the purpose of the community. Although some rules may be enforced, the written rules themselves do not set accepted practice. Rather, they document already existing community consensus regarding what should be accepted and what should be rejected.

While AmtWiki's written policies and guidelines should be taken seriously, they can be misused. Do not follow an overly strict interpretation of the letter of policy without consideration for the principles of policies. If the rules truly prevent you from improving the wiki, ignore them. Disagreements are resolved through consensus-based discussion, not by tightly sticking to rules and procedures. Furthermore, policies and guidelines themselves may be changed to reflect evolving consensus.

A procedural error made in a proposal or request is not grounds for rejecting that proposal or request.

A procedural, coding, or grammatical error in a new contribution is not grounds for reverting it, unless the error cannot easily be fixed.

AmtWiki is not a battlefield

Main article: Amtwiki:Etiquette

Despite being based on an organization created primarily to fight other people, AmtWiki is not itself a battlefield. AmtWiki is not a place to hold grudges, import personal conflicts, carry on ideological battles, or nurture prejudice, hatred, or fear. Making personal battles out of AmtWiki discussions goes directly against our policies and goals. In addition to avoiding battles in discussions, do not try to advance your position in disagreements by making changes to content or policies, and do not disrupt AmtWiki to illustrate a point.

AmtWiki is not compulsory

AmtWiki is a volunteer community and does not require editors to give any more time and effort than they wish. Focus on improving the encyclopedia itself, rather than demanding more from other editors. Editors are free to take a break or leave AmtWiki at any time without their lack of efforts resulting in punishment, though administrators might be required to seek out their admin rights after a long leave of absence.