VassarWiki:An encyclopedia and more

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This page is a proposal under discussion.

Most people have only been exposed to wikis through reading Wikipedia, or perhaps a fan wiki like the Minecraft wiki. As a result, many people erroneously believe that "wiki" is just another term for an online encyclopedia. The term "wiki" describes any website collaboratively edited and managed by its audience through a web browser. As a result, wikis are able to serve a variety of purposes beyond encyclopedias, including collective note-taking, code documentation, and project management.

VassarWiki aims to primarily serve as a way to share knowledge among the Vassar community. As such, it can be viewed as an encyclopedia in a loose sense, since it's a compendium of knowledge about Vassar. However, the term "encyclopedia" fails to encompass the community-building that is integral to the project—hence "an encyclopedia and more".

VassarWiki is also not Wikipedia for Vassar. There already is a Wikipedia for Vassar: Wikipedia. VassarWiki has a similar but distinct mission to Wikipedia, hopefully made clear through the table below:

	VassarWiki	Wikipedia
Purpose	To facilitate the sharing and organization of knowledge for/about the Vassar community, archiving it along the way. It serves as a host for primary, secondary, and tertiary sources.	To organize and archive the world's knowledge in an encyclopedia, a tertiary source.
Scope	Inclusion is contingent on being somehow related to Vassar College, whether that's campus life, history, scholarship, or something else. There is no "notability" requirement for inclusion.	Inclusion is contingent on notability, generally determined through inclusion in reliable sources. Subjects in any domain can be written on, within limits.
POV	Articles are written from a neutral point of view, but non-neutral content on user pages is encouraged.	All articles are written from a neutral point of view.
Tone	As of June 9, 2026, there are no guidelines on tone for articles. User page content can be written in any tone.	Articles are written in a formal, impersonal, and dispassionate tone.
Audience	Articles are written primarily to the Vassar community. This is especially the case when an encyclopedia (e.g. Wikipedia, Vassar Encyclopedia) article on that subject already exists.	Articles are written to a global audience.
Sources	Content should generally be accompanied by sources of many types. Reliability is considered in an expansive sense that includes oral history; the comparative reliability of sources is considered when resolving content disputes. "Original research" is allowed, but must be designated as such through sourcing.	All content must be supported by sources deemed reliable by the community. Original research is not allowed on articles.

See also

• VassarWiki:About