VassarWiki:About: Difference between revisions

{{Consensus|status=consensus}}

Our existing communication tools weren't built for college life. Emails are overwhelming and easy to miss, official sites only push information from the top down, and social media is manipulated by corporate algorithms. These tools fail because they don't reflect the fluidity and collaboration of communities. This is why we are building Vassar a [[Wikipedia:Wiki|wiki]]: a website that is collaboratively edited and governed by its users.<ref group="note">While many wikis are encyclopedias, they don't have to be. VassarWiki was created to be [[VassarWiki:An encyclopedia and more|an encyclopedia and more]].</ref> 

'''VassarWiki''' is a common space for the Vassar community to share and organize knowledge about Vassar life. Any community member can contribute, so keeping up to date is a shared effort instead of an individual burden. And as a persistent resource, VassarWiki is building an institutional memory that survives the four-year student turnover cycle.   

 

If you want to help us, you should contribute! All you need is five minutes and something worth sharing.  

You can edit a page by clicking the "Edit" button by a section or at the top of the page. You can either use the visual editor (recommended if you're new to editing, but more resource-intensive and slightly less capable) or switch to the source editor on the upper-right. Make whatever changes to the page you want, write a short edit summary, and save your changes. If your changes are non-controversial and superficial (e.g. fixing typos or minor formatting), click the minor edit button before saving your changes.  

You can [[VassarWiki:Creating a page|create a page]] by going to [[Special:EditPage]] and entering your desired title, or clicking a red link with the desired title (on desktop, you can find one by searching it). 

* '''Articles''' can be about things like [[:Category:Student orgs|student orgs]], events, classes, departments, and college lore. Content should be written from a neutral third-person point of view<ref group="note">but by no means soulless!</ref> and [[VassarWiki:Policies|be sourced when possible]].

* Every contributor has [[VassarWiki:User pages|'''user pages''']] that only they can edit. You can put pretty much anything on your user pages (e.g. interests, projects, org memberships, essays or freeform content, contact information).

There are a few other types of pages as well:

* Every page has a corresponding '''talk page''', where you can resolve disputes about page content or otherwise talk freely about that page's subject.

* '''[[VassarWiki:Categories|Categories]]''' are assigned to pages to assist in navigation and organization. They are listed at the bottom of a page.

* '''[[VassarWiki:Templates|Templates]]''' are pages designed for inclusion in other pages.

* '''[[VassarWiki:Files|Files]]''' like images, videos, and audio files, can be embedded in pages. Files should almost be uploaded to [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:UploadWizard Wikimedia Commons], where they will be released to the public domain.

* [[VassarWiki:Project pages|'''Project pages''']] (those with the prefix "VassarWiki") deal with the governance and maintenance of VassarWiki.

Please read and understand VassarWiki [[VassarWiki:Policies|policies]] before you edit. It's encouraged that you read any relevant [[VassarWiki:Guidelines|guidelines]] before you edit, but there is no need to be an expert.

Contributions generally don't require prior approval,<ref group="note">The exception to this rule is the group of project pages meant to reflect consensus. On such pages, a new consensus should be established on their talk pages before edits are made. </ref> so if you think you can improve this project, '''be bold''' and make the edit! If there's an issue with your contribution, another user can revert it and you can discuss on a talk page if needed.

'''[[VassarWiki:Policies|Policies]]''' are the site's foundational principles that all contributors must follow. Put simply, contributors should:  

* Leave a trail of citations, edit summaries, and talk page signatures

* Not publish copyrighted work here

'''[[VassarWiki:Guidelines|Guidelines]]''' are records of best practices in content and behavior. While there is no need to be an expert on guidelines when starting out, contributors should generally defer to and attempt to follow them.

 

Like everything on VassarWiki, policies and guidelines are established by community consensus and can evolve.

VassarWiki adopts a collective governance model, where decisions are made through deliberation and consensus-building. The weight of each contributor's voice should be evaluated by the strength of their argument.

Certain technical actions require their access be limited to a smaller group of contributors called [[VassarWiki:Administrators|administrators]], who remain bound to community consensus and are not given any precedence in disputes.  

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