VassarWiki:About

What is VassarWiki?

A wiki is a collaboratively edited internet publication. While many wikis are encyclopedias, they don't have to be; the term describes a model of internet governance.

VassarWiki is simply a wiki for the Vassar College community. The aim of the project is to collectively organize and publicize community knowledge about Vassar. Think of VassarWiki like a digital commons.

Contributing

Who can contribute?

Anyone connected to Vassar can contribute! All you have to do is sign up with your Vassar email. If you're connected to Vassar but lack a Vassar email (e.g. alumni, former faculty), you must apply to have your account approved.

How can I contribute?

Once you register an account, click the "Edit" or "Edit source" button at the top of the page to use the visual editor or the "Edit source" button to use the source editor. Make whatever changes to the page you want, write a short edit summary, and save your changes.

It's recommended that you read policies and any relevant guidelines before you edit.

What kind of content is allowed?

VassarWiki is deliberately open-ended to adapt to community needs. There are a few main types of pages. If you feel limited by these types, please bring your concern to the village pump!

Encyclopedia pages

Encyclopedia pages are about things like student orgs, events, classes, departments, and college lore. Content should be written from a neutral point of view and reflect group consensus. All content here must be sourced (see the policy on sourcing).

Profiles

Unlike other pages, profiles can only be edited by the relevant individual. You can put anything in your profile, within reason (e.g. interests, projects, org memberships, essays / freeform content, contact information). No sourcing is required—the individual is the authority on their own page.

Chat pages

Every page has a corresponding chat page, where you can resolve disputes about page content or otherwise talk freely.

Categories

Pages can be assigned to multiple categories, to assist in navigation and organization. Categories are listed at the bottom of a page.

Project pages

Project pages deal with the governance of VassarWiki. These pages have the prefix "VassarWiki". Some notable project pages include:

• Village pump: Suggestions and discussions about improving this project
• Policies: Basic principles of the site
• Guidelines: Records of consensus regarding groups of pages (e.g. reliable sources, style)
• Reports: Policy violations should be reported and discussed here

Policies

Policies are the foundational principles of the site, established by community consensus. They should not be confused with guidelines, which are records of consensus regarding more specific issues.

Build consensus

Disputes over content should be discussed on the respective chat page and resolved through consensus. While voting can be utilized, it should not act as a replacement for discussion. If a dispute doesn't go your way, please respect the community's decision and move on.

Where there is a dispute and a consensus hasn't yet formed or cannot form, the page should remain at the status quo ante bellum. If this is for some reason especially untenable, please report the page and it will be dealt with by an administrator. Edit warring (reverting back and forth) is not tolerated (even if you're right).

Keep a trail

All content on encyclopedia pages must be sourced. Though content on other spaces is not required to be sourced, it is encouraged. By sourcing your edits, you help the project be tethered to reality and help readers find resources. Sources fall into three categories, listed in decreasing authority:

1. Reliable publications like external newspapers/journals, The Miscellany News, and official Vassar websites
2. Public statements by Vassar administration, departments, and VSA-recognized student organizations
3. Current or past Vassar individuals (including you!)

Please sign all messages on chat pages. When in the source editor, you can add your signature with four tildes (~); the visual editor should do this for you automatically.

To help page histories be navigable, please write a super short edit summary for each of your contributions.

Don't steal

All content on VassarWiki must be original or in the public domain. If you want to include a resource that is copyrighted, please link to it in an "External links" section. By contributing to VassarWiki, you release your contribution under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

VassarWiki is not censored

VassarWiki is not censored. As a result of this principle, negativity towards any subject is allowed. On encyclopedia pages, negative information must be verified by sources of types 1 or 2, and like all other pages, written from a neutral point of view. Content concerning living people is held to a higher standard than content about other subjects.

Don't be a jerk

Please be respectful and civil. Harassment, defamation, and privacy violations are not tolerated. Deliberately nonconstructive edits will be removed, and editors responsible may be permanently or temporarily suspended from editing VassarWiki.