VassarWiki:An encyclopedia and more
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 an encyclopedia in a loose sense, a compendium of knowledge about Vassar. However, the term "encyclopedia" fails to encompass the community-building that is integral to the project.
VassarWiki is also not "Wikipedia for Vassar". There already is a Wikipedia for Vassar: Wikipedia. VassarWiki has a similar but distinct mission to Wikipedia, which can hopefully be 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, especially when an 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. |