VassarWiki:About
Welcome to VassarWiki, a wiki for the Vassar College community!
A wiki is a collaboratively edited website. While many wikis are encyclopedias, they don't have to be. The aim of VassarWiki is to collectively share and organize information about Vassar, connecting our community and building a shared institutional memory.
Getting started
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, you must apply to have your account approved. (This process is currently not established yet.)
How can I contribute?
Once you register an account, click the "Edit" button. You can either use the visual editor (recommended for new editors) 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 only contain superficial differences (e.g. fixing typos or minor formatting errors), click the minor edit button before saving your changes.
If you want to create a page, search the name of the page you want and click the red link. You may want to use a template to get started.
What can I contribute?
Contributions generally don't require prior approval, so be bold! If there's an issue with your edit, another editor can revert it and you can discuss on a talk page. It's recommended that you read and understand VassarWiki policies and any relevant guidelines before you edit.
What belongs on VassarWiki?
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. Unlike other pages, all content here must be sourced (see the policy on sourcing).
User pages
Unlike other pages, user pages 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).
Project pages
Project pages (those with the prefix "VassarWiki") deal with the governance and maintenance of VassarWiki. Some notable project pages include:
- VassarWiki:Improvements: Suggestions and discussions about improving this project should be held here.
- VassarWiki:Guidelines: Records of consensus that contributors should attempt to follow are kept here.
- VassarWiki:Reports: Policy violations should be reported and discussed here.
- VassarWiki:Help: Reach out with questions here! The page also includes a directory to guides made by other contributors.
All project pages should be listed with Template:Consensus to indicate whether the page reflects an established consensus, a proposal under consideration, or the position of a specific group or individual.
Talk pages
Every page has a corresponding talk 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.
Templates
Templates can be
Policies
Policies are foundational principles of the site. They should always be followed. Policies are established by community consensus.
They should not be confused with guidelines, which are records of consensus that contributors should attempt to follow, generally regarding more specific issues.
Build consensus
Disputes over content should be discussed on the respective talk 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 (the status quo before the conflict). 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).
Leave a trail
Please sign all messages on talk pages. The visual editor should do this for you automatically on talk pages. When in the source editor, you can add your signature with four tildes (~).
To help page histories be navigable, please write a short edit summary for each of your contributions.
References
All content on encyclopedia pages must be sourced with in-line references.[1] While you are not required to source content on other spaces, it is encouraged.
References can be brief, and they don't have to be in any citation style. If possible, link the sources to the relevant VassarWiki page or external website. By sourcing your edits, you help tether the project to reality and help readers find external resources.
Sources fall into three categories, listed in decreasing authority:
- Reliable publications like external newspapers/journals, The Miscellany News, and official Vassar websites
- Public statements by Vassar administration, departments, and VSA-recognized student organizations
- Current or past Vassar individuals (including you!)
It's super easy to add references! On the visual editor, click the "Cite" button. On the source editor, click the book with a ribbon or write the reference content between <ref> and </ref>.
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.[2]
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.
Conduct
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.
Unless there is clear evidence to the contrary, assume that fellow contributors are here in good faith to improve the project.
Administration
VassarWiki adopts a collective governance model, which means it has no single owner or leader. However, certain technical actions require their access to be limited to a smaller group of contributors. Administrators are contributors who have been granted the ability to perform special actions on VassarWiki, including:
- suspending users for policy violations
- approving prospective contributors who lack a vassar.edu email
- deleting and restoring pages
Administrators are not given any precedence in content disputes (unless the dispute involves a legal issue).
Anyone can apply to be an administrator. While there are no official requirements, candidates should have a track record of constructive editing. Applications to be an administrator are approved by consensus through community discussion. Administrators who abuse their authority should be reported.
See also
References
- ↑ Like this one!
- ↑ See VassarWiki:Disclaimer