VassarWiki:About
Welcome to VassarWiki, a wiki for the Vassar College community!
Put simply, a wiki is a collaboratively edited website.[1] While many wikis are encyclopedias, they don't have to be. VassarWiki was created to be an encyclopedia and more. It's a space for the Vassar community to collectively share and organize information—building a persistent institutional memory and bridging otherwise isolated corners of our campus.
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.edu email, you have to apply to have your account approved.
How do I contribute?
Once you register an account, click the "Edit" button by a section or at the top of the page. 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, but there is no need to be an "expert" when you start.
VassarWiki is deliberately open-ended to adapt to community needs. There are a few main types of 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 be sourced.
- Every contributor has a user page that only they can edit. You can put pretty much anything on your user page (e.g. interests, projects, org memberships, essays or freeform content, contact information).
- Project pages (those with the prefix "VassarWiki") deal with the governance and maintenance of VassarWiki.
Other types of pages:
- Every page has a corresponding talk page, where you can resolve disputes about page content or otherwise talk freely about that page's subject.
- Categories are assigned to pages to assist in navigation and organization. They are listed at the bottom of a page.
- Templates are pages designed for inclusion in other pages.
- Files like images, videos, and audio files, can be embedded in pages. Files should almost be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, where they will be released to the public domain.
If you feel limited by these page types, feel free to suggest a new one!
Policies and guidelines
Policies are the site's foundational principles and should always be followed. Like everything on VassarWiki, they are established by community consensus. Put simply, editors should:
- Build and respect consensus when disputes arise
- Leave a trail of citations, edit summaries, and talk page signatures
- Not publish copyrighted work here
- Not censor information they don't like
- Be civil and assume other contributors come in good faith
Guidelines are records of consensus that contributors should attempt to follow, generally regarding more specific issues.
Governance
VassarWiki adopts a collective governance model, where decisions are made through deliberation and consensus-building. 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 administrators. These actions include suspending users, deleting and restoring pages, and approving prospective contributors lacking a vassar.edu email. Administrators remain bound to community consensus and are not given any precedence in disputes.
Anyone can apply to be an administrator. While there are no official requirements, candidates should have a track record of constructive editing. (Given how new the wiki is, feel free to immediately apply if you're interested.) Applications to be an administrator are approved following community discussion. Administrators who abuse their authority should be reported.