Project:Quickstart guide

The following serves as a quick start guide to editing and creating articles on Online Communipedia.

Note that any material below discussing policy is purposefully condensed and simplified. It may not properly represent the true breadth of the relevant policy, and as such said policy should be reviewed separately for the full picture.

Be bold

While Online Communipedia does not boast the scope, article breadth, and active participants of other wikis - such as the English Wikipedia - there are still content, conduct, and style policies that may be daunting or dissuading to read. While these policies do have to be followed, editors are not expected to understand or learn them at the start. Other editors exist that can correct any such errors; that's the whole point of a wiki editing system.

So, in short, BE BOLD! Write and edit articles in a manner that just feels intuitive to you, and if you decide to stick around, you'll come to understand the relevant policies naturally or through communication from editors.

Policies condensed

The following subsections go over policies that are immediately relevant to editing and creating articles. Other policies may also be at play, but not having at least a grasp of the following will confuse other editors, readers, and possibly even yourself.

Copyright

Do not plagiarize content as if it is your own, and ensure any written content falls under an applicable copyright license. Creative Commons is primarily used by Online Communipedia, and any content in the public domain is also free game. The usage of copyrighted written material under fair use, aside from quoting, is not permitted - even should the fair use rationale be sound. All written material used for an article must be attributed, even if the relevant license does not demand it (such as the public domain or CC0).

Media (e.g pictures, pdfs, audio files) must be under an applicable license or fall under fair use. Media used under a fair use rationale must be media used as a source, such as screenshots of forums or communications software, or be the logo of a community for the purposes of identification. Any other usage of copyrighted media under fair use is not permitted - even should the fair use rationale be sound.

Media used as sourcing may not be modified using 3rd party tools in any way, with the singular exception being organic cropping so that only relevant material is taken.

Content

Online Communipedia does not write articles about communities that are private. In the same vein, the project does not disseminate information about communities that is not available to a general member of that community, unless it is released by some 3rd party to the general membership or public.

It is often necessary for editors to synthesize information - or review sourcing, come to conclusions, and write it in the voice of Online Communipedia - as some information is rarely, if ever, spelled out by community leaders. This is most often used when discussing the policy and structure of communities. Synthesis is prohibited, however, when discussing particular events and community history. Such writing should be from a neutral point of view, and only ever report on information that is properly sourced.

For the purposes of sourcing information, statements made from staff members are presumed to be accurate when speaking about the community's own structure or activities.

If and/or when 2 or more editors enter a dispute as to the inclusion or presentation of information, either by using tools to undo the work of others or editing manually, it must be resolved through consensus or compromise. No editors exist which may arbitrate the contents of a page, including administrators of this project. The singular exception is the site operator, and they reserve the power for exceptional circumstances, and plan to relinquish if should the project ever increase in participation.

Editor conduct

Editors are expected to have civil discussion and refrain from personally attacking one another. Edit warring - or reversing the actions of other editors on a page continuously rather than seeking consensus or compromise - is prohibited. To facilitate the edit warring policy, editors are prohibited from performing more than 3 reverts on a single page (in any namespace) —whether involving the same or different material—within a 24-hour period.

The vandalism of pages, or edits that have the explicit intent to deface pages or obstruct the project's purpose, are prohibited and may be reverted on sight. Reverting vandalism is a notable exception to the 3-revert-rule mentioned above. However, editors must understand that edits that can be interpreted as trying to be helpful - or to test the software that runs this website - are NOT vandalism, even if they violate policy.