Wiki Policy

Introduction

The wiki is a place where a large number of people can contribute to content generation and organization. In the ideal situation - a large messy hairball of input is organized into distilled, high quality content. An intricate process is required for this to happen, and it is the goal of this wiki policy to bring this about. A successfully-implemented wiki has the capacity to create order out of chaos - a capacity to self-organize under the guidance of clear procedures in the hands of wiki curators. For the OSE Wiki, please read the Crash Course to understand the underlying intentions.

Moderation Team

A moderation team is the core of a successful wiki. For best results, moderation roles should be defined and moderators should be identified.

Structuring

• Categorize pages using the official list of categories. Stick to these categories where possible; don't create new categories unless there is a real need.
• Categorize pages by putting that category's template at the top. At the top of a page about beekeeping, you would write {{Category=Beekeeping}}. This will do two things: insert a navigation menu at the top, and put the page in the appropriate wiki category.

Style guidelines

• Be direct and practical
  • Acronyms, jargon and neologisms.
  • Never use a long word or phrase where a short one will do.
  • If it is possible to cut a word out, cut it out.
  • Never use the passive where you can use the active (e.g. say "We built the house on Tuesday" rather than "The construction of the house took place on Tuesday".)
  • Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
  • Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
• When writing about measurements, list both imperial and metric values. List both farenheit and celcius for temperatures.