Thelemapedia:Editorial Policy

(Revision as of 00:39, 27 Jun 2005)

Thelemapedia is edited by the community. This means that issues such as factual accuracy, content, grammer, spelling, formatting, and completeness are left to the members to monitor and correct.

Table of contents

1 Primary Editorial Principles

2 Editorial Guidelines

3 Stewardship

4 Where to go from here

Primary Editorial Principles

Whenever executive editorial decisions have to be made on Thelemapedia, they will be based on the following primary principles:

Articles should be sympathetic with the principles, culture, practices, and beliefs of Thelema whenever possible.
Articles should promote clarity, accuracy, and the will to inform without distortion or fabrication.
Articles should reflect knowledge that is generally accepted in the Thelemic community, drawing from expert sources (especially Aleister Crowley) or common knowledge.

Editorial Guidelines

Respect others. Although entries should be made from a "Thelemic" point of view, this is not a platform for attacking people, tarnishing reputations, or insulting groups, religions, or ideas that do not conform to your own (e.g. we will not tolerate generic bashing of Christians or Wiccans, or "real OTO" fights). This principle is vigorously enforced. Persistent attacks will result in a ban.
Crowley comes first. Because Thelema is such a huge topic with countless interpretations and types of adherents, Thelemapedia has chosen to make its primary focus the works and philosophy of Aleister Crowley. Whenever there is a conflict or ambiguity regarding content between various beliefs or ideas, those of Crowley should take precedence. Naturally, this will not be applicable in all places, especially when dealing with a subject with which he had no opinion or knowledge. Another example might be an article which itself contains an inherently non-Crowley POV. After Crowley should come expert writers who are highly sympathetic with Crowley, such as Israel Regardie, Jack Parsons, or Sabazius.
Avoid writing in the first person. Articles should be written from a neutral point of view. No article should contain phrases like, "I believe..." or "I have found that...". Look over current articles to get a feel for the writing style suitable for Thelemapedia.
This is an OTO-friendly site. Thelemapedia is hosted by Scarlet Woman Lodge, an OTO body, and so naturally we discourage OTO-bashing (or the bashing of any order). However, we strongly encourage non-OTO contributors. Furthermore, we welcome contributions that might not be in line with standard OTO positions, as long as they are thoughtful, unbiased, and have a strong basis in fact or common consensus.
Do not discuss items under seal. Because the world of Thelema includes initiatory orders, do not openly post information revealed within initiations or under oath, even if you feel you are justified to do so. However, with proper tact, you may discuss something that is considered secret if it is done completely out of context. Do so with great caution.
Create Stubs responsibly. A stub is a new entry that has very little by way of content. Please make stubs only when there is a good reason, such as a topic that you feel strongly should exist, but you are not prepared to write yourself. When you do, be sure to write {{stub}} at the top of the edit box.
Avoid profanity. This is not so much about offending others as it is about content. Profanity tends to be an expression of personal opinion, rather than fact or general consensus.
Make omissions explicit. While you should try to make articles as complete as possible, if you leave something out, let that be known. Two suggestions: leave an HTML comment in the page or make a note on the discussion page for that entry.
Avoid reverting and deleting. Amend, edit, and discuss.
Do not sign your articles. But DO sign your posts on discussion pages by typing three tildes.
Learn good etiquette. For a complete discussion, we strongly recommend reading the Wikipedia Etiquette Page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiquette). Those who are persistantly aggressive, abusive, insulting, uncooperative with fellow editors, or create a negative or hostile environment will eventually be banned.
Try not to delete useful content. Just because something is written poorly doesn't mean it lacks a purpose. Consider what a sentence or paragraph tries to say. Clarify it instead of throwing it away. If the topic seems not to belong where it stands, consider moving the wayward material to another page, or creating a new page; otherwise, it's usually best to move it to the article's "Talk" page, which can be accessed using the "Discuss this page" button. Whoever wrote the text must have thought it valuable, so it's polite to preserve it somewhere.
We recommend reading Wikipedia's Content Guidelines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Policies_and_guidelines#Content_guidelines).

Stewardship

Although Thelemapedia is largely maintained by its editor membership, there are those who are responsible for the general integrity of the site as a whole. Such members are called Stewards. Editorially, they have no more authority than any other site member, and are equally bound to Thelemapedia editorial policies. At the same time, they do have special security privileges which they use to enforce policy when necessary. For example, they have the ability to protect and delete pages, block and ban users, and delete obvious vandalism. More than that, they are available for dispute mediation and as a source of assistance, essentially providing guidance and leadership within the Thelemapedia community.

See the Stewardship page for information on duties and privileges. Any editor may apply for Stewardship.

Stewards reserve the right to:

Accept new memberships, deny new memberships, ban users, and delete accounts without explanation. Banning and eliminating accounts are done only as a last resort.
Protect articles from changes.
Control all aspects of the functionality of Thelemapedia, including (but not limited to) navigation, the categorization system, and namespaces.
Rule on editorial content requirements that are global.
Change, eliminate, or add to existing Thelempedia policies.

Where to go from here

Where to start Read this if you are having trouble with getting started
Really Simple Tutorial A friendly guide to all the basics
Editorial Policy Basic policies regarding content and behavior on Thelemapedia
How to Contribute A quick start primer for adding content to Thelemapedia
Wiki Markup Full list of all the formatting code, including text, images, sections, and links
Article Basics Find out how to write a great article
Common Sources How to cite sources (including short libers), and a list of common books in reference format
Projects Page List of needed articles organized by general topic
What Thelemapedia is not
Thelemapedia Power Structure Who's in charge
Characters How to use Greek and Hebrew letters in your article
Using Images How to upload and use images in your Thelemapedia articles
Dispute Resolution What to do when the fighting breaks out
List of boilerplate templates Automatic text messages, like the "stub" line
Comprehensive Wikipedia Help Pages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents) Everything there is to know about using a wiki

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