The following outlines the general principles and policies for contributing content to Wikibon and editing existing articles.

PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS PAGE UNLESS YOU ARE A SYSOP

Objective

The main goal of Wikibon content is to provide How-to knowledge. Content describing what something is and how it works is acceptable and often desirable, however Wikibon encourages providing links to external sources if this information is readily available. By "How-to" Wikibon means implementation advice, guidelines, metrics and rules-of-thumb.

Professional Alerts (aka opinions) are by definition less how-to oriented, however authors are encouraged to provide implementation advice within opinion articles.

Sign in

Users are encouraged to sign in when editing or authoring articles. While not necessary, this practice allows attribution for work and helps resolutions to disputes.

Objectivity

Wikibon authors are strongly asked to maintain objectivity at all times. Preferential treatment to clients or products represented by community members is discouraged and will ultimately be vetted by the community. The goal of Wikibon is to inform, advise and independently assess, please adhere to this important policy and help make the Wikibon brand associated with utmost integrity.

Respect for all Community Members

Please remember that Wikibon is comprised of a wide array of talented individuals with varying degrees of experience. Everyone has something to contribute and everyone can experience ongoing learning. Please respect the dignity of each individual member and help a peer grow.

Originating Author

If you are starting a note, please sign in and sign your work by entering "Originating Author:" and signing three tildas (~). We are working on automating this process and will have more news here shortly. In the meantime please place this attribution at the start of each article.

Editing Notes

Please sign in before editing works. While not necessary it is helpful to track changes and resolve disputes. Editing/correcting facts and spelling errors is strongly encouraged. As well, correcting technical innacuracies is also encouraged. Wikibon asks you be careful about editing opinions, changing the tone of articles and substantively altering the central conclusions or premise of a piece. It is requested that prior to making such major changes you initiate a discussion on the 'Discussion' tab. Please succintly summarize your views and request feedback from trusted community members.

Conflict Resolution

If an Originating Author and editor cannot agree on a resultion then the community has the final say via a vote. The Originating Author is responsible for managing the feedback process and moderating the discussion. The Originating Author may designate a volunteer to take the lead. If the Originating Author is unable or unwilling to provide this service in an expedient fashion then the editor may request to take the lead role. Once such a request is made on the discussion board the Originating Author has 24 hours to respond and either take or relinquish the lead role. If no response is logged the lead automatically converts to the editor.

The lead will summarize the issues and solicit feedback from the community. There is no fixed time limit for submitting feedback but leads are asked to work diligently to resolve outstanding conflicts in an expedient manner. Any lead or sysop may call a community vote after the issues have been documented and vetted for at least 48 hours. Votes will be handled on an issue-by-issue basis and majority rules. Votes are binding but may be revisited if new information is presented that may substantively change the opinion of the community.

Writing Diverging Opinions

Contributors may sometimes feel it is necessary to write a diverging opinion. This is acceptable if it provides new information to the issue at hand. Each 'competing' note should reference the other. Ultimately the community will strive for concensus. Any sysop or lead can recommend deletion of a note and initiate a corresponding discusssion. If a note is recommended for deletion a discussion will ensue and the community will vote to 'keep' or 'delete' the note.

Malicious Behavior

Malicious behavior in the form of vandalism, purposefully providing false information or other willful acts of disruption will not be tolerated. Please adhere to the Wikibon Terms of Service. Members who willfuly engage in such activities will be permanently banned from participating in Wikibon.

Freezing Notes

When the community deems a note has been fully vetted and the issues have been adequately examined a note may be frozen. This is done for two reasons:

1. The note is stable and deemed to reflect the most current thinking of the community
2. The note is controversial and parties are unable to resolve conflicts in a civlized manner

A note can be unfrozen by requesting a sysop review the status of a note.