VistApedia:Policies and Guidelines

OpenVistA Wiki has some policies that have been proposed by the administrators and generally accepted by the members. Please read through the policies below to familiarize yourself with our common practices and rules. If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page.

General Policies
Remember that above all else, OpenVistA Wiki is an information source about OpenVistA. It is a community that is solely devoted to the development of the OpenVistA database; it is not a chat room or discussion forum. The talk pages are specifically for discussing the writing of articles, and nothing else.

The following are general policies concerning the overall goals and functions of OpenVistA Wiki:


 * Editing policy: A guide on how to edit articles, and how to style them.
 * Naming conventions: How to name new articles.
 * Disambiguation: For potential article title conflicts.
 * Image use policy: On the rules for uploading images.
 * Copyrights: That unavoidable legalese...
 * Etiquette: Useful advice for when disagreements arise.
 * Deletion policy: For when deleting pages becomes necessary.
 * Redirect: On the rules for using redirects.

See also: Most common OpenVistA Wiki faux pas for some useful information for newcomers.

Enforcement
For day-to-day operations on OpenVistA Wiki, enforcement can be handled by the general membership. Simply pointing out each other's mistakes (politely, of course) is generally sufficient.

For problem cases, the administrators may intervene and enforce a policy, or temporarily lock a page to let things cool down.

In extreme and unusual cases, the project founders, will step in to ban a user who has proven to be unusually disruptive.

See also: Bans and blocks, Protection policy

General Guidelines

 * Contribute what you know or are willing to learn about (and create stubs responsibly)
 * Be bold in updating pages
 * Strive for community solutions
 * Build the web
 * Make omissions explicit

Behavior Guidelines

 * Sign your posts on talk pages
 * No personal attacks (and move personal debates to email)
 * Log in before making drastic changes to existing articles
 * No offensive usernames
 * Bans and blocks
 * Don't protect pages unless necessary
 * Be considerate to new members

Content Guidelines

 * Perfection is not required
 * Define and describe
 * Establish context (instead of presuming too much knowledge)
 * Explain jargon
 * Deal appropriately with patent nonsense
 * Check your facts
 * Cite your sources (and use proper references)
 * Make articles useful for readers (and consider the audience in writing)
 * Avoid blanket statements
 * Inform and entertain
 * Describe external links
 * Don't use external links where we'll want OpenVistA Wiki links
 * Avoid and fix stub articles
 * Use templates when appropriate.

Style Guidelines

 * Manual of Style
 * Don't include copies of primary sources
 * Avoid making your articles orphans
 * Always fill summary field
 * Follow highlighting conventions
 * Balance parts of a page
 * Do not use subpages
 * Consider writing articles in news style

Miscellaneous

 * Dealing with vandalism
 * Editing the main page
 * Editing MediaWiki namespace text