Guidelines are not set in stone and should be treated with common sense and the occasional exception. Policies are more official and less likely to have exceptions.

These guidelines are adapted from Wikipedia's Ruleset to Appropedia's goal of being a living library serving as encyclopedia, textbook, how-to manual and project repository. The main difference between these Guidelines and the Rules below is that straying from these guidelines is not always considered inappropriate.

  • Be bold! in updating pages. Go ahead, it's a wikiW! Encourage others, including those who disagree with you, likewise to be bold!
  • Be civil to other users at all times.
  • Ignore all guidelines!.W Don't worry! If you just want to add some useful information to an article in a commonsense way, do so. On the other hand, if someone shows you that there is an established and sensible way to do something, please ignore this rule and listen to that person.
  • (But) When in doubt, take it to the talk page. We have all the time in the world. Mutual respect is the guiding behavioral principle of Appropedia and, although everyone knows that their writing may be edited mercilessly, it is easier to accept changes if the reasons for them are understood. If you discuss changes on the article's talk (or discussion) page before you make them, you should reach consensus faster and happier.
  • Decent edit summaries and clear and transparent explanations are universally appreciated. Other editors need to understand your process, and it also helps you yourself to understand what you did after a long leave of absence from an article. Please state what you changed and why. If the explanation is too long, elucidate on the discussion page. It is a current policy of Appropedia that anyone may edit articles without registering, so there may be a lot of changes to watch; edit summaries simplify this.
  • Assume good faith; in other words, try to consider the person on the other end of the discussion is a thinking, rational being who is trying to positively contribute to Appropedia — unless, and only unless, you have firm, solid, and objective proof to the contrary. Merely disagreeing with you is no such proof.
  • Particularly, avoid reverting good faith edits. Reverting is a little too powerful sometimes, hence the three-revert rule. Resist the temptation, unless you're reverting very obvious vandalism (like "LALALALAL*&*@#@THIS_SUXX0RZ", or someone changing "6+5*2=16" to "6+5*2=17") or very clearly wrong information. If you really can't stand something, revert once, with a edit summary politely explaining why. Perhaps something like "(rv) I disagree strongly, I'll explain why in the Talk page." and immediately take it to the Talk page.
  • Be gracious: Be liberal in what you accept, be conservative in what you do. Try to accommodate other people's quirks as best you can, but try to be as polite, solid and straightforward as possible yourself.
  • Less is more - Remember the KISS principle: keep it simple, stupid!
  • Better done than perfect
  • Aim for a single source of truth and don't repeat yourself!
  • Help info should be in context, where it's most needed!

See also[edit | edit source]

External links[edit | edit source]

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