Appropedia operates less by imposing strict rules, and more by encouraging voluntary guidelines which you can choose to follow. We believe that only a couple of strict rules are necessary, relating to how we treat others, and how we use the work of others.
You might see people doing things that are plainly not in accordance with these guidelines. Keep in mind that they may or may not still be well within the actual Appropedia policies and guidelines, and therefore, we encourage you to apply the be gracious guideline in those situations.
Code of conduct[edit | edit source]
These rules are adapted from Wikipedia's Ruleset. While most of Wikipedia's ruleset has been loosened to become Guidelines, due to the non-encyclopedic nature of Appropedia, some rules must be remain strict rules. The difference between these Rules and the Guidelines above is that straying from these rules is considered inappropriate and violations will be deleted.
- No personal attacks. Don't write that user such and so is an idiot, or insult him/her (even if (s)he is an idiot). Instead, explain what they did wrong, why it is wrong, and how to fix it. If possible, fix it yourself (but see above).
- Respect copyrights!. Appropedia encourages sharing all content with a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license. Please make sure that your contributions and uses of all content on Appropedia must be compatible with the licenses of works on Appropedia. This includes text, images and any other types of content.
- Be civil to other users at all times. Debates may become fervent, but respect the person. The other person may be wrong, but be kind.
While this is a common principle in wikis, in the Appropedia community we aim for a very high degree of cooperation and helpfulness.
Content creation[edit | edit source]
- Rigor. Our aim is to be factual, so evidence, analysis and science are encouraged. Evidence may include in-the-field experience, backed up by the agreement of other editors, but can also include the results of research and analysis.
- Neutral point of view (NPOV). Appropedia is supportive of appropriate technology and sustainable development, and we recognize articles will usually be written from a point of view that is sympathetic to these concepts. We encourage you to follow our content and format suggestions to know how to best express your personal point of view. Appropedia encourages the application of a NPOV depending on the type of content. For example:
- "How to" pages, for example, are usually easy to write from a NPOV by contributing information about different ways to do something.
- Project pages are usually written from a NPOV, but may have sections where the opinions of the creators are stated.
- Organization pages can benefit from having a NPOV to inform others and let them make their own decisions.
- Particularly, User pages are reasonable places to express opinions from a personal perspective.
- Follow Naming conventions. In short:
- Don't use capital letters, except for the very first letter (and that's automatic, anyway); except for proper names (people, places, organizations).
- For a project, use a specific name, e.g. Jodie Doe's water filter, not just Water filter.
Original content[edit | edit source]
Appropedia allows, welcomes and already hosts great amounts of original research. This is one of the main differences between Appropedia and Wikipedia.
While scientific rigor is encouraged, users are advised that articles are generally not peer reviewed. However, Appropedia has been shown to be a useful platform for open source research in sustainability.
What Appropedia is not[edit | edit source]
Appropedia is a wiki to document personal and organizational experiences and ideas to solve planetary issues. This page outlines some key aspects of what Appropedia does in this regard, and how we differ from other platforms.