Policies and Community Rules

On the Need for Policies and Rules

In order to maintain a dictionary that is useful to translators and students, we have to establish a certain level of trust in the information provided here and that means having policies that ensure that users are not spreading false or misleading information.

We must seek to maintain a certain level of professionalism and integrity so that people can trust the information provided here.

Wikipedia has developed extensive guides, rules, and policies, as well as a system for handling disputes. In general, we can follow those guidelines here. However, there are some differences as this website can only be edited by people who have been given a login and is not open to any member of the public to edit. If you wish to apply for a login to make contributions, please email research at tsadra dot org.

Below is a list of policies and guidelines that has been copied from Wikipedia and lightly edited to reflect the Dharma Dictionary's community of translators.

No Self-Promotion

This wiki is about sharing information useful for translators and students of Tibetan Buddhist texts. It is NOT a blog or social media website. It is NOT for promoting one's own work, generating money, creating jobs, or any other activities related to generating wealth for oneself. Please act with integrity and with a genuine motivation to help others. If you are found to be regularly engaging in self-promotion, you may risk being removed from the website entirely.

Three-Strikes Rule

1. Upon the first infraction of any of the community rules or policies you will receive an official first warning via email, detailing the infraction.
2. If you continue to make edits that are misrepresenting information or otherwise breaking the rules of conduct, we will send a second warning detailing the offenses. At this second stage, we may change your offending contributions and/or add a warning next to your contributions and user page notifying users that this information is suspect. If you attempt to disturb the content of the dictionary, the website itself, or the project in any way, administrators will take action.
3. If after a second warning you continue any actions that misrepresent, reduce the quality of, or veracity of the information on the website, or otherwise disturb the quality contributions of other users, your user will be deleted from the website entirely and you will not be allowed to make further edits. Furthermore, your previous edits will be reviewed and if significant problems are found, all of your contributions to the website will be permanently removed.

For further guidelines and suggestions for how to contribute to this wiki, please see Wikipedia's Policies and especially their behavioral guidelines.

Conduct

Civility

Rudeness or insensitivity, whether intentional or not, can distract from and interfere with our work. If reasoned discussion breaks down, a dispute resolution forum may be created by contacting the administrators of this website.

Consensus

Consensus among equals is the main tool for resolving content disputes on Wikipedia.

Dispute resolution

The first step to resolving any dispute is to talk to those who disagree with you using the talk pages on the wiki. If that fails, there are more structured forms of discussion available.

Edit warring

If someone challenges your edits, discuss it with them and seek a compromise, or seek dispute resolution. Do not start fights over competing views and versions. Reverting any part of any single page more than three times in twenty-four hours, or even once if long-term edit-warring is apparent, can result in a block on your account.

Editing policy

Improve pages wherever you can, and don't worry about leaving them imperfect. It is advisable to explain major changes.

Harassment

Do not stop other editors from enjoying this wiki by making threats, nitpicking good-faith edits to different articles, repeated annoying and unwanted contacts, repeated personal attacks or posting personal information.

No personal attacks

Do not make personal attacks anywhere. Comment on the content, not on the contributor. Personal attacks damage the community and deter editors.

Ownership of content

Pages that you create and edit belong to the community. Others can and often do mercilessly edit "your" material.

Sock puppetry

Do not use multiple accounts to create the illusion of greater support for an issue, to mislead others, or to circumvent a block. Do not ask your friends to create accounts to support you or anyone.

Username policy

Choose a neutral username with which you will be happy. You can usually change your name if you need to by asking, but you cannot delete it.

Vandalism

Vandalism is any addition, deletion, or change to content made in a deliberate attempt to compromise the integrity of the encyclopedia. It is inappropriate behavior for an online encyclopedia.

Assume good faith

This is what Wikipedia has to say:

• Unless there is clear evidence to the contrary, assume that people who work on the project are trying to help it, not hurt it.
• If criticism is needed, discuss editors' actions, but avoid accusing others of harmful motives.

Assuming good faith (AGF) is a fundamental principle on Wikipedia. It is the assumption that editors' edits and comments are made in good faith. Most people try to help the project, not hurt it. If this were untrue, a project like Wikipedia would be doomed from the beginning. This guideline does not require that editors continue to assume good faith in the presence of obvious evidence to the contrary (e.g. vandalism). Nor does assuming good faith prohibit discussion and criticism. Rather, editors should not attribute the actions being criticized to malice unless there is specific evidence of such.

When disagreement occurs, try as best you can to explain and resolve the problem, not cause more conflict, and so give others the opportunity to reply in kind. Consider whether a dispute stems from different perspectives, and look for ways to reach consensus.

When doubt is cast on good faith, continue to assume good faith yourself when possible. Be civil and follow dispute resolution procedures, rather than attacking editors or edit-warring with them. If you wish to express doubts about the conduct of fellow Wikipedians, please substantiate those doubts with specific diffs and other relevant evidence, so that people can understand the basis for your concerns. Although bad conduct may seem to be due to bad faith, it is usually best to address the conduct without mentioning motives, which might intensify resentments all around.

Be careful about citing this principle too aggressively. Just as one can incorrectly judge that another is acting in bad faith, so too can one mistakenly conclude that bad faith is being assumed; exhortations to "Assume Good Faith" can themselves reflect negative assumptions about others.

Hanlon's Razor

Hanlon's razor is a principle or rule of thumb that states "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity". Known in several other forms, it is a philosophical razor that suggests a way of eliminating unlikely explanations for human behavior.

Behavioral Guidelines

Conflict of interest

Do not use Wikipedia to promote yourself, your website, your mixtape, or your organization.

Disruptive editing

Participants with a pattern of edits that has the effect of disrupting progress toward improving an article or the fundamental project of building an encyclopedia may be blocked or banned indefinitely.

Do not disrupt this wiki to illustrate a point

State your point. However, do not spam the Dharma Dictionary, disingenuously nominate articles for deletion, push rules to their limits, or otherwise create work for other people just to prove your point.

Etiquette

Contributors have different views, perspectives, and backgrounds, sometimes varying widely. Treating others with respect is key to collaborating effectively in building an encyclopedia.

Signatures

Sign all of your posts on Wikipedia talk pages by typing MarcusPerman (talk) 22:28, 6 July 2021 (UTC) to be accountable and to help others understand the conversation, but do not sign in articles.

Talk page guidelines

Talk pages are for polite discussion serving to improve the encyclopedia, and should not be used to express personal opinions on a subject.

User pages

You can use your user page to add a little information about yourself or to help you to use the website more effectively. However, remember that this is not a blog, webspace provider, or social networking site.

Other behavioural guidelines

Appealing a block

A block is not a punishment but a way to prevent disruption. Blocked users should understand the reasons for the block and convince administrators that they won't disrupt the project if they are unblocked.

Canvassing

When notifying other editors of discussions, keep the number of notifications small, keep the message text neutral, and don't preselect recipients according to their established opinions. Be open!

Gaming the system

Playing games with policies and guidelines in order to avoid the spirit of consensus, or thwart the intent and spirit of policy, is strictly forbidden.

Linking to external harassment

Links that contain privacy violations or malicious harassment should be avoided. Links in articles are a matter for sound editorial judgement.

Responding to threats of harm

Threats of harm (including self-harm) should be treated seriously and reported to the administrators immediately.

Responding to discrimination

Discrimination of any kind should be treated seriously and reported to the administrators immediately.