Revision as of 15:06, 11 February 2013 by
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Our Agriwaterpedia is implicitly based on the Golden Rule that is known in all cultures and reads in its simplest form: Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you. No insults!
- No harassment! Any kind of discrimination is not tolerated on agriwaterpedia.
- Politeness: You might not be able to physically perceive your conversation partner. But be assured, it’s a human being just like you. So think twice if you would also say what you’re about to write.
- Clarity: Written communication always entails the risk of misunderstandings. Write in a clear and simple but precise style. Avoid ambiguities and make sure that your post can only be understood in the way you meant it.
- Cultural Differences: Remember that the recipient is a human being whose culture, language and humour have different points of reference from your own. Be especially careful with sarcasm.
- Appropriate wording: Your style and vocabulary should be appropriate for a wiki with the target group of development practitioners and other water or agriculture experts. As you’re dealing with professionals it is recommended to write in a concise and compact manner; in principle technical terms are welcomed. This however does not mean that newcomers to the field or interested non-professionals should be excluded: Always include short explanations the wider public.
- SCREAMING: In internet convention writing in capitals only is understood as screaming. Think twice before you scream, or at best: Don’t scream at all.
- Flaming: Users who deliberately insult others will be excluded from agriwaterpedia.
Readability
For the sake of readability please make sure you stick to certain writing conventions. This applies to articles, discussion posts, messages and all other contributions to agriwaterpedia.
- No spam! Please don’t use agriwaterpedia for advertising or other purposes.
- Orthography: Correct spelling and grammar helps other users to quickly and easily understand your point.
- Upper/lower case: Capital letters for the beginning of a sentence or proper nouns improve the clarity of your sentence and your text as a whole
- Syntax and punctuation: It’s really important to write proper sentences! Fragments can be confusing or even distorting. If possible, also apply punctuation rules.
- Keep it short: Drop information that is not necessary to understand your point. Avoid lengthy excursuses.
- Keep order: Avoid multiposting, cross-posting and off-topic posting.
- Colors and other highlighters: Colourful highlighting, boldface or italics are sometimes useful, but don’t exaggerate.
This is not an English exam: All in all, proper language is desired in agriwaterpedia. Spell-check programmes or add-ons are easily available and do the job fair enough.
All users are invited to improve the overall quality of agriwaterpedia by correcting grammatical, typographical or spelling mistakes as well as typos.
Confidentiality
It is in the very nature of a wiki that practically everybody can read articles and discussion forums. Most contributions are almost publicly available. Check who has access to the text you’re about to contribute before you post confidential information.
Legal Aspects
You always have to adhere to intellectual property rights!
- Copyright: Do not post other authors’ work without their permission.
- Citation: Make sure to properly quote others’ work.
