Bahai9:Site rules
From Bahai9
The following is to be a list of some principles, some directly Writings-based, others we have derived, to help create a loving and courteous environment for collaboration which includes and links to information about the Bahá'í Faith in an accurate, efficient, and Covenant-centered manner.
Contents |
BPOV
Pages at this site are to (try to) speak from the point of view of the Bahá'í Faith (BPOV). Opinions and interpretations, as long as they are not manifestly in contradiction (in letter or spirit) with the Bahá'í Writings and authoritative interpretations from its Central Institutions, are welcome, though on non-user pages, they should only briefly be mentioned (and they should be indicated as being only individual opinion); any extended discussion can be added via a link to an individual user page or any subpages the user wishes to add which discuss the topic in question. Although there is inherently some interpretation involved in summarizing, outlining, or even collecting quotations together, these approaches (when providing links to the original source quotations (see tips on citing the Bahá'í Writings)) will hopefully ensure that this wiki site can offer as well-organized and faithful a collection of guidance as is possible for us to achieve, without the interposition of personalities and layers of conjecture. Although attempts at BPOV should not contradict NPOV (neutral point of view) as is used at sites such as Wikipedia in the sense of being dispassionate in the examination of a subject, whether spiritual, intellectual, or material, in that true Bahá'í belief will not contradict true science and reality or the independent pursuit of truth (of whatever type), the Bahá'í Writings also make clear that such investigation (of whatever type), if it is to be successful, should (and indeed can only effectively) be done through the enlightenment of the Divine Educator and Teachings. Also, it is a manifest contradiction for avowed Bahá'ís (whose central belief is the acceptance of Bahá'u'lláh as a Divinely-guided Prophet Who has also set up Divine institutions to succeed Him) to accept the dogma of scholarly agnosticism when the tenets of the Faith speak against it (and its biases), so being "neutral" in such a sense, or in a sense of failing to be impassioned about virtues and principles such as justice or lacking the desire to identify with or bring others under the unifying influence of its Teachings, etc., is not possible for Bahá'ís according to its own Teachings (though non-Bahá'í supporters of this wiki site are quite welcome, if they wish, to contribute to the site, according to their consciences, in joining us in describing the history or tents of our Faith (if they can respect such principles)).
Be bold but courteous
Don't fear taking the initiative in making organizational changes or additions. Prior versions of the page will remain accessible, and if you make any errors and accidentally delete some work, it is fairly easy to revert back to a prior version. Of course, for courtesy's sake, before deleting significant portions of another's work (or even anything at all--see below), you may wish to add a question/comment about it on the page or to the "Talk:" page for the article and add your comments there.
Move more often than Remove
Be sensitive about removing any data. Just because we do not see the relevance of something or think it is not useful does not of course mean that others will feel the same. If someone has taken the time to add some data, unless it is manifestly erroneous, for courtesy's sake, please do not remove it, even if (or especially if) you are simultaneously adding other data. These files do not take up that much space, so having a page on site which we do not feel is that essential should be all right, as long as the page is not irreverent or misleading. We can, however, move data which could become distracting to the page at hand, onto another wiki page and link to it from the existing page. If there is any doubt, however, it is always safer to first consult on the article's corresponding "Discuss:" page (you may need to first add a link to the new Discuss page if none exists; see the HomePage for details). After all, we are to "consult in all things" (Consultation (compilation), no. 17).
Provide links for all references
To enable readers to verify the authenticity of a passage and to gain easy access to its context, as much as possible, please try to link readers directly to the page (or paragraph) in question when adding passages from or links to the Bahá'í Writings. Read more on how to do this here.
Follow the formatting conventions of the site
Please try to follow the conventions set up on most pages (e.g., indent quotation citations).
Include links to new pages from various entry points of the main page
The various categorization schemes regularly overlap, so new pages should, as appropriate, ideally be linked to from each major type of categorization.
Link back to Wikipedia, etc.
Consistent with the Bahá'í view of the harmony of science and religion, links can and ideally will be made here at Bahá'í9 to corresponding public collaborative articles such as Wikipedia, to allow those gaining the Bahá'í perspective of a topic (often dealing with moral implications and the like), to see what scientists have thus far discovered about the topic. Links could, in turn, be made from these public pages back to our wiki, as relevant.
Link to Official sites
Where official introductory articles (or other articles) exist on a given topic, we should include links to them (such as at http://bahai.org )
To discuss these rules, please add your comments to Talk:site rules.
Todos for this page
- Integrate with the Site policies page/subpages.
