Hampedia Policies and Guidelines

Definitions

 * A policy of Hampedia is a rule which, if broken, may result in the blocking or banning of a user.


 * A guideline is a strong suggestion on how to behave; following guidelines helps users obey policies.

Policy creation
All policies of Hampedia that are specific to Hampedia will be ratified by the Hampedia Board of Trustees.

Inclusion of Personal Information
In order to protect the privacy of members of the Hampshire community, personal information may be controlled by the subject. That is, each student, staff and faculty member may decide what personal information about himself may be posted on Hampedia. Also, potentially libel or slanderous material is expressly disallowed. The exact manner with which infractions of this sort are to be dealt has yet to be articulated officially.

Anonymity of User Access
Editor access will not be anonymous; it will be associated not only with real names but also network addresses. Users who mean to modify Hampedia must log in with their Hampshire user-name and password which makes each edit to the wiki of identifiable origin. Accountability and liability for all edits are assumed by the person to whom the editing account is registered. This means that every editor is responsible for actions performed and material added by any person logged into his accounts. All editors are responsible for securing access to their own accounts.

Hampedia will be viewable by anyone, with or without an account. This access will be completely anonymous.

If necessary, the Hampedia Board of Trustees shall release to the Hampshire administration any deleted or hidden information submitted to Hampedia to Hampshire College. The College reserves this right because it hosts Hampedia.

Copyright Violations
All material on Hampedia must be lawfully published in accordance with the laws of the State of Massachusetts and the United States of America. If non-free copyrighted material is to be published on Hampedia by someone other than the copyright holder, then it must be used by "fair-use" law.

Licensing of All Material
All material originally published on Hampedia is released under the Creative Commons License Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA).

College-Wide Policy
See http://www.hampshire.edu/cms/index.php?id=2573
 * "Personal use of the College’s computing resources is permissible as long as it does not interfere with other users’ access to resources for academic work and is not excessive."
 * "However, the College will investigate complaints arising either from the College community or external sources and will comply with and enforce applicable laws and College policies as appropriate. All e-mail and files on College-owned computers and servers are legally the property of the College. The College reserves the right to inspect e-mail and files and take appropriate action without notice if there is reasonable belief that there has been intentional or inadvertent disruption to the College’s network or other shared resources or if there is suspected violation of this policy or applicable laws."
 * "Students may not use the College’s computer resources in a way that violates the College’s sexual harassment or non-discrimination policies."
 * "The College believes in freedom of speech regardless of the medium used for communication and does not wish to act as a censor of information on College resources, including web page content."
 * "Nor may they use College computing, network or web resources, including access to the Internet, for solicitation or operation of commercial ventures or interests."
 * "Students may not harass other users by sending unwanted e-mail, programs, or other files that are knowingly disruptive or may be reasonably construed as threatening or disparaging of others. "
 * "Students may not knowingly forward virus-infected e-mail or files to others and are strongly encouraged to maintain updated virus protection software on their computer."
 * Anti-Discrimination Policy of Hampshire College

Summary

 * Be fair.
 * Be civil.
 * Be respectful.
 * Be responsible.

Behavioral
Be civil
 * Do not make personal attacks. Criticize content, not those contributing it. You will be blocked for insulting any other editors.
 * Do not use "racial, sexual, homophobic, ageist, religious, political, ethnic, or other epithets (such as against people with disabilities)". Disagreement over what constitutes a religion, race, sexual preference, or ethnicity is not a legitimate excuse."
 * Do not threaten people in any fashion.
 * Do not slander or make libelous statements.

Avoid escalating conflicts
 * Do not "edit-war". That is, do not repeatedly revert the changes of another user. If you begin to do so, stop, and discuss the matter.
 * If you cannot manage a disagreement with another editor, do not fight; rather invoke a mediator or arbitrator. Speak to an "administrator".

Deletion Policy
 * If you come across content which you believe should be deleted, discuss it with whoever added it. If you believe it is necessary, temporarily remove from the article (this is called "blanking"); then attempt to reach consensus on the matter.

Article ownership
 * The only article which you own is the one about yourself. Note that this entails not only your direct user pages but also the page(s) describing you alone (for example, if your name was John Doe with email jrd68@hampshire.edu, you would own the pages "User:jrd68" and "jrd68" as well as "John Doe" – the first two would also likely redirect to the latter, which would extend the ownership protection to the latter page. This also applies to nickname pages – if our "John Doe" went by "Arnold Britchfield" and "User:jrd68," "jrd68," and "John Doe" were redirected to "Arnold Britchfield," he would control that last page). Do not contribute to other articles if you do not want your content edited mercilessly.

Vandalism
 * Don't vandalize. Keep Hampedia useable, clean and professional.
 * If you find vandalism, you should undo the edit (check the article history to catch all vandalism) or remove the material directly being sure to explain your actions in your "edit summary" and/or on the article "talk page". Then you should notify an administrator of the vandalism.
 * If you make edits or write edit summaries that are obviously trying to disrupt Hampedia, you will be blocked or permanently banned.


 * Common types of vandalism include:
 * Adding obscenities
 * Using crude humor
 * Unnecessary deletion
 * Adding nonsense
 * Adding slightly wrong information, hoping no one will notice
 * Moving an article or changing its title inappropriately
 * Modifying other users' comments
 * Creating a page for the sole purpose of disparaging a subject, whatever its nature
 * Making a hyperlink to uncivil or otherwise inappropriate material.

Accountability
 * Use only your account and don't let others use your account.
 * You are responsible for your own actions. The College and the Hampedia Board of Trustees are not. Also, you are responsible for actions of your account if your identity is stolen. Do not lose your password or leave unattended a browser window in which you are still logged in.

Content and Style
Copyrighted Content
 * All non-original content on Hampedia must be properly sourced, or it will be deleted. All non-original content must loosely be useable under fair-use guidlines.
 * Do not add links to material violates copyright law.

NPOV
 * Minimize bias in articles
 * Name articles fairly (and only once)
 * Treat all significant views in one article and do so fairly, giving each perspective equal weight.

Personal Information
 * Don't add personal information about someone else.
 * Be conservative about adding any information which concerns other people. Respect their privacy.
 * Personal information is censorable at the request of the subject.

Hampedia Guidelines

 * Be generally nice. Do not ignore other users, nor talk down to them.
 * Do not write offensive edit summaries.
 * Userpages and pages about people should be merged and redirected whenever possible. That is, User:agk07 should be a redirect to Adam Krellenstein.
 * Make articles only on topics relevant to Hampshire College and Hampshire students. Do not make articles on people who are not part of the Hampshire community.
 * Work through discussion and consensus; don't edit-war.
 * Preserve information: don't delete, instead, clean up!
 * Always use edit summaries and talk pages to explain your actions. When you change someone else's writing, he/she will want to know why you did it.
 * Format your talk page comments traditionally. Indent each comment once more than the previous comment (precede each line with a colon, ":"). Always sign your comments with ~.
 * Assume good faith. Assume that others that are editing are doing so because they want to improve Hampedia. Assume vandals don't know the policies of Hampedia. Be respectful.
 * Especially concerning biographical information, be liberal in what you accept and be conservative in what you do. Don't add anything that you think will upset anyone else; discuss it first.
 * Always preview your edits with by hitting the button "show preview" before you commit them. This guideline may greatly increase the quality of your edits.
 * Only add content which is you produced, is freely licensed, or is in the Public Domain.
 * Remember, your real identity is always known. No one will have trouble figuring out who you are...

Disciplinary action

 * administrators will ban/block you from editing Hampedia for a period of time if you violate Hampedia policy.
 * administrators may also restrict your editing of some articles in mediating disputes.
 * administrators may delete any content that violates a policy of Hampedia.

Filing complaints and appeals
To file a complaint or an appeal, click here and tell your story.
 * Any administrator action may be appealed and discussed. To appeal, e-mail an administrator.
 * If you think that material should be deleted from Hampedia (because it violates a policy), tell a Hampedia admistrator, either by e-mail or by a message or his/her talk page.
 * In general, for material to be deleted, the article must violate a policy described above.
 * Also e-mail administrators, if dispute mediation is needed.
 * A list of administrators is maintained at Hampedia administrators.