Pensapedia:Guidelines

Content

Be neutral

Main article: Pensapedia:Neutral point of view

The neutral point of view is a means of dealing with conflicting views. The policy requires that all significant views are represented fairly and without bias. None of the views should be given undue weight or asserted as being the truth, and all significant published points of view are to be presented, not just the most popular one. It should also not be asserted that the most popular view or some sort of intermediate view among the different views is the correct one. Readers are left to form their own opinions.

As the name suggests, the neutral point of view is a point of view, not the absence or elimination of viewpoints. It is a point of view that is neutral — that is neither sympathetic nor in opposition to its subject.

Debates are described, represented, and characterized, but not engaged in. Background is provided on who believes what and why, and which view is more popular. Detailed articles might also contain the mutual evaluations of each viewpoint, but studiously refrain from stating which is better. One can think of unbiased writing as the fair, analytical description of all relevant sides of a debate. When bias towards one particular point of view can be detected, the article needs to be fixed.

No vanity pages

Main article: Pensapedia:Autobiography

Writing an autobiography — a so-called "vanity page" about yourself — is strongly discouraged at Pensapedia, unless your writing has been approved by the community. The reason for this is the obvious difficulty in writing neutrally about one's self. It is preferred that individuals who wish to contribute material or make suggestions on the article's talk page, allowing independent editors to do the actual writing. In several clear cut cases (such as incorrect birthdates, out-of-date employer information, etc.), it is permissable to edit an article about yourself.

It is permissable to write or edit an article for a business or organization in which you are personally involved, as long as a neutral point of view is maintained. For example, if you own a restaurant, you may publish the menu, prices and hours of operation, but please refrain from posting reviews or comparisons to competing restaurants.

Cite verifiable sources

Main articles: Pensapedia:Verifiability and Pensapedia:Citing sources

Whenever possible, editors should cite verifiable sources for all information, and especially for direct quotes and for material that is challenged or likely to be challenged. Any material that is challenged and for which no source is provided may be removed by any editor.

As the focus of Pensapedia is more specialized than Wikipedia and other encyclopedia projects, many areas of knowledge are not well-documented by online sources. Worse still, information derived from non-reputable sources may be inaccurate. Citing verifiable sources therefore helps to establish the overall credibility and authoritative character of Pensapedia.

Biographies of living persons should be sourced with particular care, for legal and ethical reasons. All negative material about living persons must be sourced to a reliable source; if you find unsourced or poorly sourced negative material about a living person, remove it immediately! Do not leave it in the article and ask for a source.

If a particular claim in an article lacks citation and is doubtful, consider placing {{fact}} after the sentence or removing the claim. If an article has no or very few references, but you are unable to find them yourself, you can tag the article with the template {{unreferenced}}.

Respect copyrights

Main article: Pensapedia:Copyrights

The license Pensapedia uses grants free access to our content in the same sense as free software is licensed freely. This principle is known as copyleft. However, this applies only to original works by Pensapedia contributors.

All other works are copyrighted unless they either fall into the public domain or their copyright is explicitly disclaimed. If you use part of a copyrighted work under "fair use", or if you obtain special permission to use a copyrighted work from the copyright holder under the terms of our license, you must make a note of that fact (along with names and dates). It is our goal to be able to freely redistribute as much of Pensapedia's material as possible, so original images and sound files licensed under the GFDL or in the public domain are greatly preferred to copyrighted media files used under fair use.

Images and photographs, like written works, are subject to copyright. Someone holds the copyright unless they have been explicitly placed in the public domain. Images on the Internet need to be licensed directly from the copyright holder or someone able to license on their behalf. In some cases, fair use guidelines may allow a photograph to be used. Image description pages must be tagged with a special tag to indicate the legal status of the images, as described at Pensapedia:Image copyright tags. Untagged or incorrectly-tagged images will be deleted. It is currently unclear what should happen in cases where the same image has been uploaded more than once with different respective copyright statements.

If you suspect a copyright infringement, you should at the very least bring up the issue on that page's talk page. Others can then examine the situation and take action if needed. The most helpful piece of information you can provide is a URL or other reference to what you believe may be the source of the text.