Difference between revisions of "Conservapedia:Guidelines"

Revision as of 20:27, July 2, 2007

Attribution

There's a difference between stating flatly that "the earth is 6,000 years old" and reporting that "Young Earth creationists say that the earth is 6,000 years old." Likewise, there's a difference between saying "All living species of animals evolved from earlier species" and saying "Most biologists believe that all living species of animals evolved from earlier species".

English teachers call that attribution.

Here's another example:

• It was raining on Tuesday. (unattributed)
• John said it was raining on Tuesday. (attributed)

Newspaper report on a murder trial:

• Smith killed Jones.
• Judge Robinson found Smith guilty of killing Jones.

Simply by attributing a statement to the person who said it, we can turn bias into fact. That is, we convert a statement about something from a biased assertion into an attribution. We don't say "X". We say that "A said X."

Notice that at no point do these statements endorse any of the views. The sample text provided merely states what each view is, without saying whether any of them is correct or incorrect.

Thus, a good article "describes" - it does not "prescribe". ^[1]

In regards to attribution, always cite and give credit to your sources,^[2] even if in the public domain. Conservapedia's Manual of Style assists new wiki users on how to put footnotes in an article.

Notes

1. ↑ Ed Poor (→Proposed sections for alteration: please add to discussion - Why not do here what Wikipedia CLAIMS it does?)
2. ↑ Sources should be authoritative works, not merely published opinions by others. No sources advocating or supporting unlawful activity of any kind are allowed.

Civility

• You must be civil. No bullying.

• Your user page/discussion pages, are indeed your castle, from which you can agree, disagree and discuss issues as you will. However you cannot use them to bully, ridicule (make fun of) or attack (denigrate) Conservapedia or other users, and their opinions.
• There is a difference between intellectual discourse, and attacking someone for what they believe. Wikipedia condones bullying and mob rule, we don’t.
• Violators of this CP Guideline will be blocked.

Article level

Articles should be written as much as possible to be understandable at a high school (ages 14 to 18) level, in order to insure they will be accessible and educational to students. If more complex information is necessary, as in advanced math entries, then it should be explained as simply as possible in the introduction, and a full explanation should follow in the body of the article.

Reliability

A few suggestions about reliability.

1. Reliability is the quality that makes people want to rely on you.
2. It's like trust: you have to earn it.
3. People test you, and you must pass their test, or they won't trust you or rely on you.
4. A major difference between Liberalism and Conservatism is how much each group is willing to have its pronouncements checked, its actions reviewed and evaluated
5. Science is reliable when enough scientists make enough effort to check each other's work.
   • The watchwords of science are falsifiability and reproducible results.
6. Bias gets in the way of reliability.
7. Neutrality may not be an antidote to bias.

Sources

We should not allow any and all citations to newspaper stories. Journalistic opinions are not authorities, and journalists are not authorities on scientific issues. It is better to cite the scientific article directly.

Teamwork

A few suggestions about teamwork.

1. Let others boss you around.
   • Yes, take assignments from your fellow editors. If someone asks you for an article on a topic you know about, or are interested enough to bone up on, please do.
   • Conform to formats, styles, and emerging patterns of article organization.
2. Be nice to the other editors.
   • Sarcasm seems witty when you're typing, but will the reader really get the point you are trying to make?
   • Hurt feelings reduce cooperative spirit and ultimately work against teamwork.
3. Be helpful.
   • Are you good at spellchecking, grammar, copyediting?
   • Do you know how to design a template or format a table?
4. Let others know what you are doing, and respond quickly to queries.
   • Use talk pages, especially user talk pages.
   • Allow others to contact you via email or instant messaging
   • For really difficult issues, consider speaking by telephone

More

See also:

• Conservapedia:Manual of Style
• Other guidelines at Category:Conservapedia Guidelines