Help:Five Pillars

This has been adapted from Wikipedia's Five Pillars.

LARPers from all forms, styles and genres across the world volunteer their time, viewpoints, creativity, and knowledge with the intention of creating the most accurate and complete wiki on the US LARP scene as possible.

There are no strict rules and no real hierarchy of power, but somewhere out of this potential chaos some order has been established, setting the bare minimum of behaviors to create the Larp Wiki. The community's policies and guidelines are noted below.

The five pillars

The fundamental principles by which the LARP Wiki operates are summarized in the form of five "pillars":

The LARP Wiki is an encyclopedia like knowledgebase.

It incorporates elements of general and specialized encyclopedias, almanacs, and gazetteers as well as dictionaries, source documents and web directories. The LARP Wiki is not a soapbox, an advertising platform, a vanity press, an experiment in anarchy or democracy, an indiscriminate collection of information, or a newspaper or newsletter.

The LARP Wiki is written from a neutral point of view.

We strive for articles that document and explain the major points of view in a balanced and impartial manner. We avoid advocacy and we characterize information and issues rather than debate them. In some areas there may be just one well-recognized point of view; in other areas we describe multiple points of view, presenting each accurately and in context, and not presenting any point of view as "the truth" or "the best view." All articles must strive for verifiable accuracy: unreferenced material may be removed, so please provide references. Editors' personal experiences, interpretations, or opinions do not belong here. That means citing verifiable, authoritative sources, especially on controversial topics and when the subject is a living person.

The LARP Wiki is free content that anyone can edit, use, modify, and distribute.

Respect copyright laws, and do not plagiarize sources. Non-free content is allowed under fair use, but strive to find free alternatives to any media or content that you wish to add to the LARP Wiki. Since all your contributions are freely licensed to the public, no editor owns any article; all of your contributions can and will be mercilessly edited and redistributed.

Editors should interact with each other in a respectful and civil manner.

Respect and be polite to your fellow wiki contributors, even when you disagree. Apply wiki etiquette, and avoid personal attacks. Find consensus, avoid edit wars, and remember that there are several articles on the LARP Wiki to work on and discuss. Act in good faith, and never disrupt the wiki to illustrate a point. Be open and welcoming, and assume good faith on the part of others. When conflict arises, discuss details on the talk page, and follow dispute resolution by involving a third party as a mediator if needed.

The LARP Wiki does not have firm rules.

The rules at the LARP Wiki are not carved in stone, as their wording and interpretation are likely to change over time. The principles and spirit of the LARP Wiki's rules matter more than their literal wording, and sometimes improving the LARP Wiki requires making an exception to a rule. Be bold (but not reckless) in updating articles and do not worry about making mistakes. Prior versions of pages are saved, so any mistakes can be corrected.