FamilySearch Wiki:Wiki Policies and Principles

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Guiding Principles and Policies
Guiding Principles and Policies of the Wiki are important for us to understand and utilize in our missionary work on the Wiki. We will also use them to guide others that come to the Wiki. Our mission leaders are always available as well to help us work through difficult issues if needed. The link above leads to all the major help pages for the Guiding Principles and Policies.

Guiding Principles

 * Free


 * As a not-for-profit entity, FamilySearch requires that all its products and services, including the Research Wiki, be free of charge to everyone.


 * Sources and Delimiters


 * Articles should cite authoritative, verifiable sources whenever possible. Limit discussion of religion, politics, ethnicity, culture, and history. Do not include details about specific ancestors, or individuals unless they are used as examples.


 * Neutral Point of View


 * The Research Wiki is not the place to include personal testimonials, stories of research success, or advertising platforms. Overly religious, political, ethnic, cultural, historic and nationalistic discussions can tend to be biased. When writing, avoid writing in first (I,me) or second person (you, your) and instead write in a neutral, or "universal" voice.


 * Spam Free


 * Team members are usually the first to check the Wiki for Spam through Patrolling and daily work. We are often the first to see and correct problems and errors. We can remove or correct the links and content that are not appropriate for the Wiki.


 * Code of Conduct


 * Content must be civil and free of conflicts of interest.


 * Be Bold

Policies

 * Personal Actions


 * Always work to improve the site. Programs that update pages automatically are not allowed. Be kind to new comers. Civility and polite discourse encourage others to contribute to the Wiki. Be bold in your desire to edit, avoiding editing wars. As you edit, consider each sentence on its face to determine its usefulness on the Wiki. Use mediation to resolve issues and never resort to personal attacks. Relinquish ownership of your work as soon as you save the page as it now has become a part of the Wiki, subject to editing and change by others. This is as it should be in order for the Wiki to improve. Play fair, and use the three revert rule. Make sure that your user ID is visible and adhere to the conditions of use. Never resort to vandalism. Your User page is a great place to introduce yourself and to set tone, but avoid advertisements.


 * Content and Style


 * Avoid attack pages and attack phrases. Avoid individual genealogy pages. They will be deleted. Search for page names to keep the same tone. Use a neutral view in the article, share proven research techniques, always cite sources, and follow guiding principles. Let useability determine size and keep images small and manageable. Create a disambiguation page for needed pages, and link, don't copy.


 * Deletion


 * Deleting Articles or Pages, Immediate deletion, Category deletion, and Deletion Process.

Also see The Vision:Why We Built FamilySearch Wiki


 * Policy and Enforcement


 * Blocking and banning, arbitration, disputes, and mediation.


 * Legal and Copyright


 * Respect copyright, proper image use and libel.


 * Policy Change or Additions


 * Policy Changes or Additions

Conditions of Use

 * Creative Commons Use, Registration Obligations, Conditions When You Contribute, Your Right to Submit Contributions, Code of Conduct, Publishing Your Name, Legal Status and Jurisdiction, Limitations of Liability, Disclaimers, and Notice for Claims of Intellectual Property Violations.

Purpose and Appropriate Topics

 * FamilySearch Wiki is:


 * Instruction on how to find, use and analyze records that are genealogically useful.


 * Historical definitions of legal terms, occupations, other terms that are useful to genealogists.


 * Images of records which may be used as examples of the kind of information a type of record will contain.


 * FamilySearch Wiki is not:


 * A place to post (or find) information about a specific ancestor


 * It is not a place to post data sets and genealogical records, such as obituaries, military histories, or transcriptions of record sources.


 * It is not a collection of product reviews, or an advertising medium for products or services.


 * It is not a world encyclopedia of holidays and family traditions.


 * It is not a repository of knowledge regarding the use of FamilySearch products.


 * It is not a place to publicly post internal policies or contact information of the Family History Department or any other LDS Church affiliate.


 * It is not a place to survey users, solicit feedback or collect suggestions regarding the development of products other than for improvement of this Wiki.


 * It is not a place to post religious doctrine, advocate or criticize religious practices, nor a place to post images of LDS temples.

For more information, see the Professional Genealogists page. Those which affect family history records or research methods are mentioned under specific countries.

for suggestions of other places on the Internet to post the information you want to share.