Content Guidelines

General Rules

Content added to this site should:

• Be written in reasonably-correct American English (with regard to grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.) except where appropriate (direct quotes, etc.).
• Contain citations where possible to allow readers to verify facts and learn more on their own.
• Provide a neutral viewpoint; opinions may be remarked upon but should not be stated as fact. Furthermore, citations should be given. Example: "Some people say Mayor Smith is a moron" should have a footnote referring to a Daily Herald article op-ed stating that opinion.
• *Not* include obscenity, threats, hate speech or other illegal or inappropriate language (with reasonable exception made for direct quotes).
• Be current and accurate to the greatest extent possible.
• Be original and not contain plagiarized material, regardless of copyright (direct quotes or inclusion of images that are public domain or "fair-use" are permitted so long as citations are included).

Repeated or flagrant violations of the content guidelines shall be a basis for the Site Admin to lock out or remove a user.

Citation Format

Citations should generally follow MLA format, although citation format will not be scrutinized heavily, so long as it contains sufficient information to identify the source (author, title, date, page number if applicable). Online resources should include a URL (as specific as possible) and a last-accessed date.

Linking to Wikipedia as an Alternative to Citation

You may link to an article in Wikipedia, Wiktionary or other Wiki using square brackets as an alternative to providing a "ref" tag citation. But this should be used sparingly.

Privacy

With regard to pages about individuals the following guidelines apply:

• Public information from reputable printed sources, or from the individual, is allowed. For examples: obituaries printed in the Daily Herald, LinkedIn pages, public Facebook pages.
• Non-public information should not be shared unless it is posted by the individual in question. Examples -- private social media posts, personal health information, gossip that cannot be verified, etc.
• Highly-sensitive public information (Social Security Numbers, passwords, etc.) will be removed.
• Addresses, phone numbers, and personal e-mail accounts should not be posted (this is considered doxxing) even if they are in a public source such as a phone book. This does not apply to business contact information.
• Libelous, abusive, or unfair statements should be removed, especially if no citation is provided.
• No photographs of people should be uploaded unless they have been printed publicly or has been uploaded with the individual's permission. Generally speaking, photographs of children or other vulnerable people (domestic violence survivors, etc.) should not be uploaded.