CarlWiki:Meta-policy
From CarlWiki
| Help contents |
| Reading tutorial |
| Talking tutorial |
| Editing tutorial |
| Questions |
| Meta-policy |
| Style guide |
| List of admins |
| E-mail the webmaster |
This page is devoted to discussions of policy and potential policy on CarlWiki. For many subjects, the tentative guidelines here are the best available. As these sections develop, some of them will become official policy.
How it works
Below is a section called Proposals, which includes anything from elaborations on current policy to entirely new policy to opposition to current policy. Anyone can feel free to add new proposals to it, or to reply to existing proposals. Traditionally, when engaging in a proposal discussion, you should prefix your posts with either Support, Oppose, or simply Comment. The number of Support posts versus the number of Oppose posts helps to determine which proposals will become policy.
One more thing: Always sign your posts. Unsigned posts will be ignored. To sign a post, simply use four dashes, like so: ----
Proposals
CarlWiki is not Review
I just want to elaborate on the policy of what I think should and shouldn't go in professor (and, to a lesser extent, staff) pages. Although some kind of student wiki might be more perfect than Caucus for reviewing profs and classes, the main difference here is that CarlWiki is completely public. Not only is the current version of a page available for anyone to find via Google, but all old versions are also stored on the server, and are just as available to anyone motivated enough to click "History."
On the other hand, I want this to be a great place to look for biographical information on professors and faculty, which Carleton.edu is lacking in. It should also be interesting to read. So, here's what can be posted:
- Biographical information. Where the person was born, where they grew up, where they went to college, what degrees they have, and (if the information is publicly available) who they're married to and how many kids they have.
- Accomplishments. Articles and books they've written. Unless you've delved into classified CIA documents, this information is clearly in the public domain.
- Classes. Definitely list (and link) the classes they teach or have taught here at Carleton, and elsewhere. Just avoid writing subjective statements about those classes. The only condition under which you can write a statement like "this class was pointless" is if you're quoting the professor in question as saying that. I can't imagine any other way it would be appropriate.
Which leads me into what can't be posted:
- Subjective information, particularly of the negative variety. Positive information walks a fine line. I referred to Dean Govoni as "beloved" in the DVD Fest 2004 article, because I'm certain that most Carleton students would agree, and it gives something of an explanation in the context (that being that he appeared in 3 DVD Fest films that year). That kind of subjective information is harmless. However, no professor should ever be written about as "despised." (Obviously this doesn't apply to historical figures. If Voldemort used to teach here in 1915, be sure to note that he was despised.)
- Student information that intersects, because I want student privacy to be well-restricted on CarlWiki. It would be inappropriate, for example, to list the students who have that prof as a comps advisor, or even to list yourself as such (though you could put the same information in your user page).
I hope that's fairly clear. At the moment, there's only one article on a professor: Steven Schier. It's a good example, which I hope will be used for many others. --Trevor Burnham '07 11:06, 25 Mar 2005 (PST)
