Everything you never knew you wanted to know about the Mercury Project
RixWiki:Tutorial (Keep in mind)
From RixWiki
Frontpage, 1: Editing, 2: Formatting, 3: RixWiki links, 4: Related site links, 5: External links, 6: Uploading and using images, 7: Talk pages, 8: Keep in mind, 9: Registration, 10: Namespaces, 11: Wrap-up
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There are some things to keep in mind when editing RixWiki. This article is adapted with minor changes from the similar article on Wikipedia. Although RixWiki is much smaller than Wikipedia, many of the same considerations apply.
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Conduct
RixWiki encourages an atmosphere of friendliness and openness. Of course, in practice there are sometimes disagreements and even the occasional fight, but members of the community are expected to behave in a generally civil manner.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that you should always assume good faith on the part of other editors. Never assume that someone is acting out of spite or malice. If someone does something that upsets you, leave a polite message on the relevant article's talk page or on the user's talk page, and ask why. You may find that you've avoided a misunderstanding and saved yourself some embarrassment.
Editorial policies
Neutral Point of View
RixWiki's editorial policy is the "neutral point of view", often abbreviated "NPOV". This policy says that we accept all the significant viewpoints on an issue. Instead of simply stating one perspective, we try to present all relevant viewpoints without judging which is correct. Our aim is to be informative, not persuasive. Our policy does NOT mean that our articles are expected to be "objective", since in any dispute both sides believe their view to be "true".
It's OK to state opinions in articles, but they must be presented as opinions, not as fact. Also, it's a good idea to attribute these opinions, for example "Supporters of this say that..." or "Notable commentator X believes that..."
You might hear contributers referring to an article as "POV". This is Wikipedia slang for a biased article, or one obviously written from a single perspective. Advertising would fall in this category, as would a political diatribe. In a less extreme case, an article might have "POV" problems if it spends significantly more time discussing one view than another, even if each view is presented neutrally.
If you're going to spend time on controversial topics in articles, such as opinions on the personalities in the manned space program, it's important that you read the neutral point of view policy page as soon as possible. You should probably also read Staying cool when the editing gets hot. If you're going to spend your time on less emotional subjects, which should be the bulk of the material on RixWiki, you should still read the policies, but it's a less pressing concern. Keep in mind the advice here, and read the full policy if an NPOV issue comes up.
Subject matter
RixWiki is an encyclopedia, albeit one of restricted scope. It's primary focus is on the technical aspects of the Mercury Program of interest to modelers, although broader topics are welcomed. Hence, articles should be encyclopedic information about subjects related in some way to Space Modeling, and/or the Mercury Program. If you have a burning need to contribute material which strays from that focus, consider contributing that material to the Wikipedia and link to it here.
Citing sources
RixWiki doesn't require that you cite sources for the information you contribute, but we do strongly prefer that you do so whenever possible. If you're using a book (or books) to write the article, list them in a section called "References". If you're using a website, make an "External links" section and link to it. This helps our readers verify what you've written and find more information. See Wikipedia:Cite sources for more information on this.
Since the purpose of this site is to aid people researching our particular subject matter, and research material is often difficult to find, please try to provide as much information about where and how you found your material. This doesn't apply just to text articles, but also to images as well.
Copyrights
Do not submit copyrighted material without permission. The best articles are usually written from either personal knowledge, or through the synthesis of research from multiple sources. For a more detailed discussion of copyrights, see Wikipedia:Copyrights.
Renaming articles
If you find an article that you believe is mis-named, please do not cut
