Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 18:21, 18 April 2007

This page documents an English Misplaced Pages guideline. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page.

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This page in a nutshell: Keep the core policies and guidelines in mind when responding on the reference desk, and try to make it useful for our readers and a benefit to Misplaced Pages.

Summary

The desk attempts to provide services comparable to a library reference desk. As Misplaced Pages is an encyclopedia, not a library, we provide only a subset of normal library reference desk services. For instance, reference interviews are not possible.

Readers should first try to find their answer by searching. Answers are kept within the scope of the question asked and usually link to articles which may have relevant information.

Purposes of the desk

The Misplaced Pages reference desk (RD) is meant to work like a library reference desk, a public service function. In a library, users can consult the professional staff at the reference desk for help in finding information. We don't have professional staff, but when users leave questions on the reference desk, the volunteers doing RD duty here work to find the information needed to answer the questions.

Additionally, the hope and expectation is that the reference desk process will help the growth and refinement of Misplaced Pages by identifying missing, confusing or incorrect information, and encouraging article contributions, additions and improvements.

What the reference desk is not

• The reference desk is not a chatroom or forum, nor is it a soapbox for promoting your own opinions. Editors should rather attempt to represent fairly and without bias significant views published by reliable sources.

• The reference desk is not a place to seek professional advice on medical or legal matters, nor analyses or solutions to questioners' health or legal problems. See also Misplaced Pages:Legal disclaimer, Misplaced Pages:Medical disclaimer, and the medical advice primer.

• The reference desk is not a service that will do your homework for you. You should do the actual work yourself, but we will give assistance in interpreting questions, help with ideas and concepts, and attempt to point you to other resources that might help you to solve your tasks.

• The reference desk is not a place to rehash the debate about Creation, evolution, the Apollo moon landing hoax, or any other kind of controversy. Whilst we're glad to direct you to relevant discussions — in Misplaced Pages and elsewhere — of theories of theology, epistemology, cosmology, or conspiracy, the reference desk is not the place where any of these are going to be resolved.

What we try to do

Within our capabilities, we do try to help answer scientific, semantic or historical questions, help explain concepts, and point the questioner to possible sources of solutions or further information.

In more involved cases, the RD staff try to work with the user to clarify their information need and determine what information sources will satisfy it.

If a question reveals a subject for which Misplaced Pages lacks coverage, where increased clarity is needed, or where article quality needs improvement, we will try to correct the errors and omissions.

Content and tone

The reference desk is not censored. No subject per se is off limits.

Misplaced Pages is a broad-scope encyclopedia, so questions about topics related to politics, sexuality, bodily functions or religion, for example, may yield responses that some people consider offensive. We understand that some responses about very controversial subjects, or any discussion of what some may consider "taboo" subjects, are more likely to offend some people than discussion of other subjects. This is unavoidable. Responses are not deemed to be inappropriate as long as they are relevant to the question. However, we try to take special care to treat potentially offensive subjects with sensitivity, diligence, and rigor. Further, we never set out deliberately to offend, and we endeavor to quickly remove needlessly offensive material in questions or responses.

The desk is not intended to present an overly formal atmosphere; replies may often be lighthearted and humorous while still maintaining their purpose.

Guidelines for responding to questions

As a respondent, you will be viewed (whether you want to be or not) by readers as a representative of the Misplaced Pages community. Many people have their first Misplaced Pages experience asking a question at the Reference Desk and it is a good opportunity for us to build goodwill with the readers which in turn can help the encyclopedia. If people have a bad first experience here, they may never come back.

Replies do not need to be completely formal and humor is allowed in reference desk answers, provided it is:

• relevant to the question,
• not at the expense of other editors, and
• not offensive to the "typical" reference desk reader.

However, responses to posts should always attempt to answer the question and should almost always fall into one of three categories:

• direct answers or referrals to Misplaced Pages articles, web pages, or other sources,
• clarifications of other answers, or
• requests for clarification.

Our standards on verifiability, neutral point of view, or no original research apply to the Reference Desk as they do to the rest of the project. Answering questions by referring to articles or even reliable original sources is consistent with these key content policies. Make sure that statement of facts in answers can be supported by an article or reference. If it is impossible to answer a question without some calculation, please make this clear in your answer with a phrase such "My calculation is as follows …".

Personal opinions in answers should be limited to what is absolutely necessary, and avoided entirely when it gets in the way of factual answers. In particular, when a question asks about a controversial topic, we should attempt to provide purely factual answers. This prevents the thread from becoming a debate.

Do strive to maintain the highest standards of courtesy

We should in all cases strive to exceed the minimum standard of civility. This applies to people who ask questions, not just those who answer them. However, don't confuse an editor's poor English with intentional rudeness.

Remember that all Reference Desk staff are volunteers and deserve to be treated reasonably.

If you're not sure about the meaning of a question, ask for clarification; if you think you understand the question, feel free to state your assumptions and attempt an answer.

Don't poke fun at a poorly-written question

The reference desk necessarily involves communication between questioners and respondents from different backgrounds and cultures. There may be number of reasons for 'badly written' questions, but that does not mean that they do not deserve a proper answer.

Don't edit others' questions

...except to fix formatting errors that mess up readability (like a leading space or unclosed markup tags). Do not correct spelling or presumed typos, or anything that might change the meaning of the question.

If there is no title, add one. You may also add to a non-descriptive title (such as "question"), but it is best keep the original title as a portion of the new one, as it may be used by the questioner to find the question.

Do not add wikilinks to a question; it may unduly suggest to others that the questioner was aware of the Misplaced Pages articles. Instead, if relevant, just include these links in your response.

Do have a sensible sense of humour

First and foremost, we're here to answer questions. Having a bit of humour in your answer is almost always a good thing but please don't start adding jokes just for the sake of it. Remember that young people and people for whom English is not their first language may not understand a lot of jokes; too much joking around can be very confusing, and can make it difficult for these users to differentiate the earnest answers from the humorous.

'In-jokes' can make outsiders feel confused or unwelcome; be aware that such jokes are only funny to those on the inside.

Page protocols and layout

Sometimes one question leads to another and it is a good idea to create a new heading to keep the new answers from overwhelming the original question and answers.

Complex technical questions and questions of a more subjective nature may prompt substantial answers from many parties, so please remember to sign your responses (with ~~~~).

Signing your replies adds a 'personal touch' and also allows questioners to follow up responses privately, for in-depth discussions or debates that may not be appropriate for the Reference Desk itself. Please leave a line space between your reply and the previous poster—it makes the page easier to read and edit.

Some people still go online using a dial-up modem so please be sparing in your use of inline images on the page (consider linking them, instead) and limit off-topic discussion. The Reference Desk is a pretty big page, and we all need to do our part to keep it accessible to as many people as possible.

Link to Misplaced Pages articles whenever possible

Attempt to link to Misplaced Pages articles which answer the question. If a Misplaced Pages article should answer a question—but doesn't—make this clear; you don't want to send a questioner on a wild goose chase, and you do want to let other editors know that the article needs improvement. If your answer does not link to an appropriate article, consider whether it still meets the Misplaced Pages guidelines on verifiability.

Use external links from answers as sources to improve our articles

The Reference Desk is a service to the encyclopedia, and not just a service provided by the encyclopedia. If people ask questions that our articles don't answer, use the answers to improve our articles—so long as the answers can be Attributed to a reliable source.