Guidelines for Contributors
From NonSpiritual
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General Organization of nonspiritual.net
Nonspiritual.net is a wiki and a discussion forum portal.
Wiki Pages
The wiki pages are organized in various categories. The top level categories are:
- Definitions
- Spiritual Teachers and Groups (examples: Jiddu Krishnamurti, 3H0, the Divine Life Society, the Theosophical Society)
- Religions and Sects: A religion, or a sect derived from it, is usually distinct from a spiritual group. Spiritual groups do not, in general, foist an identity on its members. If someone calls himself an X, it is usually a sect or a religion. If he calls himself an X-ite or a follower of X, it is usually a spiritual group. If in doubt, categorize under both categories. (examples: Shinto, Presbyterianism)
- Spiritual Disciplines is any form of individual spiritual practice. (examples: Chanting, Vipassana)
- Philosophical and Scientific viewpoints: Any X-ism, where X is a common noun, should go under this heading. X-ism with a proper noun is usually a religion or a sect.
- Customs and Rituals: are symbolic or cultural practices, unlike a Spiritual Discipline which is usually undertaken for individual spiritual progress. (examples: Burial, Baptism, etc.)
- Local Content is any FAQ, poster, newsletter, etc. related to nonspiritual.net itself.
Discussion Forums
- Forums in a particular category pertain to a single spiritual teacher, group or philosophical viewpoint.
- Threads in a particular forum deal with a topic related to that forum.
General wiki Guidelines
- Write without fear of making mistakes and without hesitation. Mistakes can always be corrected later. It is more important to have information than to have it optimally presented.
- As far as possible, attribute any quotes or facts to external websites by using the reference tags as follows:
Content<ref>URL</ref>
More details here. - Use neutral language. The facts should speak for themselves, there is no need to use pejorative or insulting words.
- To include a page in a certain category, add the following to the end of the wiki markup:
[[Category:name-of-category]]
Adding a Definition
- Refer to dictionary or encyclopedic or otherwise reputed sources, some good online references are:
- Provide links to your sources whenever possible.
- Etymology is always helpful, some good sources of etymological information are listed here
- You may annotate the official definitions with your own comments, with the two being clearly marked as separate.
Adding information on a Spiritual Teacher
- Please check if the page on that spiritual teacher already exists, and add to that. Some spiritual teachers are known by more than one name. The main page should be the most popular name of the teacher, or if there is a dispute as to which is the most popular name, the given name should be used and all names assumed or attributed should be redirected to the given-name page.
- Biographical information should cite sources, as far as possible. See Template:Infobox Spiritual Teacher for details.
- Works should contain links with a brief summary of each link
- For more information, you may refer to the various listed Information Portals. For anecdotal reports, you may refer to, among others, Sarlo's Guru Rating Service, the Rick Ross database and forums and any blog posts. The Rick Ross database usually contains extensive reports on major spiritual groups and you may choose to include excerpts from some of them in the Controversies and Criticism heading.
- Only links to copyrighted content should be used. If you have copying permission from the author of the article, you may copy the content and create a separate report page. The permission email should be archived by forwarding it to [1].
- Photographs can be added from Wikipedia or from a public domain source.
- Links to content by a spiritual teacher should be put under the heading Works. If the work is non-copyrighted, consider copying its contents and creating a fresh page for it on nonspiritual.net.
A sample page containing code for a hypothetical spiritual teacher is here.
Linking to Youtube or Google Videos
Videoflash extension has been installed on nonspiritual.net. Usage guidelines follow.
Youtube
Original url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lhyH5TsuPg
Wiki code:
<videoflash>4lhyH5TsuPg</videoflash>
or (with width and height):
<videoflash>WZpeeRSk-0A|200|100</videoflash>
GoogleVideo
Original url: http://video.google.it/videoplay?docid=1811233136844420765
Wiki code:
<videoflash type="googlevideo">1811233136844420765</videoflash>
or (with width and height):
<videoflash type="googlevideo">1811233136844420765|200|150</videoflash>
Please refer to [2] for more details.
Contributing to a scientific or philosophical viewpoint
- Usually enough has been written about popular scientific or philosophical viewpoints. It is usually sufficient to cite and link to other sources. A precise and succinct summary of the viewpoint is encouraged.
Adding information on a Religious Group
- Check if the page on the group already exists. Some groups are known by more than one name. Check the page on the founder of that group.
- Link the page on the group and of its founder.
- For more information, you may refer to the various listed Information Portals. For anecdotal reports, you may refer to Sarlo's Guru Rating Service, the Rick Ross database and forums and any blog posts.
- Only links to copyrighted content should be used. If you have copying permission from the author of the article, you may copy the content and create a separate report page. The permission email should be archived by forwarding it to [3].
A sample page containing code for a hypothetical spiritual group is here.
