View source for Chalo Chatu:Policies and guidelines

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{{nutshell|Chalo Chatu's policies and guidelines are pages that serve to document the good practices that are accepted in the Chalo Chatu community. This policy describes how CU policies and guidelines should normally be developed and maintained.}}
{{Policy list}}
Chalo Chatu's policies and guidelines are developed by the community to describe best practices, clarify principles, resolve conflicts, and otherwise further our goal of creating a free, reliable encyclopedia. There is no need to read any policy or guideline pages to start editing. 
Chalo Chatu's policy and guideline pages describe its principles and agreed-upon best practices. Policies are standards that all users should normally follow, and guidelines are generally meant to be best practices for following those standards in specific contexts. Policies and guidelines should always be applied using reason and
common sense.
This policy page specifies the community standards related to the organization, life cycle, maintenance of, and adherence to policies, guidelines, and related pages.
==Derivation==
[[Chalo Chatu]] is operated by the not-for-profit [[Chalo Chatu Foundation]], which reserves certain legal rights. See also [[Chalo Chatu:Jason Mulikita|Role of Jason Mulikita]]. Nevertheless, normally Chalo Chatu is a self-governing project run by its community. Its policies and guidelines are intended to reflect the consensus of the community.

==Role==

'''Policies''' have wide acceptance among editors and describe standards that all users should normally follow. All policy pages are in [[Chalo Chatu:List of policies and guidelines]] and [[:Category:Chalo Chatu policies]]. For summaries of key policies, see also [[Chalo Chatu:List of policies|List of policies]].

==Enforcement==

Enforcement on Chalo Chatu is similar to other social interactions. If an editor violates the community standards described in policies and guidelines, other editors can persuade the person to adhere to
acceptable norms of conduct, over time resorting to more forceful means, such as
administrator and steward actions. In the case of gross violations of community norms, they are likely to resort to more forceful means fairly rapidly. Going against the principles set out on these pages, particularly policy pages, is unlikely to prove acceptable, although it may be possible to convince fellow editors that an exception ought to be made . This means that individual editors (including you) enforce and apply policies and guidelines.

In cases where it is clear that a user is acting against policy (or against a guideline in a way that conflicts with policy), especially if they are doing so intentionally and persistently, that user may be temporarily or indefinitely blocked from editing by an administrator. In cases where the general dispute resolution procedure has been ineffective, the Arbitration Committee has the power to deal with highly disruptive or sensitive situations.

=={{anchor|Content}}Content==
Policy and guideline pages should:
* '''Be clear'''.  Avoid esoteric or quasi-legal terms and dumbed-down language. Be plain, direct, unambiguous, and specific.  Avoid platitudes and generalities.  Do not be afraid to tell editors directly that they must or should do something.
* '''Be as concise as possible—but no more concise.''' Verbosity is not a reliable defense against misinterpretation. Omit needless words.  Direct, concise writing may be more clear than rambling examples.  Footnotes and links to other pages may be used for further clarification.
* '''Emphasize the spirit of the rule.'''  Expect editors to use common sense.  If the spirit of the rule is clear, say no more.
* '''Maintain scope and avoid redundancy.''' Clearly identify the purpose and scope early in the page, as many readers will just look at the beginning.  Content should be within the scope of its policy. When the scope of one advice page overlaps with the scope of another, minimize redundancy. When one policy refers to another policy, it should do so briefly, clearly and explicitly.
* '''Avoid overlinking.''' Links to policies, guidelines, essays, and articles should be used only when clarification or context is needed. Links to other advice pages may inadvertently or intentionally defer authority to them. Make it clear when links defer, and when they do not.
* '''Not contradict each other.'''  The community's view cannot simultaneously be "A" and "not A".  When apparent discrepancies arise between pages, editors at all the affected pages should discuss how they can most accurately represent the community's current position, and correct all of the pages to reflect the community's view. This discussion should be on <u>one</u> talk page, with invitations to that page at the talk pages of the various affected pages; otherwise the corrections may still contradict each other.


==Not part of the encyclopedia==

Chalo Chatu has a number of policies and guidelines about encyclopedic content.  These standards require verifiability, neutrality, respect for living people, and more.

The policies, guidelines, and process pages themselves are not part of the encyclopedia proper.  Consequently, they do not generally need to conform to the same content standards.  It is therefore not necessary to provide [[Chalo Chatu:Identifying reliable sources|reliable sources]] to [[Chalo Chatu:Verifiability|verify]] Chalo Chatu's administrative pages, or to phrase Chalo Chatu procedures or principles in a [[Chalo Chatu:Neutral point of view|neutral]] manner, or to cite an outside authority in determining Chalo Chatu's editorial practices.  Instead, the content of these pages is controlled by community-wide consensus, and the style should emphasize clarity, directness, and usefulness to other editors.<ref>There is no prohibition against including appropriate external references to support and explain our policies or guidelines, but such sources are not authoritative with respect to Chalo Chatu, and should only be used to reinforce consensus.</ref>

These pages do, however, need to comply with Chalo Chatu's legal and behavioral policies, as well as policies applicable to non-content pages.  For example, editors may not violate copyrights anywhere on Chalo Chatu, and edit warring is prohibited everywhere, not merely in encyclopedia articles.

==Naming==
The page names of policies and guidelines usually do not include the words "policy" or "guideline", unless required to distinguish the page from another.

==Notes==
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[[Category:Chalo Chatu policies and guidelines| ]]
[[Category:Chalo Chatu policies| ]]
[[Category:Chalo Chatu administration|{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Chalo Chatu procedural policies]]