This page was created to help newcomers to Wiki understand the social norms adhered to by most people using this wiki. Please add any that are missing, and list references where they are discussed. If a social norm isn't, remove it. If it shouldn't be a norm, debate it on another page. New visitors will appreciate having a succinct, accurate and gentle guide.
Read the founder's description of why Wiki exists and what the intentions were.
The norm of norms: take everything with a grain of salt.
Bear in mind that everything on Wiki is an opinion, there is no higher Wiki law, just a bunch of Wiki Social Norms.
And please consider using the More Light Than Heat Guideline as a starting point.
Try to make Wiki a better place!
Good Style One of the first Wiki pages put up by the founder. Beautifully concise. May be all you need.
Welcome To Wiki Please Be Polite (remember to Thank The Author)
Use your real name and write in a way others will understand.
English Please (and use Plain English)
This wiki was created for the discussion of patterns, particularly software design patterns. Its users have chosen to broaden that focus.
Avoid Wiki Squatting, Walled Gardens, and Wiki Spam
There are two ideal forms for contributions; most pages contain a mixture of both.
Never intentionally misrepresent or suppress other people's opinions. Be especially careful about deletion.
Unless they say otherwise, don't mess with people's home pages, except to leave them notes.
English Please. This particular Wiki is in English, and thus non-English pages are discouraged (with a few exceptions, such as the International One Minute Wiki). However, Public Wiki Forums exist in many different languages, and there even exist a few Multi Lingual Wikis.
In a different wiki, I have seen mentioned "do not bring (external) controversies into the community here". Do we have something spelt out here clearly in this wiki?
See original on c2.com 