Wikipedia:WikiProject Scouting/RulesStandards
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This is the page for the agreed upon rules and standards of the Scouting Project and Portal. Please don't discuss issues here, use the talk page.
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[edit] Hierarchy of Categories
Articles/real-people can be in more than one horizontal subcategory, but should not normally list a subcategory and its parent category.
Encyclopedic categories: "Scouting" is the top parent category, with a hierarchy thereunder. The Scout association in most countries belong to Category:WOSM member organizations and/or Category:WAGGGS member organizations. The article dealing with a countries' Scout organization should be in one or both categories, not directly under the Scouting catgory.
There is a "Scouting by country" category that holds a group of articles pertaining to one country. Each country has its own subcat here. An article can be here and also under WOSM and/or WAGGGS. Using the "Scouting by country" cat/subcats also means we're no longer violating the rule of using a sub and its parent as we're using horizontal categories. Organizations that are not members should be in their appropriate "Scouting in (country)" category.
Real people categories: "Scouting Wikipedians" is the top parent category, with a hierarchy thereunder. Currently, there are only 4 subcategories and those are not further subdivided.
Categories of real people, such Wood Badge Wikipedians, should not be mixed in with encyclopedia article categories.
Note: The "Eagle Scout Wikipedians" subcategory has mostly BSA Eagle Scouts, but at least one Philippine Eagle Scout (their highest rank is also Eagle Scout and the design of the medal and knot are very similar), so it also is an international category.
[edit] Non-aligned Scouting organizations
This category is for Scouting organizations that are not recognized by WOSM or WAGGGS, for whatever the reason. This includes Royal Rangers, Traditional Scouting, Primitive Scouting, WFIS, FSE and OWS, which are all Scouting or Scout-like movements. There are only very few known non-WAGGGS (girl) organizations like the American Heritage Girls and some German associations.
[edit] Article issues
Scout Movement the first 'M' in Movement should be capitalized.
[edit] Article names
Use the Wiki guideline at Naming conventions to name articles. This same guideline says to use the Roman alphabet and standard English spelling (ie, Vienna not Wien). It also says to use the original spelling and alphabet in the first line of the article. Only use the foreign name if it meets this standard: If there is no commonly used English name, use an accepted transliteration of the name in the original language. Latin-alphabet languages, like Spanish or French, should need no transliteration, but Chinese names can use Pinyin, for example.
There should be redirects from common versions of an association's title to what version is in use for the artilce title. This applies to English and non-English versions of the title. At a minimum, there should be a redirect to the alternative version used in the lead sentence of an article.
[edit] Criteria for an organization's article inclusion
As stated on the project main page, our scope is all Scouting articles; but we need to define what constitutes Scouting. We have reached this consensus: If an organization veers too far from the Scout method, and/or becomes overly politicized and/or militarized, it shall not be included in this Project. The organizations identified that fail to meet our criteria are: Hitler Youth and Young Pioneers. See talk page for why.
Organizations that are covered by our project include, but are not limited to:
- all World Organization of the Scout Movement affiliated organizations
- all World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts affiliated organizations
- all Confédération Européenne de Scoutisme affiliated organizations
- all Union Internationale des Guides et Scouts d’Europe affiliated organizations
- all Order of World Scouts affiliated organizations
- all Scouts-in-Exile affiliated organizations
- all World Federation of Independent Scouts affiliated organizations, which includes Baden-Powell Scouts and Traditional Scouting
- those who had a major impact on the formation of Scouting: Boys' Brigade, Sons of Daniel Boone, Woodcraft Indians, and YMCA
- those who developed out of the movement using major parts of its method: Kibbo Kift, and The Woodcraft Folk
- those who started as parallel organizations using major parts of its method: Royal Rangers, Campfire USA, American Heritage Girls, or SpiralScouts International
[edit] Dialects
For spelling variations, such as American vs British spelling, use the standard form of the language of the country the article is about. In generic articles, such as Scouting, use American.
[edit] Male-Female issues
As stated elsewhere, the Scouting WikiProject's scope includes male, female, and coed Scouting units. Articles about the WOSM and other primarily male affiliated Scout organisations in a particular country should not mention, other than a "See also" link, the equivalent WAGGGS or other primarily female organisation in that country. Material about the WAGGGS organisation should be put into a new article, even if only a stub, and vice versa for WAGGGS/female articles and their mentioning of WOSM/male organizations. This is meant to assist in providing equal weight to female Guiding and Scouting as the project has mostly male editors.
[edit] Language of Scouting
The guidelines in Language of Scouting should normally be followed, especially for BSA articles as this is a BSA guide; though much of it would apply to other organizations.
[edit] Scouting - Capitalization
Scout, Scouter, and Scouting are proper nouns and should have the 'S' capitalized in all cases where it refers to the Scouting program or organization in any way. This includes ranks (see below).
[edit] BSA references
If the BSA is used in a title, spell it out. EX: History of merit badges (Boy Scouts of America)
Upon the BSA being first referred to in the article, put the abbreviation immediately after the spelling out, EX: ....the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), and then use BSA in the article. There is hence no need to spell it out.
In most all instances, "the" is needs to precede BSA, EX: "The BSA requires...", NOT "BSA requires...".
[edit] Ranks
The 'S' in Scout should be capitalized when used to refer to a rank, as in "Eagle Scout", "Tenderfoot Scout", etc. This includes articles with "Scout" in the title, such as "Eagle Scout rank (Boy Scouts of America).
The rank articles on First Class and Second Class should have the 'C' capitalized as "Class" is part of the rank title.
[edit] Latter-day Saints
Use one of these to refer to this church:
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Latter-day Saints
- Mormons
Note the punctuation and capitalization of "Latter-day."
Do not use any other forms or abbreviations.
[edit] Divisions of national organizations
Cub Scouts (Boy Scouts of America) is the proper name for American Cub Scouting, not "Cub Scouts" or "Cub Scouts of America" or the abbreviation "CSA"; though they are common phrases, they are not the name of the organization. Use the correct name.
BSA (spelled out, see above) should be part of article titles, not the section of BSA, EX: Skipper (Sea Scouting) to Skipper (Boy Scouts of America), Skipper is not the name used in all Scout organizations. This pattern should be used for other countries like "... (Boy Scouts of the Philippines)", vice "....(BSP)".
[edit] National level entities
National level organizations, such as the honor societies (ex, Order of the Arrow), and national level camps warrant their own article. To use the United States' BSA as an example, these are the Order of the Arrow, Philmont, Florida Sea Base, Mortimer L. Schiff Scout Reservation, etc.
Note: This section was written specifically with the BSA in mind, but its basic principles apply to other countries and major Scouting organizations.
[edit] Local articles (Councils and smaller entities)
Since council boundaries change and councils merge and get divided, articles on regional Scouting shall be structured by State, such as Scouting in Virginia. The councils, districts, lodges, and smaller Scouting units in that state should be covered within that article. Generally, an entity smaller than a Council (such as a troop, pack, or district) should not have its own article, unless it has done something truly exceptional or unique, or is historically exceptionally significant.
A Council, council camp/reservation, or OA Lodge may have its own article if it meets standard wikipedia criteria for having its own article. Factors include length, notability, comprehensiveness, and overall quality. In such as case, a summary and "main article" link should be created in the state article in line with standard Wiki practice, such as the Tidewater Council article and link in the Scouting in Virginia article. Articles covering more than one state, such as Tidewater Council, should be mentioned in both state articles (here, NC and VA). A camp/reservation run and supported by a district is a district level camp and should be covered in the council article.
Note: This section was written specifically with the BSA in mind, but its basic principles apply to other countries and major Scouting organizations.
[edit] Lists of famous Scouts
For articles that are lists of famous Scouts, such as List of notable Eagle Scouts, place this notice at the top of the talk page, below the Scouting WikiProject notice:
NOTE: similar notices should be used for any page that requires guidelines. Customize the first line if need be; for example, on the List of Distinguished Eagle Scout Award recipients it says "...IF they are in fact a Distinguished Eagle Scout".
[edit] Images
For official insignia, such as rank patches, insignia, council strips, camping patches, jamboree patches, etc. use the {{scoutlogo}} tag. Rlevse 11:17, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] References, Footnotes, and the ends of articles
Use a Wiki approved system in an article and be consistent--don't use more than one system in an article.
Use the "caret, a, b" system for multiple footnotes utilizing the same source; unless it is a different page, then us ibid in the next citation.
[edit] End of Articles
Use this pattern:
- See also appears first after the text of the article
- the portal tag should be the top line the See also section, unless it's in an infobox
- References appears next, uses refs (footnotes) from the text and also refs not directly connected to the text, but support it
- External links appears fourth, lists refs that amplify the article, but were not needed to write it.
- Stubs appear next
- Regional templates appear next
- persondata box -- for biographical articles, see B-P article for a sample
- Categories appear last
Note: for an example of this, see Arthur Rose Eldred and History of merit badges (Boy Scouts of America).
[edit] Merge, move delete proposals
When proposing a change such as merge or move, do add the tag, but also start a section on the article's talk page; explaining your reasoning. What may be obvious to you may not be immediately clear to others. If there are no dissents or no discussion for a few days, then make the changes. If you wish to propose or discuss one of this actions without going through the formal process, use our Todo's talk page.
