User:Whiteknight/Contributions Summary

								R L P
Whiteknight	Discussion	Book Foundry	All Books	New Book Guide	Book Creator	Images	About Me

Due to a severe shortage of time, I am no longer able to be an active member of the Wikibooks project. Please see my page for more details about my absense. I will continue to monitor my talk page for correspondence and will try to reply quickly when possible.

Wikibooks is a collaborative community, where people work together to write open-content textbooks. However, because there is no firm organizational or editorial structure at wikibooks, there are bound to be questions about who gets to edit what when, and who gets the final say, and who gets to make changes.

Who Gets the Final Say?

No one person has the authority to make decisions, and nobody gets the "final say" on any matter. Wikibooks, and the individual book subprojects on wikibooks are not monarchies, and there is no "king of wikibooks". All decisions should be made by concensus from the community at large. Notice that "concensus" is not the same thing as "majority rule". Wikibooks is also not a democracy, and majority voting is not an appropriate way to solve disputes. If you have a disagreement with other editors, work it out, discuss it, and compromise. Compromise is the most important skill you can have here on wikibooks.

How Are Changes Made?

Concensus is a slow process for making new changes, especially when those changes are small, or if there isn't really going to be any opposition anyway. The general motto here at wikibooks is "Be Bold!". If you see a change that needs to be made, make it. If you see something that needs to be improved, improve it! If, however, your changes are met with opposition, you must then rely on concensus, discussion, and compromise to find the best solutions to the problem.

Who Is In Charge?

You are! It is up to you to make changes where you feel they are necessary. It is up to you to contribute content that you are able. Nobody is going to tell you what to do, or when to do it. Wikibooks does have certain community members who are active on a wide scale, and who have been informally dubbed "staff". Wikibooks staff are available to you to ask questions, and to provide help. To get in touch with a staff member, ask a question on the Wikibooks:Staff lounge. If you would like to become a staff member, there is no process involved, just help out and answer other people's questions too!

How are Books Made?

You make them! If you want to contribute content, please feel free to do so. However, if you would like to start an entirely new book, that's fine too. Books take alot of work, and a lot of planning so make sure that you don't rush into it and get in over your head. In a worst-case scenario, your new book could become so bad and unusable, that it could get deleted! A new book should be properly named, should be properly organized, and should follow all the applicable conventions and style guidelines. Once you create a new book, leave a note about it on the New Books Staff Lounge, a page where new users can announce their new projects (or just say hello).