Future:Guideline
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In order to prevent confusion, we hereby establish several standard policies for the writing of futures theories.
The bulk of Futures Wikia articles fall under one of three main categories, each with its own policies for ideal presentation.
Table of Contents |
[edit] So What's the Deal?
Simply put, the future wikia site administrators will keep watch over the new pages added, and if you satisfy the following requirements you may be promoted to administrator status.
- Read the Concepts and this page carefully, so that you will know what is acceptable and what is not.
- Improve on others' articles. If substantial changes are made, this also counts toward your word count for Step 3.
- Write 1 or more good articles with a combined total of at least 10 kb of text.
- Work on this site consistently over a period of at least a few weeks.
- Contribute to the well-being of the site to a degree that makes you reliable in the eyes of the admins (it's not that hard).
[edit] Basics
- Always capitalize the first letter of every word, and avoid less meaningful terms such as 'of' and 'the'. This way your article will be easier to find. If you spot an article that does not follow this rule, please move it.
- Never create articles with the intention of adding a single link to an outside website. This clogs the wikia with meaningless pages. Instead, create the article if you intend to write about what you see in that outside website, in your own words. If you spot an article that does not follow this rule, please add it to the Future:Pages for deletion list.
- Never create articles without much content; about 10 lines seems a good rule. If you spot an article that does not follow this rule, please add to it or place it on the Future:Pages for deletion list.
[edit] Code of Writing
In order to write effectively and convincingly, please take into consideration the following:
Bias: Bias is inherent in every writer's drafts. However, it is not hard to pinpoint. To clear your articles and edits of bias, please proofread them from the perspective of an opponent or the general public. Use of bias appears to strengthen your writing, but it actually hinders it, considering the ability of most people to see and discredit biased writing.
Justification: In any prediction, there should be a good reason for its occurrence. Therefore, they should be justified appropriately. In doing so, you strengthen your article by showing why it is possible or probable.
Limitation: Given the uncertainty in any prediction, almost nothing presented on this Futures Wikia can be taken as definite. Therefore, take care to avoid terms such as "will" and "must" or otherwise self-assured langugae, which will only cause readers to discredit you as a novice, and replace them with words such as "maybe" or categorize your piece as a scenario.
Accuracy: Please take the time to proofread your work. Using Microsoft Word's grammar and spelling check will save you much time, and also pinpoint your weak areas. Also, make sure that your work is reliable and plausible.
[edit] Categories
[edit] Basic Concepts
Concepts pages are identified by an attempt to elucidate some aspect of futures theories, predictions, and problems suffered by forecasts. This category is nearing completion.
If you are planning to write an article under this category, please consult the list of all Futures Wikia articles to ensure that the topic is not already covered. If there is no similar subject then you may begin a new article for that particular subject. Please do NOT modify the Concepts article directly; that page will be periodically updated from other basic concepts articles selectively.
Articles falling under this category should have the marker of "category: concepts" somewhere on the page and have a template listing all articles in the category.
[edit] For Predictions
General predictions show the trend in which a particular aspect of technology, society, or politics is headed toward, or a logical, very likely change or development in the future. Please do not assume that all of your forecasts will be definitively true, as there are cases in which developments cannot be foreseen.
Articles falling under this category should have the marker of "category:predictions" somewhere on the page and have a template listing all articles in the category.
[edit] For Scenarios
Scenario predictions show the future given a particular hit-or-miss point of divergence and are therefore more specific in scope but less probable, requiring that the given point of divergence take place sometime within a foreseeable time frame in the future.
Scenarios lead to other scenarios; therefore, some scenario pages may have links to even more specific and improbable scenarios that have the same point of divergence plus one or more additional points of divergence that characterize the new scenario. Therefore the result is a scenario tree, also known as a time tree.
Articles falling under this category should have marker of "category:(group of scenarios related by a common point of divergence)" somewhere on the page and have a template listing all of the said scenario articles.
In addition, scenario pages with only one point of divergence will have multiple sub-scenarios, which should be listed using bullet form (* lists) at the end of the scenario article with links to the sub-scenarios. In effect the reader takes a particular path into the future as he/she chooses a scenario, a sub-scenario, and a sub of that sub-scenario, etc.
Articles related to the Future Wikia, as opposed to the future itself...
