Help:Community norms

From Sunshine Review

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This article details community norms that have been established on Sunshine Review. These norms help create easy relationships between articles for "wikifying" purposes.

Here is a list of some general guidelines followed on Sunshine Review when writing articles.

[edit] Beginning an article

In the beginning of an article it is customary to bold the subject of the article in the introductory paragraph before getting into the nitty gritty of an article.

Here is an example for an initiative:

The Missouri Sunshine Law is legislation require that state office comply 
with the Freedom of Information Act and other Open Meeting laws.

[edit] Title of Articles

In order to make crossing linking easier it is best to abide the following guidelines. Make sure to match capital letters and not to substitute symbols (aka "and" or "&"). A general guideline to title articles, categories or even sections is to capitalize the first letter in the sentence and pronouns with everything else lowercase. Another thing to note is anything below in all caps is a generic term and does not need to be capitalized in articles.

For laws

• STATE Open Records Law

• Example: Missouri Sunshine Law
• Some states refer to open records laws as "Sunshine Laws" or "Right to Know." Please modify to match your state.

• For additional transparency legislation do the following:

• STATE House (or Senate) Joint Resolution ####
• Example: Missouri House Joint Resolution 5405

Counties

• For a list of counties title the article "STATE counties"

• Example: Illinois counties

• For specific counties title the article "COUNTY NAME County, STATE"

• Example: Springfield County, Missouri

Cities or towns

• For a list of cities or towns title the article "STATE cities"

• Example: Illinois cities

• For a specific article about a city write "CITY NAME, STATE"

• Example: Chicago, Illinois

Transparency Advocates

• For creating a list of Transparency Advocates in a state title the article "STATE transparency advocates"

• Example: Missouri transparency advocates
• Make sure to include these sections in the article: Watchdog bloggers, Foundations, Action Groups, and Think Tanks. Be sure that the groups have a focus on transparency and accountability.
• Feel free to add national groups to states as long as they are active there.

Schools

• For a list of school districts title the article "STATE school districts"

• Example: Missouri school districts

• For a school district simply type "NAME OF DISTRICT School District"

For biographies of activists or government workers:

• FIRST NAME LAST NAME
• For example: Paul Jacob

News stories

• These are in a category of their own and to look more into them please check out our How to report news article.

[edit] Categories

Categories are denoted by typing [[Category:STATE]]

Geographical Common geographical categories include the following:

• STATE
• STATE counties
• STATE cities

Open records laws

• Include [[Category:Open records laws]] for all transparency legislation
• STATE transparency legislation

Transparency Advocate Depending on the size of the organization here are following common categories:

• Political organization
• Transparency advocates
• STATE political organization

[edit] State Templates

For each state there is a "state template" like the following that helps contributors navigate to popular pages:

	v • d • e State of Missouri Jefferson City (capital)
Transparency	Sunshine Law | Transparency Checklist | Government corruption reports | Transparency Legislation | Open Records procedures | Transparency Advocates | Transparency blogs | State budget | Taxpayer-funded lobbying associations |
Divisions	State | List of Counties | List of Cities | List of School Districts | Evaluation of county websites | Evaluation of city websites | Evaluation of school district websites |
Government	Missouri State Constitution | Executive | House of Representatives | Senate |
Judiciary	Missouri Supreme Court | County circuit judges | District Courts | Judicial Nominating Commission | Judicial news | Judicial activist organizations |
Ballot Measures	2008 ballot measures | List of ballot measures | Local initiative and referendum | Amending the constitution | History of direct democracy | Campaign finance requirements |

In order to enter this type {{STATE}}.

• For navigation articles like the main page for a city, county state or a listing article please put the state template at the top of a page.
• Otherwise for a specific article like Evergreen Freedom Foundation or reports on government accountability please put the state template on the bottom of the page.

[edit] Crossing linking articles

Make it a point to cross link or "wikify" articles.

Here are some common terms that you can link to in many articles:

• Freedom of Information in the United States
• Freedom of Information Act
• Open government
• Pork barrel spending
• Earmarks

Also for interwiki linking these terms are common:

• [[Ballotpedia:STATE Supreme Court]]
• [[Ballotpedia:STATE Legislature]]
• [[Ballotpedia:STATE Supreme Court]]
• [[Ballotpedia:STATE Constitution]]

Or check out the List of common terms for more.

[edit] See also:

• Article Guidelines

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