Project:Editing Policy

1. User Eligibility and Account Requirements

1.1. Verified University Affiliation: Only users with accounts tied to a verified umich.edu email address may create or edit content on the Central Student Government (hereinafter "CSG") Wiki. All prospective editors must complete the account verification process by confirming their umich.edu email address before gaining editing privileges.

1.2. Account Responsibility: Users are responsible for all edits made under their account and must not share access credentials with others. All users are considered third-party information content providers responsible for their own contributions.

2. Content Standards and Sourcing

2.1. Factual Information Requirement: All content must be based solely on factual information from the CSG public record, or from other legal or governmental sources.

2.2. Citation Requirement: Every substantive claim or statement must be cited to a verifiable document or record within the scope of 2.1.

2.3. Prohibited Sources:

• Personal knowledge
• Hearsay or secondhand information
• Social media posts (unless they are official CSG communications)
• News articles offering analysis, opinions, or speculation (as opposed to simple fact reporting)

2.4. Election Information Limitations: Information from elections is limited to official election results, party affiliations, and other information found in official filings with CSG.

2.5. Neutral Point of View: All content must be written from a neutral point of view, presenting information factually without bias or opinion.

3. Conflict of Interest Policy

3.1. Editing Prohibitions: Users may not write about or edit pages concerning:

• Themselves
• Projects they have directly worked on
• Any candidate in the next election, when one is themself a candidate in the next election

3.2. Providing Information: Nothing in this section shall be interpreted to prohibit the suggestion of draft edits or additions by a conflicted individual to another individual. If an individual makes a publication on behalf of another, the publishing individual remains liable for the contents of their publication.

3.3. Secretarial Positions: Nothing in this section shall be interpreted to prohibit individuals performing purely secretarial tasks from contributing to this site on corresponding matters.

3.4. Infocard Exception: Individuals may post strictly biographical data (e.g. major, class year, etc.) about themselves in their infocard (after one has been initially created by a non-conflicted individual already). This exception includes the posting/updating of their portrait photograph.

3.5. Conflict of Interest Waiver: Prohibitions in this section may be waived by the CSG Department of Legal Affairs (DLA). The DLA shall consider whether:

• There is a demonstrated lack of information on the topic
• Including such information would be in the public interest
• The editor is uniquely positioned to collate factual information

4. Scope of Content

4.1. Eligible Subjects: Articles may only be created about CSG officials as defined by the Governing Documents and projects, happenings, and other matters within the official scope of CSG.

4.2. Prohibited Content: The following content is not permitted:

• Forecasts about future CSG actions or decisions
• Non-public personal details about CSG officials or public details not relevant to their official duties or status as a student
• Content that falls outside the scope of CSG operations and governance

5. Enforcement and Violations

5.1. Egregious Violations: The following actions will result in a permanent ban:

• Intentional vandalism
• Insertion of false information
• Harassment or personal attacks
• Violation of university policies or law
• Attempting to circumvent technical restrictions

5.2. Standard Violations: The following actions will result in a warning followed by a permanent ban for repeated offenses:

• Violating the factuality requirement
• Failing to provide proper citations
• Minor conflict of interest violations
• Creating articles outside the scope of CSG
• Formatting or style violations

5.3. Other Violations: The list of violations herein are not exhaustive. Any contributor may be assessed as having committed an egregious or standard violation for any objectionable conduct in the discretion of the DLA. The DLA should show leniency towards such cases.

5.4. Appeals Process: Banned users may submit an administrative appeal to the Student General Counsel within 14 days of a ban.

6. Technical Requirements

6.1. Bots and Automated Editing: The use of bots or automated editing tools is prohibited without explicit authorization.

6.2. Edit Rate Limiting: To prevent spam and ensure quality control, users are limited to a reasonable number of edits per day.

6.3. File Uploads: Only relevant documents and images directly related to CSG may be uploaded, subject to university policies and copyright law.

7. Page Structure and Formatting

7.1. Naming Conventions: Pages must follow established naming conventions:

• Individual pages: "FirstName LastName
• Project pages: "Project Name (Year)"
• Sub-organization pages (e.g. "Assembly"): "Sub-organization Name"
• CSJ cases: "Complainant v. Respondent (Year)"
• Legislation: "Short title"

7.2. Standard Templates: Editors must use templates for categories of things (including but not limited to those in 7.1) or create one when one does not exist.

7.3. Categories: All pages must be properly categorized according to the established taxonomy.

8. Review and Oversight

8.1. Content Review: The Department of Legal Affairs maintains oversight of wiki content and may:

• Review any edit or new page
• Request changes to ensure compliance with policies
• Remove content that violates these policies

8.2. Policy Updates: This policy may be updated by the Department of Legal Affairs at any time and without notice.

8.3. Disclaimer: Please view disclaimers on the disclaimers page.