FAMEPedia:Noticeboards

Noticeboards on FAMEPedia are administration pages where editors can ask questions and request assistance from people who are familiar with the policies and guidelines covered by each individual board. They are to be used for specific problems that editors encounter in writing and maintaining FAMEPedia articles. Posting a message to a noticeboard can also be an appropriate early step in resolving disputes on FAMEPedia.

Noticeboards are not places to advocate for change to FAMEPedia's existing policies. Instead, such suggestions should be taken directly to the talk page of the applicable policy or guideline. Noticeboards are also not good places to recruit more editors to work with you.

If you need general help with creating and editing articles on FAMEPedia, try FAMEPedia:Questions. New editors may find the FAMEPedia:Contributing to FAMEPedia page a valuable resource. If you want feedback on an article that you have planned, or that you have recently made major changes to, try the help desk.

If you have a question about an encyclopedic subject, leave a note for the FAMEPedia:Reference desk.

Suggestions for success
Posting a message at a noticeboard does not guarantee a response. Editors are more likely to respond to straightforward questions from friendly, productive editors. If you want to increase your odds of receiving a constructive response, try this:
 * Messages should be concise. Long diatribes or sprawling monologues are likely to be ignored or dismissed as "Too long, didn't read".  Provide links to the relevant articles and diffs.  Try to frame your issue as a specific, direct question:  "Can this source be used to support this statement?"  "Is this an acceptable external link for this article?"  "Do you think this editor's account should be blocked for vandalism?"  Some noticeboards have standardized formats for common requests; read and follow the directions to the best of your ability.
 * Be civil. Sarcasm, slurs, and snide remarks should be avoided at all costs. If you are dealing with a heated dispute or are very frustrated, make an effort to present your question with a calm, detached, professional demeanor.  See FAMEPedia's pages on civility and personal attacks for additional advice.  If the editors that respond to you disagree with you, don't argue with them — but do, if necessary, correct any factual misunderstandings or request further clarification.
 * Sign and date all contributions, by appending four tildes " ~ " to the end of every message. This simplifies page administration by allowing automatic archiving of older messages.
 * Watch the page. Editors responding to your message are most likely to reply at the noticeboard.

Responding to requests
Any editor familiar with the relevant policies, guidelines, or procedures is encouraged to respond to requests on noticeboards. Responses that are direct, informed, concrete, and specific are particularly appreciated by editors that post questions. Some questions benefit from responses by multiple editors. Replies are generally given at the noticeboard; if you respond on another page, it may be helpful to leave a link to your response for the convenience of other editors at the noticeboard.

List of FAMEPedia's noticeboards
Select the noticeboard most closely connected to the question you have. Avoid posting the same situation to more than one noticeboard at a time. If an issue crosses boundaries, such as a FP:BLP issue involving vandalism, then choose one or the other, and if necessary, post a very brief message at the other board to point interested editors to the first noticeboard.

Help/Community Noticeboard

 * FAMEPedia:Help noticeboard: for community and help discussions, requests for user group permissions (inclusive of autopatrolled, automoderated, confirmed, rollbacker, confirmed, or autoreview)

Incidents for administrator attention

 * FAMEPedia:Administrators' noticeboard: coordinating and discussing tasks carried out by FAMEPedia administrators.
 * FAMEPedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents: for reporting incidents requiring urgent attention by administrators.
 * FAMEPedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Edit warring: for reporting edit warring and three-revert rule violations.
 * FAMEPedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism: for reporting vandalism requiring immediate administrator intervention.

Bureaucrats, OTRS, Arbitration

 * FAMEPedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard: to assist Bureaucrats on project-related activities.
 * FAMEPedia:Arbitration Committee/Noticeboard: for announcements and statements made by the Arbitration Committee.
 * FAMEPedia:Arbitration/Requests: request Arbcom cases, clarification and amendment.
 * FAMEPedia:Arbitration/Requests/Enforcement: request administrator enforcement of Arbcom decisions.

Other administrator assistance

 * FAMEPedia:Requests for oversight: suppress edits that breach somebody's privacy, or defame somebody.
 * FAMEPedia:Requests for page protection: for requesting that a page, file or template be protected.
 * FAMEPedia:Sockpuppet investigations: for requesting for an investigation on whether two or more FAMEPedia accounts are being abusively operated by the same person.
 * FAMEPedia:Requests for permissions: for requesting changes in user access levels
 * FAMEPedia:Usernames for administrator attention: for usernames that are such blatant and serious problems that they need to be immediately blocked.
 * MediaWiki talk:Titleblacklist: title and user name blacklist requests.

Content dispute resolution

 * FAMEPedia:Third opinion: Third opinion (3O) is a means to request an outside opinion in a content or sourcing disagreement between two editors.
 * FAMEPedia:Dispute resolution noticeboard: to help resolve general disputes between editors.
 * FAMEPedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard: about identifying and correctly using reliable sources to verify article content

Copyright and spam

 * FAMEPedia:Copyright problems: for listing and discussing possible copyright problems involving text on FAMEPedia.
 * FAMEPedia:Media copyright questions: a place for help with image copyrights, tagging, non-free content, and related questions.
 * FAMEPedia:Files for discussion: for reviewing compliance with non-free content criteria for media.
 * MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist: spam blacklist requests.

User and article sanctions

 * FAMEPedia:General sanctions: sanctions for editing certain articles inappropriately.
 * FAMEPedia:Editing restrictions: restrictions on particular users' behavior.

Other editor assistance and debates

 * FAMEPedia:Help desk: for questions about how to use or edit FAMEPedia.
 * FAMEPedia:WikiProject Articles for creation/Help desk: for questions about article submissions to FAMEPedia.
 * FAMEPedia:Village pump: a set of pages is used to discuss the technical issues, policies and operations of FAMEPedia.
 * FAMEPedia:Village pump (idea lab): to discuss ideas and solutions to issues before proposing them to the community.
 * FAMEPedia:Village pump (policy): to discuss existing and proposed policies.
 * FAMEPedia:Village pump (proposals): to discuss new proposals that are not policy-related.
 * FAMEPedia:Village pump (technical): to discuss technical issues.
 * FAMEPedia:Village pump (miscellaneous): for messages that do not fit into any of the other categories.