Policy
This page documents policies on the RepRap Wiki.
Much of the text on this page is derived from Wikipedia policy pages, including
The text on these Wikipedia pages is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Contents
About RepRap
RepRap was the first of the low-cost 3D printers, and the RepRap Project started the open-source 3D printer revolution.
More significantly - and uniquely - RepRap is able to print out many of its own parts. The remaining parts are designed to be common items available from hardware stores or on-line.
RepRap stands for Replicating Rapid-prototyper. This means that anyone with a RepRap can make another RepRap for a friend, or can make RepRaps and sell them. Anyone using RepRaps for production of more RepRaps, or any other item, can double their capacity in a few days simply by taking their RepRaps out of service and having them copy themselves. Because RepRap is free and open-source, any person or company anywhere in the world can do these things without any royalty payments or other licensing issues. The only obligation on users is openly to release any improvements they make to the design of the RepRap machine itself back to the community.
RepRap is about making self-replicating machines, and making them freely available for the benefit of everyone. Right now, most RepRaps use 3D printing to do this, but other technologies that can copy themselves and that can be made freely available to all also qualify as RepRaps.
- --adapted from Adrian Bowyer's Short Description of the RepRap Project and the Main Page
RepRap Wiki Mission Statement
The mission of the RepRap Wiki is to facilitate the free and open sharing of information between members of the RepRap community, for the purpose of improving RepRap technology and making this technology freely available for the benefit of everyone.
Policies
The RepRap Wiki is a self-governing project run by the RepRap community. Its policies are intended to reflect the consensus of the community. The "RepRap community" consists of
- makers, users, buyers, and sellers of RepRaps,
- people with an interest (casual or otherwise) in RepRaps and/or the RepRap project,
- makers, users, buyers and sellers of technologies that are closely and specifically related to the RepRap project (examples include but are not limited to: filament extruders, 3D scanners, open source 3D modeling software).
Policies are developed by the community to describe best practices, clarify principles, resolve conflicts, and otherwise further the mission of the RepRap Wiki.
Use common sense when interpreting and applying policies; there will be occasional exceptions to these rules. Conversely, those who violate the spirit of a rule may be reprimanded even if no rule has technically been broken.
Overview and Guiding Principles
- Use common sense
- Don't be a jerk
Content
Conduct
Deletion
Enforcement
Enforcement on RepRap Wiki is similar to other social interactions. If an editor violates the community standards described in policies, other editors can persuade the person to adhere to acceptable norms of conduct, over time resorting to more forceful means, such as administrator actions. In the case of gross violations of community norms, they are likely to resort to more forceful means fairly rapidly. Going against the principles set out on these pages is unlikely to prove acceptable, although it may be possible to convince fellow editors that an exception ought to be made. This means that individual editors (including you) enforce and apply policies.
In cases where it is clear that a user is acting against policy, especially if they are doing so intentionally and persistently, that user may be temporarily or indefinitely blocked from editing by an administrator. In cases where the general dispute resolution procedure has been ineffective, an appeal may be made to Adrian Bowyer to deal with highly disruptive or sensitive situations.
Administrators
Administrators, like all editors, are not perfect beings. However, in general, they are expected to act as role models within the community, and a good general standard of civility, fairness, and general conduct both to editors and in content matters, is expected. When acting as administrators, they are also expected to be fair, exercise good judgment, and give explanations and be communicative as necessary.
Banning policy
Extremely disruptive editors may be banned from RepRap Wiki. Please respect these bans, do not bait banned users, and do not help them out. Bans can be appealed to the Administration, Announcements, Policy forum or to Adrian Bowyer, depending on the nature of the ban.
Blocking policy
Disruptive editors can be blocked from editing for short or long periods of time.
Page protection policy
Pages can be protected against vandals or during fierce content disputes. Protected pages can, but in general should not, be edited by administrators. In addition, pages undergoing frequent vandalism can be semi-protected to block edits by very new or unregistered editors.
Essays, Guidelines, and Other Relevant Information on the Wiki
Relevant Forum Discussions
- When is a design sufficiently open source to be considered a "development" in the wiki and how to handle edge cases. (Dec 14, 2014)
- Suggestions for Improving the RepRap Wiki (Nov 28, 2014)
- Rewording the front page (Sep 26, 2014)
- Is RepRap a link lister, a shopping mall, or should it try to support/strengthen development? (Aug 08, 2014)
