Editorial policies for Vanipedia articles
Introduction
Vanipedia articles take research done in Vaniquotes and present the results in an easily understandable way. These articles will not only inspire people to study Śrīla Prabhupāda's works more deeply, but will also give a layman a summary of what Śrīla Prabhupāda stood for. Thus the articles are another way to establish the authority of Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings. Vanipedia articles will cover a variety of styles and character and can be written either singularly or collaboratively.
Purpose
- To summarize and present Śrīla Prabhupāda's direct teachings from his books, his letters, and his recorded lectures and conversations on any given subject as per the archived record in the Bhaktivedanta Archive's VedaBase, which is also completely available in Vanisource.
- To facilitate users to enter into association with Śrīla Prabhupāda through his vani – specifically, to encourage users to explore Vaniquotes and Vanisource in order to enrich their knowledge, understanding, and spiritual advancement through immediate contact with Śrīla Prabhupāda in his words.
- To be a popular entry point into Vanipedia for searchers on the web, thus facilitating laymen to have some good quality easy to read initial contact with Srila Prabhupada's teachings.
Source Base and Scope
Articles should:
- Be sourced only from Śrīla Prabhupāda's vani, with no references to any secondary literatures or to the works of our past acaryas (outside of that which Śrīla Prabhupāda cites, quotes or translates himself in his teachings).
- Represent Śrīla Prabhupāda’s teachings on the chosen subject from all angles of his presentation.
- Be written from 'a neutral point of view', meaning that the author will analyze, organize and summarize what Śrīla Prabhupāda said, without arguing any other thesis.
- Convey Śrīla Prabhupāda's mood and message, and not that of the author or any other party. (Personal essays, no matter how nice, do not belong in Vanipedia.)
Subject Matter
- Choice of subject or topic is up to the author, in cooperation with the project coordinators.
- Whatever subject is chosen, it must be supported throughout by references from Śrīla Prabhupāda's vani.
- The authors are encouraged to utilize the Vaniquotes compiling platform to develop more material in Vaniquotes to enhance and supplement the article.
Article Structure
- Articles must include citations and references to Śrīla Prabhupāda's vani, as per ordinary standards of academic work.
- Preferably, articles should be broken into subtopic sections, similar to the style found in Wikipedia, for ease of reference and future editing.
- Articles can include text, images, graphs, audio and video files - whatever the author considers will enhance the presentation.
Permissions and Use of Software
- Prospective authors may set up a user account with Vanipedia and with Vaniquotes. They will then be given editorial rights, enabling them to create and edit pages in each site. Training will be available for anyone unfamiliar with the Wiki software (and it's not difficult to learn).
- It is agreed that once articles are written in Vanipedia, they will be allowed to be used in the Vanipedia site indefinitely and also allowed to be edited for improvements. The author will not claim any ownership rights over the article while it is in the Vanipedia platform, and likewise Vanipedia claims no ownership rights over the article should the author want to present it in other platforms.