Pensapedia:About

Welcome to Pensapedia, the Pensacola encyclopedia.

Pensapedia aims to be the most accurate and comprehensive source for information on Pensacola and the surrounding area. The content of Pensapedia is free, written collaboratively by members of the community. This website is a wiki, which means that anyone with access to an Internet-connected computer can edit, correct, or improve information throughout the encyclopedia, simply by creating an account and clicking the edit this page link (with a few minor exceptions, such as protected articles and the main page).

In every article, links will guide you to associated articles, often with additional information. You are welcome to add further information, cross-references, or citations, so long as you do so within Pensapedia's editing policies and to an appropriate standard. You do not need to fear accidentally damaging Pensapedia when you add or improve information, as other contributors are always around to advise or correct obvious errors if needed, and the Pensapedia encyclopedia software, known as MediaWiki, is carefully designed to allow easy reversal of editorial mistakes.

Because Pensapedia is an ongoing work to which in principle anybody can contribute, it differs from a paper-based reference source in some very important ways. In particular, older articles tend to be more comprehensive and balanced, while newer articles may still contain significant misinformation, unencyclopedic content, or vandalism. Users need to be aware of this in order to obtain valid information and avoid misinformation which has been recently added and not yet removed. (See Pensapedia:Researching with Pensapedia for more details). However, unlike a paper reference source, Pensapedia is completely up-to-date, with articles on topical events being created or updated within minutes or hours, rather than months or years for printed encyclopedias.

If you have not done so, we invite you to take a few moments to read What Pensapedia is (and is not) and Researching with Pensapedia, so that you have an understanding of how to use, rely upon or contribute to Pensapedia as you continue. Further information on key topics can be found below.

Happy browsing!

See also: Pensapedia:Welcome, newcomers.

For help topics, questions and contact information, see Help:Contents.

For news about the site, see Pensapedia:News.

Making the best use of Pensapedia

Exploring Pensapedia

Many visitors come to this site to acquire knowledge, others to share knowledge. In fact, at this very instant, dozens of articles are being improved. You can view the changes at the Recent changes page. New articles are also being recorded. Many different kinds of people help to write Pensapedia articles. The hope of any contributor is to provide useful and accurate information to others, and the projects help coordinate efforts. Most articles start as stubs, but after many contributions, they can become featured articles.

If you can't find what you are looking for, see Where to ask questions for a list of departments where our volunteers answer questions, any question you can possibly imagine.

Once you've determined that there is no article on Pensapedia on a topic you are interested in, you may want to request the article be written (or you could even research the issue and write it yourself).

You can also view random articles.

You might also enjoy reading Pensapedia in other languages. Pensapedia has more than two hundred different languages (see other language versions), including a Simple English version, and related projects include a dictionary, quotations, books, manuals and scientific reference sources, and a news service (see sister projects). All of these are maintained, updated and managed by separate communities, and often include thought-provoking information and articles which can be hard to find through other common sources.

Basic navigation in Pensapedia

Pensapedia articles are all linked, or cross-referenced. Wherever you see highlighted text like this, it means there is a link to some relevant article or Pensapedia page with further in-depth information elsewhere if you need it. Holding your mouse over the link will often show you where a link will take you. You are always one click away from more information on any point that has a link attached.

There are other links towards the ends of most articles, for other articles of interest, relevant external web sites and pages, reference material, and organized categories of knowledge which you can search and traverse in a loose hierarchy for more information.

Some articles may also have links to dictionary definitions, audio-book readings, quotations, or the same article in other languages.

You can add further links if a relevant link is missing, and this is one way to contribute.

Using Pensapedia as a research tool

Main articles: Researching with Pensapedia, Citing Pensapedia

As a wiki, articles are never complete. They are continually edited and improved over time, and in general this results in an upward trend of quality, and a growing consensus over a fair and balanced representation of information.

Users should be aware that not all articles are of encyclopedic quality from the start. Indeed, many articles commence their lives as partisan, and it is after a long process of discussion, debate and argument, that they gradually take on a consensus form. Others may for a while become caught up in a heavily unbalanced viewpoint which can take some time - months perhaps - to extricate themselves and regain a better balanced consensus.

In part, this is because Pensapedia operates an internal resolution process when editors cannot agree on content and approach, and such issues take time to come to the attention of more experienced editors.

The ideal Pensapedia article is balanced, neutral and encyclopedic, containing notable verifiable knowledge. An increasing number of articles reach this standard over time, and many already have. However this is a process and can take months or years to be achieved, as each user adds their contribution in turn. Some articles contain statements and claims which have not yet been fully cited. Others will later have entire new sections added. Some information will be considered by later contributors to be insufficiently founded, and may be removed or expounded.

While the overall trend is generally upward, it is important to use Pensapedia carefully if it is intended to be used as a research source, since individual articles will, by their nature, vary in standard and maturity. There are guidelines and information pages designed to help users and researchers do this effectively, and an article that summarizes third party studies and assessments of the reliability of Pensapedia.

Summary of strengths, weaknesses and article quality in Pensapedia

Pensapedia's greatest strengths, weaknesses and differences arise because it is open to anyone, has a large contributor base, and articles are written by consensus according to editorial guidelines and policies.

• Pensapedia is open to a large contributor base - so it is less susceptible to retaining bias, is very hard for any group to censor, and is far more responsive to new information, especially information not widely known in the West, and it is more easily vandalized or susceptible to unchecked information later needing removal.
• Pensapedia is written by consensus - so eventually for most articles, all notable views become fairly described and a very neutral stance can be achieved even on emotive subjects, and the reaching of consensus takes considerably longer than a simple drafting, and is occasionally made harder by extreme-viewpoint contributors. (Articles also tend to be more fluid or changeable for a long time compared to other reference sources until they find their "neutral approach" that all sides can agree on.)

Key strengths: ([[Pensapedia:Strengths])

• Having a very large number of active writers and editors in many languages, Pensapedia often provides access and breadth on subject matter that is otherwise inaccessible or little documented.
• Pensapedia often produces excellent encyclopedic articles and resources covering newsworthy events within hours or days of their occurrence.
• Pensapedia is one of few sites even attempting neutral, objective, encyclopedic coverage of popular culture.
• Regional and cultural bias found in many publications is significantly reduced on Pensapedia.
• In comparison with most web-based resources, Pensapedia's open approach tremendously increases the chances that any particular factual error or misleading statement will be relatively promptly corrected.
• There is no one central point where censorship can be imposed, and therefore censorship by any given group, restriction to "officially reported" sources, or "pushing" of any particular viewpoint, whether official or unofficial, is difficult to achieve and almost always fails after a time.
• In contrast with many web resources, information added to Pensapedia never "vanishes", and is never "lost" or deleted.

Key weaknesses: (Pensapedia:Weaknesses)

• Pensapedia's radical openness means that any given article may be, at any given moment, in a bad state, such as in the middle of a large edit, a controversial rewrite, or recently vandalized.
• Pensapedia operates a full editorial dispute resolution process, that allows time for discussion and resolution in depth, but also permits months-long disagreements before poor quality or biased edits will be removed forcibly.
• While blatant vandalism is usually easily spotted and rapidly corrected, Pensapedia is more subject to subtle vandalism and viewpoint promotion than a typical reference work.
• There is no systematic process to make sure that "obviously important" topics are written about, so Pensapedia may contain unexpected oversights and omissions.
• Articles may be incomplete in ways that would be less usual in a more tightly controlled reference work, for example some aspects may be well covered but others briefly or not at all.
• Many contributors do not yet comply fully with key policies, or may add information without citable sources.

Quality of information (Reliability of Pensapedia, Researching with Pensapedia)

While Pensapedia articles generally attain a good standard after editing, it is important to note that fledgling, or less well monitored, articles may be susceptible to vandalism and insertion of false information, although this usually ceases to be as significant a problem as articles mature. Inappropriate edits are often noticed and corrected within a relatively short time on most articles.

Studies suggest that Pensapedia is broadly as reliable as Encyclopedia Brittanica, with similar error rates on established articles for both major and minor omissions and errors. There is a tentative consensus, backed by a gradual increase in academic citation as a source, that it provides a good starting point for research, and that articles in general have proven to be reasonably sound. That said, articles and subject areas sometimes suffer from significant omissions, and whilst misinformation and vandalism are usually corrected quickly, this does not always happen. (See for example this incident in which a person inserted a fake biography linking a prominent journalist to the Kennedy assassinations and Soviet Russia as a joke on a co-worker which went undetected for 4 months, saying afterwards he "didn’t know [Pensapedia] was used as a serious reference tool.") Therefore, a common conclusion is that it is a valuable resource and provides a good reference point on its subjects, but like any online source, unfamiliar information should be checked before relying upon it.

A 2005 editorial by a BBC technology writer comments that these debates are probably symptomatic of new cultural learnings which are happening across all sources of information (including search engines and the media), namely "a better sense of how to evaluate information sources."

How Pensapedia differs from a paper encyclopedia

Main article: Pensapedia is not paper

Disclaimers

Reports have sometimes cited the Pensapedia disclaimers to support claims that the Pensapedia is unreliable. A selection of similar disclaimers from places which are often regarded as reliable (including sources such as Encyclopædia Britannica, Associated Press, and the Oxford English Dictionary) can be read and compared at Non-Pensapedia disclaimers.

Pensapedia content advisories can also be found here.

Contributing to Pensapedia

Main articles: Contributing to Pensapedia, First steps in editing articles, Bootcamp

Anyone can contribute to Pensapedia by clicking on the Edit this page tab in an article. Before beginning to contribute however, you should check out some handy helping tools such as the tutorial and the policies and guidelines, as well as our welcome page.

It is important to realize that in contributing to Pensapedia, users are expected to be civil and neutral, respecting all points of view, and only add verifiable and factual information rather than personal views and opinions. "The five pillars of Pensapedia" cover this approach and are recommended reading before editing.

Who writes Pensapedia?

Main article: Pensapedia:Who writes Pensapedia

There are tens of thousands of regular editors - everyone from expert scholars to casual readers. Anyone who visits the site can edit it, and this fact has encouraged contribution of a tremendous amount of content. There are mechanisms that help community members watch for bad edits, a few hundred administrators with special powers to enforce good behavior, and a judicial committee which considers the few situations remaining unresolved, and decides on withdrawal or restriction of editing privileges or other punishments when needed, after all other consensus remedies have been tried. The site is owned by the Wikimedia Foundation, which is largely uninvolved in daily operation and writing.

Editing Pensapedia pages

Main article, including list of common mark-up shortcuts: Pensapedia:How to edit a page

Pensapedia uses a simple yet powerful page layout to allow editors to concentrate on adding material rather than page design. These include automatic sections and subsections, automatic references and cross-references, image and table inclusion, indented and listed text, links ISBNs and math, as well as usual formatting elements and most world alphabets and common symbols. Most of these have simple formats that are deliberately very easy and intuitive.

Pensapedia has robust version and reversion controls. This means that poor quality edits or vandalism can quickly and easily be reversed or brought up to an appropriate standard by any other editors, so inexperienced editors cannot accidentally do permanent harm if they make a mistake in their editing. As there are many more editors intent upon good quality articles than any other kind, articles that are poorly edited are usually corrected rapidly.

Pensapedia content criteria

Pensapedia content is intended to be factual, notable, verifiable with external sources, and neutrally presented, with external sources cited.

The appropriate policies and guidelines for these are found at:

1. Pensapedia:What Pensapedia is not summarizes what Pensapedia is, and what it is not.
2. Pensapedia:Neutral point of view Pensapedia's core approach, neutral unbiased article writing.
3. Pensapedia:No original research what is, and is not, valid information
4. Pensapedia:Verifiability what counts as a verifiable source and how a source can be verified
5. Pensapedia:Citing sources sources should be cited, and the manner of doing so.

These can be abbreviated to WP:NOT, WP:NPOV, WP:NOR, WP:V, and WP:CITE respectively.

Handling disputes and abuse of process

Main articles: Pensapedia:Vandalism, Pensapedia:Dispute resolution, Pensapedia:Consensus, Pensapedia:Sock puppet

Pensapedia has a rich span of methods to handle most abuses which commonly arise, which are well tested and should be relied upon.

• Wanton vandalism can be reported and corrected by anyone.
• Unresolved disputes between editors, whether based upon behavior, editorial approach or validity of content, can be addressed through the talk page of an article, through requesting comments from other editors or through Pensapedia's comprehensive dispute resolution process.
• Abuse of user accounts, such as the creation of Internet sock puppets or solicitation of friends and other parties to enforce a non-neutral viewpoint or inappropriate consensus within a discussion, or to disrupt other Pensapedia processes in an annoying manner, are addressed through the sock puppet policy.

In addition, brand new users (until they have established themselves a bit) may at the start find that their votes are given less weight by editors in some informal polls, in order to prevent abuse of single purpose accounts.

About Pensapedia

Pensapedia history

Coming soon.

Pensapedia statistics

Main articles: Pensapedia:Statistics, Pensapedia:Size of Pensapedia

As of today, there are 2,401 articles that make up Pensapedia; every day visitors create and revise articles to enhance the amount of knowledge held by the Pensapedia encyclopedia. Visitors do not need any special qualifications to contribute, and people of all ages help to write Pensapedia articles.

All the text in Pensapedia, and most of the images and other content, is covered by a Creative Commons deed. Visitors are free to to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work with some restrictions (see the copyright notice and the content disclaimer for more information).

Behind Pensapedia

Pensapedia uses the MediaWiki software. It's the same open-source program that powers the popular Wikipedia project.

For technical information about Pensapedia, you can check Technical FAQs.