Guidelines

PsychonautWiki policies and guidelines are constantly developed and maintained by the community to describe the best practices, clarify principles, resolve conflicts, and otherwise further our goal of creating a free, reliable, and fair digital encyclopedia.

This page specifies the community standards, rules and guidelines related to the organization, maintenance, and creation of PsychonautWiki content.

Overview

Need help getting started? Please see the official MediaWiki help page for information on editing content, creating pages, formatting code and more.

=> Working on a substance article? Please see our substance article style guidelines! <=

What should be on this wiki

• PsychonautWiki aims to provide comprehensive, unbiased information regarding psychonautics (i.e. exploration of consciousness), including technical documentation and analysis of various psychoactive substances and other mind-expanding practices (e.g. meditation, sensory deprivation).

  For more information on the type of content we cover, please see our list of articles.

What should not be on this wiki

• Pseudoscience

  PsychonautWiki is intended primarily as a scientific encyclopedia. As a result, it seeks to promote skepticism and evidence-based thinking and does not tolerate unverifiable, overly subjective, or pseudoscientific misinformation represented as authoritative or factual content.

  This primarily refers to mysticism and metaphysical speculation when used to explain that which could otherwise be described through rational, evidence-based, naturalistic and scientific explanations.

• Opinion or conjecture

  This wiki should be written from a neutral point of view. That means it should include facts and technical descriptions which are free from metaphor and are not personal or collective opinions.

  For example, please do not write statements such as "I personally think" or "some people think" on articles.

• Links to individual vendors or guides for acquiring psychoactive substances

  After being granted privileges to edit the Network page, we explicitly forbid direct links to individual vendors as well as guides on how to acquire digital currencies intended for the use of buying substances.

  Only links to established markets are allowed; however, we cannot guarantee our pages will be properly updated or reviewed. In lieu thereof, comprehensively documenting the aspects of widely used darknet markets contributes to the safety of our users.

  The “darknet”, or more precisely, contemporary, crypto-anarchist black markets, gain and establish trust by providing trust. Through reviews of vendor offerings, users can establish trust by obtaining insights from qualitative feedback.

Code of conduct

• PsychonautWiki users & contributors are expected to be good digital citizens. Our code of conduct is as follows:
  • Be polite, respectful, and reasonable.
  • Follow our writing and editing guidelines.
  • Do not vandalize content.
  • Do not post personal information.
  • Do not discuss online sources of illegal or semi-legal psychoactive substances, including research chemicals.
  • Do not use the wiki as a platform to advertise commercial services or a private website. This will result in an immediate and permanent ban.

  Depending on the severity, any violation of these rules can result in a permanent ban based on the personal discretion of a site administrator. If you wish to dispute a ban, you may contact us via our email address (team@psychonautwiki.org).

Manual of style

• Article titles

  • Article titles must be written in singular instead of plural (e.g. use "Psychedelic" instead of "Psychedelics"). Exceptions are only when the article is about a species or a list such as "List of psychedelics."
  • Capitalization of both article titles and section headers should include the first letter of the first word being a capital letter, but it should otherwise follow the normal English rules of capitalization (e.g. use "External links" instead of "External Links").
  • Incomplete articles should be made on talk pages, which can be done by putting "Talk:" in front of the title. For example, "Talk:Example" would be used instead of "Example."
  • Experience reports should have "Experience:" in front of the title. For example, "Experience:150mg MDMA + 20mg 2C-B - I designed it this way myself" would be used.

• General article guide

  • Every change must include a descriptive summary unless marked as a grammar change. We reserve the right to revert changes immediately and without comment, if the submitted change lacks a commentary summary!
  • Please try to strengthen the validity of any claims with relevant citations (ideally academic or scientific studies). Anecdotal evidence must be summarized using a logical and skeptical approach.
  • Linking is usually limited to the first occurrence of the word or phrase in each article, not counting links inside infoboxes. This is because spamming too many wiki links makes articles difficult to read. An exception may be granted in long articles where linked instances of the term are far apart.
  • Use the substance breakdown template when creating new substance articles.
  • The top level header (=Title=) almost never has a reason to be used in practice, as it is the page's title. In other words, top sections should be Level 2 (==Section==).[1]
  • Please use the "Move" function to move pages, instead of deleting the original page and recopying it manually into the new one, as to not lose all the edit history.
  • Please add the text {{headerpanel|{{approval}}}} to the top of any new articles created so that it may be proofread and approved by the site administrators.
  • Warning panels should only be included when there is an acute risk of injury or death to the users. Warning panels should be used sparingly; if a warning panel is not needed, that information can be included in the "Toxicity and harm potential" section and the introduction.

• Capital letters

  • Capitalization of article titles and section headers should include the first letter of the first word being a capital letter, but it should otherwise follow the normal English rules of capitalization. For example, a section title should be "External links" instead of "External Links."
  • The first letter of generic names of drugs should be lowercase while brand names must be capitalized. For example, Ambien is capitalized while zolpidem is not.

• Grammar and style

  • Always include at least a sentence about the subject when starting an article.
  • The first sentence should give a brief definition of the article's subject.
  • The definite article (the) and indefinite articles (a/an) should be avoided in article titles except when they are part of an official title.
  • Always write in the third person: use "the individual", "the user", or "one" instead of "you."

• Markup

  • Please become acquainted with the Wiki markup/formatting.
  • Please do not use dangling letters or words at the end of an internal link such as [[substance]]s and instead include the title in the link like so: substance|substances]].
  • Please use "File:" instead of "Image:" when linking to an image when possible, since "Image:" is the legacy way. [2]

Subjective effect breakdowns

• All information related to subjective effects should generally refer to the Subjective Effect Index (SEI), which is intended to serve as a central reference point in this domain.

  For reference purposes, model examples of substance breakdowns include: LSD, DMT, 2C-P, Ketamine, Nitrous Oxide, DPH, Salvia, Heroin, Amphetamine, Xanax, Alcohol and Nicotine.

• Additionally, the SEI is used to document the subjective effects induced by specific or general categories of psychoactive substances. Examples include: psychedelics, dissociatives, deliriants, stimulants, depressants, opioids and nootropics.
• The exact analytical process that PsychonautWiki contributors run through when documenting the subjective effects of any specific substance is listed below:
  1. Study the individual effects listed above until a point of complete familiarity is reached.
  2. Take the desired substance at a high dosage to experience the full range of effects.
  3. List the effects which occur, taking note of intensity level and potential variations.
  4. Strictly follow the formatting style of previously made, admin-approved specific substance subjective effect breakdowns.

Scientific information

• The general guidelines for writing in this section are as follows:
  • Many of the concepts in neuroscience, chemistry, and pharmacology are tough to understand; please only write and edit articles in this section if you have a full understanding of the topic and skill in summary and explanation.
  • Try to use straightforward, concise language. Scientific jargon should be kept to a minimum.
  • To the best of your abilities, please keep grammar and spelling at a reasonable standard. Please use our proofreading service.
  • Be sure to relate the article back to its relevant roles within the field of psychonautics.

See also

• Project:Maintenance tutorials
• Tutorial index guidelines
• Responsible use
• Recent changes