THIS PAGE IS ARCHIVED
The information here is not up-to-date and may be inaccurate.
It is preserved for historical purposes. Please avoid editing this page.
If you're wanting to do a rewrite, there are a few policies in place that you must recognize. All staff are expected to be familiar with these policies.
1. Rewrites require permission from the author. If you can't get permission from the original author within a reasonable amount of time, or if the original author is no longer active on the site, you have to get permission from an Admin or Mod. We recommend that you make this request in the comments of the article in question.
2. Rewrites require attribution to the original author. If you post the rewrite in a "clean" slot, you ABSOLUTELY MUST post a comment on the rewrite explaining that it's a rewrite and state who the author of the original article was. If the original author is unknown (i.e. someone other than the author ported it to this incarnation of the wiki), state "Original Author Unknown." This is a CYA under Creative Commons, and will be enforced.
3. Rewrites will, at the time of permission, be given a specific time limit for completion. If a page is up for deletion at the time of the request (which is often the case), it will not be deleted until that time limit has expired. If the page is getting to the point where deletion is becoming a real possibility, then a deletion vote will not be started until this time has passed. Extensions are granted rarely, so use this time appropriately. If the time limit passes and the original page is deleted, a rewrite can still be posted, but there are no guarantees that the original slot will still be open, and proper attribution will have to be made as noted in Rule #2.
4. Rewrites are subject to the same voting process as the original article. What this means is that people are free to re-downvote the rewrite, if they still don't like it. This seems obvious, but people have been butthurt before because they thought that a rewrite "deserved" to get a better response than the original.
5. Rewrites of 'classic' articles should be faithful to the original article. A 'classic' article is defined as an article at least three years old. An article can also qualify for 'classic' status if it is referenced—in its current form—in at least three other articles on the site. Rewrites of these articles must be approved by admin appointed staff before being posted. Exceptions to this rule can be made, but they should not be expected.