Mission statement: Difference between revisions

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A plumber who repeatedly ghosts work, disappears & sets up a new company when people go looking for a refund is not worthy of report here. The story of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50ByeqNgYjQ&list=PLkVbIsAWN2lucdpXqcM4qW6ev60OSXdw4&index=16 Eugene the contractor] belongs on a personal blog, Yelp, and Google. Reports on his behavior should be made to local, city, state, and federal authorities where they apply. A contractor who sets up a new company any time someone looks for a refund after being ripped off may be an anti-consumer scammer, and it may well be that knowing about him would prevent future people from getting scammed. However, ''this is simply too small and local to warrant inclusion in a wiki whose purpose is'' ''specifically to inform consumers about the modern landscape of consumer protection issues''.

For information on the types of article the wiki is expected to contain, please see our [[Article Types]] page.

== Editorial guidelines ==

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* If a company says ''"the only way we can offer a $500 OLED television is by selling your personal data"'': it would be acceptable to point to a company that does not include such terms in their EULA/TOS, and which provides the same product at the same price point.

* If a company says ''"we cannot make xyz repair information available due to laws regarding consumer safety": ''it is acceptable point to a company in that same industry, who provide repair information without legal consequence.

~~== Article types ==~~

Given that the overall mission involves the need to inform people about the practices of companies, individuals, and industries in general, as well as provide detailed information about specific events, I propose the following page ‘classes’, which are loosely grouped into a three-tier informational hierarchy. Our goal here is to create something sensible and navigable, which will lead to link-based navigation through the site being a pleasant experience, and people being easily able to google for the information they want to find.

~~=== Tier 1: Themes and Sources ===~~

~~==== Themes ====~~

'''Themes''' are a high-level type of article, which primarily aims to explain and justify core concepts and challenges for consumer protection. For example, you would have a Theme article explaining forced arbitration, or the EULA roofie - how it works, why it’s a problem, and some examples of harm caused. These should be great articles for people to link others to when trying to tell them why a certain practice is harmful.

Theme articles may be a useful tool for determining what is and isn’t suitable for inclusion in the wiki. We are considering a future rule, that any incident discussed should link to one or more Themes (this rule is obviously on the backburner until a sufficient range of Theme articles have been written).''' '''Theme articles will be subjected to a higher level of protection than average articles, as it is important that they are high-quality.

~~These articles should be written with the 'Nice Louis' editorial standard in mind.~~

~~==== Sources ====~~

'''Source articles''' are articles which detail a source of information for the Wiki – these articles will contain a source, an explanation of who that source is and why they produce content which should be adapted, and a list of ‘stuff that you could probably make a wiki article about’. Obvious non-Louis sources may include GamersNexus, or other print sources/websites that are good at standing up for consumers. Ideally, this should be achieved in cooperation with said sources.

~~=== Tier 2: Companies, People, and Product Line articles (or 'entity' articles) ===~~

This tier of articles may well be the most useful to the casual reader. This is where someone who googles ''[insert thing here] consumer protection wiki'' will usually end up. For example, ''"LG controversies consumer protection wiki"''.

~~ Entity articles should contain:~~

* A brief overview of the relevant entity, how big it is, and what it does.

* A rough appraisal of their attitude towards consumer protection, perhaps using a tiered rating system ranging from ‘good’ to ‘predatory’.

* A short paragraph for each of the very largest controversies of that entity.

* A list or table directing users to the pages covering their controversies and practices.

* For people, perhaps a side-box containing all the previous positions they’ve held (so you can see, for example, if the new head of a company was previously working somewhere notorious, such as Adobe).

For companies which are truly giant, such as Apple, it may make sense to not have a list of everything they’ve ever done all on their home page, instead linking to their various product lines, which then have the controversy lists.

~~These articles should be written with the 'Factual, non-accusatory, and legally safe' tone.~~

Articles about specific individuals will be held to higher standards than the average article. '''For an individual to have an article on this wiki, it must be shown that they are directly relevant to a large number of consumer-protection related issues, and have, or had, major decision-making capability over these issues. '''Non-compliant 'person' articles will be moderated heavily, and deleted on sight.

~~=== Tier 3: Incident pages and (potentially) Product pages ===~~

~~==== Incident page ====~~

An '''Incident''' page will cover an event, or chain of events, which surrounds one instance of anti-consumer activity (or anything else relevant to the wiki). These will make up the bulk of the pages on the wiki, though likely not the bulk of the traffic. These pages should be able to be referred to as something of a ‘historical record’ and should have a good deal of factual content relating to the event(s) in question, complete with links to, and citations of, various contemporary sources.

~~The key components of an incident page will be:~~

* The business practice in question.

* An explanation of the harm caused by the business practice, along with a link/reference to any relevant Themes.

* A brief history of how the practice came to the public’s attention.

* The immediate aftermath of the incident, and the company’s reaction to it (this will be short in most cases, but may be substantial if there was a protracted legal battle or something).

* Whether the offending party continues the anti-consumer practice to this day, or whether they have changed.

These Incident pages are the areas where citations and ‘receipts’ in general will be most important, as they will form the factual basis for the conclusions reached in the Tier 2 articles discussing the companies and people involved.

~~They should be written with the 'Factual, non-accusatory, and legally safe' tone.~~

~~==== Product page ====~~

~~It has not yet been decided whether pages dedicated to individual products are an appropriate ambition for the Wiki. There are, after all, an awful lot of products in the world.~~

Contributor's note: With regards to the potential for '''Product''' pages, I think this is something that needs to be sorted out on the vision and mission statement side of things. Do we want to have a page for almost every device, which just says ‘yeah, this one’s fine’ up until the point at which more information comes out about it or someone decides to look into it? Do we create pages which highlight good behaviour, as well as bad behaviour? Do we expect the wiki to be so comprehensive that people will search ''[ProductName] CP wiki'' and expect to see a page for whatever product they’re thinking of buying? Once we know what the goal is, we can decide how to handle product pages. Do we have an ambition to scan the TOS of every product out there for concerning clauses?

~~~~

~~The need may emerge for other page types, but please use this framework to provide structure and guidance while developing and contributing to the Wiki.~~

@@ Line 70: / Line 70: @@
 A plumber who repeatedly ghosts work, disappears & sets up a new company when people go looking for a refund is not worthy of report here. The story of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50ByeqNgYjQ&list=PLkVbIsAWN2lucdpXqcM4qW6ev60OSXdw4&index=16 Eugene the contractor] belongs on a personal blog, Yelp, and Google. Reports on his behavior should be made to local, city, state, and federal authorities where they apply. A contractor who sets up a new company any time someone looks for a refund after being ripped off may be an anti-consumer scammer, and it may well be that knowing about him would prevent future people from getting scammed. However, ''this is simply too small and local to warrant inclusion in a wiki whose purpose is'' ''specifically to inform consumers about the modern landscape of consumer protection issues''.
+For information on the types of article the wiki is expected to contain, please see our [[Article Types]] page.
 == Editorial guidelines ==
@@ Line 117: / Line 119: @@
 * If a company says ''"the only way we can offer a $500 OLED television is by selling your personal data"'': it would be acceptable to point to a company that does not include such terms in their EULA/TOS, and which provides the same product at the same price point.
 * If a company says ''"we cannot make xyz repair information available due to laws regarding consumer safety": ''it is acceptable point to a company in that same industry, who provide repair information without legal consequence.
-== Article types ==
-Given that the overall mission involves the need to inform people about the practices of companies, individuals, and industries in general, as well as provide detailed information about specific events, I propose the following page ‘classes’, which are loosely grouped into a three-tier informational hierarchy. Our goal here is to create something sensible and navigable, which will lead to link-based navigation through the site being a pleasant experience, and people being easily able to google for the information they want to find.
-=== Tier 1: Themes and Sources ===
-==== Themes ====
-'''Themes''' are a high-level type of article, which primarily aims to explain and justify core concepts and challenges for consumer protection. For example, you would have a Theme article explaining forced arbitration, or the EULA roofie - how it works, why it’s a problem, and some examples of harm caused. These should be great articles for people to link others to when trying to tell them why a certain practice is harmful.
-Theme articles may be a useful tool for determining what is and isn’t suitable for inclusion in the wiki. We are considering a future rule, that any incident discussed should link to one or more Themes (this rule is obviously on the backburner until a sufficient range of Theme articles have been written).''' '''Theme articles will be subjected to a higher level of protection than average articles, as it is important that they are high-quality.
-These articles should be written with the 'Nice Louis' editorial standard in mind.
-==== Sources ====
-'''Source articles''' are articles which detail a source of information for the Wiki – these articles will contain a source, an explanation of who that source is and why they produce content which should be adapted, and a list of ‘stuff that you could probably make a wiki article about’. Obvious non-Louis sources may include GamersNexus, or other print sources/websites that are good at standing up for consumers. Ideally, this should be achieved in cooperation with said sources.
-=== Tier 2: Companies, People, and Product Line articles (or 'entity' articles)<br>===
-This tier of articles may well be the most useful to the casual reader. This is where someone who googles ''[insert thing here] consumer protection wiki'' will usually end up. For example, ''"LG controversies consumer protection wiki"''.
-&nbsp;Entity articles should contain:
-* A brief overview of the relevant entity, how big it is, and what it does.
-* A rough appraisal of their attitude towards consumer protection, perhaps using a tiered rating system ranging from ‘good’ to ‘predatory’.
-* A short paragraph for each of the very largest controversies of that entity.
-* A list or table directing users to the pages covering their controversies and practices.
-* For people, perhaps a side-box containing all the previous positions they’ve held (so you can see, for example, if the new head of a company was previously working somewhere notorious, such as Adobe).
-For companies which are truly giant, such as Apple, it may make sense to not have a list of everything they’ve ever done all on their home page, instead linking to their various product lines, which then have the controversy lists.
-These articles should be written with the 'Factual, non-accusatory, and legally safe' tone.
-Articles about specific individuals will be held to higher standards than the average article. '''For an individual to have an article on this wiki, it must be shown that they are directly relevant to a large number of consumer-protection related issues, and have, or had, major decision-making capability over these issues. '''Non-compliant 'person' articles will be moderated heavily, and deleted on sight.
-=== Tier 3: Incident pages and (potentially) Product pages ===
-==== Incident page ====
-An '''Incident''' page will cover an event, or chain of events, which surrounds one instance of anti-consumer activity (or anything else relevant to the wiki). These will make up the bulk of the pages on the wiki, though likely not the bulk of the traffic. These pages should be able to be referred to as something of a ‘historical record’ and should have a good deal of factual content relating to the event(s) in question, complete with links to, and citations of, various contemporary sources.
-The key components of an incident page will be:
-* The business practice in question.
-* An explanation of the harm caused by the business practice, along with a link/reference to any relevant Themes.
-* A brief history of how the practice came to the public’s attention.
-* The immediate aftermath of the incident, and the company’s reaction to it (this will be short in most cases, but may be substantial if there was a protracted legal battle or something).
-* Whether the offending party continues the anti-consumer practice to this day, or whether they have changed.
-These Incident pages are the areas where citations and ‘receipts’ in general will be most important, as they will form the factual basis for the conclusions reached in the Tier 2 articles discussing the companies and people involved.
-They should be written with the 'Factual, non-accusatory, and legally safe' tone.
-==== Product page ====
-It has not yet been decided whether pages dedicated to individual products are an appropriate ambition for the Wiki. There are, after all, an awful lot of products in the world.
-<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Contributor's note: With regards to the potential for '''Product''' pages, I think this is something that needs to be sorted out on the vision and mission statement side of things. Do we want to have a page for almost every device, which just says ‘yeah, this one’s fine’ up until the point at which more information comes out about it or someone decides to look into it? Do we create pages which highlight good behaviour, as well as bad behaviour? Do we expect the wiki to be so comprehensive that people will search ''[ProductName] CP wiki'' and expect to see a page for whatever product they’re thinking of buying? Once we know what the goal is, we can decide how to handle product pages. Do we have an ambition to scan the TOS of every product out there for concerning clauses?</span>
-<span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span>
-<span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span>
-The need may emerge for other page types, but please use this framework to provide structure and guidance while developing and contributing to the Wiki.