Policies and Guidelines in brief

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We really value our new editors at the TMS Wiki, so the more experienced editors are here to help guide you. Before you start, though, we hope that you'll take a moment to read the following guidelines.

  • Subject matter: The wiki is about pain and other symptoms caused by emotional factors. Other ideas that may be interesting to TMSers are also welcome, but if they contradict the views held by most TMS professionals, the reader must be made aware of that fact.
  • Consensus: Pages in the TMS wiki should reflect a consensus by the editors interested in the page.
  • Voice of the Wiki / Neutral Point of View: Everything written in a wiki page that isn't attributed to a specific individual is said to be written in "The Voice of the Wiki." The voice of the wiki is factual and balanced. Rather than taking positions on matters of opinion (such as saying whether something is good or not), the voice of the wiki just cites specific positions taken by other people. For example, rather than saying, "Dr. Brady's book is more helpful than Dr. Sarno's," it says, "User brianleejackson has written in this thread that Dr. Brady "makes it easier to understand without all the technical jargon and I love how he includes spirituality." Note that by doing this, the wiki page only contains factual information, because it is a fact that brianleejackson wrote exactly that quote in in that thread.
  • Multiple viewpoints: When editors differ about what should be written, the article should generally explore the different viewpoints as clearly and neutrally as possible, assisting the reader in making his or her own decision..
  • User pages: If you would like to make a page in which you explore your own viewpoint, you can make a "user page."
  • Conflict of interest: TMS professionals and authors are a valued part of our community, but any user with a financial conflict of interest should read our conflict of interest policy.
  • Disagreements: When editing a wiki as a group, disagreements are inevitable. Work hard to resolve disagreements as amicably and peacefully as possible. If intractable disagreements arise, try using strategies developed by Wikipedians for such situations.

The guidelines that we follow are constantly changing since we are such a young wiki. If you ever have any questions, please just ask in one of the forums about the wiki.