Guidelines
1. Our Subject Area/Article Names
Saranac Lake Central School District (click on image to enlarge) Historic Saranac Lake Collection. We generally limit our articles to the history of the Saranac Lake area, roughly defined as the Saranac Central School District area.
Phil Gallos' Cure Cottages of Saranac Lake revived the practice of naming cottages after prominent owners or occupants, and we follow that approach where practicable. Otherwise, pages are named for the pre-911 system street address. We use the old address because so much documentation and literature uses the old address, and because we cover many structures that no longer exist, and have no current address.
2. Cite Your Facts
HSL Wiki seeks to compile factually correct historical information. Cite historical facts as thoroughly as possible. There is a simple way to do footnotes. Check the help with editing information to find out how. HSL Wiki also invites open conversations about the past and the sharing of memories, which of course can be fuzzy. If you are unsure whether a statement is correct, qualify your statements.
3. Do Not Post Copyrighted Material on the Wiki
Do not copy text verbatim from books or websites (although it is fine to summarize, or restate in your own words, text from other sources). Do not use copyrighted photos from any source. In general, material first published before 1923 can be assumed to be public domain, and therefore it is fine to use, as is material from U.S. Government sources. You should assume that all other material is copyrighted (under current copyright law, copyrighted material does not have to bear a copyright notice). Copyrighted material will be removed. Exact quotations of short text selections (one to two paragraphs max), in quotes, with full attribution, are fine.
The Creative Commons Attribution-By 3.0 license means that anyone can use any content you put on the Historic Saranac Lake Wiki for whatever purposes they want. It can be modified, edited, and redistributed without your permission or direct control. Your material can be used for any purpose allowable under law provided they give credit to you or Historic Saranac Lake Wiki in their use of the content. For usage details, read the overview. Basically, 'original author' can mean the author or the collective "Historic Saranac Lake Wiki." Because most of our content falls under this license, you are legally responsible not to put other people's copyrighted work into the Historic Saranac Lake Wiki without permission.
For images, if you wish to allow your image on Historic Saranac Lake Wiki but not fall under this umbrella of Creative Commons, just note explicit copyright. e.g. "Copyright Me, 2005." under or near the image. This will let people know you allow it on Historic Saranac Lake Wiki, but want others to get your permission before using it elsewhere. If you just want to give yourself credit for the image, just say "Image by Me" somewhere near the image. You still retain copyright on images where you do not note "Copyright" — it is just assumed that you are also placing said image under the Creative Commons license.
We want to foster an environment in which information and ideas can be shared and used as easily as possible by the most people for the longest period of time. We feel that Creative Commons Attribution-By is the best way to achieve this.
The Creative Commons Attribution-By license means that every editor who puts work onto the Historic Saranac Lake Wiki, whether it be text or images, gives anyone the right to do whatever he or she would like with the material, the only restriction being that if you distribute the content you must give attribution to the creators of the content or the collective "Historic Saranac Lake Wiki"/"Historic Saranac LakeWiki.org." This means you don't need to ask permission first — you already have permission!
Please note that in some cases we allow material (usually images) on Historic Saranac Lake Wiki that is not licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-By license, and in these cases there is an indication of strict copyright by the material, such as a note saying "Copyright Joe Smith." Usually, this occurs with images, and you must obtain permission from the individual in these cases — it was placed on Historic Saranac Lake Wiki but not necessarily allowed elsewhere.
4. Respect Your Fellow Editors
Respect Your Fellow Editors even when you do not agree with them, and always be civil. Always act in good faith and assume good faith on the part of others. Be open and welcoming. Remember that, except for signed articles, others can and will change your writing as they see fit. Your only ability to control the content of an article lies in your ability to persuade others that you are, in fact, right.
