Magister aranearius (Nova Roma)

Edict on coding standards

In order to maintain a high quality of experience for users of our website, I hereby promulgate this Edict on coding standards.

HTML, XHTML and wikicode

No HTML elements listed as "deprecated" by the World Wide Web Consortium are permitted. See

http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/index/elements.html and http://www.w3schools.com/tags/default.asp This includes but is not limited to "FONT", "CENTER", "U".

All HTML is forbidden but some XHTML may be acceptable. That is, HTML tags must conform to the standard of XHTML tags, which must be lower case and which must always be properly closed. If you don't know what this means, don't use these things until you do know what this means.

No XHTML will be used when equivalent wikicode is available.

Visual styling

Any Visual styling will be done using standards-compliant CSS. With few exceptions, relative dimensions are preferable to absolute dimensions.

No HTML or XHTML elements will be used to create "white space". Doing so breaks the style sheets.

Headings

Heading will follow a strict hierarchy. Headings provide a logical structure for the content of an article. They are not decorative elements. Using them as such breaks the style sheets.

Level 1 headings ("=Heading=") are forbidden. They are reserved for the article title.

Level 2 headings ("==Heading==") are the highest level acceptable. There may be more than one level 2 heading in an article.

Level 3 headings ("===Heading===") must follow a level 2 heading. There may be more than one level 3 heading after a level 2 heading.

Level 4 headings ("====Heading====") must follow a level 3 heading. There may be more than one level 4 heading after a level 3 heading.

Level 5 headings ("=====Heading=====") must follow a level 4 heading. There may be more than one level 5 heading after a level 4 heading. Level 4 headings are rare.

Level 6 headings ("======Heading======") must follow a level 5 heading. There may be more than one level 6 heading after a level 5 heading. Level 5 headings are extremely rare.

There are no higher level headings.

Violations

Persons who violate these standards may be banned from editing for a period of time to be determined by the magister aranearius. The purpose of the ban will be to provide an opportunity for the banned person to learn how to comply with these standards.

Comment

It is possible for a person to edit productively for a very long time without ever needing to worry about any of this. Anyone involved with anything mentioned in this edict is by definition involved in "major editing". Most edits are minor edits.

by my hand a.d. IV Non. Nov. M. Moravio T. Iulio cos.

M. Lucretius Agricola

Magister aranearius Novae Romae

Edict regarding categories and category titles.

An article on our website ("the Wiki") that is placed in any category shall not be placed in any additional category that includes the placed category as a child, grandchild or any other level of descent.

Except for items placed in maintenance categories, articles on our website ("the Wiki") shall be placed only in categories of the same language as the content of the article.

Category titles used on our website ("the Wiki") must use the same language as the articles placed in them, to the greatest extent possible.

This is effective immediately.

By my hand, M. Lucretius Agricola, Magister aranearius, a.d. XVIII Kal. Sep. M. Moravio T. Iulio cos.

Edict regarding the inclusion of external sites

As our website is primarily a documentation of our Nova Roma community and a reference tool for the ancient Roman world, I therefore promulgate this edict to establish the rules for inclusion of material about modern groups outside of Nova Roma.

The notability requirements for inclusion on our website are:

1. The group has a significant relation with Nova Roma because it participated in a notable event in the history of Nova Roma, or it has a substantial common membership with Nova Roma or it has participated in shared activities with Nova Roma.

2. The group is non-commercial and the academic nature of the group is sufficiently consistent with our goals to warrant the academic interest of our community for scholarly purposes.

3. The Senate of Nova Roma has established a relationship of any sort with the group.

If a group meets any one or more of these requirements an article may be created, usually under the name of the group. The reason for notability should be clear from the content of the article. This article would be the only acceptable location to place any external web links to that group. All other references should be internal wikilinks to the article.

by my hand a.d. VIII Kal. Sep. ‡ M. Moravio T. Iulio cos.

M. Lucretius Agricola

Magister aranearius Novae Romae

Edict regarding commerce on the website

Effective immediately, commercial links and content on the Nova Roma website are prohibited except for members of the Equestrian Order and for others with whom the Senate has established a commercial relationship.

By my hand a.d. VIII Kal. Sep. ‡ M. Moravio T. Iulio cos.

M. Lucretius Agricola

Magister aranearius Novae Romae

This Edictum is issued in collaboration with Quintus Valerius Callidus, Magister Aranearius.

I. A content managament and collaboration tool has been selected and installed on the Nova Roma web site. This tool is MediaWiki, the same software used by wikipedia.org. It is located at:

http://www.novaroma.org/wiki/

II. Most static content of the web site - that is, almost everything except citizen profile pages - will be moved into the Wiki as time permits. The Annales and Tabularium are high-priority projects.

III. The following citizens shall be WikiMagisters (Scribae), possessing administrative accounts within the Wiki, maintaining user accounts, creating and maintaining templates, creating and enforcing style guidelines, and supervising edits of articles:

1. Quintus Valerius Callidus, Magister Aranearius.

2. Marcus Octavius Germanicus, Wiki Sysadmin and Bureaucrat.

3. Titus Octavius Pius Ahenobarbus

4. Marcus Lucretius Agricola

IV. Any citizen who wishes to participate may do so by signing up for a Wiki account and joining the mailing list NRWiki@yahoogroups.com. Before making any major contributions, please announce on the mailing list which articles you wish to work on, to avoid duplication of effort.

Dated Kal. MARTIAS 10:15 AM Roman time, issued officially in the consulship of Gaius Fabius Buteo Modianus and Pompeia Minucia Strabo.