Theopedia:About
From Theopedia
Theopedia is a growing online encyclopedia of biblical Christianity. Theopedia uses wiki technology, which is essentially a community driven information management system. Contributors may add and edit articles and refine their information and presentation. However, these additions and modifications must be "sight checked" by an authorized editor/reviewer before they are incorporated into the public version (stable page).
In this manner, Theopedia becomes a network of interconnected pages, constantly being refined and updated. We invite you to join us! Please see the Statement of Faith and Writing guide for additional necessary information. The Theopedia owner and head administrator is Aaron who is assisted by other administrators.
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Theopedia is a wiki
- A wiki is a document collection managed by collaborative software. It enables multiple people to work together on articles.
- Within a wiki, you can edit, add, and delete material to help solidify an article. You can also begin new articles, create external links to other helpful websites, and create internal links to articles already created on Theopedia.
- It runs on the same software that Wikipedia does, MediaWiki.
- All changes to content can be tracked, reviewed, and reversed if necessary.
- A wiki helps harness the power of collective intelligence and oversight.
- A wiki can be a great tool for building a community around common interests.
Our content is freely redistributable
Our commitment is to keep the articles at Theopedia free forever, and to give others broad freedoms to redistribute, publish, and adapt the content. The textual content of Theopedia, unless otherwise noted, is under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. This means it may be copied, distributed, transmitted, and adapted, provided that attribution is given to Theopedia.com and the license terms are made clear. We suggest the following:
- Content comes from Theopedia.com (article name and link), and is under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. More information on this license is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
When using content from an article, take note of any images that are not under our Creative Commons license. Images are often used in accordance with fair use or with their own compatible Creative Commons license.
Why bother?
- "Two-thirds of American Internet users surf the web for spiritual purposes." [1]
- "God created computers for missions. He just happens to let the rest of the world use them."
- "Since computer technology is here to stay, retreat from it seems neither required nor appropriate... 'There comes a time when the church of Jesus Christ has to be bold enough to lay claim to a new medium.' Claiming a new medium, though, goes beyond just mere use of the medium. It involves understanding how the medium works." [2]
What about Wikipedia?
- Wikipedia strives to maintain a Neutral-point-of-view (NPOV) policy for its material to prevent biased presentation. Theopedia, however, openly maintains a bias, or a Particular-point-of-view, that being "conservative evangelical Protestant Christianity." Contrary to Wikipedia, this bias is to be expected in Theopedia content.
- Apart from any content issues, there are incompatibilities between Theopedia's Creative Commons License and Wikipedia's GNU Free Documentation License which preclude verbatim copying of articles from Wikipedia. One may still provide links to Wikipedia articles thru Interwiki where appropriate. See also Wikipedia:GNU Free Documentation License for additional info.
What is our vision?
- To centralize the efforts of thousands of Christians into a comprehensive encyclopedia on biblical Christianity.
- To keep the articles at Theopedia free forever, and to give others broad freedoms to redistribute, publish, and adapt the content.
- To promote sound theology.
- To lessen the gap of theological knowledge between the seminary trained church leader and the layman.
- To build a Christian community for the promotion of good theological content.
- To promote the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all things.
Where do we stand?
Primary statement of faith
Editors/Users are required to personally affirm the entirety of the primary statement of faith.[1] This statement contains basic things that we would expect any Christian to believe.
Secondary doctrinal statement
An editor is not required to agree with everything in the secondary doctrinal statement, but all of Theopedia's content is, in accordance with the writing guide, required to conform to it. This secondary statement affirms the Together for the Gospel Statement, the The Cambridge Declaration of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, and the Calvinistic doctrines of grace.
- See main page: Statement of faith
The writing guide
- Content consistent with the statement of faith and content generally accepted within traditional, evangelical Protestantism may be written assertively and is the stated point-of-view of Theopedia.
- Content that runs contrary to the statement of faith and traditional, evangelical Protestantism may be respectfully and reasonably criticized.
- Other content, particularly that which is not addressed in the statement of faith, but which finds a respected place within traditional, evangelical Protestantism (even though not completely agreed upon), should be written descriptively and without unnecessary bias.
- See main page: Writing guide
How are we structured?
Board members
The responsibility of board members of the Christian Web Foundation is to shape and develop the core documents of Theopedia (the primary and secondary statement of faith, the writing guide, etc.), to make sure the administrators are enforcing these documents, to resolve conflicts between administrators and editors, and to appoint new administrators (which may be nominated by other administrators).
Administrators
Administrators oversee the activity and content of Theopedia. The responsibility of administrators is, with discretion and discernment, to make sure content changes conform to Theopedia's core documents and to ensure order among the community of editors.
Reviewers
To prevent vandalism and other problems, changes to articles on Theopedia are "sighted" (spot-checked) by Reviewers before they become part of an article's stable page, which the public sees by default. A Reviewer is a registered user (editor) who is granted Reviewer status by an Administrator.
Editors
Editors are registered users who edit, add content, modify, and create new articles.
No anonymous editors
Theopedia no longer allows anonymous contributions. Potential contributors are encouraged to become registered users.
Statistics
April 13, 2008 to April 13, 2009
Donate
Theopedia is a large, high-traffic wiki, and costs about $70 a month to host. At the moment, we have not raised enough funds to host Theopedia, and are using the personal funds of the president of the Christian Web Foundation. As more and more people turn to the internet to look for answers to their religious questions, consider donating to our Theopedia fund:
http://www.christianwebfoundation.org/support-theopedia
See also
Notes
- ↑ Any exceptions or deviations must be approved by board members. We, the board, reserve the right to make changes to the statement to guard the truth.
External links
- The Christian Web Foundation
- How People of Faith Are Using the Internet, by Michael J. Vlach
- What is the 1% rule?, by Charles Arthur
