Leftypedia:Community hub

Welcome to the Leftypedia's community hub! We're glad to have you with us!

This is a place to:

• introduce and familiarize yourself with the community
• ask for editing help and resources
• and find other editors that share your interests.

If you have ideas for new content or features on the site, head on over to the suggestion box.

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Discussion on creating principles

Hi everyone.

One of our immediate project goals is to decide on coherent principles for everyone to follow. The Leftypedia administration has been discussing this for a while, but decided to involve the wider community in the discussion. Harrystein made a full draft of what a principles page would look like. I invite everyone to go there and see it for yourself. I also left criticism to his draft on its talk page, which I also invite you all to see.

In short, the principles proposed were:

Principles

• Leftism and Marxism: Ultimate objective is to further these studies, and add science and philosophy in accordance with Marxist and anarchist objectives.
• Non-sectarian: Strive to balance different tendencies or leftist "sects", and allow their positions as long as they are fairly stated. Strive to treat their citations and sources by an equal and fair standard.
• Anti-capitalism: This includes anti-imperialism.
• Skepticism: Combine a healthy doubt of hegemonic sources with support from verifiable, credible alternatives.
• Ease of access and editing: Make site easy to edit, discuss, and also easy to understand and apply the rules and procedures. Easy to approach the mods. Also include accessible pages with links to tools for editing.
• Not politically correct: Oppose superficial liberal analyses of social problems and aim to document all leftist viewpoints. To exclude these positions is to erase them, and thereby to fail to scrutinize and improve our own views.
• Not politically incorrect: Uphold basic etiquette and respect for others while allowing criticism. Contributors who take issue with "politically correct" content are allowed to voice their objections, and those who have objections to politically incorrect content must always voice theirs respectfully. Personal accusations of bigotry should be avoided.

These principles do not define what each article must lean towards, or a bias every page must hold. Leftism is a real movement and not a set of doctrines to uphold. Leftypedia is intended for critical debate and discussion of historical facts for the improvement of the science of revolution, and input from even our enemies is allowed to some extent.

And the aims were:

Aims

Our aims can be summarized in seven main points. We want Leftypedia to be:

1. An easily accessible resource for socialists of all stripes to locate well-researched arguments and information on politics, history, and modern issues.
2. A platform for interested leftists to collaborate and develop original discourse on issues relevant to fellow proletarians and socialists alike.
3. A reliable and balanced source of news and information to help leftists better comprehend and refute the propaganda and fabrications of bourgeois media, including about working class struggles or foreign "enemies" of imperialist states.
4. A platform for leftists to synthesize, exposit, and critique the writings of notable socialists, using detailed sources and quotations, to innovate on past experience and to advance the science of socialism.
5. A space for leftists to elaborate on their contentions with other socialist tendencies in order to better inform and expand the worldview of others.
6. A space for socialists to take advantage of the collaborative nature of the MediaWiki format to compile detailed, informative articles on praxis and other topics relevant to leftist activism, all in one place and continuously expanding.
7. A space for leftists to easily create and share detailed polemics and essays for others to engage with their views.

There were other questions raised like if we should allow non-socialists onto the project and others. I'm eager to hear your feedback to these principles.

Thanks. RedParabola (talk) 21:45, 23 April 2024 (UTC)