Wikipedia:WikiProject Scouting/Project editing conventions

Template:WPScouting Navigation This is the page for the agreed upon rules and standards of the Scouting Project and Portal. Please don't discuss issues here, use the talk page.

Hierarchy of Categories

Articles/real-people can be in more than one horizontal subcategory, but should not normally list a subcategory and its parent category.

Encyclopedic categories: "Scouting" is the top parent category, with a hierarchy thereunder. The Scout association in most countries belong to Category:WOSM member organizations and/or Category:WAGGGS member organizations. The article dealing with a countries' Scout organization should be in one or both categories, not directly under the Scouting catgory.

There is a "Scouting by country" category that holds a group of articles pertaining to one country. Each country has its own subcat here. An article can be here and also under WOSM and/or WAGGGS. Using the "Scouting by country" cat/subcats also means we're no longer violating the rule of using a sub and its parent as we're using horizontal categories. Organizations that are not members should be in their appropriate "Scouting in (country)" category.

Real people categories: "Scouting Wikipedians" is the top parent category, with a hierarchy thereunder. Currently, there are only 4 subcategories and those are not further subdivided.

Categories of real people, such Wood Badge Wikipedians, should not be mixed in with encyclopedia article categories.

Note: The "Eagle Scout Wikipedians" subcategory has mostly BSA Eagle Scouts, but at least one Philippine Eagle Scout (their highest rank is also Eagle Scout and the design of the medal and knot are very similar), so it also is an international category.

Non-aligned Scouting organizations

This category is for Scouting organizations that are not recognized by WOSM or WAGGGS, for whatever the reason. This includes Royal Rangers, Traditional Scouting, Primitive Scouting, WFIS, FSE and OWS, which are all Scouting or Scout-like movements. There are only very few known non-WAGGGS (girl) organizations like the American Heritage Girls and some German associations.

Dialects

For spelling variations, such as American vs British spelling, use the standard form of the language of the country the article is about. In generic articles, such as Scouting, use American.

Male-Female issues

As stated elsewhere, the Scouting WikiProject's scope includes male, female, and coed Scouting units. Articles about the WOSM and other primarily male affiliated Scout organisations in a particular country should not mention, other than a "See also" link, the equivalent WAGGGS or other primarily female organisation in that country. Material about the WAGGGS organisation should be put into a new article, even if only a stub, and vice versa for WAGGGS/female articles and their mentioning of WOSM/male organizations. This is meant to assist in providing equal weight to female Guiding and Scouting as the project has mostly male editors.

Latter-day Saints

Use one of these to refer to this church:

• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Latter-day Saints
• Mormons

Note the punctuation and capitalization of "Latter-day."

Do not use any other forms or abbreviations.

Divisions of national organizations

Cub Scouts (Boy Scouts of America) is the proper name for American Cub Scouting, not "Cub Scouts" or "Cub Scouts of America" or the abbreviation "CSA"; though they are common phrases, they are not the name of the organization. Use the correct name.

BSA (spelled out, see above) should be part of article titles, not the section of BSA, EX: Skipper (Sea Scouting) to Skipper (Boy Scouts of America), Skipper is not the name used in all Scout organizations. This pattern should be used for other countries like "... (Boy Scouts of the Philippines)", vice "....(BSP)".

Manual of style and standards

The Wikiproject Scouting Manual of Style is a series of supplements to the Wikipedia:Manual of Style. It aims to promote consistency, simplicity and professionalism in Scouting related articles.

Guideline	Shortcut	Status
Article layout	WPS:ART	proposed
Article names	WPS:NAMES	accepted
Capitalization	WPS:CAP	proposed
Categories	WPS:CAT	proposed
Image standards	WPS:IMAGE	accepted
Lists	WPS:LIST	proposed
Local Scouting articles (BSA)	WPS:LOCALBSA	accepted
Merging, moving and deleting articles	WPS:MMD	proposed
References	WPS:REF	accepted
Scope and inclusion criteria	WPS:SCOPE	proposed
See also and External links	WPS:LINK	proposed
Style guides and standards	WPS:STYLE	proposed
Templates	WPS:TEMP	accepted
Userboxes	WPS:USER	accepted