Bluepages:Bluepages and Wikipedia

Bluepages is a wiki heavily inspired by Wikipedia. Our site uses the same software, MediaWiki, and the same general formatting and style as the English Wikipedia. In fact, when Bluepages doesn't have a rule or guideline explicitly saying otherwise, we encourage all users to follow the rules and guidelines of Wikipedia, especially its Five Pillars. In the long term, we hope to contribute to a cooperative ecosystem of the open internet, working closely with Wikipedia, the Internet Archive, OpenStreetMap, and other resources to make it happen. However, the mission and scope of Bluepages is very different from that of Wikipedia, and so some of our core policies are different as well. If you have experience with Wikipedia and want to join our project, please read the following policies that distinguish Bluepages from Wikipedia.


 * 1) Wikipedia requires article topics to be notable. Bluepages has no concept of notability. The goal of Bluepages is to put together the histories of ordinary places, not only those which meet a certain standard. In fact, you might say that the purpose of Bluepages is to create a home for comprehensive information about specifically the places that don't meet Wikipedia's notability standards. If some kind of reliable sources are available to attest that a location or institution exists or once existed, it can be covered on Bluepages. If you don't think this is an inherently worthy goal, Bluepages may not be the place for you. However, keep in mind that while notability is not an issue, violation of privacy is. Articles on individual houses are discouraged, not because they're too obscure to "deserve" articles, but out of respect for the privacy of the houses' current and former residents.
 * 2) Wikipedia prohibits original research. Bluepages encourages certain kinds of original research. Many Bluepages articles will inevitably be about places and subjects that are otherwise unknown to the Internet and have essentially been forgotten by the wider world – this is what makes Bluepages such an important project. Contributors to Bluepages should do whatever they can to make previously inaccessible historical documents, images, and other resources accessible. However, the accuracy and reliability of the information they provide should always be clear. If your best efforts to find some piece of information end up in contradictions between sources, please feel free to explain those contradictions within the body of the relevant article.
 * 3) Wikipedia covers a broad range of topics across all fields of study. Bluepages is focused specifically on places. In general, Bluepages articles should either be about specific geographical locations, buildings and structures, organizations or entities operating in specific locations. Some articles may be summaries of groups of other articles – for example, recounting the histories of a large organization in a unique way that's only possible by working your way up from thousands of comprehensive articles about that organization's individual facilities. Sometimes, individual people will be very important to the histories of certain places, but biographical articles don't really belong on Bluepages outside of exceptional circumstances.

Wikipedia's rules work very well for their website, and since 2001, they've come a long way towards the lofty goal of giving all people access to the sum of all human knowledge. However, there's a lot of information out there that clearly doesn't belong on Wikipedia. Bluepages can help us all reach that goal of sharing all knowledge not by competing with Wikipedia, but by cooperating with it. This means giving a home to some of the things that don't belong. On the other hand, if you believe that Wikipedia has a great mission but is failing to live up to your expectations, we hope that Bluepages can give you a home, too.