Wikitree's Honor Code

 To become an active contributor on wikitree you need to sign the "Honor Code" and volunteer.

What is the honor code? 

All of these are great questions and I will attempt to answer it.

What is the "honor code"?

This code is a pledge that community members make to each other. 

WikiTree is free, but it's not a free-for-all. Our community is collaborating to create something special: an accurate single family tree that's free and open to the world. This grand project requires mutual trust and a common understanding of how the community works.

If you were invited by a family member and are just creating or editing a few private family profiles, the following isn't critical. Those who participate at a higher level must agree to this shared code of ethics and principles.The honor code has 9 points of code.

Honor Code Points:

1. We collaborate. When we share ancestors we work together on the same ancestor profiles.
2. We care about accuracy. We're always aiming to improve upon our worldwide family tree and fix mistakes.
3. We know mistakes are inevitable. We don't want to be afraid to make them. We assume that mistakes are unintentional when others make them and ask for the same understanding.
4. We know misunderstandings are inevitable. We try to minimize them by being courteous to everyone, even those who don't act accordingly.
5. We respect privacy. We privacy-protect anything we think our family members might not want public. If that's not enough for someone, we delete their personal information.
6. We respect copyrights. We don't knowingly copy information that's owned by someone else. If we ourselves want to preserve a copyright, we're clear about what's copyrighted so others don't accidentally copy it.
7. We give credit. Although most genealogy isn't copyrighted, researchers deserve credit for the work they've done.
8. We cite sources. Without sources we can't objectively resolve conflicting information.
9. We are united in a mission to increase the world's common store of knowledge. We always respect copyrights and privacy, but we keep information as free and open as possible.