User:Leucosticte/About ASH

Introduction
This is ASH2 (usually referred to as simply the ASH wiki), a - or rather, a website that you can edit. You see, a wiki is a place on the Internet where many people can collaborate on providing the most comprehensive and most objective information possible for whatever subject, because they are all able to create and edit documents freely. As such, you are kindly invited to contribute to this wiki by e.g. researching the accuracy of claims and correcting grammatical and spelling errors.

ASH2 is the second incarnation of the old ASH wiki, which was dedicated to providing information about death and suicide, but especially about suicide methods. The subject of the wiki was already somewhat reflected in its name: ASH is short for alt.suicide.holiday, which refers to a Usenet newsgroup of the same name. ASH2 might have a slightly different name and location than its predecessor, but in essence they are the same, since they both share the goal of providing the most comprehensive and most objective information possible about suicide methods. The true motivation of that goal is not to decimate the human population in any way (which is what some people and organisations make it out to be), but rather to provide suicidal people and those suffering from a severe physical illness with the ability and freedom to make a fair, well-informed and unforced choice about whether they should live or die.

History
First located at this link, the old ASH wiki was established a few years ago (possibly in early June 2008, since The Wayback Machine has an archived version of the wiki from that period), at which time its name was first written as AshWiki and then evolved to AWiki some time later. It was founded in order to gather the information available at the message archive of its namesake newsgroup into a single place (thus providing people with an easier way to access the information that they desired). It seems that at some point in time, the original creator(s) of the wiki ended their lives, unfortunately leaving the wiki in a 'frozen' state because there was no one left with access rights for editing the wiki.

After a while, somewhere in 2009, the wiki was taken down, because its hosting service deemed the wiki's contents to be against their Terms of Service (possibly, an additional cause may have been that the hosting service no longer received the required money for hosting the wiki, since its creator(s) was/were presumably dead). Fortunately, several people had anticipated the wiki's shutdown and so they had copied the wiki's entire content when it was still available. It is thanks to those people that this new wiki was able to arise from the ashes of the old wiki, thereby continuing to provide people with a problem-free access to the information that they desire - but most importantly, with a fair choice.

Statements
In order to prevent the occurrence of any grave misunderstandings, the following must be made absolutely clear: All of those people are strongly advised to seek professional help by meeting with their doctors or by enlisting the help of a psychiatrist, so that they can talk about (and battle) the things that have caused them to feel suicidal and come to this wiki.
 * The goal of this wiki is not to encourage anyone to end their life, but to provide mentally competent adults with the ability and freedom to make a fair, well-informed and unforced choice about whether they should live or die.
 * As stated previously, the wiki is designed for mentally competent adults only. This means that certain people are or should be excluded from reading or receiving the suicide method information that is available here; the wiki disapproves when such people somehow end up acquiring the information anyway. The following people are deemed unfit for the information displayed on this wiki:
 * Minors (i.e. people who have not yet reached the legal age of majority of their country);
 * People that suffer from suicidal feelings caused by a short-term event (e.g. a failed romantic relationship);
 * People that suffer from a pervasive low mood;
 * People that have not exhausted all other options (e.g. therapy combined with antidepressants) to improve their lives first;
 * People that are afflicted with whatever degree of mental impairment.

More important information can be read in the disclaimer.

General posting rules

 * The aim of this wiki is to be as scientific, objective, comprehensive and truthful as possible. Therefore, when you edit content of this wiki, please try to refrain from adding subjective or fake content that has no basis in science. When adding unverified content, please mention this by using a sentence like "It is, however, uncertain whether this is true or effective, since no one has been able to verify this yet" or something else that resembles the essence of that exemplary sentence.
 * Please do not use this wiki for posting spam and any other forms of advertising. That is not what the wiki was built for; it was built to provide the suicidal with a free place where they can find objective information regarding suicide and virtually all other related matters. As such, one could say that the wiki is founded on altruism, making it an entirely non-profit place. That makes any sort of advertising (especially advertising intended for financial gain) completely unacceptable here, as advertising here clearly means that you are selfishly trying to benefit from others' pain. So, if you have even a modicum of moral conscience left, then please have respect for the suffering of your fellow man and do not make it harder for them to get the information they need by cluttering this wiki with utterly pointless spam.


 * English is the sole language of this wiki, in order to ensure maximum accessibility for people from all around the world. For the native speakers: as you are probably aware, there are different types of English, such as American English, Australian English, British English and Hiberno-English. The wiki tries to employ British English as much as possible, so when you edit an article that is already entirely written in British English, try to follow British English grammar and spelling conventions as much as you are able: it is not considered desirable, clear or orderly to have an article be featured in two or more types of English at the same time.
 * Before adding new content, it is preferable that you first run a spelling and grammar check in your word processor (e.g. Microsoft Word, OpenOffice.org Writer), as legibility is considered very important. This is especially advisable for those that are not native speakers of English.
 * Netspeak and SMS language is absolutely forbidden. An example of what is not tolerated: "plz d0 n0t tYp3 l1ke tHis. itz hard 2 r3ad & uNd3RsTaNd. thx."


 * Every living person is entitled to their own independent opinion(s) and taste(s), but any expression or discussion of those may only take place on the discussion page of an article. This is not only because opinions and tastes are considered subjective, but also to avoid having an article become illegible or disorderly. Also, when participating in a discussion on a discussion page, please try to keep it civil: one can have an engaging and intelligent discussion without bashing, flaming or using derogatory language.


 * Please try to refrain from using the term "to commit suicide" and its derivatives anywhere on the wiki; instead, use more neutral terms like "to end one's life" or "to perform suicide". Suicide is not a crime, at least in the Western world. The verb 'to commit' is often used in conjunction with the name of a crime, and the predominantly used phrase "to commit suicide" is quite archaic because it stems from a time where suicide was still illegal. Therefore, using the term "to commit suicide" on this wiki in this day and age would be ironic, paradoxical and counterproductive with regard to the goals and philosophy of the ASH wiki.

Specific posting rules

 * Articles excluded, any post or comment that you leave on the wiki (e.g. the Community Portal or a discussion page) must be signed with your username, the current time, the current date, and the timezone. The code required for that is as follows (the specific time, date and timezone shown here are strictly exemplary):

Username 22:00, 7 August 2010 (GMT+1)


 * When leaving a comment in response to someone, you must employ indentation. That means that your reply must be prefixed with a colon, so that it becomes indented. A properly indented discussion looks like this.

Technical information
The software used for this wiki is called, which is the free wiki software used by. MediaWiki is powerful and flexible software that is extensible; the pages on this wiki were written to use the following extensions:



Note: although these pages have been tested with MediaWiki 1.15.1, they should work with older versions of MediaWiki as well.