Wiki conventions

How notes are structured here. Read this before writing any note, and read writing-style.md for tone.

Where things live

/                 wiki, published — atomic notes, module master notes, MOCs
course/           course material — arc.md, landing.md, scripts/, decks/
docs/             internal docs like this one — not published
raw/              dictation and private notes — not published

Scripts and decks for the course stay in course/ and never enter the wiki. The wiki holds concepts; the course holds the material made from them.

Three note types

Atomic notes

The default. One concept per file, in the root. Filename is the title.

Stag hunt.md
Folk theorem.md
Selective incentives.md
Ilahita.md

Keep them focused. If a note is covering two concepts, split it and link. Link out rather than duplicating — a concept explained in two places will drift.

Length is whatever the concept needs, usually 200-600 words. A note that has grown past a thousand words is usually two notes.

Module master notes

One per course module, tags: [module] in frontmatter. It carries the module's argument in prose and links out to the atomic notes for the concepts it uses. The concepts themselves are not explained here.

---
title: Olson on group size
description: Why small groups provide public goods and large ones don't.
tags: [module]
---

Maps of content

Thematic indexes, tags: [moc]. They draw together notes on a theme with a sentence of orientation for each, so a reader arriving at the theme knows where to start and in what order.

Organised by theme, not by course session — the themes outlive the course. Current set:

• Game theory basics.md
• Governing the commons.md
• Cooperation at scale.md
• Cultural evolution.md
• Collective action in practice.md

Frontmatter

Optional but preferred:

---
title: Prisoner's Dilemma
description: A two-player game where mutual defection is the only Nash equilibrium.
tags: [module]
---

title should match the filename. description is one sentence, used in search and previews.

Linking

Use [[Wiki Links]]. Flowershow resolves them, and backlinks are enabled, so linking is how notes find each other.

Link liberally. A [[link]] to a note that doesn't exist yet is not an error — it marks a note worth writing.

Every atomic note should be reachable: linked from at least one module master note or one map of content. An unlinked note is invisible.

Sources and excerpts

Cite properly — author, title, year, and a link where one exists. Never attribute a claim vaguely ("studies show", "researchers argue"). If the source can't be named, the claim doesn't go in.

Every note should carry at least one direct excerpt as a markdown blockquote, attributed. The author's own words, not a paraphrase. This matters more than polish: a note that quotes Ostrom and says where it came from is worth much more than one that summarises her.

> Excerpt in the author's own words.

— Elinor Ostrom, *Governing the Commons* (1990), p. 90

Quoting safely:

• Keep excerpts short, a sentence or two. Never reproduce substantial portions of an in-copyright work.
• Public-domain sources can be quoted more freely — Hobbes, Thucydides, Plato, Xenophon, Smith, Hume. Prefer these where a longer passage helps.
• For living authors and recent work, quote briefly and cite precisely.
• Never quote from a source you haven't read directly. If it comes from someone else quoting it, say so.

Definition of done

A research or note-writing task is done when:

1. The named notes exist with correct frontmatter.
2. They are linked from the relevant module master note.
3. That master note is linked from the relevant map of content.
4. Sources are cited.
5. At least one attributed excerpt is present as a blockquote.

Voice is not a criterion at this stage — see delegation.md.