Contributing To The Wiki

About This Page
This page will explain how to contribute to this wiki, which can be done by editing existing pages, adding new ones or commenting on existing pages. See also Who Can Contribute To This Wiki.

Video Tutorial
We created a quick 30 minute video tutorial demonstrating the various aspects of contributing to this Wiki which is here. Feel free to comment on it on YouTube or make your own Help video and advertise it here.

Guidance When Contributing
We don't yet have a page containing guidance for contributing, but one will probably get created as the wiki evolves.

As the MediaWiki Help page on Editing Pages says "be bold. Go ahead - make changes."!!!

Try not to worry too much about stepping on other people's toes, but at the same time be considerate. If you want to get rid of or radically change someone's existing work maybe try to contact them or talk to about it on the Talk Page (more on that later).

If you are just adding more content to existing pages or creating new pages then you should try to feel free to go ahead and do it.

People, at some point, are going to disagree about what content should be on the site, where it will go etc. etc. Let's cross those bridges when we come to them and we'll evolve a way of managing this.

For the moment: be considerate, be thoughtful, don't be offensive, try to be accurate, don't break any laws (copyright, defamation etc)

Creating An Account
You don't need to create an account to edit the wiki. If you edit anonymously your IP (the internet address of your computer) will be recorded and that is all.

But it's much better to create an account. To do that click the "Create account" link near the top right of the page and enter your username (e.g. JBloggs if your name is Joe Bloggs, or something wacky and unrecognisable like merlindude if you prefer?), your password and your email address. You can optionally enter your full name, but only if your sure you want to in order to be fully and legally attributed for your works (I didn't bother).

Editing An Existing Page
You can click the Edit button on a page (or Section heading) and edit it like a Word document, then click Save. In the Save Changes window that appears, please enter a short sentence or two about the change you made. If you leave the "Watch This Page" box ticked then this page will be added to your "Watchlist" which means every time someone edits the page you will get an email notification about the edit. Untick this box if you don't want to know about future edits. To see your "Watchlist" click the Watchlist link at the top right of any page and then to edit the list click the "Edit Your List Of Watched Pages" button.

For more help see Detailed Help On Editing The Wiki.

Creating A New Page
Two easy ways of creating a new page:-


 * Edit an existing page and put some text in e.g. "Steve's New Page" then highlight the text and click the link button at the top of the editor and click "Done". Save the page.  Then click on the new "Steve's New Page" and you will be taken to the newly created page where you can edit it.  If you change your mind about creating the page, just hit the Back button on your browser to abandon it.
 * If you just want to create a new page without having to create a link to it, then type the name for your new page in the Search Box on the top right of any page e.g. "Steve's New Page". Then click the red link in the middle of the text on saying "Create the page "Steve's New Page" on this wiki!" and you will be taken to the newly created page where you can edit it.  If you change your mind about creating the page, just hit the Back button on your browser to abandon it.

I'll add more stuff soon about:-


 * How to discuss pages with other collaborators.
 * How you will be notified about changes to pages you have created or edited or are particularly interested in.

Commenting On A Page Using The Discussion/Talk Page
Every page on the wiki has an associated "Talk" page which can be accessed by discussing the "Discussion" tab at the top of the article.

This page is for discussing the contents of the main page, for example talking about why something was added, how it could be improved or just saying what you liked/think about the content.

The Talk page is similar in design to normal wiki pages apart from a few things:-


 * The VisualEditor is not available on Talk pages and so you have to understand a little more about formatting.
 * The idea is that each person adds comments to the page using a certain format to make it more readable. They should manually create a new heading for each comment, insert the username of the person they are "talking" to and "sign" the comment (see below for instructions of how to do this).

If you click on the Discussion tab and no-one has commented on the page before you will told that you are creating a new page.

If you are adding a new comment do the following:-


 * Click the "Add topic" tab at the top of the page
 * In the Subject: field put a title for your comment e.g. "Jack Needs To Just Get Back Up That Hill"
 * If you know the user who wrote the content you are comment on you can mention/ping them by inserting User:Username e.g. User:Shalsey . This will cause that user to be sent a notification email about the comment.
 * Next just write your comment.
 * "Sign " the comment by typing four tildas: ~  This will cause MediaWiki to automatically insert your username and the date/time when you save the post.

If you are replying to an existing comment/thread:-


 * Scroll down to the section with the heading for the comment/thread you want to reply to and click "edit source" next to the heading.
 * Insert the correct number of colons to get your comment indented to the correct level (one more than the thing you are replying to)
 * Add the text of your comment.
 * "Sign " the comment by typing four tildas: ~  This will cause MediaWiki to automatically insert your username and the date/time when you save the post.