Information:Contributing to BattleTechWiki
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 | This is an information page. It is not one of BattleTechWiki's policies or guidelines, but rather intends to describe some aspect(s) of BattleTechWiki's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect varying levels of consensus and vetting. |
| Contributing to BattleTechWiki (Tutorial) |
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| Policies and guidelines |
| Introductions |
| How-to pages |
| Writing advice |
| Community |
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BattleTechWiki's purpose[edit]
Our purpose is to create a w:web-based, w:free content w:encyclopedia of all knowledge of the BattleTech franchise, in an atmosphere of mutual respect and cooperation. The goal of a BattleTechWiki article is to create a comprehensive and neutrally written summary of existing mainstream knowledge about a topic. Editors are encouraged to be bold in editing in a fair and accurate manner with a straightforward, just-the-facts style. Articles should have an encyclopedic style with a formal tone instead of essay-like, argumentative, promotional, or opinionated writing. The five pillars is a popular summary of the most pertinent BattleTechWiki principles.
Getting started[edit]
As a new editor, or contributor, you may feel a little overwhelmed by the sheer size and scope of this project called BattleTechWiki. Don't worry too much if you don't understand everything at first, as it is acceptable to use common sense as you go about editing. BattleTechWiki not only allows you to create, revise, and edit articles, but it wants you to do so. You just need to remember that you can't break BattleTechWiki and although there are many protocols, perfection is not required, as BattleTechWiki is a work in progress. Collaborative editing means that incomplete or poorly written first drafts can evolve over time into excellent articles.
Creating an account[edit]
You do not have to log in to read BattleTechWiki. You do not even have to log in to edit articles on BattleTechWiki. Just about anyone can edit almost any article at any given time, even without logging in. However, creating an account is free of charge and has several benefits (for example, the ability to create pages, upload media and edit without one's IP address being visible to the public). To create an account in seconds, click Create account and fill out the few required fields. This will be logged, your account will be created, and you will be provided with a link back to this page.
Community protocols and conventions[edit]
- Policy and Guideline: BattleTechWiki:Civility and BattleTechWiki:Etiquette
BattleTechWiki does not employ hard-and-fast rules, and there is no need to read any page before editing. However, some standards and behavioural expectations may be enforced. General social norms should be followed by all BattleTechWiki editors. The BattleTechWiki community is made up of people from different countries and cultures, with different views, perspectives, opinions, and backgrounds, sometimes varying widely. Editors should treat each other respectfully, work together collegially, and avoid behaviour that would be widely seen as unacceptable, disruptive, tendentious, or dishonest.
Policies, guidelines, and formatting norms are developed by the community to describe the best practices, to clarify principles, resolve conflicts, and otherwise further our goals. These rules are principles, not laws, on BattleTechWiki. To varying degrees, policies and guidelines exist as rough approximations of their underlying principles. They are not intended as inflexible, controlling statutes on any set of norms or practices under all circumstances, nor to exhaustively define all matters within their ambit. They must be understood in context, using common sense and discretion. BattleTechWiki is an online encyclopedia and, as a means to that end, an online community of individuals interested in building and using a high-quality encyclopedia. Therefore, there are certain things that BattleTechWiki is not and common mistakes that should be avoided.
Discussion and consensus[edit]
- Guideline page: BattleTechWiki:Talk page guidelines
Behind the scenes of BattleTechWiki articles, there is a large community of volunteer editors working to build the encyclopedia. It is not uncommon for editors to disagree about the way forward. That is when discussion and attempts to reach consensus should take place. Every article on BattleTechWiki has a talk page, reached by clicking the Talk tab just above the title (for example, Talk:Main Page). There, editors can discuss improvements to the content of an article. You can participate too! If you ever make a change that gets reverted by another editor, discuss the change on the talk page! The BOLD, revert, discuss cycle is a popular method of reaching consensus and may be useful for identifying objections, keeping discussion moving forward and helping to break deadlocks. Some editors will see any reversion as a challenge, so be considerate and patient. While discussing matters, it is very important that you conduct yourself with civility and assume good faith on the part of others. Edit warring (repeatedly overriding or reimplementing contributions) is highly discouraged. There is a bright-line rule called the three-revert rule, the violation of which may lead someone to be blocked from editing to prevent further disruption. Disruptive editing is not always intentional, as new editors may simply not understand the ins and outs of BattleTechWiki.
Most other types of pages on BattleTechWiki also have associated talk pages, including the user page each editor is assigned once they sign up. When other editors need to contact you, they will usually do this by leaving a message on your user talk page. When someone has left you a message that way, you will see a notice the next time you log in or view a page on BattleTechWiki.
The basics of contributing[edit]
- Policy page: BattleTechWiki:Editing policy
BattleTechWiki is the product of hundreds of editors' contributions, each one bringing something different to the table, whether it be: researching skills, technical expertise, writing prowess or tidbits of information, but most importantly a willingness to help. Nobody owns articles, so if you see a problem that you can fix, do so. Everyone is encouraged to copyedit articles, add content and create new articles if they have knowledge about the topic at hand or are willing to do the necessary research to improve it. Although you should use a broad vocabulary of regular, non-technical terms, do not use words or expressions that many readers may not know.
Article development and content protocols[edit]
Articles make up the bulk of BattleTechWiki's mainspace. Each article is on one topic (rather than a word and its definition). An encyclopedia is, by its nature, a tertiary source that provides a survey of information already the subject of publication in the wider world, and when describing the BattleTech universe, BattleTechWiki must strive to avoid fanon. Accordingly, and because BattleTechWiki is open to editing by anyone, we require that information be verifiable in reliable sources. Ideally, all information should be cited to reliable sources and to evidence that is verifiable. Sourcing requirements are significantly stricter in articles on real people.
The quality of BattleTechWiki articles varies widely; many are very good, but some lack depth and clarity, contain bias or are out of date. In general, high-quality articles have the following elements: a lead section that gives an easy-to-understand overview, a clear structure, balanced coverage, neutral content, and are based upon verifiable information found in reliable sources.
How to edit[edit]
- Introductions: Editing with wiki markup
| Note: You can use the public sandbox or your private sandbox to experiment with page editing. |  |
Editing most BattleTechWiki pages is relatively simple. BattleTechWiki currently uses only one method of editing: classic editing through wiki markup (wikitext).
Wiki markup editing is chosen by clicking the Edit tab at the top of a BattleTechWiki page (or on a section-edit link – if these links are missing, click the Edit tab and remove the code __NOEDITSECTION__). This will take you to a new page with a text box containing the editable text of the page you were viewing. In this box, you can type in the text that you want to add, using wiki markup to format the text and add other elements like images and tables. You should then press the Show preview button to review your contributions for any errors. When you have finished editing, you should write a short edit summary in the small field below the edit box describing your changes before you press the Publish changes button. This will help others to understand the intention of your edit. To avoid accidentally leaving edit summaries blank, you can select "Prompt me when entering a blank edit summary" on the Editing tab of your personal preferences.
- Two editing environments: wikitext and VisualEditor
Edit box showing the wiki markup. You can change the formatting and contents of the page by changing what is written in this box.
Some pages are protected from direct editing, at differing levels of restriction. The three chief types, in order from most to least common, are:
- Semi-protected pages, which cannot be edited directly by unregistered users (IP addresses), as well as accounts that are not autoconfirmed (accounts that are at least four days old and have made at least ten edits to BattleTechWiki), or that are not confirmed. This is normal for pages which would otherwise be vandalized particularly frequently.
- Extended confirmed-protected pages, also known as 30/500 protection, which only allows direct edits by editors with the extended confirmed user access level, granted automatically to registered users with at least 30 days tenure and 500 edits. Articles about major, contentious events are likely to get this protection level for a short period.
- Fully-protected pages, which can only be edited directly by administrators. It is very unusual for an article to need this level of protection, but you can see it on key internal pages like the citation system.
Documenting sources[edit]
- Guideline pages: BattleTechWiki:Citing sources and BattleTechWiki:References dos and don'ts
- How to pages: Help:Footnotes
This is an encyclopedia, so remember that it's a necessity to include references listing reliable websites, newspapers, articles, books and other sources you have used to write or expand articles. Please understand that these sources should verify the information but you must not copy and paste text you find anywhere, except for short quotations, marked as such with quote marks and carefully cited to the source the quote was taken from. New articles and statements added to existing articles may be deleted by others if unreferenced or referenced poorly or if they are copyright violations.
Generally, sources are added directly after the facts they support at the end of the sentence and after any punctuation. BattleTechWiki permits editors to use any citation system that allows the reader to understand where the information came from, and strongly encourages use of inline citations to do so. Common methods of placing inline citations include footnotes, and shortened footnotes.
Inline citations are most commonly placed by inserting a reference between <ref> ... </ref> tags, directly in the text of an article. After publishing changes, it will display in the article as a footnote (e.g.[1] [2]), and the source you keyed in will appear on the page in a collated, numbered list corresponding to the footnote numbers in the text, wherever a {{Reflist}} template or <references /> tag is present, usually in a section titled "References" or "Notes". If you are creating a new page or adding references to a page that didn't previously have any, don't forget to add a references section with this display markup.
Markup, formatting, and layout[edit]
- Guideline pages: BattleTechWiki:Manual of Style/Layout
- How to pages: Help:Wiki markup, Help:Cheatsheet and Help:HTML in wikitext
Complicated articles may be best modeled on the layout of an existing article of appropriate structure and topic. Wiki markup is the syntax and keywords used by the MediaWiki software to format a page. Wiki markup is used extensively throughout BattleTechWiki for such things as hyperlinks, tables and columns, footnotes, inline citation, special characters and so on. An "edit toolbar" (as pictured below) is provided just above the edit box, which will allow logged in users (by selecting the option in personal preferences) to automatically place and format various aspects of wiki code. Many HTML tags can be used in wiki markup. You can check your HTML by using markup validation.
Article creation and notability[edit]
Before starting a new article, please read and try to understand BattleTechWiki's notability requirements. BattleTechWiki takes a broadly completionist stance towards covering BattleTech and the BattleTech universe, especially in-universe material - but information must be verifiable and drawn from reliable sources. For in-universe material, it should be from official (primarily canon or apocryphal) sources (see Policy:Canon and Canon). When covering real-world information, some direct connection to BattleTech is needed, and care must be taken; see Policy:Original research#Nonfictional Content.
Renaming and page deletion[edit]
BattleTechWiki pages can be renamed by moving the page to a new title. This is done by clicking on the Move tab at the top of the page (you need to be registered and an autoconfirmed user to be able to do this). Before you do so, please carefully review this checklist of things to consider before a page move. The main principles for choosing an article title are described at BattleTechWiki:Article titles. Do not move or rename a page by copying and pasting its content to a different title. You may not always be able to move a page yourself and should refrain from doing so even if there is no technical impediment, where the rename would be considered controversial and thus should be discussed first.
While almost anyone can edit and move articles, to keep things manageable, only administrators can delete them. Note that removing all text from a page does not delete it, it just leaves a blank page, which is discouraged as it is confusing to readers. If the page is in your own user space (for example, starts with "User:YourName/" or "User talk:YourName/"), then you can request immediate deletion of the page at any time. Simply edit the page while logged in and put the template {{deletion}} at the top of the page. An administrator will see that you added the template to a page in your user or user talk namespace and will delete it in most cases.
Images[edit]
- Overview: BattleTechWiki:Image dos and don'ts
Images, can enhance articles greatly. A file that is already hosted on BattleTechWiki or the Wikimedia Commons can be inserted with the basic code "[[File:FILENAME|thumb|DESCRIPTION]]". ("Image:" can be substituted for "File:" with no change in effect; the choice between the two is purely a matter of editorial preference.) Using "thumb" generates a thumbnail of an image (the most common placement option), which is typically sized differently from the original image. Several options can affect a thumbnail's placement and size, and there are other methods for placing images not in a thumbnail format, such as in a frame, table or "infobox", which this summary page does not delve into.
Only logged in users can upload files under an appropriate title. The first step in uploading a file is to determine its copyright status. If a file is in the public domain, or bears a type of free copyright license compatible with the non-restrictive licenses we require for free reuse. If the image is non-free then it cannot be uploaded to the Commons, but you may be able to upload it directly here at BattleTechWiki, if it meets our stringent standards for a claim of fair use in a particular article. Please ensure that the copyright status of any file you upload has been specified and we are allowed to use it on BattleTechWiki.
Lists, tables, and templates[edit]
- Guideline page: BattleTechWiki:Manual of Style/Lists
- How to pages: Help:List, Help:Table and Help:Template
Lists are essential to the organization and presentation of content on BattleTechWiki. Lists in articles and stand-alone lists are subject to BattleTechWiki's content policies and guidelines.
Tables on BattleTechWiki are a commonly-used way of displaying information, particularly in articles that contain data. Tables are also subject BattleTechWiki's policies of verifiability and established facts. The simplest way to insert a table is with the editing toolbar. Although HTML table syntax also works, special wikicode can be used as a shortcut to create a table. The pipe (vertical bar) codes function exactly the same as HTML table markup, so a knowledge of HTML table code helps in understanding pipe code.
Templates are used throughout BattleTechWiki pages to promote consistency, display enriched content with ease, and avoid the necessity of duplicating material that is used over and over across numerous articles and pages. At its most basic, a template is a BattleTechWiki page created to be included in other pages. Common uses include to display notices, infoboxes, navigational boxes, standard warnings, special text formatting, unit conversions, calculations and many other purposes. The most common method of inclusion is called transclusion, where the wikitext of the target page contains a reference to the template, using the {{Template name}} syntax.
Help resources and interactive assistance[edit]
The help resource system of BattleTechWiki consists of a wide variety of how-to and information pages, written to differing levels of technical expertise and in widely varying styles. This variety, however, has its flaws: it is easy to navigate to a page that regurgitates the same information, contains concepts that have not already been covered, or is overly complicated for one's needs. In short, the effects can be quite frustrating at times. Additionally, the following pages also may have the answers you seek:
- BattleTechWiki:FAQ: a list of Frequently Asked Questions.
- BattleTechWiki:Questions: discusses how to ask questions on BattleTechWiki.
- BattleTechWiki:Dos and don'ts: summarizes some of BattleTechWiki's protocols in a bullet-point format.
Don't worry if you do get stuck, witness disruptive editing or are involved in a dispute; there are volunteers available to assist you. By posting the template {{help me}} to your talk page or to an article's talk page, as well as a live assistance on our Discord, they start assisting you.
See also[edit]
- Words and phrases to avoid
- Conflict of interest guideline
- Dos and don'ts
- Essay on Advanced article editing on Wikipedia
- Essays about article writing on Wikipedia
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