Information:FAQ/Contributing
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Contributing FAQ
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
This page of frequently asked questions is devoted to answering those questions commonly asked by contributors to BattleTechWiki.
Getting started
How can I contribute?
- For how to volunteer, see Help:Getting Started.
- For how to donate, see Supporting BTW FAQ.
Why would I want to contribute?
If you need a reason, here are a few:
- It is a self-governing mechanism that creates positive externalities.
- It's fun.
- It's educational.
- It's social.
- You are part of an exciting development making use of the open source idea.
- You can correct other people on the spot without asking their permission!
- It's dynamic. BTW has created more than 60k articles in over 19 years.
- It's interesting to share your knowledge with other people, particularly knowing that others can instantly edit or react to what you've written.
- To contribute is to gain.
- Did we mention, it's fun?
- Ultimately, it's yours.
- Most likely, your kids will use it. (You get the point. It's like you own a 1,000 volume encyclopedia at instant access.)
- It gives you something to do. (You can probably do it at school/work as well as at home, since it remains unblocked at many schools and places of work.)
- It helps others.
- It's not boring.
- Learning to write in a neutral point of view is a useful intellectual exercise, since it requires cultivating humility and respect for the views of others.
- Wikis are a remarkable phenomenon of social organization; learning how things work here provides valuable lessons for many other kinds of organizations.
- Wikis are becoming more numerous; sooner or later your business or organization may be using one.
Do I have to register to edit pages?
- No. Anyone can edit without any kind of registration (except disruptive users who have been blocked).
What, then, is the point of getting an account?
- There are some minor benefits to registering: the ads at the top disappear, you get recognition for the work you've done, and the Word of Blake will be able to add you to their database (only for spam purposes, we assure you).*
- *Seriously, your address will not leave the site. Any e-mails sent to you via the site (if you enable the option) will be blind (i.e., the sender will never see your address).
Is there a minimum age requirement to contribute or register?
- No. Anyone of any age may edit articles or register. BattleTechWiki does not even require that users disclose their age when registering!
Do I have to use my real name?
- No. Real names are not required; some Editors use real names, some don't.
What does that word mean?
- On talk pages and in the edit summaries of a page history, you will often see editors using terminology and abbreviations which are unique to BattleTechWiki.
- rv or revert, usually in an edit summary, indicates that the page has been reverted to a previous version, often because of vandalism.
- NPOV means working towards a Neutral point of view, whilst its opposite, POV, is used to suggest that an edit was biased.
- To Wikify means to add internal links and other formatting to an article which was mostly plain text.
- dab means a small touch, and can also be short for disambiguation, or improving a link so that it goes straight to the relevant article.
- For a more comprehensive list see BattleTechWiki:Glossary.
What is the difference between a page and an article?
- The term "page" encompasses all the material on BattleTechWiki, including encyclopedia topics, talk pages, documentation, and special pages such as Recent Changes. "Article" is a narrower term referring to a page containing an encyclopedia entry. Thus, all articles are pages, but not all pages are articles. See BattleTechWiki:What is an article for more.
What is an "orphan"?
- An orphan is an article that no other article links to. Such articles can be found on BattleTechWiki, but it is preferable that another article should link to each article. You can find a list of orphans at Category:Orphaned articles.
What is a stub?
- A stub on BattleTechWiki is a very short article, usually of one paragraph or less. For a more comprehensive explanation, please refer to BattleTechWiki:Stub.
What is disambiguation?
What is a minor edit? When should I use it?
- When editing a page, a logged-in user has the option to flag an edit as "minor." You should flag an edit as minor only when you believe it is an edit that no one would object to, such as fixing spelling or grammar.
- This feature is important because users can choose to hide minor edits in their view of the Recent Changes page, to keep the volume of edits down to a manageable level.
Are there any rules or guidelines I should be aware of?
- Yes. See BattleTechWiki:Policies and guidelines. There are a lot, but you'll get the hang of it!
What is "Recent Changes", and what do the abbreviations used there mean?
- Recent Changes lists all the edits that have been made over a given time period. See the Recent Changes special page.
Are there any standard formats, for things like dates for example?
- Yes. We have a Manual of Style that articles should follow.
What do I do if I find two articles on the same subjects?
- You could merge them yourself if you are feeling bold. Pick the most suitable page name (which may not necessarily be one of the existing ones!). If you're not sure which name to use, or whether the two articles should really be merged, use the procedure at Help:Merging.
What is the ideal/maximum length of an article? When should an article be split into smaller pieces?
Can we debate or talk about the subjects here?
- No. BattleTechWiki is not a forum. Talk pages are for discussing improvements to the article.
I've found vandalism, or I've damaged a page by mistake! How can I restore it?
- You can always call the article to an Admin's attention, by leaving a note on this page, especially if you have some doubts. But, if its obviously vandalism, Be Bold and revert it yourself. Click on the history tab and locate the last edit made before the vandal struck. Click on the time/date link before the good editor's name, which will open up the last clean version of the article. Click on the edit tab, write "revert:" (or just rv:) and a reason why into the summary field. Save the page and you've now corrected the vandalism. Thanks!
Should I use American English or British English?
- The official policy is to use American English.
- Use of one English variation in article titles can cause a Search in another variant to fail. In this case, it is recommended that you create a new article using the alternative spelling that redirects to the main article.
Why are some links red?
- A page with that name has not yet been created. You can click on that link and start a page with that name. But be careful: there may already be articles on similar topics, or an article on the same topic under a different name. It's pretty important to hunt around for similar topics first. See BattleTechWiki:Article titles for information on naming pages, and BattleTechWiki:Red link for more guidance on red links.
- If you just registered, your username is probably shown as linking to a page that doesn't exist. Don't worry! This just means you haven't filled out your user page yet. Click on the link and tell the world all about yourself! See BattleTechWiki:User pages for more information.
What about the pale blue links?
- Those are external links; i.e. those that link to pages outside BattleTechWiki. They look like this.
What happens when two users edit a page at the same time?
- This is called an edit conflict. You'll get a conflict screen that displays both versions in separate windows, along with a summary highlighting the differences, and instructions on how you should proceed. It's virtually impossible to lose any data.
What happens if my computer or browser crashes mid-edit, or if the server does not respond?
- You'll lose your edit. To some extent, you can guard against this by editing in a text editor, for major work (but note that with regard to a system crash this does not help, unless you save frequently to disk).
- When you get a time-out when you try to save, you might or might not lose your edit depending on your web browser. Some browsers (e.g. Opera and Mozilla Firefox) will recover the text you have tried to save if you use the back-button. In other browsers you will lose your edit. You can protect against this by copying the text (at least to the clipboard of your system).
How do I learn about changes to certain topics without having to go there from time to time?
- If you are a logged-in user, on every page you will see either a link that says "Watch this article", or a small five-pointed star next to "View history". If you click on it, the article will be added to your personal watchlist. Your watchlist will show you the latest changes on your watched articles.
What file formats should I use for pictures/videos?
- See BattleTechWiki:Image use policy for more information, However:
- For images, use JPEG for photographs, and SVG for drawings and logos. PNG can also be used.
One of the contributors is being unreasonable. Help!
I've made a suggestion on an article's talk page, but have not gotten any responses. How long should I wait before implementing my suggested change?
- Per BattleTechWiki:Be bold, there's no need to wait at all. Simply make your change. If someone else disagrees with it, they can always revert the change, and then you can talk the issue out with that person.
Can I change the default number of contributions displayed in the "My contributions" list?
- No. You can, however, change the setting on the page and bookmark the resulting page.
Why was the article I created deleted?
- New articles are deleted for not following BattleTechWiki policies and guidelines. See BattleTechWiki:Deletion policy
Why was the edit I made removed?
- There are a variety of reasons (some common reasons). The first thing you should do is look at the history page for the article you edited. This will tell you who changed it, when they changed it, and hopefully a short reason why they changed it. If it says something like see talk, then you should look at the talk page for the article. Also, you should look at your own talk page to see if you have a message there. If you don't find a reason that is satisfactory, politely ask in the article's talk page about your proposed change, and maybe you will get suggestions about changes that you can make so that your change will go in, or you may get reasons why your change should not happen.
Links: external and multilingual
What about using machine translation?
- Machine translation is useful for obtaining the general idea of a text in an unfamiliar language, but it produces poor translations and should not be used on its own. If you want to use machine translation as a translation aid and intend to edit the result, please go ahead if you think it would be helpful. Do not paste a machine translation directly into an article.
Is it ok to link to other sites?
- External links are certainly allowed. Properly used, they increase the usability of BattleTechWiki. Keep in mind, however, that BattleTechWiki is not a web directory; external links should support the content of the article, not replace it. An article should be more than a container for external links, and the content should not require the reader to leave the site to understand the subject.
- Do not place advertising links in BattleTechWiki. Commercial sites are obvious, but this prohibition usually includes links to fansites and discussion forums as well unless the site is a notable one in the field. As a general rule of thumb: if you wish to place the link in BattleTechWiki in order to drive traffic to a site, it probably doesn't belong here.
- The current convention is to place external links in a separate "External links" section at the bottom of the article. Sites used as references for the article should be listed under a "References" section, or sometimes placed within the article as a footnote. See Help:Editing for different ways to create external links.
- See the relevant guideline for more examples on when external links are appropriate.
Miscellaneous
Can I really change whatever I want on BattleTechWiki?
- Yes, you can on almost any page. There are some pages on BattleTechWiki that are protected, so that only administrators can modify them. This includes pages like the Main Page, which are permanently protected, or normal articles which are temporarily protected during the resolution of an edit war. Some pages are also semi-protected, so that anonymous and new users cannot edit them, to reduce vandalism. The vast majority of pages on BattleTechWiki are editable by anyone, at any time, and any changes made will be reflected instantly.
How do I get a count of my edits?
- Your edit count, including deleted edits, is displayed when you enter your preferences.
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