DRC:Guidelines
From DRC
- Welcome!
- This page seeks to outline recommended practices for editors and volunteers at the DRC wiki.
All registered users may create new pages. However, please read, understand, and follow all of the following guidelines in order to create the best page possible with the least amount of work having to be done.
Contents |
Standard Practices
Creating New Pages
- Search the Wiki before creating new pages : Make sure a page doesn't already exist by searching for it first. Use the All Articles page to make sure you are not duplicating work. If there is a page that is similar to the page that you want to create, improve the existing page.
- Use the Sandbox page for practice : The Sandbox is a great place to get your feet wet without worrying about goofing something up.
- Do not create dead-end pages : If you have to create a new page, do so by adding a wiki link to the new page from an existing page. Good choices are pages which seem to be logically related to the new page. For example, if you want to create a new page called Ed Wildgoose Brutefir Config, first edit the Brutefir page, adding the link to the new page thusly: [[Ed Wildgoose Brutefir Config]]. Second, click on the link in red, that reads "Ed Wildgoose Brutefir Config" and create the new page. This practice will make the job of organizing pages in a logical fashion much easier.
- Structure : It's so easy to add content that you might forget that we want to find it later! Please try to make your pages have meaningful names, for example don't upload your DRC config files with the page name "DRC Config Files", because that doesn't scale to multiple users. Instead use something like "Ed Wildgoose DRC Config Files"
- All new pages should be linked to from existing pages. Please spend a moment to think about organizing the wiki as it grows. Listing the newly created, or yet-to-be-created page on one of the sections on the Main Page, or at least a page that is linked-to from the main page would be great. Organizing content makes it easily accessible.
- Please remember that your page names are CaSe SeNSiTiVe So the page "Ed Wildgoose System" is different to "Ed Wildgoose system"
- Do not use CamelCase for page titles : This wiki does not use CamelCase like some other wikis do. All page titles and therefore links should be of normal title case. For example, the page about DRC should have the title"About DRC", with the link formatted as:
[[About DRC]]and not the CamelCase[[AboutDRC]]. - Use Title Case for Page names : These should be full titles, so instead of "IntroToRoomCorrection" have "Introduction to Room Correction". They should also follow the Dr. Grammar rules regarding capitalization thus:"In titles, capitalize the first word, the last word, and all words in between except articles (a, an, and the), prepositions under five letters (in, of, to), and coordinating conjunctions (and, but). These rules apply to titles of long, short, and partial works as well as your own papers" (Anson, Schwegler, and Muth. The Longman Writer's Companion 240)
- Titles are action or task oriented whenever possible. So, "Using the Links Manager" is preferred to "The Links Manager" for example. Imagine what search words a user looking for the information you present would use - this should help you find the right title
- Titles shall not have leading or trailing spaces, or unnecessary spaces in between words. Try to avoiding using symbols such as "-", "#", "?" and "+"
- Shorter titles are better.
- Create and Use Sub Pages Sparingly : The DRC wiki standard is to minimize the creation of sub pages.
- Empty pages : Please do NOT create blank pages simply as placeholders. Once the pages are created, they are live, and any links to them will work. When a user clicks their way to an empty page, they have wasted their time. Please -- only create pages when you have some content to put into them. Create them initially as a sub-page. You need not have a complete page, but there should be something of value there for users. As described above, create a sub page in your USER: page if you want to start on the draft for a new page, or use the Sandbox for practising.
Ensuring Correctness
- Proofread : Ensure your work has proper spelling and grammar.
- Marking Incomplete pages : If you think a page is incomplete, mark the page as such by using the Stub template. You do this by inserting the following tag:
{{Stub}}. (NOTE: The Stub tag is case-sensitive!) - Marking Duplicate pages : If you think that Page A is a copy of Page B, or even close, then please use
{{merge}}to tag the pages as requiring merging. - Marking Pages to be deleted : If you find a page that should not, or need not be there, or is inappropriate, edit the page to have the
{{rfd}}tag. This will alert a maintainer to look into it for deletion.
Discussions
- Using the "Talk" pages: Do you see something that is perhaps incorrect, or needs clarification? The best way to make mention of any issues is to use the DISCUSSION function. Please refrain from adding your comments directly onto the ARTICLE page. If you notice at the top, every page has a DISCUSSION tab on it, which is the place to make your comments, suggestions, and such. Thank you!
- Leaving Messages for Users: Leave a message for a use by editing the User:Talk page associated with the user. The user will receive a visual prompt the next time they visit the Codex and Login.
- Separate Comments: Please create a horizontal rule between comments on the discussion page by using four dashes ---- between entries.
- Always Sign Your Comments: To add your "signature" to a comment, add four ~s (tildes) at the end of your comment. This will list your User Name and a link to your User Page and add a time-stamp. This is very useful for discussion pages. An alternative method is to click on the signature icon at the top of the edit window...it's the second one from the right.
Conventions
- Website Example Names: Always use example.com, example.org or example.net wherever you need to state a domain as an example. This is per RFC2606
