A formal letter to you, prospective editor!
Dear new editor to the page (yourself!),
Hello! And welcome to the Wiki. I and all the other active staff and editors hope you enjoy your stay.
Here's the deal: I was thinking of writing a big page full of rules and guidelines and such to make sure that the Wiki pages are always in order, just the way I like them. I can safely say now that I have touched and rewritten every single page on this Wiki. Everything is the way I want it to be.
But then I thought to myself...why try to write down all the guidelines I have edited by? Why bog you down with trying to make every page formatted perfectly, with nothing out of line?
That would be way too much. I don't want to impose my OCD for this wiki on you. Besides, now that everything's relatively cleaned up, it will be easy enough to maintain.
Enough banter. Let me tell you what I think you should know. Let's make some basic guidelines for you to edit by, in order of importance:
- 1. Don't be afraid!
This is probably the most important guideline I can think of for you. If you're not sure whether an edit you want to make is a good one, do it anyway! Odds are, unless you're trolling, we'll welcome your editing voice. So give it a go! Also, if you don't know how to go about something, ask an admin by leaving a message on our walls, or talk to someone else who edits the wiki frequently. The best way to learn and feel confident in your editing skills is by asking questions. We welcome them all!
- 2. Take a peek at similar pages to be inspired!
If you're not sure how to go about making an edit and you don't want to ask for help, or you want to create a new page, look at pages similar to the one you want to create. Look at how they're set up. You can learn a lot just by adapting the "monkey see, monkey do" attitude.
- 3. Start a discussion!
Not sure how to go about something, or just want to talk about Submachine? Leave a topic on the talk pages for the subject you're interested in, or start a discussion on a user's board. We want to hear your input!
That being said, you'll hear our input as well. If admins (especially me) think that your edits can fit a little better with the Wiki, we'll tell you what to do to improve your editing skills. Sometimes we'll go ahead and tweak your edits to make them fit better, so don't worry about making a perfect edit 100% of the time! If we feel something big about your edit needs to be changed, we'll discuss it with you first. If you think there's something that needs to be changed on a page too, let us know!
- 4. Use the standard conventions of English.
It might sound like a commonplace guideline, but we understand that many people who visit the Wiki sometimes don't have English as their first language. If you're one of these people, try your best, and we'll take care of the rest without criticizing you. So don't worry about spelling and grammar; I make mistakes too and I've been speaking the language for my whole life.
Also keep in mind that the Submachine wiki is available in several other languages, so feel free to edit those too if you know another language really well!
- 5. Don't troll or spam pages.
While this wiki is open to anyone who can make meaningful contributions, we do take organization very seriously. If you're here to mess with us and not care about the content, we will have no problem keeping you out, whether it be a ban for a couple months for even a year. Our spamming tolerance is extremely low. Sometimes we'll let you know that we're watching; other times we'll take the initiative sooner. Be here to contribute or discuss, not show off and be a goof.
Other than that, I don't think there's much else to say. Hopefully if you stay for a while, you'll get to explore a lot of information about our pages and media and eventually grow to be a great editor yourself!
As always leave us a message if you need or help or want to talk about Submachine! Our lines are open!
Happy editing!
Jatsko (ADMIN) (talk) 19:35, March 7, 2017 (UTC)
Admin