Help:Editing guide: Difference between revisions

This '''editing guide''', commonly called the '''Guide''', is meant to serve two main purposes: to introduce new editors to improving the Wiki, and to provide a one-stop-shop for all editors, regardless of experience, to find answers and resolve editing issues. The Guide should always get the last say whenever there is a dispute between editors to avoid needless conflicts.

Contributing to this Wiki requires editing privileges. To receive editing privileges, first create an account on this Wiki. You must then ask for editor privileges from an administrator on either (a) the [https://discord.gg/9buMtUt OWOT Discord server] or (b) the developer's personal [https://ourworldoftext.com/fp Developer's OWOT page] (preferably in chat). Once you have editing privileges, congratulations! Your mission now is to maintain and improve an extremely helpful resource. To carry out this mission, you must enhance the articles on this Wiki by editing them. Don't worry if you have very little to add. Small edits add up on a wiki, and every editor can be proud to have made this Wiki better for all.

A recommended method of improving the Wiki is to go to a [[Special:Random|random page]]. Edit the article as much as you can, even if you have very little to add. Once the article has been improved to a satisfying degree, repeat with another [[Special:Random|random]] article. Other ways to improve the Wiki include fixing [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Red link|red links]], which are quite common due to many internal articles being imported from [[Wikipedia:|Wikipedia]] and de-orphaning orphaned articles (see {{section link|Our World of Text:State of the Wiki|Orphaned articles}} for more on orphaned articles).

In addition to being a grammatically invalid and unneutral sentence, this ''very'' brief article raises many questions that someone unfamiliar with OWOT might not know the answers to. What is fg? Why do people hate it? Who are textwallers? A better article about this topic would start something like this:

|text='''Fictional googlology''' ('''FG''' or '''fg''') is the niche hobby of assigning {{wp|Unicode]] characters as names for fictional numbers. Fictional googology is common, as well as widely accepted, on [[TextWall]], but it faces near-universal stigmatization among OWOT's users. While fictional googology is meant to be an offshoot of {{wp|Googology|standard googology}}, it is typically regarded by OWOT's users as more of an art project that primarily serves as entertainment for children than a mathematical pursuit. People who engage in fictional googology are known as '''fictional googologists''', '''FGers''', or '''FGists'''.

If you create an article like the one above{{mdash}}with only one paragraph{{mdash}}always remember to use the [[Template:Stub|stub]] template. Again, articles should be unbiased and neutral, regardless of how the OWOT community feels about the topic.

Also, note about orphaned articles{{mdash}}orphaned articles are articles no other articles link to. Since this makes them nearly unreachable and, as such, effectively useless, this Wiki should have no orphaned articles. To minimize the number of orphaned articles, all articles should be cross-referenced and smaller articles should be condensed into larger ones if possible. See {{section link|Our World of Text:State of the Wiki|De-orphaning orphaned articles}} for more ways to de-orphan articles.

Do not use this Wiki for the ''sole'' purpose of messaging other users. Please try to stay on the task of creating a Wiki. You can chat with people about Wiki-related topics on their [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines#User talk pages|user talk page]], and should resolve problems with articles on the relevant talk pages, but ''please'' do not take the discussion into [[MW:Help:Namespaces#Main|articles]]. In addition, bear in mind that article talk pages exist solely to discuss how to improve articles; they are not for general discussion about the subject of the article, nor are they a help desk for obtaining instructions or technical assistance. Material unsuitable for talk pages may be subject to removal per the talk page guidelines. OWOT has both a built-in chat and a Discord server; both are better places to chat than this Wiki.

=== Content-specific guidelines ===

While suitable guidelines remain roughly the same with minor variations from article to article, the following are specific guidelines for articles on certain subjects.

==== Articles documenting worlds ====

==== Articles documenting users ====

==== Articles documenting OWOT's functionality ====

[[Category:OWOT Wiki basic information]]