tips for contributors


Be bold

... but perhaps not so bold as in Wikipedia. Stuff that's already here is probably correct.

 

Read and understand all of Standards and Conventions and detailed conventions before you edit anything, please. And particularly, before you start any wholesale changes that don't conform to them! Standards and Conventions is written to explain to readers, and should be read first. The detailed conventions page expands on things that contributors need to know but readers probably do not. The permalinks page is also worth a look if you're adding a link to another wiki, and particularly to Wikipedia. What TOEOT is not is also worth a look.

 

If you see a simple mistake on a tunings page, fix it by all means. But if you think that a whole idea or principle is wrong, talk to the wiki owner before making extensive changes. And if you want to make a change to a project page and especially to the conventions pages or the front page or sidebar, definitely talk to the wiki owner first. See site structure for what these terms mean if you haven't already.

 

If you have stuff to add, go for it! Be very bold! Remember, we're only interested in accuracy, relevance and legality.

 

And don't be scared of venturing into original research. We love it here. So come on, tell us what you know!

 

But it goes further. A tuning or a tuning name that only you have ever used will get speedily removed from Wikipedia, but here, it's quite OK. It will stay until someone more notable uses the name for something else... and probably, it will stay even after that. If 5,000 guitarists post 5,000 different names for the same open G tuning, we'll just move all their names and claims into a separate page that probably won't get a lot of readers, but will remain searchable, Googleable and won't get in anyone's way at all. There's no need to delete any of it. And who knows, you may be the next Jimi Hendrix, and your tuning here will be the best Google ranking we get. Hey, why not? Costs us almost nothing to allow for the possibility...

 

Try to add it in the right place. That generally means, in the lowest-level tunings page that currently exists for the instrument concerned. Don't try to promote it to a higher level page than it deserves, it will just be moved, and that just makes work for others.

 

Add its name to the tunings by name page as well. That also saves others work.

 

Create new pages

Why not? Link to them from a suitable parent page.

 

Page names

should be simple and descriptive. Avoid punctuation marks, stick to alphameric characters and blanks.

 

The sidebar

is probably best left alone... but suggestions to the wiki owner are welcome.

 

Waffle pages

like project pages are probably best left alone until you've discussed possible changes with the webservant. They discuss some tricky issues and contain some deliberately provocative stuff. But do read any of them that are relevant to other changes you are making.

 

Comment on any page

freely and without fear. That's one way to start a conversation with the webservant. Use the Add a comment box at the bottom of the relevant page; Experiment first if you like at the comment sandbox. Just remember it's public! Or if you prefer you can do it privately by using the Contact the owner link at the bottom of any page.

 

Thanks in advance for your contributions