ATL:Contributing

Preface

Thank you for being interested in contributing and making atl.wiki an amazing resource for all users of Linux and FOSS related fields. For users new to MediaWiki, check out Mediawiki's Editing Guide or the Mediawiki Visual Editor Guide for more information on editing using Mediawiki markdown or specifics on features atl.wiki uses.

For users interested in writing guides for atl.wiki please check out the Guides:Contributing page for specific instructions on making guides, however a lot of the information here will apply to both making guides and informational articles.

To learn more about atl.wiki or All Things Linux you can visit our website or see the about page! Some important pages are also listed below:

Code of Conduct - Outlines the expected behaviour of users and contributors alike
Guidelines - Outlines the style guidelines and values of atl.wiki
Privacy Policy - The privacy policy of atl.wiki
General Disclaimer - atl.wiki Disclaimer

If you ever have any questions or need help, you can join All Things Linux's Discord Server and check out #atl-wiki for wiki related discussions! Now onto the stuff you came here for, how YOU can help make atl.wiki an amazing resource for the Linux and FOSS community.

Overview of Key Values

We have 5 key values for atl.wiki, these summarise all of our guidelines well:

Accuracy: Content should always be cited appropriately and should be up-to-date and high quality.
Impartiality: Content should always be unbiased to avoid misleading users and advocacy.
Consistency: Content should always be up to the highest of standards and be formatted according to the guidelines.
Courtesy: Editors should be respectful to other users and work together to make an amazing resource, and always act in good faith.
Accessibility: Content should be written so that any user of any ability can understand and make use of it.

Basics of Editing

First you need to decide what you want to contribute, if you are unsure, do not worry we are here to help you!

To combat vandalism and help with managing the wiki to edit, you are required to Create an Account: You just need to choose a username and password, it's that simple! We also suggest you add and verify an email too for password resets or security notifications. atl.wiki will NEVER share your email or send you any kind of spam or promotional emails.

Once you create an account, you can get started editing right away!

Editing an existing page

This is the easiest way to get started on the wiki! Find a page for something you are interested in or want to contribute to and hit the Edit button at the top of the page to open the Visual Editor. From there, you can start editing the page, you can use the toolbar at the top of the page to edit markdown styling and to add content just click where you want to edit and start typing.

You can find pages that need help on the Category:Needs Citations or Category:Pages Needing Cleanup pages, or you can use Special:Search to find a specific page. We suggest that you start with small changes first to get a hang of it and that you avoid doing large overhauls to pages just when you are starting out.

The Template: and Module: namespaces exist for templates and dynamic modules for the wiki these, due to the nature of running code or acting as a reusable component, cannot be edited by standard users. You can see how to contribute to these pages in the guidelines and the standard procedure for doing so.

Using Images

You can also access the Uploading Files page via the sidebar.

There are two ways to use images, either by using an image in Wikimedia Commons or by uploading it to atl.wiki. In either case, to use it in a page, you can click the Insert button and then searching for the file name.

To upload your own files, use the upload page. Please ensure, if you have not created the image yourself, you can use it on the wiki. Generally this means it must be released under Public Domain, CC-BY-SA, CC-BY or another compatible free licence. By uploading your own content to the wiki, you must select a licence when uploading, we recommend CC-BY-SA to match our wiki's content licence.

Creating a new page

To create a page, you can click a red link to open a non-existent page, you can find a list of all the most red-linked pages on Special:WantedPages. You can also search the title of a non-existent page using Special:Search and search the name of the page you want to create. Before creating a new page, please check that it does not exist already under a different name and also consider if it meets the standards of the wiki as per the Notability Guidelines.

When creating guides, prefix the page title with Guides: to place it under the guide's namespace.

Creating Guides

Guides:Contributing goes into the details of the guides requirements and how they should be written, below is a very simplified list of the requirements:

Always ensure you have the {{GuideWarning}} template on the page, this must be at the top of the page before any content
All changes must be approved by staff for public viewing via ApprovedRevs (More details in "Moderation" section)
Ensure all commands and instructions are accurate
Do not attempt to mislead users with the information on guides

Please read the whole of the contributing guides page before starting a new guide or editing an existing guide to ensure your edits do not get denied for not meeting the standards of atl.wiki.

Moderation

Changes to certain pages, including but not limited to: Guides, Articles & High Traffic Pages go through a moderation phase, once a change is submitted it enters "moderation" to be checked by a moderator, this can be for a variety of reasons, mostly to prevent spam or maintain a high quality of accuracy on information. We suggest talking to a staff member before editing one of these pages to check that you are doing the right thing and understand what we require for edit approval.

You can bypass the moderation by becoming an auto-moderated user. We have no formal requirements, but we normally require some history of positive contributions to our or another wiki/source of documentation or have a positive history within the discord server or the FOSS community. If you are unsure if you meet the requirements, just ask! To request the role, you can contact us via the methods listed here.

How YOU can Help the Wiki

If you don't know where to start, some good places to check out are the Category:Needs Citations or Category:Pages Needing Cleanup pages. These categories list every page that has a Cleanup or Needs Citations tag on it. These pages are the most in need of editor support to bring up to our guidelines. You can also check out Special:WantedPages to see which non-existent pages are the most-linked to if you want to start something new. You can also create a page or guide on almost any topic related to FOSS or Linux. Please ensure when making new pages you follow the Notability Standards!

This is your place to nerd out on something you are interested in to make an amazing resource for new or experienced users in the FOSS/Linux community. If you are ever in doubt, do not hesitate to contact us and ask any question on how you can contribute, we are always happy to help prospective editors!

If you want some specific pointers of where to start editing, we have listed some pages that have been identified by an admin to be in dire need of reworks or contributions, with a reason and what needs to be done.

Key Pages needing Work

Window Management System: The definition and disambiguation page needs to be written to disambiguate and define X Window Managers and Wayland Compositors properly. It should be setup to clearly direct and explain the user what they may be looking for.

Linux Distributions: The article lists distros, it lacks a lot of major distros and each section should have a short blurb and information about key facts about what distros under that group typically are (e.g. release cycle, package manager, etc). This could be done with extra columns or categorisation.

Package Manager: The article lists package managers, it needs to be rewritten to compare and delve more into each package manager. It could be structured similar to the Linux_Distributions as a table.

Key Terms: The article needs to be restructured, and similar terms should be grouped together with a short definition next to each one in a table, potentially. The page should be made as easy as possible to navigate and find terms.

Desktop Environments: The article needs to be filled out more with more desktop environments and have more links added into the page.

X Window Manager: The article, which lists window managers depending on the type, needs to be cleaned up to remove Wayland Compositors and each window managers should have a short blurb to it and potentially key distros that offer them, a table could be used to list them. Similar to the DE page.

External Resources: The article requires a clean-up to be organised and categorised properly, it could make use of wiki tables with a short blurb for all websites listed.

Common Issues and Troubleshooting: The article needs to be reworked ready to become a hub for relevant guides, should be organised, potentially with wiki tables.