Getting involved
Contents |
The Wiki
Helping to keep a wiki up to date is easier than you may think. If you can understand BBCode in forum posts, you should be able to figure out the syntax in a wiki page without too much trouble. One of the fears some new contributors have is that they will mess up the page or that they'll make a change which many disagree with. This isn't a problem, changes can be easily reverted and as long as you put a bit of thought into your changes, nobody will complain. Always remember to take advantage of the "show preview" button when editing and review your changes, to verify your changes before saving them.
Sources of help and learning how to edit
OK, editing a wiki page isn't always a simple task, but don't worry, there are many sources of help for you to turn to.
- The Wikipedia help page contains very comprehensive documentation for wiki editing. Sections of interest there would be the getting started page, or the editing Wikipedia page.
- The Wikipedia cheatsheet contains a summary of the markup used while editing pages.
- The discussion pages (every wiki page has it's own discussion page) can be used to ask for help or feedback. If you want, you could even post a rough draft of what you want to add to the page so others can review it before you add it. The discussion page can be found by clicking the "discussion" tab on the top of the page.
- Also, you can always look at the source of another wiki page to use as an example.
Guidelines
Some basic guidelines to keep in mind when you create new pages
- Keep it Pandora specific (others can be linked but not embedded)
- Add links of keywords (easier to jump to further details)
- Add Categories
What needs to be done?
So, you feel confident enough to edit a page and make updates to it? Great! A good place to look for tasks which need to be completed is the Wiki TODO page. Feel free to contribute anything you feel is useful, even if it isn't on the To-Do list.
You may find it easier to start with small changes. Updating entries on the one of the lists (Games, Emulator list, Software projects, etc.) we maintain is a good place to start. What may also be a good idea is simply reading the wiki and updating things which seem out of date or incorrect. Fixing spelling mistakes, errors in grammar, or rewriting sentences to make them read nicer can also be good tasks to start with.
If you find any spam pages, please add "[[Category:Spam]]" to the page. This is to make it easier for admins to find and remove it.
Use one of the following labels to indicate to readers and editors what you think about an article:
If you need help with a wiki project, maybe add it to the To-Do list! You can also use the To-Do list's discussion page to share your idea and get feedback.
Any changes which could potentially be seen as controversial should preferably be discussed on the corresponding discussion/talk section for that page before being made. This is for everyone's benefit as it is counter-productive to have to revert changes that someone may have spent a fair bit amount of time on. If you suggest it and nobody objects, you can assume that it's safe to proceed.
Finding bugs
If you think you have found a bug, the first place you should look is the Bug Tracker. First look to see if the bug you have found is already listed. If it is, you may want to add a comment, if it isn't then you will want to add it. Check the Reporting bugs page for the best way of using the bug tracker.
Forums
This is by far the easiest way to get involved with the Pandora community. There are a number of different communities to join, you can find them on the Community Links page. These forum communities cover a range of languages, not just English.
