Help:Contributing

Access and accounts

• Who can do what — logging in, getting an account

Contributing to classic wiki pages

Page management: creating, moving, deleting pages

• Creating a new page
  • Setup proper redirects in case something has multiple names
• Moving a page
• Deleting/recovering a page
• Copy internal mention (content pages) — every ordinary content page shows a Copy internal mention button next to its title; it copies Page name to the clipboard, ready to paste as a link to the page anywhere on the wiki. (File pages have their own "Copy internal embed code" button for File:….)
• Per-section actions — next to every heading's [edit] link sit four further controls, each in its own pair of brackets: [Copy internal mention] (copies [[Page#section| — add your own display text after the final pipe), [Copy URL] (the section's absolute web address), [Add section below] (opens the append editor for that section) and [Delete section] (confirms, then removes the section and everything in it). See Links to sections.
• Add section / Add section below — the page actions' Add section, and each section's [Add section below], open the ordinary wikitext editor (the same toolbar as Edit, plus a Preview button) with no subject field and no minor-edit checkbox. The save appends your wikitext — to the end of the page, or to the end of the chosen section — without creating a heading. Leave the Summary blank and it is filled in from the first heading of your content.
• Copy internal mention (entity pages) — the per-entity pages (Source:, Person:, Collective:, FOSS:, Software:) show a Copy internal mention button in their toolbar (to the right of Copy internal citation on Source: pages). It copies a piped link to the page — Label, italic on Source: pages, e.g. Beloved.
• Subpages — a / in a title creates a hierarchy (e.g. Cheatsheets:LinuxCLI/ssh is a subpage of Cheatsheets:LinuxCLI), with a breadcrumb back to the parent. Subpages are enabled in every namespace except the main one. Create the parent page if it does not exist yet — the breadcrumb only links ancestors that exist (example: Cheatsheets:LinuxCLI).
• Printing a page — the sidebar's Printable version link and the Print this page button — which now sits in the page's own toolbar row, beside the other page actions — open a print dialog where you can optionally add a cover page. The printed title drops the namespace and the subpage prefix (User:Rongzhou/Construction site visit report prints as Construction site visit report), the page's editors are printed centred below the title (by A, B, and C), and the site navigation is left out.

Creating content

Learning the MediaWiki syntax

The MediaWiki syntax is easy to learn. However, it is unique and can be confusing at first even for editors familiar with markdown and HTML.

To get started:

• MediaWiki syntax 101
• Links
• Code blocks and syntax highlighting
• Languages and translation

Write in style

• Help:Contributing/styleGuide

Handle rich media content

• Help:Contributing/richMediaContent

Add math

• Help:Contributing/math — adding and embedding math: inline LaTeX in page text (MathJax) and reusable snippets (KaTeX)

Add quotation

• Help:Contributing/quotation — adding and embedding quotations

Add diagrams

• Help:Contributing/diagrams — PlantUML, GraphViz, Mscgen and Mermaid diagrams, written in the page text

Create dynamic content based on semantic data

• Help:Contributing/semanticDynamicContent

Cite sources

• Help:Contributing/citations

Create templates to reduce content duplication

• Help:Contributing/templates

Working with semantic data

• Items and properties — the data model, creating and editing entities, statements, merging and deleting
• Importing from external authorities — fetch authors, sources and collectives from public services
• Querying with SPARQL — analyse the data with the query service

Per namespace guides

Each name space has its own templates, conventions, and good-to-knows. They live under {namespace}:Contributing. (e.g., FOSS:Contributing)

Discuss on the forum

• Forum — multi-thread discussions for editorial and instance-dev plans

House rules

• House rules for this instance

API and bulk editing

• API and bulk editing — scripting and batch tools