Help:Contributing

List of Work in Progress & Wanted

Here is the list of pages with WIP banner / template. Requested pages are listed in the WantedPages special page. To request a page create an internal wikilink on a page. Wikilinks to pages that haven't been created yet turn red.

If your page is a work in progress insert the Work In Progress template. On the top bar select Insert > Templates > Search for "WIP".

Getting Started

Search for pages you can add to
Check the list of Wanted Pages & WIP Pages
Optionally, familiarize yourself with how to use the editor, its like Word or Google Docs:
- Learn about VisualEditor and how to use it
- For a more Markdown like experience, learn about Wiki Markup
If a new page is needed, create a specific and detailed title and use the "Create a page" box below
Make sure to add categories, this is critical - refer to avoiding orphans below

The default editor is Visual Editor, read the user guide here.

This wiki supports the following:

Visual Editing like Microsoft Word & Google Docs
Source Editing with raw wiki markup
Math / chemistry formulas
Citations
Image uploads - left sidebar under Upload file

Special Links

Links to certain sites like QRZ and Wikipedia have special syntax. For example to link to QRZ use [[QRZ:W9YT|W9YT]], or for Wikipedia use [[wikipedia:Amateur_radio]].

To see a list of all interwiki links check the Special:Interwiki page.

Images and Files

Sometimes having images inside an article is helpful. Before uploading, rename the image with a specific and detailed title since all images are searchable. This makes it much easier to reuse and understand what specific images are for. Take a look at uploaded files to see what file names should be like before uploading.

Avoiding Orphans

An orphaned article is an article that has few or no other articles linking to it. The main problem with an orphan is that it'll be unknown to others - most new articles are orphans from the moment they are created, but you can work to change that.

The easiest way to prevent orphans to add categories to your article. You can view all the categories and see which ones are applicable, add them by clicking the three-bar button in the menu bar. Using the Category Tree tool may also be helpful.

You can also link to your article from other articles. Try searching for other pages referring to the subject of your article, then turn those references into links using the chain icon in the edit menu bar.