Help:Guide for contributors

Welcome, wiki editors!

This page is a portal for novice wiki editors who are looking for a place to start. Regardless of skill level, anyone can make contributions to the wiki with just a few clicks and some typing. Please don’t be intimidated, as you’ve got the support of a team of experienced collaborators, researchers and proofreaders. Also keep in mind that you can never break anything, as previous versions of an article can easily be restored.

If you’re not already a wiki editor and would like to become one, please send a private message and you’ll soon be granted wiki editing privileges.

Beginner skills - Proofreading and page maintenance

Even with no expertise in investing, anyone can start right away helping to proofread recently-edited pages and to maintain older wiki pages. All that’s needed is a quick review of the very basics of wiki markup language, perhaps a little practice in the Sandbox, then to find the specific wiki pages that are awaiting your help.

• Start first with a review of Getting started and the Wiki Cheatsheet.
• Next, if you want to practice your editing skills, try them out in the Sandbox.
• Then, to find pages for proofreading: Recent Changes or a random page
• For more proofreading pages: New Pages
• For pages needing maintenance: Maintenance Reports

Near the top of the left-side menu is Recent changes. All editing activity is logged here. If you want to see what the editors have been doing (and perhaps join them to help), select Recent changes as the first place to check when visiting the wiki.

Intermediate skills - Improving an existing page

If you have general expertise in investing, or are interested in doing some research, there are many existing wiki pages that need expansion and improvement. This work generally requires more extensive fluency with the wiki markup language, but there are excellent guides available to assist you.

• Start first with a study of the Getting started and the Wiki Cheatsheet.
• Then, pages needing expansion: Expand article
• Or, pages needing cleanup: Cleanup
• Or, pages under development: Development

Advanced skills - Creating a new page

If you have expert knowledge of a topic, or would just like to research and learn about it, there are numerous wiki topics that are waiting for someone to create a new page for them. Developing a brand new page may require fairly advanced wiki markup skills, but some novice editors may also want to try it as a “learn by doing” project.

• Start first with a study of the Getting started and the Wiki Cheatsheet.
• To find new pages that are wanted: Wanted Pages
• To find topics to develop into a new page: Glossary
• See Creating a new page for details of creating a new page

External links

• Wiki Markup
• Wikipedia Manual of Style

Further reading

• Barrett, Daniel J. 2009. MediaWiki: Wikipedia and Beyond. O’Reilly Media. ISBN 978-0-596-51979-7.
• Broughton, John. 2008. Wikipedia: The Missing Manual. O’Reilly Media. ISBN 978-0596515164.

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