Editing guide

[ThatOneReaper 51]

UPDATE: The guide has been finished and is now integrated into the site! This thread is now for suggestions/issues relating to the guide.

Since I started actively contributing to the wiki almost 2 years ago, a major issue I found (along with many others) is the lack of proper documentation. New contributors are constantly making basic mistakes that can be easily prevented and consistency is very difficult to maintain. For the longest time, the best the wiki can offer was the sample article (decent enough, but does not cover all the bases) and the Style Policy page (an absolute joke honestly).

For the past 5 months, I have worked towards fixing this problem once and for all. The biggest project I have ever taken on, the editing guide is a complete and thorough look at every editing aspect on the wiki.

What the guide will handle:

• General formatting styles
• Visual screenshot guidelines
• How to give proper instructions
• A complete breakdown of a game article
  • Every table, row, and tag is covered, with examples, section-specific guidelines, and field breakdowns.
  • Techniques on finding table fields are also provided.

It should be noted that the guide is not interned to replace the sample article. Rather, it complements it, giving better context to the various elements of an article.
It IS intended to replace the Style Policy however. It has already been incorporated into the guide and will be deleted once the guide is complete.

That leads me into the last thing to mention: The guide is currently not complete. I have almost exhausted all my skills writing up the bulk of what's available, and I need the community to help me finish it up.

What needs to be done:

• Nothing at the moment

Please help out in whatever way you can.

[Andytizer 269]

Very nice work ThatOneReaper for nearly getting us to finish this guide, where so many other attempts have failed. Will try to contribute when I have the chance.

 

My hope is to have this work listed officially in the Help:Contents page once complete: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Help:Contents

[Guest]

Should support pages be always included? I've included support threads in the past so I suppose it's okay.

[Andytizer 269]

My feeling has always been to link to places where you can find or ask for technical help - this normally means support forums.

 

I'm thinking that eventually this may mean removing more general links like main website, threads, etc. as any information there should be contained within the main wiki page, and that main website and threads should be used as reference.

[Guest]

(I snipped this because I was unsure whenever this should be applied instantly or...something like that)

[Guest]

Could this be updated in order to reflect what should be added? http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/User:ThatOneReaper/Editing_guide#General_Information

 

I never felt as if Wikis were of much help, they are mostly fillers. I would also prefer not linking to Wikia or Gamepedia anymore (unless it's necessary).

[ThatOneReaper 51]

I always found that the "General information" section is for broad info about a game. Restricting things to just forum posts and Steam links will make things quite dull.

 

The entire article doesn't have to be 100% lean content-wise.

[Guest]

I don't see the bad thing about having less clutter, and most people can find the official websites and wikis by themselves anyway.

[ThatOneReaper 51]

It's more about the fact you cannot assume everyone can just google things not found in the article. The wiki is a one-stop shop for the game and resorting to google means that we have failed at our jobs.

 

Anyways, 3-4 extra lines is hardly clutter.

[LDK 9]

Awesome job! I do have some very minor suggestions:

 

Screenshots

• add screenshot guide (make syntax with file name, hit preview, click on red link, upload)
• multi-page settings (keybinds1, keybinds2...) merge into one screenshot
• "For screenshots of external launchers or options menus, the window border should be visible." - Use alt + printscreen to capture just active window

The Fixbox

• link to several good examples from real articles?
• Providing instructions, major configuration file modifications section - add collapsible section? is it even possible within fixbox?

The Infobox

• leave Engine section blank when engine is unnamed or in-house build

Video Settings

• fixes related to the video settings should be under the table, so all the "See Field of View" links and fixes are close together. I'd even include here fixes for extra visual settings like motion blur, depth of field etc. Same for Input and Audio Settings sections.
• what each icon represents? "true" (green tick) means that there is in-game option, "false" means there is no option even when a game supports it (ex AF by default to 16 but without option to lower it would be "false")

Issues Fixed

• I wouldn't remove the whole fix when it is officially patched, because there can be people stuck on old version for some reason (modding compatibility for example). Just state with {{ii}} tag that the issue has been fix by patch and its version number.
• I personally like to describe issue little bit with {{ii}} tag before inserting fixbox like so: "The game seems to have an issue with Razor gaming hardware, use this fix if you are having problems." This way I can keep name of the fix (inside ===Name=== tags) short and also include necessary information about identifying the issue.

[Guest]

2 GHz Dual Core or Dual Core 2 GHz? Also NVIDIA or Nvidia?

[Guest]

As for names, Nvidia seems better as the all caps thing is just stylization by them.

I liked using the stylizied version as I often sometimes use this on certain pages.

Can be forced through the [[NVIDIA Control Panel#Forcing Anti-Aliasing/Anisotropic Filtering|NVIDIA Control Panel]]/[[AMD VISION Engine Control Center|AMD Control Center]].

In order to be a bit consistent (seeing as AMD will always be uppercase), but I'll use the lowercase version instead then from now on. (NVIDIA seems to be used more widely though, than Nvidia on other websites, for titles and stuff)

[Mirh 103]

Well, styling is least important, but personally I prefer:

2 GHz Dual core

2 GHz Intel Core i5

 

As for names, Nvidia seems better as the all caps thing is just stylization by them.

Only "Intel Core i5" would actually be too much general imo.

Especially if you consider that on laptops (jesus, intel .-.) they are (hyperthreaded?) dual core.

[ThatOneReaper 51]

2 GHz Dual Core or Dual Core 2 GHz? Also NVIDIA or Nvidia?

For general CPU types, use 2 GHz Dual Core. For specific processors, use <CPU name> <frequency>. I've updated the guide to reflect that.

 

And it's Nvidia. Only use NVIDIA if it's part of product name (ex. NVIDIA Control Panel).

[Mars icecream 57]

If the guide has listed game-changing mods that alter the vanilla experience too much, should these modifications be removed from the guide? I've done that. Just Cause 2 had a Superman mod which by no means is "recommend" from an objective standpoint.

We should only add mods that improve the game without altering it, like unofficial bugfixes. You could as well put My Little Pony mod to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim article.