Birding Wiki:Contributor guidelines

The following guidelines should be used when writing wiki pages. This will help create a useful and consistent wiki, which is accessible to everyone.

Best practices

Understandability

Use precise language to keep pages short, and avoid using jargon.

Some wiki pages naturally take the form of technical documentation. Even within these we should aim to be understandable to users with a range of technical abilities. Write simple introductions to lead into a topic, and consider splitting off very complex details to separate more focused wiki pages.

Introduction

Pages should start with a short introduction ranging in length from a few sentences to a few short paragraphs. This should include the title and explain what the page is about. It is often useful to include a link to a more general page and to any more specific pages, as this helps navigation.

Linking

Pages should be well linked to help users find the information they are looking for. Important related concepts are usually linked to within the introduction. If you can't think of a related wiki page to link from here, then you're probably not describing the page in broad enough terms. You are also encouraged to link to related concepts throughout the rest of the page.

Categories

Categories should be used to group pages by type which should follow the same naming conventions as with wiki pages.

Categories can themselves be categorized to create a hierarchy to help navigation to the subject of interest.

Language

Birding Wiki uses English as the main language, although page translations may be possible in the future. There is no preference for American English over British English, but pages should be consistent within themselves.

Taxonomy

Birding Wiki will use the Clements checklist for naming bird species and other taxa.

Citations

Information that is sourced from a book, article, report, or website should be appropriately cited.

Edit descriptions

Remember to use the "Summary" field when saving edits to summarize what was changed. It helps other editors see what changes were made at a glance.