Edits and changes
Contents |
How edits work
GaijinPot Wiki uses a simple yet powerful page layout to allow editors to concentrate on adding material rather than page design. These include automatic sections and subsections, automatic references and cross-references, image and table inclusion, indented and listed text, links, ISBNs, and math, as well as usual formatting elements and most world alphabets and common symbols. Most of these have simple formats that are deliberately very easy and intuitive.
GaijinPot Wiki has robust version and reversion controls. This means that poor-quality edits or vandalism can quickly and easily be reversed or brought up to an appropriate standard by any other editor, so inexperienced editors cannot accidentally do permanent harm if they make a mistake in their editing.
GaijinPot Wiki is a wiki, and as such is open for editing by all registered users. Edits happen easily and instantaneously; there is no approval process before a change takes effect.
Minor edits
A check to the "This is a minor edit" box signifies that only superficial differences exist between the version with your edit and the previous version: typo corrections, formatting and presentational changes, rearranging of text without modifying content, etc. A minor edit is a version that the editor believes requires no review and could never be the subject of a dispute.
Major edits
All editors are encouraged to be bold, but there are several things that a user can do to ensure that major edits are performed smoothly. Before engaging in a major edit, a user should consider discussing proposed changes on the article discussion/talk page. During the edit, if doing so over an extended period, the Template:Inuse tag can reduce the likelihood of an edit conflict. Once the edit has been completed, the inclusion of an edit summary will assist in documenting the changes. These steps will all help to ensure that major edits are well received by the GaijinPot Wiki community.
A major edit should be reviewed to confirm that it is consensual to all concerned editors. Therefore, any change that affects the meaning of an article is major (not minor), even if the edit is a single word.
There are no necessary terms to which you have to agree when doing major edits, but the recommendations above have become best practice. If you do it your own way, the likelihood of your edits being reedited may be higher.
Be bold!
The GaijinPot Wiki community encourages users to be bold when updating pages. Wikis like ours develop faster when everybody helps to fix problems, correct grammar, add facts, make sure the wording is accurate, etc. We would like everyone to be bold and help make GaijinPot Wiki a better encyclopedia. How many times have you read something and thought, "Why aren't these pages copy-edited?" GaijinPot Wiki not only allows you to add, revise, and edit the article — it wants you to do it. It does require some amount of politeness, but it works. You'll see. Also, of course, others here will edit what you write. Do not take it personally! They, like all of us, just want to make GaijinPot Wiki as good an encyclopedia as it can possibly be.
Also, when you see a conflict in a talk page, do not be just a "mute spectator". Be bold and drop your opinion there.
...but please be careful
Though the boldness of contributors like you is one of GaijinPot Wiki's greatest assets, it is important that contributors take care of the common good and not edit recklessly. Of course, any changes you make that turn out badly can be reverted, usually painlessly. It is important not to be insulted if your changes are reverted or edited further. But there are some significant changes that can be more lasting, for better or for worse, and that are harder to fix. If you're unsure of anything, just ask for advice.
It is also often easier to see that something is not right, than to know exactly what would be right. We do not require that everyone be bold; commenting that an article is not correct can be the first step to getting it fixed. It is true, though, that problems are more certain to be fixed, and will probably be fixed faster, if you are bold enough to do it yourself.
To use the words of Edmund Spenser, "Be bold, be bold, and everywhere be bold," but "Be not too bold."
Editing Styles
Generally, different people here have different editing "styles." Some people edit lightly and focus on contributing new content. Others prefer to improve and greatly expand existing "stubs" and articles. Some like to make relatively small copyediting (such as grammar, spelling, clarification, and syntax) changes, as well as adding new links and moving pages (so as to rename them without losing history and talk). There is room for all of this on GaijinPot Wiki.
Boldness
There are also different editing styles in the sense of how bold people are willing to be. Generally, most of us think we should be bold in updating articles. Virtually no one behaves as though previous authors need to be consulted before making changes; if we thought that, we would make little progress. Quite the contrary: some people think you should not beat around the bush at all — simply change an article immediately if you see a problem, rather than waiting to discuss changes that you believe need to be made. Discussion is only needed if someone voices disagreement. An intermediate viewpoint accords that dialogue should be respected, but at the same time, a minor tweak should be accepted. In this view, to edit radically or not will often depend on the context — which seems reasonable enough. There is a place for all of these attitudes on GaijinPot Wiki.
Preserve information
Whatever you do, endeavor to preserve information. Instead of removing, try to:
- rephrase
- correct the inaccuracy while keeping the content
- move text within an article or to another article (existing or new)
- add more of what you think is important to make an article more balanced
- request a citation by adding the Template:Fact tag
Exceptions include:
- original research
- duplication or redundancy
- irrelevancy
- patent nonsense
- copyright violations
- inaccuracy (attempt to correct the misinformation or discuss the problems first before deletion)
- unsourced controversial claims about living persons
Major changes
With large proposed deletions or replacements, it may be best to suggest changes in a discussion, lest the original author be discouraged from posting again. One person's improvement is another's desecration, and nobody likes to see their work destroyed without prior notice. If you make deletions, you should try to explain why you delete their contributions in the article talk page. This could reduce the possibility of reverting wars and unnecessary arguments.
If, in your considered judgment, a page simply needs to be rewritten or changed substantially, go ahead and do that. But preserve any old contents you think might have some discussion value on the talk page, along with a comment about why you made the change. Even if you delete something that's just plain false, odds are that it got there because someone believed it was true, so preserve a comment to inform later editors that it is in fact false.
See also
Some content adapted from Wikipedia.org.
