View source for Help:Good Editing Practices

{{Shortcut|[[H/GEP]]}}

New users to the Urban Dead Wiki, and even some veteran ones, often make mistakes while editing Wiki pages. While most of these mistakes are minor and are usually quickly fixed by other Wiki users, sometimes the mistakes are more serious, and stem from a lack of understanding about, or misunderstanding of, Wiki policies and accepted editing practices. This page serves as a guide to new and forgetful users about some of the Wiki's conventions for accepted editing. Feel free to add suggestions to this page if you think of any that are left out, and they are accepted by the majority of the Wiki community.

==General Editing==
*''Use the preview button:'' Before you click "Save," click "Show preview" and make sure that all of your changes look correct. If you are making several small changes, then instead of saving in between each one you should use preview, and save only when you are done.

*''Think before you write:'' Remember that as soon as you save a page, anyone can see it, and even if you revert your changes, they are saved in the page's edit history. Before you save a page, especially in heated discussions, make sure that you ''really'' want to say what you're about to say. Read it from the other person's perspective, and if you don't like what you wrote, change it.

*''Stop problems '''before''' they begin:'' If you're having trouble with another user that you can't resolve on your own, don't start a flamewar. Instead, start a new [[UDWiki:Administration/Arbitration|Arbitration]] case. If you see vandalism, revert it and report the vandal to [[UDWiki:Administration/Vandal Banning|Vandal Banning]].

*''Check your spelling and grammar:'' People will be more receptive to what you have to say if you make sure that you don't have any typos, and if your sentences are grammatically correct. After you edit a page, and before you hit save, double-check what you wrote to make sure that it makes sense. If you're still unsure, consider running what you wrote through a program that performs grammar and spelling checks.

*''Don't recklessly delete content:'' It's rare that content is a hundred percent worthless. It's generally better to rework flawed content into something good than to outright delete it. Remember that whoever created the content put time and effort into it, and deleting their work can come off as unfriendly or even aggressively pushy. If you see content you dislike, consider leaving a message on the article's talk page that states the problem. If a week or so later no-one has objected, ''then'' delete the content. This way is more friendly, and helps avoid revert wars.

==User and Group Pages==
*''Don't edit these unless you are the user, are part of the group, or have been given permission:'' User and group pages are the property of the users and groups who own them, and it is considered extremely bad form to edit them without permission. The exceptions to this are the Neutral Point of View (NPOV) paragraph at the top of a group page, and talk pages. On the talk pages, be sure to follow any guidelines that the users or groups specify, and don't deliberately antagonise people. 

*''Put them in the right namespace:'' Groups should go in the main namespace (where most pages are), but user pages belong in the User namespace. If your user page doesn't begin with <tt>User:</tt>, ask a mod to move it to the User namespace at [[UDWiki:Administration/Move Requests]].

==Talk Pages==
*''Always sign your comments:'' Since usually anyone can edit talk pages, it can be very difficult to tell who left a comment if the comment is unsigned. To leave a signature, insert <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> at the end of your talk page comments, or click the "Your signature with timestamp" button in the editing toolbar.

==Formatting and Style==

*Unless you have a very good reason not to, when you add your group to a list of other groups, add it in alphabetical order.

*Knowing wikimarkup is useful for arranging formatting. But don't worry too much about formatting, especially if you're new. This is a wiki, anyone can edit anything (with a few exceptions), so imperfections get tidied up very easily. 

==Nominate Junk for Speedy Deletion==
*Help keep the wiki clean of outdated detritus and miscellaneous junk &mdash; if you make a mistake by creating a useless page, create or find duplicated content, or just find something that is blatantly off-topic, nominate it for [[A/SD|speedy deletion]]. If it doesn't deserve to be deleted, someone can always circumvent it by a single '''Keep''' vote.

==Images==

*''Think before you upload an image:'' Getting the image right the first time saves your own time, and is one less image revision that will have to be purged.

{{EditHelpMenu}}
[[Category:Help]]