Project:Editing Guidelines

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About

This wiki is for collaboration between Linden Lab and our Second Life Residents. Linden Lab can't review every submission, but reserves the right to remove unsuitable content at any time. Linden Lab provides this wiki as a service to numerous communities, including those represented by the portals on the Main Page. New portals are added at Linden Lab's discretion.

Please note: The majority of this wiki's content (like SL itself) is Resident-created and while it may be helpful, unless stated otherwise by an employee of Linden Lab, we can't vouch for its accuracy. For our official documentation on how to use Second Life, please see the Knowledge Base.

New Page Creation

When creating a new page:

Use the simplest, most obvious name possible. You can always create a redirect and/or disambiguation page later if needed.
Help prevent wiki sprawl by editing existing pages rather than creating new pages when possible.
When a page is aimed at a specific audience, please include a brief introduction for people who aren't familiar with the content, or link to further information.

Read the Quickie Wiki Intro for how to create new pages.

Content

We appreciate any info that benefits our Second Life community. This excludes blatant ads and spam. All content must be PG, and compliant with our Community Standards as well as the Terms of Service.

All content added to the Second Life Wiki must be compatible with our Terms of Use and Contribution Agreement.

Besides that, be bold.

Point of View

Articles should generally be written in the third person. A page history's contains its complete contribution history, so there's no need to sign articles — conversation should go in a page's accompanying Talk page (accessed by clicking the Discussion tab near the top of the screen). A neutral point of view should be adopted, with the caveat that this wiki is for people helping build Second Life, not for complaints about Second Life or Linden Lab. Criticism which supports a feature requests or proposal is acceptable (e.g., "Here's problem X. Implementing Y will solve X."), but refrain from un-useful complaints.

Localization

See Project:Languages for localization guidelines.

Removal of Content

Residents can't permanently remove content from the wiki. Use redirects for merged or accidentally-created pages. Articles can be tagged with Template:Delete where redirects seem inappropriate (e.g., where the wiki is used in an abusive manner or where it violates copyright).

Linking of Content

Please link pages to related resources to facilitate learning. Link the first appearance in text of a term in need of explanation (like avatar, grid, OGP, etc.).

Also categorize your pages where appropriate. See the full list of available categories.

Namespaces

Geeky but good-to-know.

Main

The Main namespace is intended to hold most of the Second Life Wiki's content.

"Project" namespace

This wiki has a "Project" namespace. However, that's reserved for meta-info about this wiki itself, such as these editing guidelines, rather than about Second Life. On most MediaWiki installs, the "Project:" namespace is equal to the wiki's name, but it's unset on this wiki; thus, "Project:" is the sole way of getting to that namespace.

"Help" namespace

The "Help:" namespace is reserved for wiki-related help articles, like editing manuals. SL-related help should be added to the Main namespace.

"User" namespace

Every wiki contributor has their own, personal namespace. It can function like an extended Second Life profile. For example, User:Zai Lynch. Obviously, the Point of View guideline doesn't need to be followed here.

Any content abiding by the wiki guidelines can be included in the "User" namespace as a subpage. For example, User:Torley Linden/Contact.

"Talk" namespace

See Project:Talk Page Guidelines for more info.

Templates

Use inclusion templates to ensure consistent navigation.
See Help:Editors Toolbox for a list of useful templates for editors.
See the list of all available templates.