Help:Editing

The lead editors of Sprocket School are Rlyon and Rfhall — reach them at info@sprocketschool.org if you have any questions.

If code intimidates or bores you, email your suggestions and contributions to info@sprocketschool.org and we will take care of the rest!

To edit Sprocket School yourself, email us at info@sprocketschool.org to create an account.

Like Wikipedia, Sprocket School was made using software called MediaWiki. MediaWiki has extensive instructions on editing and formatting on their website.

General pointers

• Request a real or otherwise recognizable login name (if you are comfortable doing so) so your colleagues will know who you are.
• The current user list is here.
• You can see recent contributions to the site on the Recent changes page.
• Look at an article's editing history by clicking the "history" tab at the top of any page.
• Each page has a "discussion" tab at the top. This is a good place to ask questions and make suggestions about a given topic.
• You can "sign" your contributions to the discussion page (or any other page) by typing "-- ~ ~ ~ ~" - without the spaces! - or by just hitting the little button that looks like a signature at the top of the editing box. It looks like this: -- Rfhall (talk) 00:44, 3 August 2013 (PDT)
• You can upload images here. Follow the instructions on that page to use the image in any of the articles.

Starting a new page

• A list of pages that need to be written: http://www.sprocketschool.org/w/index.php?title=Special:WantedPages
• Instructions for starting a new page from scratch: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Starting_a_new_page

Editing an existing page

• Click the "edit" link at the top of an article to edit it.
• A list of pages that exist already (which you may wish to edit): http://www.sprocketschool.org/w/index.php?title=Special:AllPages
• Mediawiki's guide to basic editing: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing

Editorial Guidelines

Use neutral language

Avoid absolutes, like "this is the worst piece of equipment", or any other language that veers into the territory of personal opinion. If you believe a practice to be incorrect and a piece of equipment to be inferior to another, try and lay out the facts without using subjective language. Remember this is intended to be both a source of information but also a record of exhibition history.