Guidelines for article publication

From Mandriva Community Wiki

Policy concerning titles for articles

How to choose a good title ?

As has been said in the How to write in this Wiki article, it is imperative that you search to verify that the article your are about to write does not already exist. This is at least true where the title is concerned. Always conduct a precise and thorough search for the article you are considering. Search by title using the "Go" search form or by content (what you will write in your article) using the "Search" form.

It is not always easy to find a good title for your article. But remember that the main title you will choose, will become the page's (article's) title. It cannot be corrected or fixed by anything except a redirection. This is why it is important for you to choose it wisely and consciously before writing the article!

However, if you need to adapt your article's main title in the future (for example, if the title is no longer adapted, if it includes an obvious mistake, etc.), you just need to use the "rename" tab at the top of the page. You will be able to enter a new name for your article and apply. This will create a redirection from the old article (which will be automatically transferred) with the old title, to a new article with the new title.

Unfortunately, this renaming process allows the old article (with the bad title) to remain in the Wiki -- it is not deleted from the Wiki list -- and this will reduce the Wiki's visibility and clarity. As you have decided to rename your article, there is a good chance that the old article using the old title will wind up useless : this is why it is recommended to delete your old article (you can access the old article by clicking on the link below the new title of the new article, since it is mentioned redirected from.... To delete an article, you just have to add the category [[Obsolete]] Category:Obsolete : an administrator will delete any article rated as obsolete and who is placed in this category.

If you are at a loss for a title, one trick involves placing all the expressions that could allow the user to find your article through keyword searches into the body of your article. Then you could use a Template:Introduction in which you will explain your article, including all the key words the user would probably need to access your page. Of course these key words can be anywhere you want in the article and do not necessarily have to be in the introduction.

Title syntax

Usage of the title's hierarchy

• The titles of H1 hierarchy are forbidden. Keep in mind that the wiki syntax allows you to create titles and sections using only one "=" on each side of the title, but this is not recommended, in order to make a clear difference between the page's title and the sections title.

Special characters and spaces

This section is empty or not enough detailed, you can improve it by editing it !

• Spaces management
• Accents management

How long should my title be ?

It is recommended to make it really short. You must be the most precise possible on what your article is about. If your article is about installing Mandriva, then you can call it Install Mandriva. If your article describes Totem, you can call your article Totem. Sometimes to make your title less confusing, you may need to write a longer title. It is all right as long as it is clear. But give advantage to short and clear titles.

Policy concerning the placement of categories and subcategories

The categories in an article

• The categories must be placed at the top of the pages, in order to make the checking and improvements easier for contributors.

In what category should an article relevant to a category and a sub category be placed ?

If an article is relevant to a category and a subcategory, you must include it in the most precise category.

Example : an article about VLC could belong to Category:Applications and to Category:Audio-Video (this last one is a subcategory of the first one) ; you must include in the head section of your article the most precise subcategory for it to be visible in the list of Audio-Video applications, in order to help people browse more easily through different subsections concerning their needs in the Wiki.

Policy concerning the inclusion of links inside a wiki article

When you write a wiki article, you use to create a [[link]] to an article that is not yet written. The link is there because the author thinks it could have a page in the Wiki, since he refers to it. You can view a list of the most wanted articles missing by viewing, in the Wiki's special pages, the link to the most wanted pages.

It is a good thing, but you need to follow some rules :

• Be sure the page you refer to (and so the one you ask for) does not already exist, perhaps the title is written in a different way than your link : this is why you should not refer to [[Compiz]], but to [[Compiz-Fusion]] for example. This will assure that the Wiki Maintenance Team spends less of its time verifying links inserted into the Wiki.

Policy concerning the size of images uploaded to the Wiki

• For everyone to be able to view the images on the Wiki, it is recommended that you use images no bigger than 1024x768 pixels.
• 150 to 300 K for an image is OK. Please use png or jpeg formats : the png is less destructive, but even if images are quite light and allow background transparency (useful for icons for example), they still can be a little heavy. Jpeg achieves much higher compression and makes very light images but at the cost of image quality. This is why we prefer png, but please reduce jpeg compression a little to produce higher quality images if possible.