Wiki Life: YOU edited MY article??!

Yep, that's right! That's the beauty of a wiki! A single author creates an article, but a community of authors maintains and refines the article!

Here are a few ways you can edit other peoples articles (you can also apply these tips to your own articles!):

  1. Fix the TOC / Add a TOC (if required)
    Sometimes you'll see an article that could really do with a TOC to make it easier to navigate. Other times, you might see a TOC that is broken. Here are a couple of links to a wiki article that can help you solve both problems. Add A TOC, Fix a TOC

  2. Add tags to help people find the article 
    Tags are really important when it comes to finding articles written about a subject. There's some guidance on this here, User Experience Guidelines (Tags), and here, Technical Editing (Tags)

  3. Correct spelling or grammar
    We blogged about this recently! You can read it here: Wiki Life: Speling an gramma, is it umpotent?

  4. Fix the article Title casing
    Title casing keeps wiki articles looking neat and consistent. It helps us (as a community) to look professional, and keeps emphasis on important words. There's guidance on this in the User Experience Guidlines (Titles and Subtitles) article.

  5. Fix the code formatting

  6. Add (or fix) headings 
    Headings help to break up an article into logical sections, making it easier to read and navigate. There's guidance on this too! You can read it here, User Experience Guidelines (Headings)

  7. Clarification
    Sometimes article paragraphs need to be re-written, revised, condensed, or even removed (if they're not relevant to the article). A small word of caution here; make sure you have a good understanding of the article's subject if you make any major changes!

  8. Add references
    This is generally more relevant to the original author, who should give credit and add references to material that helped them write the article. There is some advice on giving credit, which can be read here, Signatures, Credit and Personalization 

  9. Add a See Also section
    A See Also section can be really helpful in guiding a reader to other relevant resources. Links that go in a See Also section should be to articles of a similar topic that might be of interest or add meaning to the current article.

  10. Tidy up formatting
    Some authors are good at formatting, while others need a little help with it! If you're good at formatting articles (spacing, standardising fonts, headings, bullet points, etc), and you spot an article with poor formatting, then give it some attention! Here are some guidelines on Font and Design.

Finally, if I haven't already put enough links in this post, then here are some more!