View source for Fen Spinner Wiki:Contributing to Fen Spinner Wiki

Thanks for looking into contributing to the Fenspinner wiki! This page is here to guide you in helping to expand our site.

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==Fenspinner Wiki purpose==
The goal of the Wiki is to provide a replacement for the old [[UPSB Wiki]] that used to contain a single repository for pen spinning knowledge in the English language. Since the closing of UPSB, information has become fragmented and split between archives, text documents and unfamiliar sites. Our task is to collect all the information and store it on the pages of this site.

==Getting started==
It is possible to contribute to the wiki logged in on an account or anonymously without an account. Be aware that edits made without an account will display IP address instead.

To create a page, you can either search the title of the page you want to create, then open the uncreated page link in red, or click an uncreated page link in red referenced on an existing page. Many of our pages reference pages that are not yet created, so making and filling those in is a great place to start contributing.

===Formatting===
We'd recommend looking at the formatting guide for mediawiki by [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Formatting clicking here] to start off. We also make use of infobox templates that can be created by making a [https://portability.fandom.com/wiki/Portable_Infoboxes Portable Infobox Template]. An example of this is the infobox used in pages like [[Watto G3]]. Youtube videos can also be embedded, which can be seen in the same Watto G3 page.

You can edit or view the source of any page to see how it formats something if you get lost.

===Citing sources===
Look into the guide for our [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Cite citation extension here]. Ideally we want to cite sources for images, tutorials or information as much as we can to credit the original creators and give our work credence.

===Uploads===
When uploading images, please put in the description what the image contains and put a copyright disclaimer of who owns the image and when it was first posted (if possible), as well as a link to where you found it. Our community is small, so we should do our best to credit the right people.

Example:<br>[[File:Watto_G3.jpg|left|thumb|200px]]<br clear=all>
*Watto's Watto G3. Copyright ©  Watto 2016.[https://twitter.com/watto86441857/status/752490036730277888]
**''From [[:File:Watto_G3.jpg]]''

In addition, where possible images should be compressed into small jpg files and then uploaded, to save space on our site for more content and help with page loading times. This is especially true for tutorials that have many images for the steps.

====Image sourcing for uploads====
The best place to source images is from other spinners and stores sympathetic to pen spinning. This ensures that we're extremely unlikely to receive complaints from confused store owners or photographers for using their material. JetPens, Pensfactory, Eno, PenWish and others are good places to get images of pens and mods from as all have a history of selling and working with pen spinners, while Amazon and eBay are not good places to source images from.

===Priorities===
Our biggest priorities are to get the main bulk of important information on pages of the site, for instance having a page with details of each mod, board, notable spinner, trick etc. 

Making long pages or prettifying pages is a secondary goal. When it comes to complicated mod or trick tutorials, it's often sufficient to put an embed to a video that shows how to do it. Additional text tutorials are good, but not a priority right now.

===Writing style===
{{See also|Fen Spinner Wiki:Bias}}
Articles should ideally be in a neutral tone and present specific details as best as possible. Avoid using the words 'good' or 'bad' and when it comes to describing properties qualify them with details bluntly. Avoid flowery language also.

===Notability===
{{See also|Fen Spinner Wiki:Notability}}
We should attempt to avoid making useless or irrelevant pages to the hobby, our guidelines explain the difference and where we draw the line.

Examples of poor writing style:

*Makin is a highly skilled spinner from JEB. He has extremely beautiful style and makes great combos.
*The RSVP MX is a bad pen mod made by Kam. It is difficult to spin.

Examples of better writing style:
*Makin is a spinner from JEB. He was well known for aesthetic spinning and his style.
*The RSVP MX is a pen mod made by Kam. It is considered difficult to spin by many, as it is very light, short and has a shifted COG towards the back.

==Information first==
Formatting can always be added in the future, it's more important to get important information for pages down first. If you have information that's missing from a page but don't know how to format yet, put it in the summary at the beginning of the page and someone will get around to cleaning it up.

==Example Articles==
These can be used as a reference to base future articles off of:
*[[Watto G3]]
*[[Bonkura]]
*[[Pen Spinning World Tournament 2007]]
*[[UPSB]]
*[[Spider Spin]]
*[[Zombo's Discourse on the Metaphysics of Pen Spinning]]
*[[Uni-Ball Signo]]

==Vandalism==

MediaWiki provides several tools for easily handling vandalism. Multiple edits by users can be rolled back with a single button and blocking users from editing is just as simple. Blocks are applied to both the account and IP Address and allow the user to still read the wiki, but no longer contribute.

Intentional vandalism of Fenspinner Wiki is unacceptable and will lead to reverts and increasingly longer bans.