Help:How to help

The growth and usefulness of wiki.GIS.com depends on you. This is your resource!

Below are several ways that you can pitch in and help.

Please feel free to participate and don't worry about making mistakes. Mistakes can easily be undone or corrected.

=Create New Content= wiki.GIS.com depends upon the creation of new content to grow and become a better community resource. You can help by adding your knowledge to this shared resource.

Requested Pages
There are currently ~2000 page subjects which have been identified as needing their own wiki.GIS.com page! You can help by starting any of these pages. The complete list can be found by clicking on the Requested pages link in the left hand navigation bar that appears on every page. This list can be an excellent source for ideas about what to write!

Share Your Knowledge
As GIS professionals, we all have our own areas of specialization and knowledge gained by experience. Take a few moments to create a new page and share your specific knowledge or experience with your community. It's easy! Just click on the Create new page link in the left hand navigation bar that appears on every page. When you do, a new page will open, you can type in your topic or page title, click the "Create New Article" button, and you are on your way!

Finding and Fixing Broken Links / Missing Pages
Occasionally, as you read wiki.GIS.com pages, you will come across words displayed in red. These are links from the page you are reading to pages that don't yet exist. Generally, the author of the page feels that there should be a new page created to discuss the subject identified by the red words. If you click on one of these red words, the wiki.GIS.com software will automatically open a new page with the title highlighted in red. You can then add specific content about this subject and save the new page. =Edit Existing Content=

Copy Edit
From time to time we all make spelling or grammar mistakes. You can help by copy editing pages as you find these mistakes. One of the best ways to check that recently created or edited pages have no spelling or grammar mistakes is by clicking on the Recent changes link in the left hand navigation bar that appears on every page.

Technical Edit
Did you find a technical error on a wiki.GIS.com page? Jump in and help correct it. Don't be afraid to click on the Edit tab at the top of each page and fix the error you found.

Improve Content
As you read through the many pages on wiki.GIS.com, ask yourself the following questions:
 * Could the page be improved through the use of Templates?
 * Is the page tagged with all the proper Categories?
 * Could the page be improved through the use of an Infobox template?
 * Is the page cross linked (internal references) to other wiki.GIS.com pages?
 * Could the page be improved by adding additional external references / citations?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, click on the Edit tab at the top of each page and make any improvements you feel are appropriate.

Cleanup Notification Templates
During the process of editing and moderating pages, users sometimes include notification templates in the content of the page. These notification templates are used to mark the page as requiring some specific type of editing, cleanup, or enhancement.

For example, when a page is found to not have any categories. a user may include the template in the page (by convention, notification templates are usually placed at the top of the page). Placing the template on the page will result in a notification box being displayed at the top of the page and in the category "Wiki.gis.com articles needing categories" category being displayed at the bottom of the page. To cleanup this notification template you would edit the page and add a category to the page.

Typical notification templates used on wiki.GIS.com include: NOTE: All these templates can be used with a date argument to specify the month when the need for cleanup was first noted.
 * You can find a list of pages using this template on the Category page Wiki.gis.com articles needing categories or on the Special page What Links Here: Template:Categories-needed.
 * A list of pages with no category, but that do not have the template included can be found on the Special page Uncategorized Pages.
 * **Pages that use the template can be found on the Special page What Links Here: Template:Citations missing
 * **Pages that use the template can be found on the Special page What Links Here: Template:Refimprove
 * **Pages that use the template can be found on the Special page What Links Here: Template:Cleanup-rewrite
 * **Pages that use the template can be found on the Special pages What Links Here: Template:Manual of Style
 * **Pages that use the template can be found on the Special pages What Links Here: Template:Cleanup
 * **Pages that use the template can be found on the Special pages What Links Here: Template:Not-GIS
 * e.g., or

=Moderate Existing Content= To keep the content on wiki.GIS.com consistent and correct, all new or changed pages need moderation. Moderation involves scanning the new or changed page looking for any of the following issues:


 * 1) Does the new page, or changes made to an existing page, conform to the GIS wiki Terms Of Use ?
 * 2) Is the subject belong on the GIS wiki?
 * 3) The GIS Wiki is not the place to insert personal opinions, experiences, or arguments. The GIS Wiki is not a soapbox; an advertising platform; a vanity press; an experiment in anarchy or democracy; an indiscriminate collection of information; or a web directory.
 * 4) The GIS Wiki has a neutral point of view, which means we strive for articles that advocate no single point of view. Sometimes this requires representing multiple points of view, presenting each point of view accurately, providing context for any given point of view, and presenting no one point of view as "the truth" or "the best view".
 * 5) Does the new page, or changes made to an existing page, have a GIS focus?
 * 6) When discussing a topic, is it clear how the topic relates to GIS theory and/or practice?
 * 7) The GIS Wiki is about GIS. When discussing a topic, the author should show how the topic relates to GIS.
 * 8) For example, it is not acceptable to talk about the Windows operating system unless, perhaps, the author is talking about running GIS software on Windows.
 * 9) Are there statements made on the new page, or in the changes made to an existing page, which are derogatory to specific individuals or organizations?
 * 10) The author must adhere to the GIS Wiki has a code of conduct. Authors and editors must respect fellow contributors even when they may not agree with them. All writing should be civil. Conflicts of interest, personal attacks, and sweeping generalizations should be avoided. Users should act in good faith, never disrupt the GIS Wiki to illustrate a point, and assume good faith on the part of others.
 * 11) Is the content presented on the new page, or in the changes made to an existing page, of a conceptual nature?
 * 12) The GIS Wiki is an encyclopedia incorporating elements of general and specialized encyclopedias, almanacs, and gazetteers. All pages must strive for verifiable accuracy: unreferenced material may be removed, so please provide references.
 * 13) Does the content presented violate any copyright or trademark?
 * 14) The GIS Wiki is free content that anyone may edit. All of the GIS Wiki's text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA); much of it is also licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). It may be distributed or linked accordingly. Recognize that articles can be changed by anyone and no individual exclusively controls any specific article; therefore, any writing can be mercilessly edited and redistributed at will by the community. Writing should not infringe on copyright or submit work licensed in a way incompatible with the GIS Wiki's licensing
 * 15) Are the categories and tags for the article correct and appropriate?
 * 16) All users should be responsible for correctly categorizing and tagging pages. Occasionally moderator will find a page mis-categorized. When this happens, moderators will have the ability to move or enhance the categorization and tagging on a page by changing or adding to that categorization and tagging.
 * 17) Are the proper disclaimers and to-do’s included on the page?
 * 18) Often new content will be incomplete. Moderators will have the ability to add disclaimers and to-do lists to pages.
 * Disclaimers may include:
 * This page has not been reviewed for correctness.
 * This page may be merged with an existing page.
 * Etc
 * To-do items may include:
 * This page requires copy editing.
 * This page requires technical editing.
 * This page requires additional references.