PathfinderWiki:Anniversary edit giveaway/FAQ
Why are you doing this?
Wikis are only as strong as the community that supports them, and while Pathfinder has a dedicated fanbase, only a handful of fans contribute to PathfinderWiki. Hopefully this contest gets others involved so that they can see how easy helping out on the wiki can be and so they can discover the ongoing rewards of contributing. Wiki editors often build a vast amount of knowledge of the setting in the process of working on the project, and add to the perpetual resource that both benefits them as fans and the community as a whole. While these are rewards enough (at least to those of us already active on the project) we understand that sometimes people need an additional incentive. If we can add even a few more people to the wiki's contributor pool who stick around after this contest, it will have served its purpose.
Why Should I do this?
There are a number of reasons to work on this project. Not only are there the prizes for this contest, and the physical pages that you have built, but also the ability to share the research that you have done for your home campaigns. If you are reading about/researching a topic, why not share your research with the world? This is also practice writing prose for an RPG audience, which could be very helpful for preparing for next year's RPG Superstar competition or Pathfinder Society open calls.
What if I don't have all the books?
That's ok. We don't expect anyone to have all of them, or even most of them. You can make valuable contributions to the wiki without spending a dime. Knowledge of grammar and spelling allow you to make copy edits which the project is always in need of. You can just edit pages others make with the sources they have. To write a new article or expand an existing one, all you need is a single source. Any canon source (see our canon policy) can provide dozens, if not hundreds of full articles. Any proper noun in an adventure or setting sourcebook can have an article, so you can rack up quite an edit count by making articles on NPCs, locations, and events in a module or adventure, or writing about historical events, locations, NPCs, or other world details from setting sourcebooks.
Also, Paizo generously provides several canon products for free, including: Hollow's Last Hope, Revenge of the Kobold King, Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide, Curse of the Crimson Throne Player's Guide, and the Council of Thieves Player's Guide. While some of these may be fairly well covered by the wiki, there are doubtlessly many articles waiting to be sourced form their pages.
Who judges the contest?
PathfinderWiki's administrators will oversee the contest and resolve any disputes which may arise, though they will do nothing that the community can't witness. Every edit every contributor makes on PathfinderWiki can be seen by anyone at Recent changes, so at any time, you can check any claims or discussions to audit the contest.
How do I write/edit a wiki article?
It's simple. Every page has an "Edit this page" button at the top. Just click that, and use the following page as you would any test editor or word processor. Be sure to click the preview button at the bottom before submitting your changes. Wikis use a special, simplified code for markup, so '''bolding''', ''italicizing'', and [[linking]] things is easy. There are a number of help pages here. After reviewing these simple tutorials, simply start making edits, then check your My Contributions page to see how others have formatted your work and apply those changes to future edits. It's not a steep learning curve at all, and no one will judge you harshly for not knowing it all right away. It's a collaborative process, and we have all been beginners once.
Can't I just copy information from the SRD or my PDFs into the wiki?
No. PathfinderWiki does not operate under the terms of the OGL and has a No crunch policy, so inclusion of rules content is not what we're looking for. We use Paizo's Community Use Policy, which allows us to reference their intellectual property, but does not permit us to copy their copyrighted text. As such, any contributions you make should be reformatted into your own words. When referencing a source, please use citations so that others may verify that it is not plagiarized and so each article acts as an index for published, canon sources.
Where can I ask additional questions or get more help?
You can ask questions about content on the Talk page for any article, use our forums, or another user's User talk page. There is also a category of Blog posts with editing tips in them. We'll all be on alert during the contest to help anyone who wants to contribute transition easily into the site. Don't hesitate to ask for help. We love helping new contributors.