InstallGentoo Wiki:General rules

Welcome! Here's a simple guide to help you create a great article!

What should my article be about?

Head on over to https://boards.4chan.org/g/ and take a look at the threads on there. The stupid questions threads are excellent for topics to write about.

If different people will ask the same things, or you've felt at some time or another that there should have been a guide for something, then you have pretty good indication that there should be an article on it.

How should I write my article?

I'm glad you asked. Your article should be informative, and the main things people will be looking for when browsing this wiki are:

• What is (insert topic here)?
• Why should I use (insert topic here)?
• How do I use (insert topic here)?
• Where can I get (insert topic here)?

and last but not least

• What (insert topic here) does /g/ use or recommend?

These are the questions you should try to answer while writing your article.

Don't shitpost with your own opinion

  Arch is a shitty distro that takes ages to set up and is crap because I haven't seen
  anything good come out of it. It's a waste of time too, so don't use it.

This is an example of what you should NOT do. People check out this wiki to become informed; not to have other peoples' opinions shoved down their throats. Just because you see people on /g/ act like this, does not mean you should write articles like this. A better article would be:

  Arch is a bleeding edge Linux distribution, with a focus on minimalism. Bleeding edge
  means that it is focused on being extremely up-to-date i.e. right on the bleeding edge of 
  new releases. It's also a 'Rolling release' distro, which means that instead of it going 
  through version upgrades like other distros, all updates are instead added to it 
  as they become available.
  
  Arch is a minimal distribution, which gives you more control over customisation and what 
  is installed. A downside to this is that it requires slightly more technical knowledge to
  maintain. However, the Arch wiki is very detailed, and there are Arch forums.
  
  If you wish to install Arch for the first time, you can follow the wiki here, or follow the 
  general guide here if you're a little more experienced.
  
  You can find a list of some of the software that /g/ uses on the GNU/Linux ricing page,
  here.

So, on the whole you should aim to keep your article reasonably neutral, well reasoned, and justified.

Remember: this isn't Wikipedia

Sure, it's good to have some informative information, but we want this wiki to be interesting and actually useful, not just informative. This means that swearing, saying one thing is better than another (so long as it's justified) and humour are all fine.

This also means that waffling a lot of crap or trying too hard to be funny is useless. Keep it simple, stupid.

Replying to comments in Talk pages

Be sure to indent your reply and place it below the parent. Also, sign that shit using --~~~~ . Example:

Comment on talk page.
: Reply to comment on talk page.
:: Reply to first reply of comment on talk page.
: Another reply to comment on talk page.

Anything else?

• Provide examples
• Use infographics/images if possible
• Try not to use too much technical jargon unless you explain what it means. Assume that anyone coming looking for a topic here doesn't know anything about it. Your article should be as easy to understand as possible, and as quick to understand as possible.
• Learn how to spell and use proper grammar.
• Learn and use the wiki formatting markup here. Nicer looking pages are easier to read.
  • If you find a shitty article, please mark it with the {{Cleanup}} tag.
• Provide tips and tricks or advice you've learned to make things easier

Now, get out there and start being useful, you swine.