UserBase/Guidelines

Ready to write some cool howto's or content for UserBase? Don't worry, using MediaWiki is easy. But before you get started, please take a few moments to read these guidelines that will help everyone have a great UserBase experience.

1. Take note of our license. All content that you put into KDE UserBase is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license. This basically means that you are free to use content in UserBase, distribute it and modify it, provided that you follow the attribution indicated by the original author(s) and that you distribute the modified work under this same license.

2. Respect content from outside sources. When you are using content from other websites, whether it be text, screenshots, or images, please make sure that you have their permission and that you acknowledge their work and probably link to their site. If you have doubts, the Community Working Group can assist in contacting the appropriate parties.

3. Respect the work of others. Particularly if some previous content already exists. Try to follow the pattern if one exists, like in the Applications pages. If you need to make some major changes, please leave a note in the Discussion tab of the page before you make the changes and wait for a reply within a considerable timeframe. You can use the Discussion pages to talk with other contributors. A wiki is designed for collaborative editing, so feel free to talk with each other.

4. Leave short but meaningful Summary when you save changes. This makes it a lot easier to see at a glance what was done. This is specially helpful for those who are monitoring the Recent changes. Of course, we presume that what you write in the Summary actually describes the changes that you did. We all work on the basis of trust and cooperation, so it's best to keep that in mind.

5. Register and login. This is a mandatory requirement, as it makes it possible for the administrators to contact you if there is a problem, and also enables us to protect your pages against spamming and vandalism.

6. Remember the purpose of UserBase. UserBase is not the correct place to make feature requests or bug reports for KDE software. We have a dedicated bug tracker for that and a BugSquad that helps take care of it (you might be interested in helping out, too). Your wishes or bugs will get heard better there. Be aware of putting in information or steps that apply to specific distributions only. Please put a note that the information applies to that particular distribution. When in doubt, it's best to note it anyway.

7. Be consistent in style. A good template for a new article is PageLayout and code snippets to help you achieve it can be copied from Toolbox. Guidelines for most common tasks are available from Tasks and Tools.

8. Last, but definitely not the least, please be guided by the Code of Conduct. The KDE community is built on a culture of collaboration, mutual respect, and trust. These values allow the community to work together in a pleasing and inspiring atmosphere. The Code expresses these values in concrete words. Be sure to give it a good read and keep it mind, whether contributing to UserBase or any area relating to the KDE community.

We look forward to your help in building up KDE's knowledge base for users and we hope that you will enjoy the experience of being an active part in this international family, the KDE Community.