Most Common KayakWiki Faux Pas

Newcomers are very welcome here--they're the lifeblood of this project. There are a number of faux pas that new KayakWikians often make, and we've compiled this list for your convenience. So--if you care--here are the most important things to try to avoid when working on KayakWiki:

Worrying too much that you're going to mess things up

You probably will a little--everybody does, to some extent. But then we constantly clean up after each other. And all is well with the world. So be bold! Be bold in updating pages!

Capitalizing titles of articles.

It's unnecessary to capitalize the "r" and "t" in "rolling technique"--this makes it easier to link to the article. See Naming Conventions.

Treating KayakWiki as a dictionary.

Avoid just defining words. If you are defining a lot of words in a similar field, put them together on a single page. For more in this vein, see KayakWiki is not a dictionary.

Creating articles about non-Kayak topics.

If there is information that is only tangentially related to kayaking or is better defined in another forum, provide a link (or in a few cases, several) to other sources. For example, woodworking tools are used in kayak making. Don't write tool pages, though; a reference to a woodworking wiki or web site would be appropriate. Links to Wikipedia or other sources are perfectly appropriate.

Deleting useful content.

It's impolite simply to delete content that is useful just because it is somewhat biased (why not just remove the bias?) or because it's poorly copyedited (why not do the necessary copyediting?). Except in the very most obvious of cases, deleting anything over, say, a few sentences demands some words of justification on a Discussion page. A relevant principle is never to reduce the overall amount of useful content in an article.

Treating KayakWiki as a chat forum.

Don't use the Discussion pages as forums. They should be used for short discussions relevant to the creation of a page.

Making subpages out of topics that really don't need subpages.

Avoid subpages. The linking format on Mediawiki doesn't provide any benefit, so just make a new page.

Thinking that there is an "author" of any given article you read.

A common misconception of new arrivals to KayakWiki is that there are single authors of articles. This is a collaborative work. If you see a problem with an article, and you can fix it, then please do. Don't bother with the Discussion page unless politeness demands you explain what you've changed (it often doesn't), or that you ask a question first.

Judging and trying to change KayakWiki before you understand it.

Realize that KayakWiki is a work in progress. If you want to be comfortable here, please tolerate a little (temporary) imperfection. Bear in mind that we're all working on this thing together, and it's just getting better and better. See KayakWiki for more information on the project in general.