Wp/mic/Wikipedia:How to become a contributor

Wula wi'katign na aglasie'wwi'gasik. Elmiaq mu ns~tmu'n msit koqwey aq me' nuta'n apoqnmatimk, ge' pipanigesitesk Wsku'tmnej-iktuk.
This page is written in English. If you don't understand everything and need further assistance, please ask on the Talk Page.
Cette page est écrite en anglais. Si vous ne comprennez pas tout et que vous avez besoin de plus d'aide, veuillez demander sur la page de discussion.

So you have decided you want to help with this project of creating a Wikipedia in Mi'kmaq, but you don't know how to start and how to contribute, this page is for you. It is intended for people not familiar with the Wiki software, so if you are already familiar in contributing to a Wikipedia project in another language, this page is not for you as it covers mainly basic functions. This page don't cover what Wikipedia is and isn't and its basic principles. If you are interested in those, you can read Simplified ruleset and Wikipedia's Five Pillars on the English Wikipedia and Founding principles on Meta-Wiki.

One important point to remember is: Don't hesitate ! You don't need to hesitate before editing anything on the Wikipedia since everything that you might do wrong can be easily reverted, so don't hesitate to contribute !

If you want to practice editing before modifying an actual page, you can do so in the Sandbox.

Creating an user account

First step is to create an user account on Wikipedia. This step is not mandatory and you can contribute without an account, but it offers many benefits. Editing a page when you're not login as an user will register your IP address in the page's history while, if you are login, it will register your username. Having an username will allow you to create an user page and have your own talk page on the Wikipedia. It will also allow you to participate in the community's decisions. Once you have an account, you can sign any message you left on discussion pages by putting ~~~~ at the end of it, it will automatically insert a link to your user page with the date.

To create an account, click on Log in / Register an account in the top right corner of the screen. You can pick any username you want (if it's not already taken by somebody else). Remember to choose an appropriate name, nothing offensive is allowed.

Once you have created an user account, you are pleased to come and introduce yourself on the Main Talk Page by adding a message at the bottom of the page and signing it.

You can use a unified login on all different Wikipedia projects. Read Unified login on English Wikipedia for more details on that.

How to contribute

There is many different ways to contribute to Wikipedia and everybody is welcome to help as he can and wants. The main way to help the Wikipedia in Mi'kmaq is to add content to pages and create new pages. To add content to an existing page, simply click on the Edit tab on top of each page. Almost every page on the Wikipedia can be edited by anybody.

Before creating a new page, make sure it doesn't already exist by performing a search. Remember that the page might already exists with a different spelling. In such cases, you can create a redirection from the different spelling to the actual page by inserting #REDIRECT[[Name of the page]] where "Name of the page" is the title of the actual existing page. If the page doesn't exist, you can create it if the subject is admissible. If the article exists on the English or French Wikipedia, it can be considered admissible on this Wiki. If it doesn't exist on the main Wikipedias, it doesn't mean it cannot be created here, but some rules apply. If you are unsure, ask on the Main Talk Page before creating it so your work won't get deleted. You can see all pages on this Wikipedia there, note that the links in green are redirection pages. You can also use the Edit function to see the source code of an existing page and base yourself on it to create a new one.

All pages should be categorized by adding [[Category:Wp/mic/Name of the category]] at the end of the page, where "Name of the category" is the actual category's name. A page should have only the most specific category. For example, the duck page is in the bird category and not the animals category because the bird category is already itself in the animals category. If the category doesn't exist, it will create a red link at the bottom of the page, you can click on it to create the category page. Category pages only include the category which it falls under. For example the bird category would contain only [[Category:Wp/mic/Animals]]. The list of pages that are part of a category are automatically created, so you don't need to add any pages on the category page. The main categories that don't fall under any others are put in [[Category:Wp/mic]]. Note that all categories start with Wp/mic/ like all pages. If you are unsure, ask on the Main Talk Page and somebody will help you.

How to insert a picture on a page

Commons is a repertory of pictures and other medias freely usable that can be easily inserted on a Wikipedia page. Once you found the picture you want to insert on Commons, add [[File:Name_of_the_picture.jpg|thumb|right|Description]] on the page, where "Name_of_the_picture.jpg" is the actual name of the picture on Commons (you can copy-paste it to make sure you don't do spelling mistake) and "Description" is a description of the picture (putting a description is optional but recommended). Remember to include the picture extension like .jpg or .gif.

How to insert a link between pages

To insert a link to another page of the Wikipedia, you need to put [[ ]] around the title of the page you want to link, in this format: [[Wp/mic/Name of the page]]. Because the Wikipedia in Mi'kmaq is still in the Incubator, all pages start with Wp/mic/ before the actual title, remember that when creating links. If you want to show only the title without the "Wp/mic/", the format is [[Wp/mic/Name of the page|Name of the page]]. You can also use this format to put a link with a different name than the title of the page. For example, [[Wp/mic/Pjilási|Main page]] will show Main page while the actual title of the page is "Wp/mic/Pjilási".

How to leave a message on a talk page

To add an answer to a discussion or to create a new discussion on a talk page, you simply need to edit it like any pages. New messages usually goes to the bottom of the page. You can create a new section by putting == Title of the section == before your message, where "Title of the section" is the title you want. Don't forget to sign your message by addind ~~~~ at the end of it.

Further reading

If you want to read more on the Wikipedia software, called MediaWiki, functions, you can read MediaWiki Contents that list all the actions you can perform using this software.