 | This page documents one of Memory Alpha's guidelines. |
The standards and practices described below are widely accepted and should not be substantively changed without consensus. If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page. |
Okay, so you've decided to join the Memory Alpha community. That's great! So, you may be wondering, "now what?" One of the great guidelines about any wiki is that you only have to contribute what you know or are willing to learn about – there's no assigned reading or designated articles. Everyone is permitted to chose their topics and what articles they'll write themselves, proofread, or expand.
That being said, contributors are encouraged to expand their horizons a bit, and try learning about a new subject in order to write a Memory Alpha article about it. Although it may seem a lot like research (real work – ugh!), learning about a new part of the Star Trek universe can often be quite enlightening and entertaining. So you don't have to limit yourself to your current interests. You never know, you might find a new favorite subject! (Try clicking the "random page" button and see where it takes you!)
Ultimately, of course, the decision is up to you.
If you're looking to contribute though, you can start by checking out what articles and files have been requested by the community.
Completeness[]
One corollary to this policy is that Memory Alpha strives for completeness – we want to cover as much information about Star Trek in as great detail as is Humanly possible. Of course, creating stubs is not always a bad thing, and if you create a really useful stub, that's definitely a good thing!
However, don't take this rule as a requirement that only complete articles be submitted – that's not the intention of the policy at all. Memory Alpha is a continuous work-in-progress, so stubs and abbreviated articles are always acceptable, provided they're identified as such.
A useful rule of thumb is the two-sentence minimum. Whenever you create a new article that you don't know too much about (or aren't interested in writing), include at least two sentences before you press the "Save page" button - the introductory definition and a bit of context. Two sentences is about the minimum necessary to provide good content that is at least minimally informative.
See also[]
- Make omissions explicit - the two suggestions complement each other