Writing Accepted Articles

From Rollingstones

Current revision as of 23:25, 10 September 2006

This page, Writing Accepted Articles is considered an accepted article.

This article explains how to write a proper article for the Rolling Stones Wiki. In the following sections, dos and don'ts will be explained so that each page on the Wiki will be of suffiecient information and be considered accpetable. In fact, this article constitutes an accepted article because it follows all the rules explained below.

What Constitutes An Accepted Article?

An acceped article is one that supplies the following to any reader:

• Informative & Knowledgable
• Serves a Useful Purpose
• Has ZERO Spelling Mistakes
• Wiki Features Are Not Overused
• Looks Pretty
• Is Of Substantial Length

These 6 things make an article acceptable for the Rolling Stones Wiki. This article will explain the meaning of each.

Informative & Knowledgeable

Before writing an article, for the Rolling Stones Wiki you should make sure you have an idea of what you want to write planned out in your head. You should know the facts and check 1 or more RELIABLE sources about said topic. When You have the facts and you think they could make an accepted article, go ahead, but expect your article to be changed around by others (thats the beauty of a Wiki).
Please, please, please don't write an article about the Rolling Stones if you know nothing about them. This Wiki is supposed to provide knowledge to fans who do not already know. Please only write if you know what you are writing about. Use sources and then cite those sources in the text.

Serves A Useful Purpose

Before creating a new article please perform a search on the Rolling Stones Wiki about the topic you wish to write about. If you find one similar to yours, please do not start a new article, simply add what you feel is missing to the article. If you do not find one, please try re-typing your topic in several different ways just to make sure. If you don't find one by now, it is probably safe to say you may start it as long as it is related to the Rolling Stones.

Has ZERO Spelling Mistakes

Check, check and then double check again once you have finished writing or contributing to an article. This is very important so that anyone and everyone has ease in reading said article. If you are not sure, use a source like Dictionary.com or copy and paste into a program such as Microsoft Word and then proceed to spell ceck there. And please do not use terms you would use on message boards or other messenger services. Some terms include:

• 2 instead of to
• Abreviations of words some people may not be aware of them
• LOL, BRB, G2G (though I don't know when these would come up in articles)

And I don't think this should be stated but if some still need a reminder, please do not put swear, derogatory or any other offensive words in the articles unless they are in a citeable quote. If there words are used, the person making these statements outside of quotes will be blocked.

Wiki Features Are Not Overused

Wiki features make an article more informative but they should not be used every other word. For example, when the text is highlighted like this, that means it is linked to another page in the Rolling Stones Wiki. But look what happens when we overuse this feature. Pretty annoying, huh ? So that is why we only use it on nouns, a person, place or thing. To link a website, use the external link button in the editing page.

 As well, look at this box.  It is used to express notices to others  
 Only use them if you need others to know the article you have 
 written is too short or similar announcement like  that.

And you'll notice each category is divided by a headline, please don't overuse these either as they will clutter up the page. Same goes for these horizontal lines:

It just doesn't make sense to overuse these.

The Rolling Stones in 2005. From left to right: Charlie Watts, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Ron Wood
This is an example of how a picture should be set up including a caption.

Don't be afraid to use images on your articles, they make it look colourful and inviting. But don't use to many either. If you are unsure on how many images to use, here is a trick: Use one picture for every 750-1500 words. This will keep the numer down but of sufficent amount. The type of file you should upload is JPEG, because these are the only type which compress well on the Rolling Stones Wiki. Plus, don't forget to add a caption underneath the image explaining what it is or what is going on in it. As well, please don't use copyrighted pictures. It is normally considered that pictures from album covers, tour shots by fans, and promo shots are not copyrighted and free for use.

Is Of Substantial Length

What does substantial length mean? It means that it is longer than 1000 words and but not so long that the page seems to go on forever. Once you think you have finsihed writing an article, copy and paste it into a program like Microsoft Word and check for the number of words. If you are over 1000 words, you're good to go! And don't worry, if you're having a lot of trouble getting over 1000 words, post it anyway but lease add a meassage at the top of the page saying the following

This article is under 1000 words and cannot be considered accepted.  
Please help make this article long enough by adding to it.  Thank You.

By placing this at the top of the page, others will know that the article needs more content and that they should add what they know.