Help:Contents

Editing the wiki

Guides

If you are new to MediaWiki, you want to read this:

• Wikipedia cheatsheet — explains virtually all the syntax you may need to know
• Creating pages
• Categorising pages
• Image upload guide

For your first edit, you probably want to fix something wrong or add something that is missing in an article instead of writing a complete article from scratch. If you feel bold though, you can also go by by copying & pasting from another article (particularly infoboxes, or those obscure tables) and modifying as necessary. Don't feel ashamed, we all started that way.

Conventions

Capitalisation

Use singular (when possible) phrase style titles for page titles and headings, not titles with each word capitalised. So it's Buckling springs, not Buckling Springs, and Keyboards with Cherry switches, not Keyboards with Cherry Switches (same as Wikipedia).

Categorisation

Don't put articles in categories which are a parent or grandparent of the deepest category the article is part of. So Cherry MX Blue is in category Cherry MX, which is in category Cherry switches. But Cherry MX Blue shouldn't be in Cherry switches. In some cases a 'List of all ...' category can be made to which all deepest children can be added.

Specific terms

• Use Alps, not ALPS.
• Use keycap, not key cap (same as Wikipedia).
• Use Space-cadet keyboard, not Space Cadet keyboard (same as Wikipedia).

Using references

• For external references, be sure to post the exact article title instead of paraphrasing it, otherwise it may be very difficult to find a replacement later on if the link becomes dead.

• Use named references instead of inlined, ie. define your references like this:

<ref name="my_refname">my source here</ref>

Then invoke your reference with

<ref name="my_refname" />

as many times as you need along the article. This way,

1. the article will be readable by editors no matter how many references are used,
2. you can reuse a reference multiple times in the article without having to define it again, and
3. if references ever need to be changed, they will be easy to find.

Don't forget to place the definitions together in a References section like this:

==References==
<references>
<ref name="ref_name1">my source here</ref>
<ref name="ref_name2">my other source here</ref>
...
</references>

• Place the References section after the "See also" section, if any, but before the "External links" section, if one exists. This is the same style used by Wikipedia.

• See Template:Sq for a way to escape square brackets [] which would otherwise break your references.

Opinions

As you peruse the wiki you may find the odd personal opinion here and there about something. Please avoid adding any more. Opinions have no place in a wiki that is meant to be informative and neutral, so we should be removing that kind of stuff, not adding to it. Let's keep it neutral.

See the forum wiki topic for more.

Code of conduct

• Vandalism will be punished. Severely. (See the block list)
• No self-advertising. No advertising of any kind, really.
• No edit wars! Discuss if necessary e.g. using the Talk page of the article in question (preferred, that's the Wikipedia style too), the Talk page of the editor who you disagree with (second best), or posting to the wiki subforum in DT. In either case, do so in a civil manner.

Copyright

Images uploaded to the wiki should be done within accordance of the copyright terms for the image. The following sources are authorised for image uploads under the terms specified:

002

All images created by me and uploaded to the Deskthority wiki by me are hereby released into the public domain under the CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication.

4_404

All the pictures posted to Deskthority that are his own work are to be considered in the public domain unless specified otherwise.

7bit

just write something that automatically adds "Copyright by Desktority Club" or whatever you think is appropriate. :-)

alh84001

I hereby release all images I have uploaded to Deskthority to date under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

alps.tw

Granted under the terms "如果你詳細註明來源與出處及原始來源網頁,引用至WiKi~~這是可以的" translated in context as "If you attribute and credit the origin of the source of the web page, you may use them in your wiki."

bhtooefr

Every image I upload to the Deskthority forums as an attachment to a post is also licensed for use on the Deskthority wiki with attribution, as well as under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0. Please ask before using images hosted on http://bhtooefr.org, but I will likely grant permission for usage on the wiki.

chzel

All of my own pictures posted on Deskthority.net can be used in the Deskthority wiki, or other non commercial use within Deskthority, unless specified otherwise. Attribution welcome but not necessary.

ClickyKeyboards

Granted under the terms "If anyone would like to add photos from clickykeyboards.com to the DT wiki (or to any other keyboard tech resource), we don't have a problem as long as correct attribution is given to the original source." The work by ClickyKeyboards is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Delta research

All photos that I upload to DT are public domain, although the metadata may say otherwise.

HaaTa

I, HaaTa, give permission everyone to reproduce, reuse and copy my images and force curves. No permission is necessary when using images on the Deskthority wiki or similar collection of public input device knowledge. My only request is that a link be provided back to the original Flickr album or Plotly graph so that others who are interested may find more information about keyboards.

Halvar

All the pictures that are my own work and that I posted in the Deskthority or Geekhack forums can be used in the Deskthority wiki.

Johnbo

All the pictures posted to Deskthority that are his own work are to be considered in the public domain unless specified otherwise.

litster

feel free to use my pictures there.

Madhias

All my photographs posted on the discussion boards Deskthority & Geekhack can be used in the Deskthority wiki & can be adapted, cropped or transformed. Attribution is welcome.

Man from Mars

All his photos posted to DT that are his own work shall be considered Public Domain unless noted otherwise.

MouseFan

Permission obtained through Sandy: "He allowed you and DeskThority to use his images within Deskthority as far as Deskthority will keep being public, and will not tend to commercial activity earning money using his pictures as advertisement for selling goods. But please keep in mind he will not respond to emails or any inquiries from foreigners to his BBS, or request for trade/buying keyboards … Preferably, please put a note something like "great thanks to Mousefan providing pictures and information ..." or such somewhere in wiki page or any appropriate space."

Muirium

Every image I upload to DT is completely free to use without limit, for any purpose.

Myoth

You may use the pictures I have taken and uploaded on Deskthority without limit for any purpose.

Nightfall Blog

Author: nightfallcrew.com

License: Public domain or nearest equivalent.

pyrelink

Pictures uploaded to Deskthority as his own work are to be considered under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence unless specified otherwise.

Ratfink

I hereby release all images I have uploaded to Deskthority to date under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

rzwv

Since it is a precious picture, it has permitted publishing the picture of a "kbd.rzw.jp" to Deskthority wiki as reference data.

Please publish together with a quoting agency.

The permission is granted by all the pictures including this picture.

貴重な画像なので、参考資料として"kbd.rzw.jp"の画像をDeskthority wikiへ掲載することを許可しています。

引用元と一緒に掲載して下さい。この画像を含め、全ての画像で許可をしています。

Sandy's a little bit of keyboards

Permission to use his images on other websites is given on the website in Japanese

Scarface (스카페이스)

네 영광입니다.

얼마든지 사용하셔도 좋습니다.

출처도 밝혀주시면 더욱 감사합니다.

Permission granted to use his images on the wiki; source pages should be attributed.

seebart

All the pictures that are my own work and that I posted in the Deskthority forum can be used in the Deskthority wiki.

Licence: Public domain (inferred by seebart's own contributions to the wiki)

tactica

All the pictures I have posted to Deskthority.net (not that there are many ATM...) as my own work are in the public domain.

TheInverseKey

You may use the pictures I have taken and uploaded on Deskthority without limit for any purpose.

License: Public domain

webwit

All keyboard pictures are public domain; this includes all photos on http://webwit.nl/input/: see http://webwit.nl/input/PUBLICDOMAIN.txt

XMIT

I'll give blanket permission here for anyone who wants to use my keyboard, key cap, key switch, or any other photos posted by me to this forum for improving a knowledge base, wiki, or what have you. Please provide attribution when you do (and maybe PM me a link to the article).

Source (e.g. URL) and copyright terms should be included in the image description to indicate that image is used with permission and not stolen. Template:Filedesc should be used to caption the image, and it has ready-made fields for source and copyright. This has been the default for some time now, one just needs to fill in the form.

References and external links to pages containing the images should be used instead of uploading the images directly, in cases where permission to use the image has not been obtained.

See also

• Help:Editing
• Deskthority templates