MEpedia:How to contribute

Contribute to MEpedia Today! Anyone can contribute, and everyone has something to offer, whatever your skills & experience, even if you have never edited a wiki (like Wikipedia) before. All we ask is that you read the guidelines (see below) before you edit. Please also join our group of authors and editors.

Rules & Guidelines

 * Editorial Guidelines
 * Science Guidelines
 * MEpedia:Manual of Style

Getting Started
It's easy to get started.

Lesson 1

 * Browse the existing pages: find topics that interest you - perhaps your local advocacy group, a favourite doctor.
 * Create a user profile: click on the 'Create Account' link near the top right hand corner of the page. Follow the steps.
 * Make your first edit: choose a page, click on the 'Edit' link (in the row of text ABOVE the page title). Add a few words, or a sentence.
 * You'll notice that the text looks different - less formatted / pretty - with strange characters (eg [ Fred Smith ] or = = Heading = =) - ignore these for the moment.
 * Preview your edit: scroll down to the bottom of the page, and find the 'Show Preview' button.
 * Add a short description of your change in the 'Comment' section (eg 'add comment about NIH study').
 * Click the 'Show Preview' button. You will now see the text in the 'prettier' format. Make sure your changes look okay.
 * Save your edit: Click the 'Save Page' button.
 * CONGRATULATIONS !! you've just made your first ME-Pedia edit.  :)

Lesson 2

 * Learn about formatting: there are special characters to create headings, italics, bolding, indented lists, etc.
 * formatting cheatsheet
 * Include references: if you're quoting a research study, or referring to an external website, include a hyperlink to the research study or website, using square brackets around the hyperlink - eg [ http://http://www.local.gov/about/ ].
 * Don't worry that it's not a full citation yet - there are other people who can do the complicated technical formatting
 * Experiment on your personal 'talk page': click on your 'user profile' link (near the top right), then click on the 'Create' link. Now you can safely experiment with your new formatting skills.



Lesson 3

 * Learn about the Edit History: choose any MEpedia page, and click on the 'View History' link near the top right.
 * You will see a list of all changes to the page, showing the date, time, user, and a brief description.
 * You can select (click on) two different edits, then click 'Compare Selected Revisions', to see a side-by-side comparison of the old text and the new text.
 * There are options to show/hide your own changes, or minor changes, etc
 * Be aware that it's possible to 'rollback' (reverse) an edit if something has gone drastically wrong. if in doubt, ask someone with technical skills to do this.
 * There is also a 'Recent Changes' link on the left-hand side of the page - this lists recent changes on ALL ME-pedia pages.

Lesson 4

 * Learn about the Discussion pages: choose any MEpedia page, and click on its 'Discussion' link near the top left.
 * You will see a list of comments by other users, including suggestions, discussion, criticisms, etc
 * To add your own comments - click on 'edit', add your comments at the end, add your signature and date stamp (see button)

CONGRATULATIONS - you now have the basic skills to edit ME-Pedia, and make it more wonderful !

How do I edit pages?
Look for the "edit" links at the top of the page (to edit the whole page) and next to each section heading (to edit just that section).

After you've made your changes, scroll down to the 'Show Preview' section, add a comment, preview your changes, then save them.

Text formatting
{| class="wikitable" ! Description ! What you type ! What you see
 * Italic text
 * italic text
 * italic text
 * Bold text
 * bold text
 * bold text
 * Bulleted list
 * * Item 1
 * Item 2
 * Item 3
 * Item 1
 * Item 2
 * Item 3
 * Numbered list
 * # Electrolytes
 * 1) Cytokines
 * 2) Cytokine subgroups
 * 3) Cytokine sub-sub-groups
 * 4) Bananas
 * 5) Electrolytes
 * 6) Cytokines
 * 7) Cytokine subgroups
 * 8) Cytokine sub-sub-groups
 * 9) Bananas
 * Indented text
 * : cytokines
 * interleukins
 * IL-6
 * leukocytes
 * 1) Bananas
 * Indented text
 * : cytokines
 * interleukins
 * IL-6
 * leukocytes
 * leukocytes


 * cytokines
 * interleukins
 * IL-6
 * leukocytes
 * leukocytes


 * Block quotes
 * "this paragraph will be indented"
 * "this paragraph will be indented"
 * Headings of different levels
 * ==Heading text==
 * Headings of different levels
 * ==Heading text==

Heading text

 * (not illustrated)
 * Link to another ME-Pedia page
 * Pace trial
 * Pace trial
 * Link to an external page
 * Wikipedia - Mitochondrion
 * Wikipedia - Mitochondrion
 * }
 * Wikipedia - Mitochondrion
 * }

Images
To add an image use the "Upload a file" link on the left of any page, and make a note of the file name, then add it to the page. Add right or left, and a width (with a px suffix) to set the size):



References - basic
The mitochondria produce ATP. The mitocondria produce ATP.

...

References

Which when added to a page is displayed like this in the References sections (the PACE trial is shown as an example):

The "authorlink" fields specify the name of the MEpedia article to go to when that author is clicked. The PMID number is the PubMed study ID. The doi is the unique reference for the study, and when provided means the citation will include a link to the study, wherever it is published. All fields are mandatory, except for 'display-authors', which should only be included if you wish to hide some of the author's names. The documentation for the Citation template is here.

There is an optional field, 'display-authors', which should only be used if you wish to hide some of the author names.

Here is a blank template to copy-and-paste into pages:

More help

 * View a video tutorial
 * Click "edit" on pages which are not locked (or "view source" on those which are) and:
 * Look at the "wiki code" responsible for creating the page. This may help you learn how to edit since the "code" is, in large part, pretty intuitive and easy to learn if you look back and forth between the article and the code responsible for it.
 * All edit pages have a "Help" link in the toolbar which can lead you to this page (and our link below to editing references).
 * Look at the formatting cheatsheet

Make a suggestion
Almost everyone working on MEpedia is sick, including bed-bound patients. Although we welcome suggestions please, please if you possibly can, create/edit the page yourself. It is very easy to add a new page or make an improvement - be bold! Together we are stronger as a community. If you REALLY can't edit the page, then you can go to the MEpedia suggestions page, click Edit, and add your suggestion to the list for someone else to consider implementing in future.

Implement a suggestion
If you want to contribute but aren't sure where to start, try looking at the MEpedia suggestions and consider implementing an improvement suggested by others.

Create a new article
To create a new article, simply search for the title of the article you wish to create. If a page does not already exist, you will see an option to create the page. Alternatively if you see a red link to the page, that means it does not yet exist. Just click the red link to create the page.

Once you have a blank editable article open, consider copying-and-pasting an outline into it for that type of article, so you have a set of headings to prompt writing. See MEpedia article outlines

Remember that articles must use strong citations. For example if you write "ME/CFS can be successfully treated with XYZ", you MUST provide a reference to evidence, ideally a high quality (randomized, placebo-controlled) published study. If there is no evidence, the wording must reflect this, for example "ME/CFS is sometimes treated using XYZ, but currently there is no good evidence for its use".

Expand a topic
Pages with blue links (as opposed to red) exist already, and can be proof-read, improved and extended. Remember statements need to be supported by the best available evidence or source, for example a published quote by a person, or a paper in a scientific journal.

Check our references
You can make sure facts are properly cited and references are in correct format.

We aim to serve a general audience, a research audience, and a patient audience. All entries should be cited and make clear to distinguish what has and has not been established by peer-reviewed research findings. Articles should aim to provide both a general overview of a specific topic as well as discuss its implications or applications in ME and CFS.

Correct typos
You can also copy-edit existing articles for typos and edit for clarity.

Clean-up poor pages
Some pages are inconsistently formatted, too long, are presented badly, need partially rewriting, or suffer from other problems. Those pages are marked as needing clean-up, and are listed under all articles needing cleanup.

Mark pages as needing cleanup
If you see a problem with a page, it needs clean-up, and you are not able to resolve it, mark the page as needing cleaning by adding a marker like this including a description of the problem:

 

For more details see Cleanup.

Other Resources

 * Help:Editing
 * Configuration settings list
 * FAQ
 * MediaWiki release mailing list
 * Localise MediaWiki for your language
 * Power user/editor tips
 * Categories browser