Writing your first article, hopefully one of many contributions to the FlightGear project, could be a great way to share your experiences and perhaps also help some of us other FlightGear users.
As you probably already are aware of the FlightGear wiki is a collaborative written documentation related to FlightGear, the free and open source flight simulator. As FlightGear itself the wiki is licensed under the GNU GPL version 2 license.
Contributing to the FlightGear Wiki
The FlightGear Wiki is not an encyclopaedia or a search paper. There is no requirement to have primary and secondary sources, unless you are citing something. In fact, much of what is needed does not exist anywhere else at all!
Original research, opinions, and first hand accounts are the majority of the content here, but please do not plagiarize. If you are going to copy or cite something then provide a reference (like you might for a school paper). Other than that, the standards and specific goals of the FlightGear are still in flux and development.
Articles tend to be about whatever someone sees as important, useful, or fun enough to write about!
Editing the wiki markup
Writing and editing with Mediawiki wiki markup (currently using MediaWiki v. 1.39.6) can take some getting used depending on your background, because unlike most word processors you can see and type software code used for formatting and linking.
If you already know HTML or a programming language then what are you doing reading this! If you have just used Open Office, then it is still easy to get started, as you can begin using the buttons above the edit box to format your text.
Much of the more commonly used markup is simple and easy to remember. For more on editing the wiki markup, look at Help:Editing.
Linking your article to other articles
Welcome to the FlightGear Wiki!
There are two main considerations for contributing here, one is using the Mediawiki software and the other is the nature ofthe FlightGear wiki. The FlightGear wiki is collaborative volunteer written documentation relating to FlightGear, licensed under the GNU GPL Version 2.
FlightGear wiki is not the same as an encyclopedia or research paper, so there is no requirement to have primary and secondary sources to publish content, unless you are citing something. In fact, much of what needs to be written does not exist anywhere at all!
Original research, opinions, and first hand accounts are the majority of the content here, but please do not plagiarize. If you are going to copy or cite something then provide a reference (like you might for a school paper). Other than that, the standards and specific goals of the FlightGear are still in flux and development.
About the FlightGear wiki
The FlightGear wiki is currently small, technically oriented, and international. In addition to all sorts of people, regular volunteers include pilots, 3D modelers, professors, and programmers from around the world sharing an interest in FlightGear documentation.
Articles tend to be about whatever someone sees as important, useful, or fun enough to write about!
Using the software
Writing and editing with Mediawiki code (currently using version 1.39.6) can take some getting used depending on your background, because unlike most word processors you can see and type software code used for formating and linking. If you already know HTML or a programming language then what are you doing reading this! If you have just used Open Office, then it is still easy to get started. Try using the formating buttons at the top of the edit window to format your text.
- Help:Tutorial to learn how to format your article.
More on what to write
The FlightGear wiki has 3,487 articles (although only a few dozen of these are well developed) and only a handful of active contributors, with most days only a dozen or so edits being made.
If you are interested in working or building on what has already been done:
Currently the wiki has three main areas that need to be maintained.
- Portal:Developer related- these are mostly technical articles aimed at people working on FlightGear.
- Help documentation related- on the User side, articles about how to get started, how to use features, FAQ, etc..(like FAQ)
- Official aircraft- keeping the aircraft up to date with those on CVS. (like Table of models)
Also, there are the Stubs, Considered for deletion and Cleanup categories. These articles have been noted as needing more information, a cleanup and/or other additions. Great to start your wiki-career or if you don't like to start a completely new article!
Other interesting pages include things like Real Life Experience, Linux software audio mixing with FlightGear, Current events, or Presentation Recipe!
Well that sounds exciting! Good luck!
Creating a new article
Fill your new articles name in the search box and press Go. If the article doesn't exist yet, you can click the red link in the sentence that appears like:
- Create the page Title of your article on this wiki!.