Best Practices

A comprehensive guide regarding creating articles can be found at Wikipedia:Help:Your_first_article.

Choosing a Topic

The beauty of specificity

Entering the rabbithole of a wiki means exploring as deeply as the wiki allows. Short, complete articles about a specific subject are more effective at communicating information than wikipedia:War and Peace regarding Tyres (or Tires, if you prefer. They both go to the same place). Write about a small topic first.

Search for an existing article

There are several ways to do this. The search bar at the top of the page is a good start. In addition, you may browse the categories below:

Category:Team Category:Competition Category:Vehicle

Not all articles are categorized (even though they should be). Navigate to Special:AllPages to see all articles.

Gather reference information

This is not a soapbox. Reinforce the information that you write with references.

Citations

There is an extension for this! When you write a paragraph and wish to cite something, use the <ref>CITATION HERE</ref> Function. Then, at the bottom of the page (in a "references" or "notes" section), write <references />. It'll spit out everything you've cited above in a footnote format.

Reference Format

This is Wikipedia:APA Style formatting.

Type	Format
Book	Author, A. A. (year). Chapter title. In E. Editor (Ed.).Title of the book(pp. page-range). Location: Publisher.
Ebook	Author, A. A. (year).Title of the book(xth ed.) [eBook version]. Location: Publisher. Retrieved from URL
Online Journal	Author, A. A., & Author, A. A. (year). Title of the article.Title of the Journal, volume(issue), page-page. Retrieved from http://www.hompageofjournal.com
Print Journal	Author, A. A., & Author, A.A. (year). Title of the article.Title of the Journal, volume(issue), page-page.
Webpage	Author, A. A. (year, Month day). Title of the webpage. Retrieved from Site Name website: http://url
Blog	Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the blog post [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.entirewebaddress.com
Video	Author, A. A. (Year, Month day).Title of video[Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.entirewebaddress.com
More can be found at the Broadview website at https://library.broadviewuniversity.edu/apa/references.

Can I upload this?

Figures, images, pdfs, sound bytes, and other files are welcome to be uploaded and linked in articles. The following are not allowed to be uploaded to FSwiki and linked to an article:

• Videos of any type
• Proprietary, copyrighted, classified or otherwise restricted content
• Files behind paywalls

Files

Documentation is an excellent complement to an article. Files may be uploaded at Special:Upload. When including files, attach them in the following format at the bottom of the page:

File	Abstract/Synopsis	Notes
https://fswiki.us/File:IMG_0135.jpg	This is my dog	Use the direct link to the file; do not use the square bracket syntax. Using the square bracket syntax embeds the file.

The following file restrictions are in place:

1. Upload limit = 20MB
2. Permitted file types: png, gif, jpg, jpeg, webp, flac, mp3, oga, ogg, ogv, wav, webm.

Write

Build an outline

Build an outline for the article with headings and subheadings that make sense. For a good example, examine the Sensors page.

Continue to make improvements

Wikis are community built; therefore, not all the work should be done yourself. After writing the initial article, upload and seek feedback on it. Other users can discuss potential changes in the Discussion panel of any article and implement when a consensus is reached.

Avoid Orphaned Articles

Your article won't go anywhere if it isn't linked elsewhere in the site. Add links to the article using the double square bracket syntax or hyperlinks when the article title is used in other parts of the wiki.

Add the article to an appropriate Category. Category flags are case sensitive.