Help:New Page Guide

If you are interested in contributing to Caps Wiki you have found the right place! On the right are the current preloaded template options for creating a new page on the wiki. You can view the template by following the link on the row's header. Feel free to add or remove things as needed when making a device page. Being a wiki it's not too difficult and worst case it can always be updated later. But as some examples:


 * If you want to specify the height or pitch of the capacitors, add a column to the table
 * If you want to document a belt, make a new table under the parts sections to share the measurements
 * If you want to show a mod instead of a repair, make a new section under "Replacement Parts" and have at it

In general you can also delete any sections you don't have information for, they can be added back later by just copy/pasting from the template.

Tutorial
If you want a more direct explanation of the sections there is an Example Device page to act as a tutorial on what information is intended to be put in them.

Sections
The template for new pages preloads the editor with a lot of sections. Feel free to delete any sections you can't fill in and just put up what you can. Any sections missing from a page can be put back with a copy/paste from the template.

Categories
When you are creating a device it would be helpful to list it under the Categories that it most relates to. All categories are sub-categories of Device so you only need to put the final category at the end of the tree and it will be automatically traceable through all parent categories. For example, a Sound Blaster would belong to Sound Card which is a child of the Computer Part > Computer > Device hierarchy making it searchable through any one of the parents. There are also some special categories like CRT which may be used to group related devices by other attributes. Feel free to create additional categories and mark their parents as needed.

There are also categories used to track Incomplete Pages. If you are unable to add some information to the devices page you can add it to one of the categories marked as "WorkNeeded". This will have the page show a warning to visitors that the page isn't yet finished while still allowing them to see what has been put up. Once a page has all the information it warns about you can just remove it from the category to remove the warning. If you aren't able to finish a page in one sitting you may find that an editor has come by and added it to one of these categories. Once you finish feel free to remove them without checking with the editor who marked it.

Getting started
This site is still very new and the guidelines and rules are still being worked on. Here are some rough guidelines to start out for new submissions though:

File Uploads
Feel free to upload any of your own images, or those with permissible rights, to provide more information and show specific things to users. When doing so it would be beneficial to give it a simple description and remember to choose a license

Please upload any manuals, schematics, ROM images, or other manufacturer created documentation or resources to Archive.org and link to it in a reference here. This site doesn't have enough storage for holding large PDFs and isn't capable of dealing with possible legal challenges. Reverse engineered or other user created documents, with the author's permission, may be uploaded here.

Only Replacement Part Information
It would be ideal to have the information about the original parts, but if you repaired a device and found something that worked and want to share that's helpful in it's own right. If you do only have compatible parts, please only link to the parts you used instead and don't put their values down as the original. That section is specifically so there is a record of what the device was designed to use.

Incomplete Pages
You may not be able to provide full information about the causes or solutions to repairs, you may not have images of the device or repairs, or may not like writing much. That's all fine, it would be better to document what you have for others so it can be built up later. So don't feel bad about putting up a small page with not a lot.

Editing
Feel free to update pages that could use some more work. There is an EditorsToolbox that has links to pages that could use some more work in various ways.

Templates
Templates are a feature on MediaWiki sites like this to provide a structured way to add page elements that are repeated frequently. The only way to edit the non-parameter text of the templates is to edit the templates themselves which will propagate the changes across the entire site.

Data Tables
Unfortunately there isn't a native method for creating editable table templates. As a workaround the Template:DevicePage/Preload contains tables by default for providing information suitable for common radial electrolytic capacitors. If you need other types of tables or need to replace one that was removed you can copy/paste them from EditorsToolbox:Tables. If you make any tables that could be useful for other devices, feel free to add empty versions there for others.

MoreInfo
The MoreInfo creates a small note for linking to a page with more information meant to be used in small sections that just give a brief summary.

Example:

WikipediaInfo
WikipediaInfo is for linking to an external Wikipedia article about a topic to provide more general information.

Example:

Template:Wikipedia rectifies some issues with the old template and has a cleaner syntax.

Example:

InfoboxDevice
Template:InfoboxDevice is for creating the quick info displays at the top of device pages

Example:

Disassembly
At the top of every device page there is a tab labeled “Disassembly” that can be used to document how to Disassemble or teardown a device. It’s a little weird to add tabs like this and it currently shows up on all pages so I’m still working out some kinks. But if you have more advanced notes and photos this would be a better place to put them than the disassembly notes section which is meant to give users a quick summary of things to watch out for before working on something. You could also make a quick note there and link to the disassembly page with more information as well.

If you want to write up a full teardown guide for a device, this is the place to do it. There isn't currently a guide on how it should be done or any solid examples, so feel free to do whatever makes sense to you.