Getting Started
Welcome to the contribution guide. This book is meant to turngive you intoall athe tools and guidance you need to be an incredible TNTable Wiki editor. We're going to go over some details,details about the layout, as well as tips and tricks for contributing to the wiki/Bookstack. We'll will also outline any specific processes we have developedcreated to ensure contributions are clear and consistent. This book takes a multi-page approach to topics, and introduces concepts one-at-a-time in detail, so go at your own pace.
This does not mean that you cannotmust contributefully withoutread followingthrough thesethis guidelines,guide inbefore contributing! In fact we encourage contributions no matter how big or small, in whatever capacity you are able to. This guide is for those who wish to contribute significantly and are dedicated to the maintenance and upkeep of the wiki.
That being said, there is no wrong way to contribute to the wiki, keep that in mindmind, and have fun!
Let'sWe're going to start with an overview of the basics such as creating pages, where to start, what to put on here, and more.
Creating Pages
Creating new pages is fun and easy! Simply find a relevant spot to put the page and start writing. There are various templates built to help along with this process. If you are unsure about where to put a pagepage, add it to a server's chapter, or find the most relevant book for it. ItDon't worry, it is easyvery simple to move later!pages around after!
Don'tThe needmost important instruction we can give is to worryjust about all the information right away when creatingmake a page, even if there is missing information. Just create the page and put down what you've got. It can be edited, structured, contributed to, and rounded out later. The next most important stepinstruction is creatinglinking andpages. linkingCreate as many links to aas fewmany otherrelevant pages.pages as you can think of. That way othersit will be visible and other players can find it and add their own informationinformation. toThere round out the page, ormay even addbe things that you did not know aboutknow, or had completely forgotten.
What doesshould notI belongwrite hereabout?
Almost everything can be added here, however this is the internet, and it is publicly accessible. So do not post any personal information, anything that could get someone in legal or personal trouble, and as a general rule, be nice. Bookstack is extremely feature-rich, one such feature is extensive and detailed edit histories for each page. Do keep that in mind when making edits. If a revision needs to be removed because it contained personal information please reach out.
There are some things that happen that do cross lines, please use your best judgement when writing about or referencing those kinds of events.
If a revision needs to be removed because it contains personal information, please reach out to the moderation team.
I don't know where to start
That is okay, it can be overwhelming with the amount of things that have happened and amount of information you might have in your brain. The TNTable group is now over a decade old, thatthere is ano LOTshortage of timeinformation to write about. Start with reading some current pages, perhaps a player or server page. This may naturally inspire you to add a new page with some project you worked on. Or you will have additional information about an event and can edit thethat page to add more detail. Best place to start is reading, and then making pages, no matter how much information you have to put down.
Images
Let's also quickly touch on image best-practices to keep our digital hygiene up. Whenever possible please use .jpg and .webp formats for image files. There are also instances where .png is the best format as well, but using JPG and WEBP will help keep file sizes down and not fill up the server storage. Adding an image is easy, find the image button in the editor and upload images as needed. Same process for replacing images.
Old images that are not used on any pages will be periodically deleted. If you want to preserve an old image consider creating a gallery of images, that includes the old image.
Next steps
Congrats on making it this far! Now that you have an overview of the basics we will be doing a deeper dive into the various aspects of BookStack and this wiki. At the bottom of this page you will see a button that says Next with a page beneath it. Click on that to read about browsing BookStack and some tips for making it easier.