Pensapedia:Contributing to Pensapedia

Shortcut: PP:CTP

Create an account

You do not have to log in to read Pensapedia. You do not have to log in even to edit articles on Pensapedia – just about anyone can edit almost any article at any given time, even without logging in, and many long-time contributors do not log in. Nevertheless, creating an account is quick, free and non-intrusive and provides several benefits, as listed at Pensapedia:Why create an account?.

Fix or point out problems

Quite a few people get started on Pensapedia because they are reading an article and they notice an omission, a factual error, or a typo. If you know how to make edits and changes, go ahead, and if you add or change information to an article, please include references, because all unreferenced material is subject to being removed. But if you are not sure what to do, see Pensapedia:How to edit a page; or, go to the talk/discussion page associated with the article and make a comment on what you think needs changing. Please remember to end your comment with four tildes like this ~~~~, which will sign and timestamp your comment.

Create new articles

Pensapedia articles contain lots of links to other articles. Blue (or purple, if you have already visited them) links represent pages that do exist. Red links (or tan, if you have already visited them) point to pages that do not yet exist, or have been deleted. Whoever created these links thought that an article on the topic should exist. If this was not a popular idea, the link may have been removed. It is also possible that a spelling error was made, or that they did not know the correct name for an existing page on the same (or a more general) topic. In this case, you could fix the link, and/or create a redirect. If you decide there should be an article at the other end of the link, by all means start writing it!

In addition to looking for red links, you can look at a list of requested articles, and pick one you know something about. (See the section "Where do I start?" below.)

Please read Pensapedia:Starting an article for additional advice about how, why, and when not to create a new article.

For technical help getting started, see Help:Starting a new page.

Merge pages

As said above, many people start editing on Pensapedia because they find an inaccuracy or typo while reading an article. Another problem that readers may encounter is partial and/or duplicated information spread among several similar articles, when all would best be found in a single, unified article. Unlike other websites, this is a Wiki, so if you can fit together some of those parts, go ahead and start merging. Even if you do not want to do a full merge, you can still add a link and comment in the main article where you think each of those parts should be merged in, and let another editor complete the merge if they determine it is beneficial. See also: Articles to merge.

Note: Please use the sandbox if you want to experiment (or just to mess around). Only edit articles where needed.

Make a donation

Pensapedia is in constant need of more server capacity, bandwidth and other technical services to keep it running and fast enough to be useful. Financial contributions to our non-profit parent, the Pensapedia Foundation, are greatly appreciated.

Publicize Pensapedia

Get the word out! If you know individuals who are knowledgeable about the Pensacola area in general or are involved in specific businesses or organizations, tell them about Pensapedia and invite them to contribute. We are always looking for new information, especially in areas where our content is lacking. Photos are also welcome (preferably submitted as public domain or under a similar free-use license), and if you own hard copies of photos that need to be scanned, let an administrator know and we'll figure out a way to digitize them.

Help other users

Even new users can help answer factual questions on the Pensapedia:Help desk, which serves the same purpose as a reference desk you might find in your local library. You do not have to be an expert on Pensapedia because:

You can help people find answers in existing Pensapedia articles.
If you know the answer to a question not answered by Pensapedia, you can assist the questioner and at the same time, add that information to Pensapedia for the benefit of future readers.
If you do not know the answer to an interesting question, you can research it in non-Pensapedia sources, and then improve Pensapedia for the benefit of the questioner and future readers.

Thank you very much

Your positive contributions are what make Pensapedia possible.