Documentation:EditingGuidelines

This pages lists rules that should apply to all pages in the Official Documentation (ie the Documentation:* namespace in this wiki). Feel free to discuss additions to this list on the discussion page.

Editing

If you are unsure about something you'd like to add to the documentation, please discuss it first in the page's discussion page before adding it. We want to keep this documentation as accurate as possible. (People often review the wiki so you're likely to get a confirmation in a few days time)

Structure

The docs (Play HowTo, Streaming HowTo, Hacker's Guide, etc.) should start by defining base concepts and gradually cover more advanced topics. The user should be able to read it sequentially (like any other online documentation, but unlike most wikis).

One exception to this rule is the Documentation:Modules/* space. Each of these pages should focus on a specific modules, with greater detail than what can be put in the basic documentation.

Formatting

Page formatting needs to be kept consistent. Check existing pages to see what that means.

Links between different docs

These are of course allowed. Just keep in mind the "Structure" rule :)

Links to other wiki pages and websites

The documentation needs to be self contained. Definitions of important concepts should be in the documentation. This makes it possible to export it as a PDF and keep it understandable. Links to advanced topics, like what you have in the "SEE ALSO" section in Unix man-pages, would of course be OK.

Images

Some parts of the documentation will need images, illustrations. Unfortunately, image uploading is currently disabled in the VideoLAN wiki. If you are a VideoLAN developper and have an account on people.videolan.org, please upload images there. If you aren't a VideoLAN developer, just link to an image hosted somewhere else on the web and we'll download a copy and change the content to point there.