FAQ

Q: Is this wiki going to be a copy of the Deskthority wiki?

A: No - we are starting from the ground up. You're free to use the DT wiki as a crib sheet, but please do not copy from there wholesale. It's often inaccurate, and the content licensing isn't clear. Please make sure not to plagiarise, and to check any claims for truthfulness before copying them from the DT wiki.

Q: What software is this wiki running? How do I edit?

A: This wiki runs on dokuwiki, all normal dokuwiki syntax applies. We also have a (functioning) visual editor. Further guides will be coming in the near future.

Q: Are there any guides on how to write content for this wiki?

A: They'll be coming soon. In the interim, here are some loose guidelines:

1. Please make sure any claims are sourced well, unless they are extremely common knowledge. You should never have to take this wiki's word, you should always be able to view a source for any information presented here for yourself.
2. Please don't fill pages for switches with lists of keyboards that contain them. We are trying to keep the focus away from this wiki turning into a phonebook for figuring out what switch a keyboard has. Pages for switches are concerned only with the switch itself, not with keyboards that may use it.
3. Please don't put opinions into a page, for example “x is highly regarded” or “some say that x is the best y ever”.
4. Stay on topic! For example, the DT wiki page for Alps SKCM Blue starts talking about its clones. If you're off the topic of the page, please create a new one.
5. Make sure any new page you create has a link to it from at least one other page.
6. Please don't directly link to eBay listings as sources. If you're going to do this, archive it with archive.org and link to the archive. eBay listings are fleeting!

Q: How is the content on this wiki licensed?

A: This wiki is licensed under the CC Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License. By contributing, you agree to license your content in this way. Please do not upload copyrighted content here, which includes directly copying text or images from the Deskthority wiki (unless otherwise noted that the image/text is public domain).

Q: Is modern stuff allowed?

A: Yes, but at the moment we're focusing on getting as much of the vintage content that will be lost if DT.net dies available as possible.

Q: Can I cite ebay listings?

A: Do not directly cite any marketplaces (ebay/facebook/etc) under any circumstance. Marketplace listings get automatically removed eventually, usually after less than a year, so they cannot be used as a source. If you want to cite a marketplace listing you should archive the contents of the listing somewhere like archive.org and cite the archive instead of the marketplace listing. This will ensure that the information you are citing is always available and its contents can be verified. Do not upload marketplace photos to this wiki.

Q: I called and talked to someone at Cherry/Alps/Unicomp/etc. How do I cite what they said?

Do not cite interviews as “emailed so-and-so and they said such-and-such.” If your source is a conversation/interview/correspondence of any kind with a company employee or other relevant person and you want to cite what they said then you must transcribe that conversation or the relevant parts of that conversation. Then you can cite the transcript as you would any other source. The form that transcript takes can vary but the important thing is that other people need to be able to view the source for themselves. You should never have to take this wiki's word on a subject, you should always be able to view the source of cited information for yourself.

Q: Are there any guidelines on photo uploads?

A: Yes, but they're not particularly egregious. Photos should be both free to use (i.e. not copyrighted, or your own work) and not blurry. We don't have any rules regarding backgrounds, or anything like that. If your photo is clear and useful, please upload it :) Do not upload marketplace photos to this wiki. While not outright rules, check out Photo Guidelines for some common-sense guidelines around photos. Your images will not be deleted if they don't meet these guidelines, but we will prefer images that follow them over images that don't.