Editorial Guidelines

Because DIYers depend on Wiki content to be not only informative but clear and correct, we have established a few guidelines for those who wish to edit or add content to the diychristmas.org Wiki. These guidelines are not intended to restrict access but rather to ensure that the quality of the content remains very high. Therefore, it is imperative that content be thoroughly proofread for the following:

• Spelling There is no excuse for spelling errors. Typographical errors may happen from time to time but spelling errors are usually blatantly obvious. The Wiki does not use a spellchecker. It is suggested that you prepare your documents using a word processor that has a spellchecker before placing the text in the Wiki. Copy/paste usually works quite well from a word processor screen into the Wiki editing screen.

• Grammar While we don't expect to see Shakespearean verse, it is our expectation that authors will use sound grammatical sentence structure when composing content for the Wiki. Make your writing clear as a bell; eliminate ambiguity and/or misleading references. Short sentences are generally much more clear than long, compound sentences. Don't dangle your modifiers! (But if you're modifying a dongle, well, good luck to you!)

• Photos "Any old photo will do" is not a good way to approach adding photographs to documents. Make certain that the photos and graphics you insert are clear and focused. Consider cropping-out photographic content that could be confusing or misleading. Remember that not all pictures are worth a thousand words; only really good pictures are.

• Accuracy All other issues aside, if the content is not accurate, it has no value and should not be posted in the Wiki. "Closeness doesn't count except in horseshoes" is an accurate adage in this case.

If you are willing to meet these few editorial guidelines, we'd love to add your name to the authors user list. To do so, send a personal message to dirknerkle in the diychristmas.org forum along with your email address and the topic that you'd like to either create or edit. Your email address is requires so that your access password can be sent to you. After logging into the Wiki, you'll be able to change that password to one that you prefer.