MozillaZine Knowledge Base:About

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The purpose of the MozillaZine Knowledge Base is to help gather support, resources, hints, tips and answers to FAQs (frequently asked questions) for Mozilla products, all in one place. We welcome contributions from everyone, so feel free to pitch in!

If you're looking for help with your Mozilla products, the MozillaZine Knowledge Base can provide you with information. However, the MozillaZine Knowledge Base is not intended to be a support forum. If you want discuss your problems with others, we recommend you use the mozillaZine Forums, the Mozilla IRC service, or the Mozilla Support Newsgroups.

Using the Knowledge Base

Browsing the MozillaZine Knowledge Base is like browsing any other web site. You can use the search function on the right, or you can browse from the top.

Contributing to the Knowledge Base

The MozillaZine Knowledge Base is a wiki, and we welcome contributions from anyone. Once you have an account, you are free to comment on articles, modify existing articles, and create brand new ones.

Getting an account

Request an account in the MozillaZine Site Discussion forum Knowledge Base thread.

Commenting on articles

If you feel something's missing from one of the articles here, or if you feel that something's not quite clear, we invite you to provide your feedback on the article's talk page. When on the article you want to comment on, click the Discussion link on the right. If there's already discussion on that page, you'll be able to see it. To add your comments, click the Edit button. If there isn't already discussion on that page, you'll be brought immediately to the edit screen.

Add your comments in an appropriate place. If the topic is already being discussed, put your comments with the existing discussion. If not, just add them to the end. Don't worry about adding headers or formatting if you're not familiar with how to create them. The only thing you should make sure to do is to sign your comments. To sign your comments, put your cursor at the end of your comments, then press the Signature button http://kb.mozillazine.org/skins/common/images/button_sig.png on top of the text box (the second one from the right). This will put in the text --~~~~, which will be changed to your signature when you save your changes.

You can also comment on MozillaZine Knowledge Base articles in the mozillaZine Site Discussion forum, if that's a more comfortable place for you.

Editing an article

If you want to make major changes to an article, we recommend you describe the changes you want to make on the article's discussion page first. This will let others provide feedback on your proposal.

To edit an article, when on the article you want to edit, click the Edit button. Here you will be provided the source of the page. If you don't know how to add formatting or headers, don't worry - make the changes anyway and one of the more experienced members can clean up the formatting and give you some tips.

Before saving your changes, we highly recommend you preview first and proofread what you've changed. Don't be concerned about "messing up" a page. Even if you notice a mistake after saving, you can immediately edit the page again and fix it. History is kept on every revision of a page, so at the very worst, mistakes made can be completely undone with a few clicks.

You can learn about how to do formatting at MozillaZine Knowledge Base:Formatting or by viewing the wiki-source of existing articles. You can also practice and experiment in the Sandbox.

If you go to the Knowledge Base Rules page and start clicking the links, you might soon get the impression that you'll have to spend a few hours reading all the various rules and guidelines before you can start contributing to the Knowledge Base. That is not our intention. While it is true that people who become regular contributors gradually absorb the style guidelines and learn how to do things like categorize new articles, we don't expect new contributors to know all the idiosyncratic editorial guidelines and procedures used here. What matters most is that if you have something positive to contribute, then contribute! Go ahead and add your content, and if necessary someone else will come along later to pretty it up.

Creating a new article

To create an article, you must first think of a title. It's not vital that this title is perfect (see article naming conventions) since articles can always be moved later. Type in a URL in the MozillaZine Knowledge Base domain that contains the title you want. Let's say you want to create an article named "Firefox ate my cat". You would go to "http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox ate my cat". Once there, click on edit, and then start typing. Most of the previous section applies here as well.

Once the article is created, it will automatically come up in any searches with the correct term. The regulars around here will also notice its creation and provide any help needed with formatting and categorization.

Keeping up with changes

The Recent changes page, linked on the right, is an automatically generated list of the most recent edits to the MozillaZine Knowledge Base. The regulars use this to see what's been happening recently in the MozillaZine Knowledge Base.

You can create a watchlist of articles that you're interested in. Any articles you create will be added to your watchlist. You can add additional articles by clicking the "Watch" link on the article's pages. To see what's happening recently with articles in your watchlist, you can click "My watchlist" on the right.

Making big changes

If you want to propose changes that affect a number of articles, for example a new categorization system or a generally reformatting of a class of articles, you should make your suggestion at Knowledge Base changes. Doing so will give other editors a chance to give their opinions on the proposal. Even if you don't think your change will be implemented, we're still interested in hearing your opinions.