Too many people hesitate to edit a Wiki. There's nothing wrong with just reading, and everyone is welcome to do so. . . but why not write as well as read?
Everyone who adds to a Wiki makes it better
No, really. The best explanations of why "two plus two is four" sometimes happen when someone says that two plus two is five! Even if you have no real knowledge to add, it keeps the rest of us on our toes and gives us something to build on. Of course, the truth is that you do have things of value to add. We all do.
You can't really make a mistake
No matter what happens, it's easy to fix. If you make a typo, someone will come along and fix it. If you say something wrong, someone will come along and correct it. If you blow away a page, someone will come along and revert it. There's nothing to worry about, so you have nothing to lose.
It's not as hard as it looks
Using the fancy formatting features might seem tricky at first, but it's not so bad once you get going. More importantly, the real meat here is in the plain 'ol text. Even if you're deathly afraid of touching anything, feel free to add and edit text, and you could always leave it for others to clean up the formatting.
Use your invisible partners!
There are people with great stuff to say, but who are deathly afraid to use the formatting features. There are others who are happy to format, make tables, and clean up links all day, but don't feel they have anything of value to actually add. Without even knowing each other, these two groups can make great wiki pages, if only they would all dive in and do it.
Really, really basics
To edit a page
* There's button for editing on every page. Find it. Hit it. * Change whatever you like. Hit Preview often to see the effects of what you've done. * Hit Save at some point. Edit more later if you want, but always hit Save before leave. * Don't worry about it.
To make a new page
* Start by coming up with a WikiName for your page. That's any word with two or more capital letters in it. The Wiki will automagically turn your WikiName into a link when you save. Maybe you want to write about "drawing dead." A good name might be "DrawingDead." * Think of a place to put your WikiName. Maybe you can stick it in the page about PotOdds. Maybe on the page for CountingOuts. Pick one page to start, and edit that page, and put the word DrawingDead someone on the page. If someone already uses the words "Drawing Dead," you've got a perfect candidate to replace. * After you put "DrawingDead" on the page and hit save you'll see a new link to your name. Click on your new link! * Since it's a new page, you'll get the option to create a blank page or use a template. Ignore the templates for now; just make a new page from scratch. * Type whatever you want. Hit Preview often to see the results. Hit save before you leave. Don't worry if you don't have time to finish; just save what you have done. You can pick it up again next time, or someone else will continue it for you. * You're done! Your new page is already in the indexes; people can search for it or use the link to come in. Your page will show up on the RecentChanges page so interested people know there's something to read.
Hints for finding a place to stick your new WikiName
Sometimes it's easy -- the idea for a new page hits you while reading an existing page, and you know exactly where to stick the link. Other times, it's trickier. * If you can't think of a sensible page for your link, try searching on the words in your wiki name. You'll often find the words from your WikiName used in many places, most of which would work great as a link to your new page. * If your subject just isn't out there yet, you can use the PageIdeas page. * For a temporary place to start a link, just throw it into the WikiSandBox.
Optional Followup
There are some followup steps you can take on your own pages or on others'. * Find all the pages in the Wiki that talk about a subject, and make sure they all have links to the new page. You don't need the link on a page twenty times just because the words are used over and over, but every page that refers to "Drawing Dead" ought to have a link to the Drawing Dead page somewhere on it. * Add sensible Category tags at the bottom of the page. The tags let people look up all the pages that pertain to a particular category. You can check out the available categories in CategoryCategory.
Help!
See HelpForBeginners to get you going, HelpContents for all help pages.
To learn more about what a WIki is, read about WhyWikiWorks and the WikiNature. Also, consult the WikiWikiWebFaq.