Stub
From Wine-Wiki
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Introduction
A stub is a very short article, generally of one paragraph or less. Most stubs fail to cover all but the most trivial subject completely. However, this does not mean the stub is not a legitimate article, it just needs to be expanded. When creating or editing a "stub" article, remember that its value is primarily in what it will become, and that it must grow if it is to become anything at all. Don't assume that additions and improvements will immediately pour in of themselves. The best way to draw the attention of others into contributing is by editing it yourself. Your edit will appear on the recent changes page, and others may jump in where there's work being done. You don't have to do extensive research to create a foundation on which others will be eager to build, but you should be thoughtful enough to simply add what you know, or correct what you may know is incorrect (try not to call someone else's work "wrong").
Stub alert!
If you create a stub, please add the following tag at the end: {{stub}}
This will make the article display the following text from Template:stub:
This article is a Stub. You can help Wine-Wiki by expanding it (http://wine-wiki.org/index.php?title=Stub&action=edit).
It encourages other users to expand the article.
When you've added to the article, and it no longer looks like a stub, remove this message.
Expanding stubs
To expand a stub, you can incorporate and cite references about Wine from the Wine forums, books, magazines. Investigate and visit external links, if any, within the article; or you can search Google or Yahoo! for information about the topic.
Some things to consider:
- Write in full, clear sentences, avoiding abbreviations.
- Begin with a clear, helpful, informative description of the subject as an introduction. State what it is used for, who it will affect and any other basic details. A good definition or description may encourage potential contributors by suggesting the limits of the article, indirectly summarizing what needs to be done. For example, "The process of software installation on Windows is dominated by the program called 'Installshield'" might be a good description.
- Try to give more than just a definition or at least a little more. While we must be unbiased and reasonably accurate, what is interesting and important about the subject? If your introduction would make someone want to read further, then it will probably entice someone to write further. As little as one extra sentence can turn a good description into a brilliant stub, e.g. InstallShield can be a tricky step with Wine and often displays errors which can't easily be interpreted by simple mortals as it makes use of DCOM. However Wine is progressing fast". With a start like that, you don't have to know any more yourself; a dozen contributors will be falling over themselves to fill in the details.
- Make sure any relevant linkable words have been linked. But be careful about which words you link to, as we dont want to go overboard with links, just add them when they are relevant and help the reader.
- Submit the article with a Summary comment that will attract the attention of others to your stub. If nothing else, cut and paste the stub itself into the Summary field when you save your article.
- Feel some responsibility for your stub article. There is a fine line between helping by outlining out what needs to be done, and being annoying by not doing anything yourself. If nobody contributes to your stub for a few weeks, roll up your sleeves and expand it yourself. Take the fact that nobody has contributed as a hint and try to make it a better stub.
- Don't just add links. Links are fine normally, but just on their own, they say very little about the topic you are writing about.
Generally, for the shortest of Perfect Stubs, two sentences will do fine as long as they're two good sentences. (And if you don't know enough about a topic to write two good sentences, perhaps consider another topic for writing a stub.) The extra time and concentration required will pay off in a higher probability that you get the ball rolling on something. If you want to contribute something positive to the Wine project, even if you cannot write the whole article yourself, then at least you can let your contribution be an open invitation for participation.
Checking Stubs
The Wikipedia software can display links to stubs differently if you set the Threshold for stub display higher than 0, for example 200 to mark articles shorter than 200 characters. This makes it easy to find/fix (add content to) a stub. See Special:Preferences to set your threshold.
