What to do when noticing an error on the wiki

Wiki Help pages
Contributor's guide — Guidelines — Fixing errors howto
Editing pages — Talk pages — Formatting
Code of conduct — Wiki project page — About Gentoo wiki — Wiki FAQ
Help improve the documentation! — Contributing to Gentoo

There may occasionally be errors on the wiki, as the volume of documentation managed here means some things will inevitably slip through. Anyone reading the wiki who comes across an error can help fix things though! Here are instructions on what to do when noticing an error on the wiki, to get things fixed.

Tip
Please use the just fix it option, if at all possible. It's quick, and means the least work for an already overstretched team ;).

Note
Some pages are protected and not publicly editable, and will have a "view source" button in place of the "Edit" buttons. For these pages, please flag issues on the relevant talk page.

See also
The contributor's guide explains how to start editing articles. See help improve Gentoo by getting involved with documentation! for a full introduction on how to help out on the wiki.

Just fix it

The most useful thing that can be done about an issue on the wiki is to create an account, if not already done, and just fix the issue directly on the wiki! This is the best thing anyone can do to help out around here. Don't worry too much about formatting, or the quality of the English - editors can touch this up later - the main thing is to get erroneous information removed from the wiki.

Even an imperfect solution can be fixed up by editors later, so don't worry about making things absolutely flawless. If an edit is short, and makes things better than they were before, it should be a good contribution, at least to work from. Just refrain from making large edits, as these can be hard to untangle.

Check out the contributor's guide for more information on creating accounts, on how to start editing the wiki, and on how to make the best additions possible. If making more substantial edits to the wiki, please do be sure to check out that guide, and the official wiki guidelines.

Flag the issue on talk pages

If a solution to a problem found in an article isn't immediately apparent, please do still leave a note on the offending article's talk page to inform everyone of the issue. This way another editor to come along and fix it, or the team can ask for follow-up information on what is wrong.

Inform editors of issues on protected pages and propose solutions

Pages such as the handbook and project pages have editing restricted to try to ensure quality.

Any changes needed to these protected pages should be added to a new section of the relevant talk page. If possible, please do propose a solution to any issues with the {{Proposal}} template.

Note
It is very useful when flagging issues on protected pages to propose a fix on the corresponding talk page with the {{Proposal}} template. This can both make things clearer as to what the issue is, and save time for the editors.

If all else fails

There are always other ways to help get an issue fixed, so here are a couple for reference, but please do just fix things directly or use the talk pages if a discussion is really needed.

IRC in #gentoo-wiki

Though the above solutions are preferable, it is possible to come and tell us on IRC about an issue, on the #gentoo-wiki (webchat) channel. Please only do this as a final recourse, as it is much easier for the wiki team to organize their work when things are clearly stated on talk pages, and this avoids things being forgotten or missed (not everybody has time to constantly monitor the IRC channel).

Contact wiki team by email

If there really isn't any other way, it's always possible to get in touch with a wiki administrator, for example by email.