How to contribute content#

This brief guide teaches you how to contribute content to this website, which includes writing your own stories, editing existing stories and even suggesting additions, changes or removals (for instance, when you think some specific content doesn't fit the world somehow).

General instructions#

If you didn't already, I recommend you to visit the about page in order to learn what this whole website is and its purposes (the main one being that it must serve to flesh out the world). We can now delve into how to contribute to this website, that is, method and formats used.

Built using the MkDocs project, this documentation relies on markdown documents inside the docs folder at the top of the folder hierarchy of the project.

Knowing a number of topics/tools would help you to contribute to this project. Here's a list of them:

  • git (software, a version control system)
  • GitHub (website, a platform which stores projects managed with git and offer other web-based related services)
  • markdown (a digital document format that uses plain text)

Knowing MkDocs and how it works helps, but it is not strictly necessary. For those who are familiar with git, note that all changes are submitted to the develop branch, not to the main branch. This is on purpose, so that it is easier to refine/complement your changes before merging them with main.

However, if you happen to not be a tech-savvy person. There are shortcuts. First, if you don't have an account on GitHub make sure to create one (a free account will provide you if all the power and freedom you need to contribute to this project). This allows you to create/edit files directly from its web interface.

Now, to edit any page you see in this website directly, simply follow the link displayed on the top right corner of that page that says Edit on GitHub. This will open the document on GitHub and you'll be able to start editing the document by clicking the pencil icon on the top right corner of the document. Even if you never saw the markdown format in your life, it might be possible for you to edit the file without problems by copying the formatting you see in the document when you open it for editing.

Alternatively, you can navigate the contents of the website directly by following this link: https://github.com/IndieSmiths/bionicbluelore/tree/develop/docs. Again, you'll be left inside GitHub, and from there, you can do many different things:

  • navigate the contents of the website by clicking on the folders and files
  • edit a file by clicking the document's name and then clicking the pencil icon that appears on the top right corner of the document that is shown
  • upload or create a new file by clicking the Add file button near the top right corner of the page

When it is time to submit the changes, though, knowing some of the terms used in git and GitHub will help, but you should actually be fine if you simply confirm all given prompts (everything that's presented to you should be costless, harmless and normal procedure). There's no need to fret over the changes, as they won't override the existing ones either. Submitting the changes just means the people managing this website will receive your changes and decide to approve them, require extra changes before approving them, or reject them after properly and politely explaining the reason for that.

Specific sections and their format#

The website is divided into 02 specific sections, each with their own pages further linking related documents. These sections also contain specific instructions related to their format for people wishing to contribute to them. These sections are...

  • the storylines section, that is, the big events that define this world (they are like books): storylines
  • smaller, but no less important records/accounts from this world (smaller stories): records and accounts.

Thinking like a designer (for games or other media), each storyline is a larger story that could be turned into its own media, perhaps a book or a game. And each smaller record/account could be turned into a quest, level, chapter or simply used to enrich the content for a medium (again, not necessarily a game).

If you are not sure about the scope of a story you want to contribute, start it as a record or account. Depending on how much it evolves over time you can always turn it into a storyline, moving it to the "other storylines" section. Contributing doesn't mean you will only be creating new stories. Feel free to work on existing records/accounts, other storylines or even the main storyline.

Using and uploading images#

Images (characters, maps, graphs, sketches, etc.) can help your stories pop up or help show the world. Just like in a book, try not to abuse them, though. Of course, if you absolutely must use an image for some purpose, don't hesitate either.

However, please, don't upload them directly to this website's repository right away. Your story may change from your initial draft, resulting in changes in the visual elements depicted in your images, like characters, maps, etc.

So, instead, use a free hosting service like imgur.com and link directly to that image. Once your story is consolidated over time, you can ask the people managing the project to host your image in some more permanent way, either on our own servers or using another solution. Either way, there will be no cost for you (but again, try not abusing the usage of images, as hosting many heavy files can get expensive for the project).

Discussing things#

You can always start a discussion on the discussion tab of the project for many different purposes. Here are some great ones (but, really, there's no need to limit yourself to these; as long as it is relevant to the project, your discussion is welcome):

  • to give feedback about a storyline or record/account
  • if you think some existing storyline or record/account or portion thereof doesn't fit the world, to suggest improvements or even in extreme cases and with proper explanation, suggest its removal
  • share mediums that you created based on this world and its stories (remember, the project is public domain)
  • art
  • games
  • minigames
  • writing
  • even other versions/forks of this project approaching the world with your own unique perspective
  • etc.

Issues#

Only create issues for broken things or missing content within the website, like broken links, images that are not loading or that are missing, etc. Use the issues tab of the project for that.