WikiPaintball:Contributor guide

Welcome to the WikiPaintball Contributor Guide.

WikiPaintball is a community-driven encyclopaedia dedicated to documenting the history of paintball worldwide, including its players, teams, tournaments, organisations, manufacturers, equipment, fields and culture.

The project aims to preserve information that might otherwise be lost as old websites disappear, publications become difficult to find and historical records are forgotten.

Anyone with an interest in paintball history can help improve WikiPaintball. You do not need to be a professional writer, historian or experienced wiki editor.

This guide explains how to contribute and introduces the editorial standards used throughout the encyclopaedia.

Getting started

There are several ways to contribute to WikiPaintball:

• Correct factual errors in existing articles.
• Add verified tournament results, dates and historical information.
• Improve incomplete articles.
• Create articles about subjects not yet documented.
• Find historical sources and archived websites.
• Improve internal links, redirects and categories.
• Identify missing information or conflicting historical accounts.
• Help organise and maintain the encyclopaedia.

Even a small contribution, such as correcting a player's name or supplying an original tournament result, can improve the historical record.

For more information about contributing, see WikiPaintball:Get involved.

Before editing

Before contributing, familiarise yourself with WikiPaintball's core editorial policies.

• WikiPaintball:Editorial standards explains the general rules for writing accurate, neutral and appropriately focused articles.
• WikiPaintball:Article inclusion explains which subjects qualify for their own articles.
• WikiPaintball:Sources and references explains acceptable sources, historical verification and citation formatting.
• Help:Naming conventions establishes consistent article titles, including how to handle teams with identical names.
• WikiPaintball:Corrections and disputes explains how to correct inaccurate information and resolve disagreements.
• WikiPaintball:Using AI to write articles explains the appropriate use and limitations of artificial intelligence.

These guidelines apply to all contributors.

The central principle is simple: publish what can be verified, not what can be assumed.

Editing an existing article

Improving an existing article is often the easiest way to begin contributing.

To edit an article:

1. Open the article you wish to improve.
2. Select the Edit or Edit source option, depending on the editing tools available.
3. Locate the information requiring correction or expansion.
4. Make your changes.
5. Add reliable sources for factual claims.
6. Preview your changes where possible.
7. Provide a short edit summary.
8. Save the article.

Before changing historical information, check the existing references and consider whether the new information is supported by stronger evidence.

Do not remove accurate material simply because it is incomplete or because another version of events is more familiar to you.

For significant factual changes, explain the correction in the edit summary or on the article's discussion page.

See WikiPaintball:Corrections and disputes.

Creating a new article

Before creating a new article, search WikiPaintball to make sure the subject is not already covered.

Search for:

• The subject's established name.
• Alternative spellings and abbreviations.
• Former team or business names.
• Similar names from other countries.
• Existing redirects.

A new article should only be created when the subject is directly relevant to paintball and sufficient verifiable information exists to produce a useful encyclopaedia entry.

WikiPaintball does not require subjects to be internationally famous or widely covered by mainstream media.

Regional teams, amateur players, historical fields, small manufacturers and local competitions may all qualify when their activities can be documented.

However, the existence of a name alone does not necessarily justify an article.

See WikiPaintball:Article inclusion for the full inclusion policy.

Writing an article

WikiPaintball articles should be factual, concise and focused on their subjects.

A typical article begins with a short introduction identifying the subject and its connection to paintball.

Additional sections may describe its history, competitive participation, products, activities or other relevant information.

Use descriptive headings where appropriate.

For example:

'''Example Team''' was a paintball team
that competed in regional tournaments.

== History ==

Verified information about the team's
documented activities.

== Tournament results ==

Verified competition results, where available.

== References ==

# [SOURCE_URL Source title]

[[Category:Paintball teams]]

This is an illustrative structure. Replace the placeholder reference with a genuine supporting source.

Not every article needs every section.

A short article with two paragraphs of reliable information is preferable to a long article containing speculation or generic background material.

Avoid including extensive histories of other teams, players or organisations. Link to their own articles instead.

Basic MediaWiki formatting

WikiPaintball uses MediaWiki formatting, commonly known as wikitext.

Headings

Use equals signs to create section headings.

== History ==

=== Early years ===

== Tournament results ==

Internal links

Use double square brackets to link to other WikiPaintball articles.

[[Paintball]]

[[San Diego Dynasty]]

To display a different link label, use a vertical bar.

[[San Diego Dynasty|Dynasty]]

Link relevant subjects naturally, without linking every repeated mention.

Bold and italic text

Use three apostrophes for bold text and two for italic text.

'''Bold text'''

''Italic text''

The article's subject is normally bolded in its introductory sentence.

Categories

Categories help organise WikiPaintball articles.

Add relevant categories at the bottom of an article.

For example:

[[Category:Paintball teams]]
[[Category:New Zealand paintball teams]]

Use existing categories whenever possible rather than creating unnecessary variations.

Tables

Tables may be used for tournament results, equipment specifications and other structured information.

Only include verified information.

Do not create tables filled with guessed dates, incomplete rosters or unsupported statistics.

Sources and references

Reliable sources are essential to WikiPaintball.

Useful sources include:

• Official tournament results and league records.
• Contemporary paintball magazines and publications.
• Archived team and manufacturer websites.
• Official announcements and historical documents.
• Tournament programmes and registration records.
• Credible interviews and firsthand accounts, appropriately identified.
• Historical forums and online discussions, evaluated according to their reliability.

Contemporary records are generally preferable when establishing specific dates, results and other formally recorded information.

Personal recollections can be valuable, particularly when written records are incomplete, but they should not automatically be presented as independently verified fact.

Citation format

WikiPaintball uses manually numbered citations in the article text.

For example:

The team competed in a tournament
during 2003.[1]

== References ==

# [SOURCE_URL Official tournament results]

The source URL above is a placeholder.

References should be numbered in the order they first appear.

Reuse the same citation number when referring to the same source again.

Do not invent references or cite sources that do not support the information being presented.

For the complete citation and evidence policy, see WikiPaintball:Sources and references.

Researching historical information

Paintball history is often difficult to reconstruct.

Older tournament records may be incomplete, team websites may have disappeared and surviving sources may contradict one another.

Contributors should distinguish between documented facts and reasonable but unverified possibilities.

In particular:

• A team's earliest documented appearance is not necessarily its founding date.
• A missing tournament result does not establish that a team did not compete.
• An inactive website does not prove that a business closed.
• Shared players do not automatically establish continuity between two teams.
• A player's appearance in a photograph does not necessarily establish team membership.
• A manufacturer's earliest surviving advertisement does not necessarily establish a product's release date.

Where reliable information cannot be established, omit the detail or clearly explain the uncertainty when appropriate.

Do not manufacture certainty from incomplete records.

Naming articles

Article titles should normally use the subject's established name.

For paintball teams, geographic or descriptive qualifiers should only be added when necessary to distinguish different subjects.

If two unrelated teams share the same name, both should receive qualified titles and the unqualified name should become a disambiguation page.

Do not automatically give the better-known team priority.

Existing titles that do not follow these conventions may be corrected gradually as articles are reviewed.

See Help:Naming conventions for the full policy.

Redirects

Redirects help readers locate articles under alternative names.

They may be appropriate for former team names, abbreviations, nicknames and alternative spellings.

A redirect should identify one clear subject.

Where a name refers to multiple unrelated subjects, use a disambiguation page instead.

See WikiPaintball:Redirects.

Using artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence may assist with researching and drafting WikiPaintball articles.

It can be useful for identifying potential sources, organising information, summarising documents and preparing initial article drafts.

However, AI-generated information is not automatically reliable.

AI systems may:

• Invent dates, names or tournament results.
• Confuse similarly named teams.
• Combine unrelated historical events.
• Misinterpret incomplete records.
• Generate nonexistent or misleading citations.
• Present uncertain information with excessive confidence.

Contributors must independently verify factual claims and references before publishing.

AI should assist historical research, not replace it.

See WikiPaintball:Using AI to write articles.

Correcting mistakes

WikiPaintball is an ongoing historical project, and some articles may contain inaccuracies.

Corrections are encouraged.

If you identify an error:

1. Check the statement against reliable evidence.
2. Correct the information if you have editing access.
3. Add or update the supporting reference.
4. Explain significant changes where appropriate.

If you cannot edit the article or the issue is disputed, use its discussion page where available or contact WikiPaintball administrators.

Disagreements should focus on evidence, not personalities.

See WikiPaintball:Corrections and disputes.

Reviewing and maintaining articles

Contributors can help maintain WikiPaintball by reviewing existing articles for:

• Unsupported claims.
• Incorrect or broken references.
• Duplicate subjects.
• Incorrect article titles.
• Inconsistent categories.
• Broken internal links.
• Missing redirects.
• Outdated information.
• Inaccurate historical relationships.

Article histories allow contributors to review earlier versions and understand how an entry has developed.

Use edit summaries to explain meaningful changes.

When moving an article, use the MediaWiki Move function where available so that its revision history is preserved.

Working with other contributors

WikiPaintball is intended to become a collaborative historical resource.

Contributors may have specialist knowledge of particular countries, competitive formats, teams, manufacturers or periods of paintball history.

Different contributors may also remember historical events differently.

Discussion and collaboration should be based on mutual respect, reliable evidence and a willingness to correct mistakes.

No contributor's personal reputation or experience makes their historical claims automatically authoritative.

Where sources conflict, examine the evidence and acknowledge unresolved uncertainty.

Keeping information up to date

WikiPaintball documents both historical and contemporary paintball.

Contributors are encouraged to update relevant articles when new verified information becomes available.

However, historical information should not be removed simply because it is no longer current.

For example, older rosters, past tournament results and former organisational names may remain important parts of an article's history.

Updates should preserve a clear distinction between past and present activities.

Further guidance

The following pages provide detailed instructions and editorial policies.

Getting involved

• Get involved: Ways to contribute to the project.
• Contributor guide: This introduction to editing WikiPaintball.

Editorial guidelines

• Editorial standards: General article quality and writing requirements.
• Article inclusion: Criteria for creating new articles.
• Sources and references: Historical evidence, verification and citations.
• Naming conventions: Article titles and disambiguation.
• Redirects: Alternative names and redirect pages.
• Using AI to write articles: Responsible AI-assisted research and drafting.

Corrections and discussion

• Corrections and disputes: Reporting mistakes, handling conflicting sources and resolving disagreements.

External links

• MediaWiki editing help
• MediaWiki formatting guide
• MediaWiki links guide
• MediaWiki categories guide