Contributing Guide

Edits and new content is welcome and encouraged! Please use this guide to get the basics down, then head to the Needs Love category and start adding, or add your own sites!

You'll need to make an account (simple and free) and be logged in to make changes.

All contributors and users must abide by our Code of Conduct.

Philosophy

How are dive sites organized?

Pages are usually one of these three types: Land Feature, Water Region, or Point of Interest.

Land Feature

A Land Feature is a beach, access point, or region of land. A Land Feature page should contain the following:

• Main Section (Name, Description)
• Access (by Road/Address, Parking, Map if appropriate)
• Amenities
  • Restrooms
  • Showers
• Diving (Water Regions (links), Points of Interest (links))

Water Region

A Water Region is a cove, bay, or general area of water, usually containing Points of Interest. A Water Region Page should contain the following:

• Main Section (Name, Description, Parent Land Feature)
• Access (by Road/Address, Parking, Open Hours/Entry Fees/Etc.)
• Diving (Contained Points of Interest (links))

Point of Interest

A Point of Interest is an underwater site or region that is interesting for some reason (a reef, a wreck or some other underwater destination). A Point of Interest should contain the following:

• Main Section (Coordinates, Name, Description, Parent Water Region)
• Quick Info
  • Coordinates
  • Depth
  • Skill Level
  • Access Method (e.g. kayak/boat, surface swim, charter, etc.)
• Attractions/Wildlife
• Entry & Access (entry Location, Coordinates, other access methods (pipes, etc.))
  • Map
• Skill Level & Hazards

Practical Bits

Page Creation

Please feel free to create your own pages for dive sites or other features. We recommend using an existing page as a template; you can enter edit mode on the page and copy-paste the code to the new page, editing as you go.

Please create the parent Land Feature or Water Region for your POI if it doesn't exist yet; if it does exist, please add your page to it so people can find it (and link to the parent from the page you're creating). Also, be sure to add it to the main listings on the Main Page.

Page Content Layout

• Pages should use the Organization section's bullets as headings and sub-headings.
• Maps are inserted as the first item below the Entry & Access section.
• Quick Info boxes for Points of Interest should go immediately after/in the Main Section.
• Please cite appropriately. At the least, include a ref tag to indicate your source:

  This dive spot is the most popular in the world<ref>https://dubiousclaims.example.com/the_page</ref>.

We use vanilla MediaWiki with the Cite extension. Maps are handled by Kartographer extension. Map data is handled as GeoJSON.

Categories

Each page needs categories at the top for:

• Monterey
• [Points of Interest/Water Regions/Land Features]
• [Parent Location] [Points of Interest/Water Regions/Land Features]

I.E. Every page should start with something like:

    [Category:Monterey]]
    [[Category:Points of Interest]]
    [[Category:Breakwater Cove Points of Interest]]

How to Include Images or Wikimedia Content

Images can be uploaded via the Upload file link in the sidebar on the left. It will provide a couple formatting options for images; the Mediawiki Help Page for Images can be helpful beyond that.

You may include images from the Wikimedia Commons provided it's licensed appropriately (shoot for a flavor of CC) as if they were a local image:

[[Image:Metridium_senile_1.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A [[wikipedia:Metridium|Metridium]] anemone]]

Please tag images with their use permissions appropriately, and do not upload copyrighted content.

Tagging for Further Work

If you know of a site that exists, but don't have very much information for it, you can use the "Needs Love" tag, which will show up on the page like this:

---

Help! Do you know this site?

This entry needs some love -- any information you can contribute to the sections below would be much appreciated! Just make an account and click "Edit" in the upper right corner once you've logged in. Thank you!

---

Make sure you add it to the top of the page and place the page in the Needs Love category, which you can do by including this code as the very first thing in the page:

[[Category:Needs Love]]
{{Needs Love}}

If you have good information on the site, but not precise coordinates or you're not sure how to tweak the map, use the "Needs GIS Love" message and category:

[[Category:Needs GIS Love]]
{{Needs GIS Love}}