How to Contribute to the PAX Wiki

Updated

The PAX Wiki at pax.wikidot.com is a community-run resource for the Penny Arcade Expo, built on the Wikidot platform. To contribute, you create a Wikidot account or sign in, then use the site's editing tools to add new pages or revise existing ones. The wiki's own navigation lists "Add a new page," page tags, comments, and a set of site-management tools as the main ways to participate. Because the site states its content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 unless otherwise noted, anything you add is generally expected to fit that license.

Before you start

You need two things:

  • A Wikidot account. The site shows "Create account or Sign in" as the entry point. Editing and page creation are tied to being logged in.
  • A sense of where your content belongs. The wiki is organized around event planning: Event Info, Community Events, PC Freeplay, Console Freeplay, Tabletop Gaming, BYOC LAN Party, Tournaments, Panels, Concerts, and Travel, plus area guides covering transportation, food, hotels, entertainment, and parking.

If you only want to read, no account is needed. The account matters once you want to change something.

Adding a new page

The site provides an "Add a new page" action in its page panel. The general flow on a Wikidot site is:

  1. Sign in.
  2. Use "Add a new page" and give the page a name (this becomes part of its URL).
  3. Write your content in the editor.
  4. Save, then review how the page renders.

Expected result: a new page that appears in the site's page list and recent changes, and that other contributors can edit or discuss.

A practical tip: check whether a page on your topic already exists before creating a new one. The wiki already covers broad ground — event info, freeplay areas, tournaments, panels, concerts, travel, and local food and lodging — so a duplicate page splits information that would be more useful in one place.

Editing existing pages

Wikidot exposes several editing options, and the wiki's own interface describes them:

  • Edit the whole page — change the full contents of a page.
  • Edit individual sections — toggle editing of a specific section when the page supports it.
  • Append content — add to a page without editing the entire source.
  • View source without editing — read the raw wiki markup to understand how a page is built.
  • Rename a page — change its name, and possibly its URL or category.
  • View/set parent page — control breadcrumbs and page hierarchy.

For a first contribution, appending a detail or fixing a section is lower-risk than rewriting a whole page. If you want to understand the markup conventions before writing, "View wiki source" is the fastest way to learn them from existing pages.

Tags, comments, and site tools

Beyond page text, the wiki gives you several lighter-weight ways to contribute:

Tool What it does When to use it
Page tags Labels a page with keywords Help others find related pages; the site already uses tags like food, hotels, and travel-related terms
Comments Discussion attached to a page Ask questions, flag outdated info, or suggest changes without editing
Recent changes Shows what has been edited Track activity and see whether someone already addressed your topic
List all pages Full page index Find gaps or duplicates before adding content
Site Manager pages Administrative tools For maintainers handling site-level settings

Tags are worth using deliberately. The existing tag set mixes event topics with food and drink terms, so adding a tag that matches how the site already labels things will make your page easier to find than inventing a new vocabulary.

Licensing and community expectations

The site states that, unless otherwise stated, its content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0. In practice this means content you contribute is shared under the same terms, and content you reuse from elsewhere needs to be compatible with that license. Don't paste in material you don't have the right to share.

The wiki also links to Wikidot's Terms of Service and Privacy pages, which govern the platform itself. Those are the rules that apply to your account and activity on the site, separate from the content license.

Common snags

  • Not signed in. Editing options won't be available until you create an account or sign in.
  • Creating a duplicate page. Search the page list first; the wiki already has broad coverage of events, travel, and local food and lodging.
  • Ignoring existing structure. The left-hand navigation reflects how the site is organized. Fitting your page into that structure makes it more useful than dropping it in at random.
  • Skipping tags. Untagged pages are harder to surface through the site's own browsing tools.

What the wiki is for

The PAX Wiki describes itself as "a central place for information about the event," created to help people plan their trip. Its framing questions — what PAX is, where it is, how to get there, who else is going, what there is to do, and what hotels and food are nearby — are a good guide to what contributions are welcome. If your addition helps someone plan or enjoy the event, it fits.