A quick guide to contributing to the Knowledge Base

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  • Creator: Chris Ilias
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  • Reviewed by: Chris_Ilias
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The Knowledge Base is created and maintained by dedicated users like you, and with over 30 million visits a week and lots of exciting features every release, we could really use your help. You don't need to put in a lot of time to make a difference either.

This is a quick reference to all you need to know to get started with the Knowledge Base. It also has links to more in-depth resources for those who want to dive in deeper.

Start here

Sign up for a profile. A profile will let you edit articles and post to the forums.

We have a need for contributors of different skill levels and time commitments. See the next sections for ways you can contribute to the knowledge base.

Edit articles (all levels)

It's not easy for writers to spot their own mistakes. Words can be misspelled or punctuation missed. With a new release every 6 weeks for the browser and 12 for the mobile operating system, articles need to be updated so we have accurate instructions and screenshots. Here are a few ways you can approach article updates:

Required skills: You'll need to know wiki markup for this role. Don't worry, we have a markup cheat sheet to help you. After working on a few articles, you'll know the markup so well that you won't even need the cheat sheet.


Write articles (all levels)

Required skills: Ability to write clearly in English. Mistakes are fine if you're learning the language, as long as others understand what you're trying to say. The community will take care of any errors.
  1. Decide on a topic
    • See a list or articles that are waiting to be written by you!
    • Propose an article: if you have an idea for an article, please post it to the KB forum so others can weigh in. If your idea gets approved, it will get added to the list. See [How to come up with ideas for new articles]].
  2. Start writing your article:
    • If you're comfortable with wiki markup, use this template. Make sure to choose the Admin category while your draft is in progress. This will hide the article from search until it's ready.
    • If you're not comfortable with wiki markup, write the article in text format and send it to jsavage@mozilla.com when it's ready.
Articles are continually edited for brevity, clarity and accuracy. If someone edits your article, it doesn't mean your work wasn't valuable. Getting a draft started is the hardest part and you did the heavy lifting!

Convert articles to wiki format (all levels)

Required skills: You'll need to know wiki markup for this role. Don't worry, we have a markup cheat sheet to help you. After working on a few articles, you'll know the markup so well that you won't even need the cheat sheet.

The markup we use has been a barrier for many potential volunteers. In order to keep the community accessible to contributors who aren't comfortable with code, we've started accepting articles in text format, and we'll need your help converting them into wiki format.

  1. See a list of submissions that need to be converted (to be added at a later date).

Review articles (advanced)

When you're comfortable writing and updating articles, consider

Where to go for help

  1. General questions and feedback: start a discussion in the Knowledge base forum. This forum is monitored regularly by other Knowledge Base contributors, including the content manager.
  2. Private questions or concerns: contact Joni Savage (content manager) a private message, email (jsavage@mozilla.com) or a Matrix message (@jsavage:mozilla.org).
  3. Technical questions: If you need someone to check your article and make sure that it's technically accurate, reach out to the following people (or should these be links to the support forums?
    • Accessibility (all products)
    • Firefox (desktop)
    • Firefox for Android
    • Firefox OS
    • Firefox Sync
    • Thunderbird