Help:Your first article

The basics

WikiCyber articles go through three stages: drafting in your personal sandbox, submission for review, and publication to the main wiki. This guide walks through all three.

Before you start writing

Pick a topic you actually know or can research well

The strongest WikiCyber articles come from editors who either work in the area professionally, have studied it formally, or are willing to do serious research to get the details right. Be honest with yourself about which category you're in, as it determines your sourcing obligations (see below).

Check whether the article already exists

Search the wiki before you start. If a related article exists, consider whether your topic is better as:

• A new standalone article
• A new section within the existing article
• An expansion of an existing but underdeveloped section

Duplicate or heavily overlapping articles fragment coverage and make the wiki harder to navigate. Reviewers may ask you to merge your draft into an existing page instead of publishing separately.

Gather your sources first

Before writing a word, collect what you'll be citing:

• Official documentation (RFCs, vendor docs, NIST/OWASP publications, CVE entries)
• Academic papers or textbooks
• Reputable community sources like well-maintained GitHub repositories, established security research blogs, credible conference talks (DEF CON, Black Hat, etc.), or established YouTube channels in the field

Skim them and take notes before drafting. Trying to find sources after writing a claim tends to produce weaker, cherry-picked citations.

Does this topic belong on WikiCyber?

Ask yourself:

• Is this a real, established topic in cybersecurity, IT, or a closely related field?
• Can it be covered with real depth, not just a stub definition?
• Is there enough legitimate source material to support it?

If yes to all three, it's a good candidate. If you're unsure, ask an administrator!

Look at similar articles

Before drafting, read one or two existing WikiCyber articles on related topics. Pay attention to how they build from overview to advanced material, as this is the structure reviewers will expect from your draft too.

Writing your draft

Choose an editing tool

WikiCyber supports both:

• VisualEditor: a visual, formatted editing experience. Easier for prose-heavy sections.
• Source editing (wikitext): more control, and necessary for some formatting like citation templates or code blocks. Most experienced editors end up using source editing for technical articles, since it makes handling code snippets and references easier.

You can switch between the two at any time using the tabs at the top of the edit screen.

Where to start writing

Draft in your personal sandbox: Special:MyPage/sandbox. This is your own space to write, revise, and abandon drafts without affecting the live wiki.

Structuring your content

Follow WikiCyber's structure:

1. Overview: a plain-language summary. Anyone should be able to read this and understand what the topic is and why it matters.
2. Core concepts: these are the foundational mechanics required before going deeper.
3. Deeper mechanics: implementation details, protocol-level behavior, real configuration or code examples, attack/defense specifics. This is where WikiCyber articles should go further than a general-purpose encyclopedia.
4. Advanced / practitioner notes (optional): nuance for someone working in the field: pitfalls, current best practices, tooling, open problems, etc.

Use section headings (== Heading ==) to mark divisions clearly.

Citing sources

WikiCyber has a specific sourcing policy:

Editors with at least an Associate's degree (or higher) in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or a closely related field

May cite their own expertise directly, without an external source, within their area of expertise. State your credential on your user page so reviewers can verify it.

Editors without such a credential

Must cite an external source for non-trivial claims, using <ref> tags. Acceptable sources include official documentation, academic papers, reputable security research, and credible community sources (established GitHub repos, respected YouTube channels, conference talks).

Regardless of credential: if a claim is surprising, safety-relevant, or likely to be challenged, cite a source anyway.

AI-assisted writing

AI tools may be used to help draft or edit content. However, the editor remains fully responsible for accuracy, inaccuracies introduced by AI assistance are treated the same as any other editing error. Verify anything AI-generated against a real source before submitting, especially specific technical details (command syntax, version numbers, CVE identifiers, protocol behavior) where AI tools are prone to mistakes and hallucinations.

Dos and don'ts

Do:

• Build from simple to advanced
• Cite according to the policy above
• Use real, working code/config examples where relevant, clearly marked as such
• Keep terminology consistent with how it's used elsewhere on the wiki

Don't:

• Copy text from other websites or documentation verbatim
• Leave advanced sections uncited even if the overview section is well-sourced
• Submit a draft that's still an outline
• Add promotional links (your own website, donation or 'buy me a coffee' pages, affiliate links). These belong only on your user profile page.

Publish your draft

Pre-publication checklist

Before submitting, check that your draft:

• Has a clear overview any reader could follow
• Builds logically from basic to advanced material
• Is properly sourced according to your citation tier
• Doesn't duplicate an existing article's coverage

Ask for a review

Add {{Submit}} to the very top of your draft page. This will:

• Display a notice that the draft has been submitted for review
• Add the page to the review queue, where an experienced editor will find it

A reviewer will look at your draft and either publish it to the main wiki or send it back with feedback. You can keep editing while you wait.

After review

If approved, your draft is moved into the main article space and becomes a normal WikiCyber page. An administrator approves a draft with the Approve draft button in its "submitted for review" notice, and you will be emailed when it is published.

Help is available

If you get stuck at any point, reach out to an administrator via Special:ListUsers/sysop.