View source for Nautical Wiki:Plunge forward

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{{shortcut|[[WV:PF]]}}
{{nutshell|Don't worry about being perfect or making mistakes. If something needs to be done, do it. Jump in and make useful edits to articles.}}
[[Image:Jousting.jpg|thumb|300px|Plunge forward!]]
Being a traveller requires courage, self-confidence, passion and perseverance. Being a [[Wikivoyage:About#Wikivoyagers|Wikivoyager]] requires the same qualities. We expect you to '''plunge forward''' into the task of authoring, editing, and illustrating articles on Wikivoyage.  ''You'' can [[Wikivoyage:How to edit a page|edit]] any article on Wikivoyage (even this one!), ''and we hope that you do''. We need your knowledge, your experience, your talent, and your attention.

Plunging forward means:

*'''Being assertive'''. Your knowledge and experience count! There are few (if any) "travel experts" working on Wikivoyage (if they exist anywhere), so don't worry about not being good enough. '''We want your help'''.
*'''Experimenting'''. There's really not much permanent damage you can do to Wikivoyage. If things get really broken, other Wikivoyagers will come in and fix them.
*'''Doing what's OK right now'''. You don't have to create a perfect, fully-formed article the first time around. Just make a [[Project:Quick contribution guide|quick contribution]] or add a [[Project:Article skeleton templates|basic outline]] if an article about your favorite town doesn't yet exist. Get your thoughts down and let others expand on them. That's how a [[Project:Wiki|wiki]] works!
*'''Go ahead'''. You have as much right to add, change and improve ''anything'' you see on Wikivoyage as anyone else has. You don't need to ask anyone or even to have an account, if you can fix or improve anything. If you make a change, other people here will often help. So don't bother asking whether it's all right to plunge in – it probably is!

So '''plunge forward'''! You will enjoy it!

== ...But don't be reckless!!==

Don't be afraid of making mistakes, but at the same time be aware that there are certain cases where you might find that your edit receives extra scrutiny, or may be undone by others:

* '''Changes to policy'''.  Pages in the Wikivoyage namespace represent agreed-upon [[Wikivoyage:Consensus|consensus]] of the editor community, so non-trivial changes should be discussed first on the policy's [[Wikivoyage:Using talk pages|talk page]].
* '''Changes to Wikivoyage style'''.  Wikivoyage uses the same [[Wikivoyage:Article skeleton templates|standard section headings]] for all articles, so changes to top-level headings (for example, changing "Sleep" to "Accommodation") will usually be reverted.
* '''Changes to high visibility articles'''.  An article like [[United States of America]], or any of the [[Wikivoyage:Star articles|star articles]], is the result of potentially thousands of edits by hundreds of users, so edits to these articles will receive more scrutiny than those made to less prominent articles.
* '''Changes to regional organization'''.  A lot of effort goes into splitting up [[Wikivoyage:Geographical hierarchy#Districts in cities|huge cities into districts]], or splitting up [[Wikivoyage:Geographical hierarchy#Dividing geographical units|larger regions into smaller ones]], so in cases where the regional breakdown was the result of lengthy discussion changes should usually be proposed on the article talk page first.
* '''Controversial edits'''.  [[Wikivoyage:Be fair#Political disputes|Political disputes]], [[Wikivoyage:Don't tout|promotional material]], and [[Wikivoyage:Goals and non-goals#Non-goals|personal causes]] don't belong in a travel guide.

While everyone is encouraged to plunge forward, if someone else undoes your change you can view the article's history and there will usually be an explanation in the edit summary to indicate why the change was undone.  If you still don't understand, ask for clarification on the article's talk page.

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