Suggestions for when you make your Theory/Refrence topic.

[Serack]

Formatting:
I find that formatting really helps with conveighing ideas.  A block of text might contain some of the best theorizing ever, but I might have trouble slogging through it and never fully appreciate its full glory without some line brakes and maybe some bulleted supporting evidence or something of that nature. 

I understand (from lots of experience) that this takes time (both to learn, and to do), so only do what you are comfortable with.  Also, there are a few posters that have shown willingness to help reformat particularly excelent theories in ways that reverently respect the origional poster's baby, and yet greatly improve upon the readability of the theory. 

Also, I have a topic elsewhere with a few tips on formating of quotes and such over here.

Other suggestions:
If you include a quote of the text, include what chapter of the book you got it from.  Page numbers aren't always helpful since they vary between the editions of the books.

If you are quoting a forum based WoJ, I am willing to help you with getting the code that embeads the link to the WoJ within the quote.  (example below).  Just say within your topic "Serack can you get me the WoJ link code?"  I will try to get it for you from the WoJ section.  In the past I have taken brakes from the forum from time to time, but when I am active just saying "Serack" within your post is a very effective way of being sure that I will read it and respond if necessary (the advanced search function facilitates this for me)

Also, if you are the OP of a theory topic that has been transfered to the collection, and you want to do a little bit of editing to clean it up/reformat it and maybe add quotes of responses in the body to your OP so that people have an easy time seeing all the pertinant info (here's an example where I did just that), but the topic is locked, making the editing impossible, send me a PM and I will see if I can work something out.

Also important:
Many ideas around here go through a bit of evolution, and if you put a lot of effort into a new theory/reference topic that builds on other people's work and ideas, cite them by dropping their names, quoting them, and adding links to the posts they made that you are working off of. 

If I have seen further it is by standing on ye sholders of Giants.

[Serack]

If you are making a pure reference topic (like the dictionary) that will require continual updating to maintain relevancy, and you don't mind if our esteemed *cough cough* curators edit in new material as others suggest it, please state so in your original post (OP).  We will make every effort to be reverent towards your baby.  If you are actively updating we will probably leave things alone, and we will always try to maintain the formatting you originally set.

If you aren't comfortable with us doing something like this that's perfectly fine.  I wouldn't want someone else going in and messing with the WoJ Compilation.  It's too complicated and I like knowing exactly what has been done because I'm the one that did it. 

Also, if a Curator does add some material to a reference OP, we will either post saying we did, and or if the new material is from a reply in the topic we may edit in a small note in the reply saying we added it to the OP.