View source for Wiki Writing Advice

When I started with the first wiki article, there were no rules/standards to adhere to - except for my experience as a Wikipedia author some years previous. Many of the Wikipedia rules and guidelines do not apply, because this wiki is not meant to be an encyclopedia.

While at first I created content into a void, there is quite a body of connected juggling patterns there now and it becomes time to standardize some things to make orientation on a page simpler. Obviously there will be older pages that do not adhere. 

== Wikipedia-like rules ==
One wikipedia rule still applies: 
* stubs (very short entries) are ok when they provide useful information, but pure placeholders are not

Example: e.g. I have added lists of siteswaps for juggling patterns that fit the scheme of the categorization but that I have not done, but I would not just create a page that says "I want to write about manipulator patterns here" without any useful info.


== Juggling Pattern Page Structure ==

A page describing a juggling pattern should have the following sections:

* Pre-requisite patterns "Patterns to do before this one"
* Pattern Description
This gives the sequence for A and B and says who throws cross or straight passes and how they start and shows an animation via a template that uses code from passist.org and also links directly to passist.org. (Thanks to Christian, having that feature helped a me a lot)
This should also have specific tipps/advice for the pattern addressing common problems people have. 
* "Sibling Patterns" Patterns that are similar and also of similar difficulty. For lack of a name on the less well-known pattern, I often call them "brother of X" or "sister of Y"
* "Patterns to do next"

Pre-requisite and "next" patterns must share similarities with the pattern described on the page. Pattern difficulty can only be compared as long as the patterns in question share enough similarities. Doing a 7-club 2-count will not help you learn 3 ball mills-mess.

== Juggling Pattern Page Naming ==

Probably makes sense to have a naming scheme like:
* Pattern name (or Sequence like "PzzPz" if no name) - siteswap

== Juggling Pattern Abbreviations ==

Actually, this should become a wiki page [[Juggling Pattern Abbreviations]], that is linked from all sequences.

== Compatible Patterns ==

Of course I am aware, that compatible patterns can just as easily be computed by a program or app (as many or even all of the siteswap things on the pages are)

At the moment (start of 2026), there are several ways compatible patterns are treated/included:

* via a "family" relationship e.g. a lot of the why nots are compatible and I included more compatible patterns with the family - or the zapnips were designed/calculated by me as compatible patterns to selfless-passing patterns and are described together
* on the pattern page itself

But there often are a *lot* of compatible patterns and I am thinking, if there should be dedicated "compatible patterns" pages that can be referenced from each page and avoid repeating the same list on every pattern. 


== Props == 

All siteswaps in principle work for all possible props. Because I do club passing, usually I assume everything is clubs. But in time, I do want to start from zero also on solo juggling patterns and also have a page on learning to juggle 5 balls. In general, if props matter, the pattern page should handle all props or if there is a lot of prop-specific advice, there should be one common pattern page referring to a "pattern_name (balls)" and "pattern_name (rings)" etc. page


== Multi Language ==  

Multi-lingual mediawikis are kind of difficult to set up and maintain and I want the wiki to be able to continue even in case something happens to me. 

So - at least for now - if non-English translations of a page are made, they will appear as sub-pages to the English page, keeping everything in a single mediawiki instance. 


== Images == 

I managed to get all images on the starting page to be of a same style just recently (Jan 2026). All future pictures added should try to stay in the same style