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The guide to Product Wikis on Capiche

The best way to learn about software is from the people who use it every day.

That’s why we created Product Wikis. They are community-maintained documents that explain software products in plain english.

Product Wikis are one place for everything about software: Features, pricing, screenshots, alternatives, pros and cons, discussions, guides and essays, and more. They’re built by people like you who use each product, learned its ins-and-outs the hard way, and shared their knowledge with the community. And each change is voted on by the community to ensure the wikis are informative, accurate, clear, and concise.

Want to join in? Here’s how.

How Product Wikis work.

The Capiche Notion wiki

Take the Notion wiki for example. It starts off with an intro about what Notion offers, and what people like and dislike about it. Then you can find detailed features, pros and cons, both official pricing and pricing stories from the community, screenshots, and more. You’ll also find every discussion and essay on Capiche that mentions Notion.

Everything on this page is generated and maintained by the community.

See something wrong on the Notion wiki? Click Edit this section and add the details.

When you submit, we’ll let the community know, and others come and vote on the changes. Once the votes are in, if everyone liked the changes, your revision will be published. Rinse, repeat, and that’s how we get the most up-to-date software details on the internet.

What makes a great Capiche wiki edit.

Think about what you’d like to see in a product page about software you’re considering buying. You’d likely want to read unbiased details about the software’s core features and ideal use cases, see screenshots that show how the software works for real teams, learn which software others think is most similar to this product and find accurate, clear details on pricing, contact info, and more.

You’d want something neutral, clear, concise, accurate, and unbiased.

That’s what the Capiche community looks for in wiki edits. Whenever you edit a Capiche wiki, here are some guidelines to follow:

  • Be accurate. Double-check and make sure you’ve got the facts right before writing.
  • Be neutral. Even if you love a product—or work on it—odds are it’s not perfect, and wouldn’t be the best for everyone. Or, if you dislike a product, odds are it still has some good things. Be realistic. Write real details about the product, and be honest if it has shortcomings. Don’t use hyperbole, or mention that products are the best or most popular. Let their features speak for themselves.
  • Be clear. Keep your writing free of jargon. State the facts as clearly and simply as possible. Make it interesting to read, but not verbose.
  • Don’t promote or spam. Any edits that include links to 3rd party sites or that try to cross-promote other products will be removed.
  • Be nice. When reviewing others edits, give the benefit of the doubt and be friendly and clear about anything that still needs changed. Bullying will not be tolerated.

Here are some more resources to help:

How to find a Capiche wiki.

Looking for your favorite software’s wiki on Capiche? Go to capiche.com/products, search for your favorite app, and click it to open its product pages.

We’re launching wikis for products over time, so if your favorite software doesn’t have a wiki yet, let us know at the email below if you’d like to edit it and we’ll give you early access.

How to vote on Capiche wiki edits.

Capiche contribute page

The easiest way to help make Capiche wiki pages better is from the Contribute page.

Here, you’ll see every recent edit and requested change to the products you follow on Capiche—or can switch to the All Products list to see every new thing across every Capiche software wiki.

Pending Revisions are new edits that others added. Check to make sure they’re accurate and clear, then vote to approve or reject the edits.

Can be improved items are wiki sections that were recently edited, but someone thought still need a bit of work. Check those notes to see what others thought could be improved—then you’ve got an easy way to jump in and start editing.

Vote on Capiche edit

You can see pending revisions either from your Contribute page, or by clicking View revisions on any wiki page section. There, review any pending edits. See the comparison between the original on the Diff view, or click the Markdown view to see the changes as they’ll look once published.

If the edit looks good, add your thoughts then click Approve.

If the edit’s generally good but could use some work still, add a comment about what you think needs changed, then click Soft Approve.

If the edit is worse than the original and wouldn’t improve the page, add why you don’t think this edit is helpful then click Reject.

Capiche wikis wait for enough votes to measure the post’s quality, then either approve or reject the edit based on the community’s decision. We’ll let you know when something you voted on gets published.

How to edit a Capiche wiki.

Editing a Capiche software wiki

Now for the fun part: Actually editing a Capiche wiki.

Open your favorite software’s wiki on Capiche, find the section where you want to jump in, and click Edit this section. That’ll change the section into an editable text box where you can change any existing text, and add your new additions. Capiche will also lock the section to keep others from editing it at the same time.

Write clearly and concisely, format your text with Markdown, and organize it with headers where appropriate (fun fact: H3 headings show up in the left sidebar to make Capiche wikis easier to navigate). If you want to include a screenshot, add it to the Screenshot section below, then add it via Markdown. If you’re adding an alternative, check the sample code on the preview block, and add additional embed widgets for each product you want to show.

When you’re done, add revision notes to share what you changed and why. Include links to documentation or product announcements if possible to document why these changes were needed. Then click Submit, and the community will vote on the changes.

Capiche will let you know if your edits get feedback and when the votes are finalized.

If you want to edit something that shows a padlock and won’t open the editor, check to see if there are pending revisions on the View revisions link. If so, add your vote to the edits to improve that section—then jump in with your edits later once it’s editable again.

How to share screenshots on a Capiche wiki.

Add Screenshots to Capiche wikis

Got an example of your favorite software in action? That’s perfect for a Capiche wiki.

Open the wiki for that product, scroll down to the Screenshots section, and click the + button. There, you can upload your JPG or PNG formatted screenshot, or can add an animated GIF that shows your software in action. Add a full sentence description to share what’s going on in the screenshot.

Then submit, and the community will vote on your screenshot. Once it’s approved, it’ll join the other screenshots in the gallery.

Be sure your screenshots don’t include any personal info or sensitive data before you share them. You could add example text to software before taking screenshots. Or, blur or cover up any private info before sharing the screenshot to Capiche.

Why you should contribute to Capiche wikis.

For eternal fame and glory.

Ok not quite. The best reason to edit Capiche wikis—the reason we built them in the first place—is to have the software resource you’d find most helpful. If you’re tried of searching to find pricing and features and figure out what software actually does, then once you’ve actually figured it out, share it on a Capiche wiki for that product so you won’t have to search for it again.

You’ll help yourself, and help the whole community at the same time.

Capiche top contributors

And you’ll also get bragging rights. Every Capiche wiki page shows the top contributors on the sidebar. The more you edit, the more likely your name will show up. You’ll also get a sticker on your profile to show every product wiki you’ve helped edit—and an exclusive Hello world badge if you make the first edit on a newly launched product.

Your Capiche profile just might turn into the best way to showcase your software expertise.

How to get a new Capiche wiki launched.

We’ve got dozens of new Capiche wikis, and hundreds more coming soon—but that still is only a small percentage of the software available today.

There’s another place you can chip in. Can’t find your favorite software on Capiche? Let the Capiche team know—and we’ll let you know as soon as we get it added so you’ve got first dibs on that page’s Hello world badge.

How to change other parts of Capiche wikis.

Want to add a new section to a wiki, or have an idea about something else that would be better? Let the Capiche team know—we’d love to hear your feedback to make the wikis a better resource, together.

Mentioned
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Share
NBNite's avatar
4 months ago

Product wiki's are a game-changer - excited to see how far this will go!

4 points
maguay's avatar
@maguay (replying to @NBNite )
4 months ago

Thank you! They’re the resource we’ve always wanted to see on the web, so can’t wait to see how they grow over time from everyone’s contributions!

1 point
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