Tips for great guides

One guide per task

Write a guide for one thing someone wants to get done: “Set up WireGuard on a Raspberry Pi”, not “Everything about VPNs”.

• Search before you write. If the editor shows “Similar guides exist”, open them first.
• If one already covers it, improve it. Use “Suggest an edit”. An improved guide helps more people than a second one.

Titles

A clear title helps people find your guide. A good pattern is do the task + on the thing + (version, if it matters):

• ✅ “Set up automatic backups on Synology DSM 7.2”
• ✅ “Replace the cabin air filter on a 2019 Honda Civic”
• ❌ “My backup setup!!!” (says nothing)
• ❌ “Backups” (too broad)

Moderators may tidy a title to make it clearer. The original stays in the guide's edit history, and the change is in the moderation log.

Versions: one guide, many versions

If the steps are the same across versions, don't write a new guide for each one.

• Add each version to “Applies to” (for example “Ubuntu 22.04” and “24.04”).
• Where one step differs, say so in that step: “On 24.04, the menu is called…”
• Write a separate guide only when most steps change, such as after a major redesign.

Moderators can merge near-duplicate guides. The merged one redirects, and its author is credited on the guide that stays.

Structure: your call

There's no required format. Write a checklist, a story, a video walkthrough with notes or a tutorial series, whatever teaches it best. The guide template and the “Before you post” list in the editor are there if you want them. Things that usually help:

• what the reader will end up with;
• what they need before they start;
• what they should see when a step worked;
• links to the sources you used.

Accuracy and freshness

• Write only what you've done yourself, or have checked.
• Guides get reviewed: first after 6 months, then every year once they're confirmed current, by moderators and Loqva's reviewers.
• Readers can verify a guide too. Under every guide, readers answer “Did this work for you?”. When 10 or more say yes (at least 85% of answers, from accounts over a week old), an unverified guide shows “Verified by readers”. Moderators can still review it either way.
• If something changes, update the guide. “Ask for verification” brings a reviewer back sooner.
• If you can't keep a guide up anymore, that's fine. Once a guide is out of date and its author has been away for 90 days, another member can ask to adopt it, and moderators approve. You stay credited as the original author; the new maintainer takes over the updates.

Questions or guides

• Don't know how to do something? Ask a Question.
• Know how, and can explain it step by step? Write a Guide.
• Answered a question with a great step-by-step? Turn it into a guide: Loqva suggests it when your answer is accepted, and the question links to it.

Honesty

• AI: say whether and how you used AI (grammar, drafting, research). AI can help you write, but every step should be one you've tested.
• Affiliation: if you work for, sell or are paid by anything in the guide, turn on “I'm affiliated”.
• No hidden promotion: product links are fine when they help the reader, not as the point of the guide.

Screenshots and safety

• Screenshots help. Crop to what matters and blur personal details: emails, IP addresses, serial numbers, faces.
• Be clear about danger. For anything risky (electricity, gas, cars, health), say so plainly and link the official guidance. When in doubt, tell people to get a professional.

Other ways to help

• Improve a guide with “Suggest an edit”.
• Answer “Did this work for you?” under guides you've followed. It's how the best guide rises to the top, and enough “No” answers send a guide back for review.
• Become a reviewer and check guides in the topics you know: Loqva's reviewers.
• Adopt a guide whose author has gone quiet.
• Fill a Wanted guide that people are asking for.