Our Knowledge Base reviewers are Mozilla contributors and staff with experience and skill in writing support documentation. Like the title says, this article covers guidelines for reviewing articles. Here's the short version (mind numbing details are below the table of contents):

Top articles (more than 3000 visits/wk):

• For updates to existing content — you can approve all revisions (including your own) that you think improve the article.
• For big changes — please discuss them in the article's forum before approving them. Don't approve your own revision if it's a big change.

Other articles (less than 3000 visits/wk):

• Approve all updates and big changes (including your own) that you think improve the article.

Feedback for editors:
When reviewing, be sure to include a message to the editor thanking them for their contribution. If you defer a revision, you should also give specific, constructive feedback about what you feel needs to change in order for the revision to be acceptable.

Reviewing articles

Most revisions are made by people volunteering their time and talent. When dealing with the work that people have submitted, assume that everyone has the best intentions and be sure to thank them for their contribution. Remember, you may be the first and only contact that person has with someone from Mozilla. Please make it positive.

Top articles

Our top articles (more than 3000 visits per week; about 50 articles) account for about 75% - 80% of all visits to the Knowledge Base. It's critical that these articles have the latest information.

• For updates to existing content — you can approve all revisions (including your own) that you think improve the article.

Because the top articles have been edited extensively and affect a large number of people, big changes to the article should be discussed first. Feel free to private message other Knowledge Base contributors to ask them chime in. It's best if a consensus can be reached but that is sometimes difficult to pin down. As always, use your best judgement.

• For big changes — please discuss them in the article's forum before approving them. Don't approve your own revision if it's a big change.

Other articles

The articles with less than 3000 visits per week represent the vast majority of our Knowledge Base (about 175 articles; 20% - 25% of visits). They cover less common issues and newer products. Here the review policy is more lenient.

• Approve all updates and big changes (including your own) that you think improve the article.

What's an update to existing content?

The most common task in the Knowledge Base is keeping articles up-to-date. Generally this covers:

• Spelling and grammar corrections
• Simplifying existing language, removing jargon
• Updating or adding screenshots
• Updating or adding screencasts
• Removing content for Firefox versions we no longer support
• Updating step-by-step instructions to support new versions of Firefox
• Updating existing text to support changes in new versions of Firefox
• Fixing issues with wiki markup
• Fixing links
• Updating keywords
• Adding or updating a search summary

What's a big change?

Big changes are ones that fundamentally change the existing article. They include:

• Adding a new section
• Removing an existing section
• Extensive rewriting (more than simplifying and removing jargon)
• Rewriting section headings
• Reordering sections
• Changing the scope of the article

Feedback for editors

When approving an article, it's important to thank the editor for their contribution. It's also nice if you can give them feedback. Has their writing improved? Did they do an especially good job explaining something complex? Let them know!

If a revision contains more than just a simple mistake, is a big change to a top article that hasn't been discussed, or is something you don't feel is helpful, you should defer approval. But rather than being a simple rejection, a deferral is your opportunity to work with the editor to take make that revision ready for approval. So, please thank the editor and then give specific, constructive feedback about what you feel needs to change in order for the revision to be acceptable. Be sure to give them links to any relevant article discussions or guidelines.

Revision levels

When you approve an article, you have three different revision levels to choose from.

Giving credit

Sometimes people that participate in a discussion about an article make significant contributions to a revision even if they weren't the one to actually edit the wiki. In cases like this, you can edit the list of contributors to an article (on the article history page) to include them. Bonus points for letting them know you did this!

Spam and mistaken edits

In the case of spam, you should simply delete the revision. In the case of mistaken submissions (no changes) and misplaced help requests (the edit is basically a support question), you should defer and include this message in your comments:
Hi.
It appears you may have been trying to get help with Firefox. If that is the case, please ask your question again here, https://support.mozilla.com/questions/new so that we can better help you.
Sorry for the inconvenience.

Once you've done that you can delete the revision.

Reviewing new articles

Unless an article is being created for a special purpose (Firefox chemspill, to be linked in-product or from mozilla.com) it should be treated like any article outside the 50 most visited. If the revision is an improvement; approve it. It's okay if the article is not 100% complete. If it's not one of those special articles it can begin to collect feedback while still being worked on.

Ready for localization

Marking an article as ready for localization is our signal to localizers that the article is currently done being worked on. Ideally, the article won't need significant changes again until a new version of Firefox or other circumstances dictate it. If all current needed changes have been addressed by the latest revision, then the article should be marked ready for localization.

Marking an article revision as "Ready for Localization" lets us tell localizers that the English version is done being worked on and it can be translated without fear that the article will change a few more times before they're done. The idea is to reduce the "notification noise" and workload for localizers. Of course, if they wish, localizers can still be notified of and follow all English article changes.

How it works:
An article is not added to localization dashboards as needing an update unless it is marked with the second or third revision levels AND the ready for localization flag is checked. This flag can currently only be checked by an admin. Doing this also sends out an email notification to everyone watching for articles that are ready to localize.

We do this for a number of reasons:

• Finalizing an article for a specific version of Firefox - For example, we can complete changes to an article for Firefox 5, mark the last revision as ready for localization and then begin making changes to the article for Firefox 6. Then, when the changes for Firefox 6 are complete, we can mark a new version of the article as ready for localization. Localizers will only be notified when the Firefox 5 article is ready and then (probably 6 weeks later) when the Firefox 6 article is ready.
• Reducing the notifications and confusion for localizers - Whether we're changing an article to reflect changes in Firefox or we're trying to improve the article, it often takes a half dozen or more revisions to an article to get everything right. Instead of localizers being alerted with each revision, we can wait until we're finished and then mark the article as ready for localization.
• Experimenting with an article - For example, we can create a radically different version of an article, try it out for a period of time and then decide whether or not to mark it as ready for localization.