Help

This wiki is a collaborative and informative space dedicated to Occupy Boston. As authors, we want to create the most compelling content and organize it in the most intuitive manner. The wiki generally organizes itself as it expands, but there are a number of general guidelines for reference here.

Philosophy and Etiquette

There is a primary cautionary line on every Editing page:

If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly and redistributed at will, do not submit it here.

Wikipedia is living proof that crowd-sourced content creation and management can be effective on a global web-space. Anyone can become a content creator, but no one is ever a content 'owner.' Before you modify a page, please consider the intent of the existing text. There are many authors, and everyone is making their best contributions.

• You can check in with prior editors by using the Discussion and History tabs at the top of every page.
  • Don't forget to sign your comments by inserting four tildes (~~~~). The wiki will automatically insert a link to your user-page with a time-stamp for the comment. This will help others collaborate with you regarding your notes.
• You can email other users by going to their user-page and clicking the link that appears in the bottom of the side-bar.

Personal vs Public Space

As a general guideline, it is suggested to keep developing work, personal manifestos and collected references in your user web-space.

Please consider the main structure to be a public face of Occupy Boston. It should have the appearance of professionalism, inviting readers with clarity, brevity, and importance.

Editing

Use the tabs at the top of every page for Discussion and Editing.

• Please review your Preferences (link in uppermost right corner)
  • Under Preferences --> Editing --> Advanced options, please check the box to 'Mark all edits minor by default'. (You can un-check this for every individual edit, right above the 'Save Page' button.)
• Nothing can ever be truly un-done - every edit is archived in the History of each page.

Formatting

Use <br> for a new line where you don't want a larger space to appear. Otherwise, just skip an extra line.

Headings

• Use headings to create sections and sub-sections on a page. It is recommended to never use the =First Heading= (generally reserved for the Title of the page), but only the ==Second==, ===Third===, ====Fourth====, etc.
• Use of headings will automatically create a table of contents. To disable the table of contents, place __NOTOC__ anywhere on the page.

Bulleted/Numbered Lists

• Use an asterisk (for bullets) or a number sign (for numbering) at the beginning of each line to create a list (this line begins with *)
  1. You can embed numbers/bullets within each other in various levels (this line begins with *#)

Links and Files

• Create links to internal pages using double brackets, such as [[Page Name]]
• Link to external pages with single brackets, such as [http://someurl.com Display Text]
• Upload files from your computer using the link in the bottom of the side-bar.

Adding Notes

• Notes about format and language often belong right on the page.
• Notes should be in single brackets and announced as a note. [Note: This is an example of a note.]
• To suggest changes that you may not be comfortable making yourself, please add a note to the Tasks page.

MediaWiki Help

• Practice editing a page at the Sandbox
• Editing and formatting: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing#Editing_Basics
• General: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents
• Images: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images
• Magic Words: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Magic_words
• HTML: http://www.tedmontgomery.com/tutorial/index.html

Please contact WG/OBIT for extra help or to address any other concerns.

Email

[Note: It is not clear how to set this up, will OBIT please clarify? --OneKarma 13:38, 5 November 2011 (EDT)]
To check your occupyboston.org email address:

• go to the May First/People's Link member page,
• choose Boggs as the server, and
• enter your Username and Password.

For other email questions, check the FAQs.

Mailing Lists

If you need to manage your mailing list, please read over these FAQs. If you cannot find and answer to your question, email obit@lists.mayfirst.org and ask for assistance.

We use software called Mailman for mailing lists. You can change how your address appears on the list by logging into the mailing list at https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/listinfo/LIST_NAME and changing your settings.

If you do not know your password, you can put your email address in at the bottom and click submit and receive a password reminder, then you can log in. To keep your membership hidden, visit the page at https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/options/LIST_NAME - you will see an option that says "Conceal yourself from subscriber list?" check the "Yes" box, and save your options.

This can also be set globally by the list administrator, so you might want to ask on the list itself to have this option turned off.

If you need to set up a new email address email obit@lists.mayfirst.org and someone will set up a list for you.

Moderation and Notices

• The trick for reducing the number of notices is to set the filter here: [1]
• "Action to take for postings from non-members for which no explicit action is defined" -> Accept
  • The filter here: [2]
• "What steps are required for subscription?" -> Confirm
  • The filter here: [3]
• "Should administrator get notices of subscribes and unsubscribes?" -> No

With these settings, you shouldn't get any requests for anything. This means the lists will be wide open, but it should also permit a more free flow of information without a bunch of notices.