Help

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Revision as of 23:47, 16 November 2011 by OneKarma (talk | contribs) (→‎Editing)
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This wiki is a collaborative and informative space dedicated to Occupy Boston. As authors, we want to not only create the most compelling content, but also organize it in the most intuitive manner. The wiki generally organizes itself as it expands, but here there are a number of guidelines for reference.

View Mediawiki's formatting help

Basics

Every page on the wiki should clearly represent a specific idea. You can clarify the intent of a page (and thereby direct its future use) by adding a precise description of its function, which will strongly promote the healthy growth of the wiki.

Page titles should be short and sweet, and should contain relevant hierarchies if possible. For example, a draft proposal from the Safety WG should be entitled Safety/Proposal X. This creates navigable sub-spaces for our mass of information by automating 'return' links, but only when both the sub-page and the host page exist. For example, if both pages WG and WG/Proposal X exist, a link to WG will automatically appear at the top of the WG/Proposal X page.

  • Etiquette should require no more mention than this.
  • Before you begin editing, please quickly browse the navigation bar on the left to get a feel for the structure of the wiki.
  • Internal links are like nerve endings - they pick up and direct information within the whole. Consider the many paths by which collaborators and visitors might want to explore the wiki, and try to create a network with many 'nerve endings'. Information should be linked on any and all relevant pages.

Methodology and Content Rights

Anyone can become a content creator, but no one is ever a content 'owner.' See the cautionary note 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 standing proof that crowd-sourced content creation and management can be effective on a global web-space.

Etiquette

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.
  • If you want others to collaborate regarding your notes, don't forget to sign your comments by inserting four tildes (like this: ~~~~). The wiki will automatically insert a link to your user-page next to a time-stamp for the comment.
  • You can email other users by going to their user-page and clicking the link that appears in the bottom of the side-bar. This will send an email to the address registered with that username.

Public vs Personal Space

As a general guideline, 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 relevancy.

It is suggested that users keep their works-in-progress, personal manifestos, and reference collections in their own user web-space. Create sub-pages in your user-space with the following naming convention: User:YourName/Page Name.

Editing

  • Use the tabs at the top of every page for Discussion and Editing. (Practice editing a page in the Sandbox.)
  • Please review your Preferences (see 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 within the History of each page.
View Mediawiki's formatting help
Read Renjender's "Five Second Wiki Lesson"

Formatting

Use <br> for a new line where you don't want a larger space to appear. Otherwise, just skip an extra line.
Use <nowiki></nowiki> to disable automatic formatting.
This text is '''bold'''.
This text is ''italic''.
This text is <u>underlined</u>.

Headings, Table of Contents, and Lists

  • Use headings to create sections and sub-sections on a page.
    • It is recommended to always skip the =First Heading= (which is generally reserved for the Title of the page), and
    • Only use the ==Second==, ===Third===, ====Fourth====, headings, etc.
    • Use of at least 4 headings on a page will automatically create a table of contents above the first heading.
    • To disable the table of contents, place __NOTOC__ anywhere on the page.
    • Place the table of contents elsewhere by using __TOC__
  • 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

  • Internal links are made with double brackets, such as [[Page Name]]
  • External links are made with single brackets, such as [http://someurl.com Display Text]
  • Upload files (documents, images, videos, etc) from your computer via link in the bottom of the side-bar.

Adding Notes

Notes about format and language often belong right on the page. These are apart from the general Discussion, which can be accessed via the tab at the top of the page.

  • Notes should be in single brackets and announced as a note. [Note: This is an example of a note.]
  • Don't forget your signature (using ~~~~), otherwise no one will know how to collaborate with you!

Additional Resources

Please contact WG/OBIT to address any other concerns. They can often be found in the IRC channel '#OccupyBostonIT'

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