Help:Editing
From TransGeorgia
This page is for TransGeorgia editors. It contains quick, helpful information for getting started with the process of creating, editing, and managing pages here, including an overview of how Mediawiki works.
If you're looking for information more about where and how to pitch in or more about the big picture of how this site works (what pages should exist, where they go, and so on), go over to the manual.
- Finally, if you're just looking for a quick reference on Mediawiki syntax (which our site uses), check out the Help page for Mediawiki, especially Formatting help.
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[edit] A wiki overview for newcomers
A wiki, such as our site, is a kind of website where all the pages are written and edited right within the site in plain text, and saved changes take effect immediately. "Mediawiki" is the name of the software installed on TransGeorgia to allow us to do so, which is the same software as Wikipedia.
Ours has been modified so that the visitors see a relatively normal-looking website. However, as an editor, when you log in given the link you should get when you register, you see additional links on every page. They run along the top and bottom of every page except special-purpose ones, letting you discuss the page, create or edit it, protect it, move it, watch it, and so on. Most of your tasks as an editor will be with editing pages and discussing them.
[edit] Creating and editing pages
What if you want there to be a "Widget" page? Type it in the search box at the very top of every page in the site and press "Go". If it already exists, you'll be taken there. If it doesn't, you'll be offered to search for it or create it. In fact, if you want, just bypass the search box and type in the link to the page. If it exists or not, you'll be taken there and given the chance to edit the (possibly blank) page.
- In summary, to create a page, just go to it.
If a page does exist, just go to that page and click the "Edit" link at the top to edit it.
Either way, you'll see a big text box. Any text it contains when you click the "Save page" at the bottom goes right up on the site, and the previous page's content (if any) is saved in its history. (Mediawiki remembers every edit ever done to it. There's no way to mess anything up permanently.) The text is just ordinary plain text, which Mediawiki then translates into a presentable web page.
All websites have special features, like links, lists, tables, and so on, and ours is no exception. Mediawiki gives us shortcuts for doing this as we edit, using formatting codes called wiki markup. To use them, just type in the appropriate formatting right into the text, and the corresponding feature will appear in the saved and published page.
For example, if you want to link from your page to the "Widget" page, just type in [[Widget]], and Mediawiki will know to make that into a link to that page, and will even make it the right color, letting you know if that page exists or not. There's dozens of such little shortcuts that make typing a website in much easier than typing in the usual code; you can go along and make features with such speed and economy because the hard work is already done.
Take a look at Mediawiki's formatting help for a quick reference of the ways to use simple wiki markup. There are other, more advanced tasks you can do with wiki markup besides just changing the appearance of the text. Check out Mediawiki's Help page for references to all those.
Using the syntax the most appropriate way helps ensure Mediawiki turns the text into the most consistent and best web page possible.
[edit] Discussion
Every page has a corresponding "talk" page (or "discussion" page, which means the same thing). The link to it is always the same: if the page's name is X, then its talk page can be found at Talk:X. You can also just go to the page, and, if you're an editor, click the "Discussion" link at the top.
Using a discussion page is basically the same as editing a page. It just records ongoing discussion as content in the page, to function like a convenient scratchpad for the editors to refer to. Any content not meant to be part of the finished page (notes to editors, decisions, guidelines, ongoing discussion) should take place on a talk page so as to leave the visitor-facing page looking clean.
[edit] Discussion guidelines
Since the discussion page is so simple as to effectively be a giant multiplayer notepad, a few conventions (adapted from Wikipedia) help discussion there take place more orderly. See that page for an in depth treatment of the topic; below are the most immediately relevant guidelines.
- For each new topic to discuss, start a new section. Just click the "+" sign at the top of the talk page to do so (or use standard Mediawiki syntax for a section).
- When you make an edit, sign it. Just add four tildes at the end (~~~~) to have Mediawiki substitute in your username and the time and date.
- If replying to an earlier edit, indent your response and leave it directly below the text being replied to, and don't forget to sign it. Use a colon to indent. Use multiple colons to indent more. (See the talk page for any popular Wikipedia article for an idea about how threaded discussion takes place.)
[edit] Talk:Home
For discussion related to the site at large, I've decided that Talk:Home is probably the best place for that, currently, aside from email.
[edit] Manual and style guide
The manual will contain a guide about how this site's information will be organized. If you're editing TransGeorgia on a larger level than minor edits and feel you already have a handle on the practical part of editing a wiki page, check out that page to know what to put where and how. The purpose of the manual is basically that, since Mediawiki provides such an open-ended way to build a website, a method has been chosen to proceed based on how we intend to collect, present, and verify information. It should help you figure out where, for example, information about a new therapist should go, or how all information pertaining to legal resources or the greater Atlanta region should be organized.
The style guide will contain non-technical information, such as agreed-upon terminology, how and what information to disclose about subjects and people on this site, and so on.
[edit] Tips
- While Mediawiki may feel like a wild, open, and unmanageable space where it's easy to get lost, check out pages in the "Special" namespace for easy-to-find information, such as a list of all the categories or pages, stats about edits, and tons more. A link to this namespace is at the bottom of every page, if you're logged in as an editor. If you're ever unsure about what needs to be done, that namespace is a great place to start, as it will help you find dead-end links, short pages, and so on.
- You can subscribe to a list of all changes. If you're using Google Reader, go to Special:RecentChanges, and in the "Add subscription" box, put in the URL of that page, and it should just work.
- TransGeorgia has been set up to be able to include any media from the Wikimedia Commons project. That's over four million media, most of which are images, which we can use freely and legally. To do so, simply use them in the syntax as if they already exist on our site (for an example, see Category:Athens). See a page that looks drab? Add an image!
- If you ever want to find out how to do something fancy you saw on Wikipedia, or just want to get a gist of how wiki articles look, just go to your favorite Wikipedia article and view the source of that page. Most things from there work here, as long as they're not template-based (templates use {{ }}).
- Speaking of templates, a growing list of a few templates have already been made. If you know a template exists and want to use it, just put the name of it between curly braces (for example, on TransGeorgia, {{Letterwriter}} will automatically expand to contain a message that the subject has been known to write letters for hormones/surgery. Whatever is in that template will get included into the page, and if the template is edited, all places that include that template will change. (See the list of templates that exist on TransGeorgia.) This very page, and many others, use the {{TOCright}} template. See more about making and using templates here.
- If a particular page's edits interest you, click the "Watch" link at the top of the page's content while logged in, and that page will get added to your watchlist (you can find a link to the watchlist at the very top of every page).
- If you want something (usually on a talk page, or on a particular subject's review section) to be signed by you, so that everybody knows you did it, and when, just add four tildes (~~~~), and when the page is saved, it will automatically show your username and the time and date there. Use of signatures is encouraged on talk pages.