Help:What is the Wiki and How is it Used

(This page is a work in progress. I will be returnign to it shortly. -DES ^Talk 03:25, 11 November 2008 (UTC))

This page is intended to describe the basic nature and features of the Wiki section of the ISFDB. It should serve as a general intro to the ISFDB wiki for people not accustiomed to using or editing a wiki.

What is a Wiki?

A wiki is a software mechanism intended to support collaborative work in a quick and simple manner. Wiki pages consist of text plus limited amounts of specialized markup. (At display time, they are renderd as html pages in a web browser. At edit time, they appear as simple text.) Both the term and the notion have been popularized by Wikipedia, which is based on a set of wiki software. There are many other wikis, both public and privite, using various implemetations of the wiki concept. The ISFDB uses the MediaWiki software, which is the same software used by Wikipedia. (This page is a work in progress. I will be finishing it shortly i hope. -DES ^Talk 03:24, 11 November 2008 (UTC))

Primary and "talk" pages

Wiki pages are organized in pairs. One page is the "primary" page (or "article" or "project" page, depending on the namespace, described below). At the top of each wiki page are several tabs. The first is for the primary page, and will say "page" (or "help page" or "project page" or "user page" or some similar varient). The second is for the discussion or "talk" page, and will say "Talk".

The general convention is that a talk page is used to discuss the primary page, what should go on it, how it should be organized, etc. The purposed of the primary page varies, depending on the particular page involved. In some cases the term "discussion" may be in red. That indicates that the particular page has not had its talk page created yet -- but anyone can create it at any time.

Note also that on talk pages, and primary pages that are for the discussion of topics, users generally write in the first person and sign their comments. On primary pages that are basically descriptive, users write impersonally, and text is not usually signed.

User pages and User talk pages

A special case is the "User" page. This is a page that describes a particualr user of the project, or that user's current activity, to do lists, or such things. Such pages have names that start with "User:" followed by the user's UserID on the wiki. For example User:Alvonruff or User:DESiegel60. Every registerd user has a user page avilable, although some users may not have chosen to create their user pages. Normally, a user page will be edited only by the user it is for.

The corresponding talk page, the "user talk" page, has a name that starts "User talk:" followed by the user ID. This page is used, not for discussing what should go on the user page, but for communicating with the user in question. Whenever a user displays a wikipage, if there have been changes to that user's talk page, there will be a banner to notify the user that he or she has new messages. (of course this occurs only if the user is logged in). The user can click on the link in the banner and be taken to his or her user talk page. Also, ther is a link to the talk page, called "my talk" at the top of every wiki page, in small type.

Conventions on the use of user talk pages differ on different wikis. On the ISFDB wiki, the convention is that a user responds to a message on the same page where the original message was posted, and it is the responsibility of the poster to watch or check that page to see the response. This keeps a discussion together.

In all discussiuons on this wiki, the convention is that responses are indented relative to the text being responded to. This is done by starting a paragraph with one or more colors, one for each indent level wanted. These display as indents. Do not start text paragraphs with tabs or blank spaces. This causes an unwrapped fixed-font display, which is generally unhelpful in such situations, although it can be useful for special purposes.

Eding wiki pages

Note that on the ISFDB wiki (unlike some other wikis) no one can make any edit without being logged in.

To edit any wiki page, simply click the "edit" tab at the top of the page. The display will enter edit mode, adn the wiki text will be shown in an edit box. Makwe whatever additions or changes you wish, fill in the "summary" box below the edit box with a brief description of the nature or purpose of the edit, and click "save page" whn you are done. Your changes are promptly saved to the wiki.

More often, it is helpful to edit only a section of a wiki page. Each section header has an "edit" link to the right. Clicking on this link will edit the section that starts with the header, including and sub-sections it may contain. This works exactly like editing an entire page, except that only the wiki text for the section (including the header) is in the edit box, and only the section will be changed by the edit. The Summary will be pre-filled with "/* Section Name */. Enter your summary of the edit after the pre-filled summary. If you changed the section name in your edit, change the pre-fileld name also, please. If you added a new section, you should replace the pre-filled section name with the new name. This will allow the automatically created links on history and changes pages to work properly.