Help:What is the Wiki and How is it Used
This page is intended to describe the basic nature and features of the Wiki section of the ISFDB.
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.
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:Alvorruff 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