Help:Contents

From WikiPOBia

Revision as of 03:29, 21 June 2007

This page on How to edit WikiPOBia is not so much a specific "how to" guide, that sort of information can be found at Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page, here we want to discuss how the process works.

The point of WikiPOBia is to try and capture all the knowledge and insights into Patrick O'Brian's writings and life that people have uncovered over the years. No one person can know everything but together we can put it down here in WikiPOBia articles. Have a look at Whatever. WikiPOBia is intended to be a factual resource, so you should be prepared to back up anything you write, if it is speculation or opinion, you should clearly label it as such, and if you are quoting from another source, make sure you cite it.

Almost every article in WikiPOBia can be edited by any registered user. However, there are a number of Do's and Don't's in the editing process. While we encourage everyone to have a go to improve the articles, we expect people to try and follow some basic Rules.

Editing help

There is an editing help link to the left on every page; that link will take you to the Help:Editing page.

For additional editing help, please see Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page and also this Wikipedia editing Tutorial. NOTE: These links take you to Wikipedia and out of the WikiPOBia. You will have to return to WikiPOBia to edit here.

Style guidelines

WikiPOBia:Naming conventions — Conventions for article and category naming and recommended category names.

WikiPOBia:Style Manual -- Some highlights on how to format articles in WikiPOBia. For additional style guidelines, please see the Wikipedia:Manual of Style

WikiPOBia:Spoiler warnings -- information on spoilers and a template to use if you post any of same.

Starting a new page

If you want to create an article there are two ways to do it.

When reading other articles, anything that shows up in red is an article waiting to be written. If you click on that red link, it will open up an edit box where you can add the new article information.

If there is no red link already established, use the search box. Type the title of the article you want to write ( remember only the first word is capitalized unless there are proper names involved) and click the button marked "Go". This will bring up a search result screen that will say:

There is no page titled ":XYZ". You can create this page.

"Create this page" will again be a red link. Click the red click and then type up your new article.

Additional help

We are working on developing help resources here on WikiPOBia. In the interim, please see the Wikipedia help pages for additional help. Not everything there will apply to WikiPOBia but much of the general information on how the wiki works is fairly universal.

The Sandbox:We strongly recommend that you practice by playing around in the Sandbox first to see how things work. You can try out some of the effects there that you can use while editing and can see what happens. Just go to the Sandbox and click on the "edit" tab at the top of the page.

Hyperlinks:While the mechanics of editing are relatively straightforward, there are some points to bear in mind. Not everything has to be on every page. The advantage of a wiki project is that you can hyperlink to information which applies to more than one page. So if you are editing an article on Slave trade and want to refer to HMS Bellona, you don't have to give details, just link to the HMS Bellona page. If no such page exists, the link will remain red but it can be used to create a page of that name. You can also link to an external website, so you can put a hyperlink in to Bruce Trinque's Ships of Jack Aubrey website's entry on HMS Bellona too.

Sections:If it is a lengthy article, use headings as appropriate to divide up the subject into easy to read sections. This automatically adds a Table of Contents to the top of the article after four sections are added which will help people find the section they are interested in.

Pictures:Pictures and images, if they meet the copyright rules can be uploaded to WikiPOBia and are highly desirable to illustrate articles. See WikiPOBia:Image Help for more information.

Editing conflicts:Sometimes, you may see an edit by someone else that you disagree with. If it is a factual error such as "Jack Aubrey is commonly assumed to have been born in 1972." instead of 1772, then go in and edit it to correct the mistake. However, other less objective statements should be discussed on the discussion/talk page (found on a tab at the top of each article) before editing so as to come to an agreed form of words and to avoid an edit war. For example if the page says "The flag officer that Jack Aubrey most admired was Lord Keith", rather than just jumping in and changing it to Admiral Lord Nelson, go to the Talk page and post a question asking why the author thought Lord Keith to be the most admired flag officer. It may be that adding some explanation could allow the words to stand as a useful part of the article.

The Show Preview button:Before you save a page you have edited, we suggest that you click on the Show preview button. This brings up a page which shows you how your page looks with the edits you have made. Here you can spot incorrect links, typos etc. and correct them before everyone else sees them. Remember, the article, or edits will not be saved until you click Save page.

The Edit Summary:At the bottom of the edit page you will see also see a text box, labeled Summary. Here you are strongly urged to put in a short summary of what changes you have made to the page. That information is shown on the watchlists of people watching that page. It is a courtesy to others to let them have some idea of new changes and you can also use it to briefly explain the reasons for your edit, especially if you are concerned some will think them controversial.

Watchlist:At the bottom of the edit page and also as one of the tabs along the top, you will see a checkbox or tab that allows you to add this page to your "watchlist". Any time someone makes an edit to one of the pages on your watchlist, the latest edit will be recorded on this page.

My Watchlist:This allows you to look for edits in a page you are interested in and keep up to date with changes. The "diff" link shows you the latest changes, the "hist" link open up the History page. You can also automatically set all pages you edit to be added to your watchlist under the Watchlist tab in your Preferences at the top of every page.

History Pages:Another useful tab is the History tab found at the top of each page. This tab shows you a list of all edits made to that page with the date/time and the editor's ID. By clicking on the radio buttons you can see what changes have been made between any two versions of the page.

User Page:Every registered user for WikiPOBia also has their own user page to communicate with other WikiPOBia users. For more information on how to use your "User Page", please see WikiPOBia:User page

If you have further questions that are not answered here you can email the WikiPOBia staff at WikiPOBia Help