CATUG wiki:Notes for editors

This page gives guidance to editors on what to contribute to this CATUG Wiki, and how to achieve a sufficiently consistent appearance.

If this looks too daunting and you just want to suggest a correction or update for someone else to incorporate, email us at wikiservant@catug.org. This mailbox is forwarded to a small sub-set of Operational Board members so you should expect a reply shortly.

Registering as a user

To edit this wiki, you'll first need to be registered as a user. Contact wikiservant@catug.org.

Creating a new page

One way to do this is to type the subject in the Search box, with appropriate capital letters, e.g. "My page", and click "Go". (If it's not working in your browser, try using Safari.) The search results include a line

Create the page "My page" on this wiki!

Then click on the red link to create the page.

If you want to change the page title after it has been created, you have to move the page. This is done using the Move command, which is available to logged-in editors from a drop-own menu at the top of the page, to the right of the "View history" tab.

Sources

Info may be added from a single Mac-Min email, amalgamated from a thread, converted from an article on the old CMUG site, created from scratch, or expanded from any of the above.

Add a "Credits" section at the end of the article to say which of these it is, and mention the main contributor(s) if they consent.

Dated information

As the information on the wiki may not always be kept up to date, it will be helpful to give direct clues to help readers figure this out later on.

When referring to software, clearly state the version being discussed.

In the Credits section, mention the dates at which the information was provided and subsequently updated. It may be helpful to state this at the top of the page as well, especially for articles that are highly liable to become dated such as roundups of a type of software e.g. accounts or Bible software for iOS.

Consent

Before adding information from emails sent to Mac-Min, consider whether the writer might not want the information published openly, or would not want to be identified in the credits. If in doubt, ask the writer for his/her consent before adding material to the wiki. Alternatively, rewrite it, removing any personal touches or potentially sensitive info.

Tone

If a single email covers a subject sufficiently to publish as it stands, there is no need to rewrite it. Provided the author consents to it being published and credited to him/her, it may be reused with little effort by a wiki editor.

It is fine for articles on the CATUG wiki to vary in tone. We do not pretend to be an encyclopedia or a magazine. An informal style may attract new members to join the Mac Ministry List.

Standard headings

Section headings should be enclosed by = characters, as shown at CATUG wiki:Formatting guide.

Where relevant, the following standard headings should appear at the end of the page, in this sequence:

• Credits
• See also
• External links

Dates

Dates should be written in one of these patterns:

• Mar 4, 2010
• March 4, 2010

Do not use only numbers, as 3/4/10 means March 4th in the US but 3rd April in the UK.

Categories

New pages will be added into one or more relevant categories by including the category codes at the end of the page. This one has [[Category:CATUG wiki]]. Links to the categories appear below the end of the article. This gives readers another way to navigate between similar articles.

If the article should be indexed by something other than the first word of the page name, then add a bar followed by the sort key, e.g.

[[Category:Bible Software|2006]]

[[Category:News|Bible Software 2006]]

If this is confusing, don't worry; just create your page without categories, and a more experienced Wiki editor will add something suitable later.

Discussion (talk) pages

Every article and every registered editor has a talk page, where editors can discuss improvements, leave comments etc. There is a good explanation of these at Wikipedia:Help:Talk page.

See also

• CATUG wiki:Formatting guide - guide to wiki markup codes