CATUG wiki:Notes for editors
This page gives guidance to editors on what to contribute to this CMUG Wiki, and how to achieve a sufficiently consistent appearance.
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
- There is no page titled "My page". You can create this page.
Then click on "create this page" to do so.
(You'll need to register first. If you're not logged in, there's a link above saying "Log in/Create account". The process should be self-explanatory.)
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.
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 the Wiki editor.
It is fine for articles on the CMUG 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
The title for the page should be entered at the top, enclosed like this: {{title|Notes for editors}} .
This means that the title can be different from the name of the page (as shown in the URL). It can be longer, where additional words will help to clarify the scope of the article. In the case of this page, the title is shorter, omitting the prefix "CMUG:". However, so that the indexing does not confuse readers, the title should be similar to the page name.
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
Table of contents
If there are four or more headings, a Table of Contents will appear automatically at the top. Use the code __TOC__ at the end of the first section to make it appear there. If a page is so short that it doesn't need a table of contents, use __NOTOC__ to suppress the automatic one.
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:CMUG]]. 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.