How to Use the Common Energy Wiki
From Common Energy UVic
How to Use the Common Energy Wiki is one of the tutorials for Wiki Help, and the second module for Wiki Training. The first training module is How to Use a Wiki. Once you have become familiar with how to use a wiki in general, this section will help you understand Common Energy organises its own wiki.
Contents |
[edit] Site Design
Think of the wiki as a website or database that takes the form of a network. In a network, there are many individual parts (pages in this case) that are linked together. Some pages are hubs in this network. They are places to go to find links to whole areas of the wiki. The main hubs are the pages linked directly from the welcome page.
When using the site, try to keep the network tidy. If the page you are working on for a project page is an event, make sure it is linked to from the events section. You might also want to mention that event on the news page. Make sure you mention the relevant areas of the site in the page's header, and include those areas as categories.
If you ever feel hopelessly lost, click on the logo in the top left of the screen and you will be returned to the welcome page. The links down the sidebar of the wiki are designed to make it easy for you to jump to popular places on the site - many of which are hubs themselves.
[edit] Three Principles
There are three principles, based on Common Energy's Philosophy, that guide the use of our wiki. They are guidelines - etiquette - for use of the wiki.
[edit] The Principle of Motion and Responsibility
The wiki contains quite a bit of information and is designed to appeal to a wide audience. It does not follow a "linear" path - you can jump from topic to topic in any order. Browse pages that interest you. We want people to find the wiki useful, helpful and functional. With that in mind, the law is this: If you find that you are neither contributing nor learning from a page, click on to another one where you can learn and/or contribute.
[edit] The Clarity Principle
Collaborative editing is the foundation of a wiki website. We encourage it. It improves and clarifies our information and ideas. And, it makes it easy for many people to contribute to this project.
Find something on the wiki that is unclear? Know what we are trying to say? You can say it better? Great. Do it.
[edit] The Meaning Principle
Our site is new and we are developing lots of new ideas. Nothing is written in stone. If you find an idea or a statement on the wiki that you disagree with, place this concern on the talk page with an explanation of what it is you disagree with and why. The talk pages are a place for members to discuss matters to do with the content that appears on the main article page, and what to change or add to an article. You can track when someone responds to your concern by adding the talk page you are using to your "watch" list.
With this principle, users are encouraged to move the conversation forward, contribute valuable ideas and feedback, and we all have a chance to collectively decide on the fundamental meaning of our ideas and work.
[edit] Style guides
In order to keep a consistent look for the site, there are a number of style guides. These guides layout the format for a number of different types of pages and features of the site.
The general style guide covers all pages. It is important to be familiar with this guide no matter what sort of editing you are doing. When starting work on any page, please look to see if there is a style guide that covers that type of page. If you are creating a page that doesn't seem to fit under one of the guides, and you think a guide would be useful for people in the future, please add it to the list of needed guides on the talk page, or, better yet, start writing the guide.
Even if you disagree with anything laid out in a style guide, please don't simply ignore it; the guides are present for a reason. If you have concerns, put them on the talk page for the guide and email the wiki team (wiki(at)uvic.commonenergy.org).
