SimpleSimon: Hello! Welcome to the CommunityWiki! My name is SimpleSimon, and I’ll be introducing you to this wiki.
This explanation is for people who want to do more than just ‘’read’’ and ‘’ocassionally comment.’’ This is for people who want to more seriously participate, beyond the VisitorRole.
The wiki is large and complicated; No doubt about that. It will take a long time to learn how everything works; ‘’’Don’t’’’ try to understand it all at once. ‘’’Don’t’’’ read all the pages before contributing.
You should probably start… …by commenting!
Make an interesting comment here or there, in the VisitorRole. Something that interests you!
Rules to follow:
That means: “Don’t write comments inside other people’s comments, unless they are formatted like nested lists.”
It’s okay to fix spelling mistakes.
Even then, only do it if you are on friendly, non-debating terms with someone.
But don't be surprised or feel insulted if it’s reverted by a CommunityMember or OccasionalContributor.
See BeginnersReworking for more on beginners & the great role they perform in reworking the wiki!
It’s not forbidden, but it’s probably best not try it, at this early stage. Learn to walk before you learn to fly a spaceship, OK? We’ll get to that soon enough.
Other things:
After you make a few comments … …create a NamePage!
That is, make a page that is based on your name. The name of your page is the name you will use on the wiki. UseRealNames.
If conversation picks up, a CommunityMember or an established OccasionalContributor will make a page out of it. 😊
The instructions on how to do so are on: HowToInsertYourFotoHere.
See also: DenotingAuthor.
When you have a NamePage, a photo, have some sense of who we are, and have been here for at least a week or two, you may be ready to make a new page!
Creating Pages
We like pages. 😊
We have very specific ideas about how our pages should be named. We care about our LinkLanguage.
It is a burdensome task to have to rename pages, or, worse, to carry around bad language.
Don’t make us do it, by getting it right in the first place.
If in serious doubt, go forward, but ask for a rename, at the bottom of the page. BeBold!
We will refrain from referring to the page on other pages, until we have ironed out a name we like.
Because WikiIsNoDictionary.
Check first for existing content, both here, and on MeatballWiki. You can do that with the search feature of the wiki. There’s a “search” box at the bottom of the page. Research, research, research.
We believe strongly in OnceAndOnlyOnce.
When concepts can be connected with other pages, do so.
But hesitate to make a SocialPage?; Consider also:
From there, it’s basically just a matter of time and positive interaction.
Take care!
BeginnersGuideToCommunityWiki gives instructions on (a) what new people should do.
WikiJoiningScript discusses (b) what people expect new people to do, and (c) what new people actually do.
As you may have noticed by now, (a), (b), and (c) are not the same .
Helmut: VisitorRole, GuestRole, CommunityMember, OccasionalContributor are extremely useful terms!
Thank you so much for those pages!
I feel they should be elevated to some sort of canonical status. In the WikLossary, or in a KnowledgeDistribution, or something like that. Some way of engraving that knowledge, and making it portable to other systems.
TedErnst: Should the BeginnersReworking stuff (ThreadMode to DocumentMode, etc) be here?
BayleShanks: Yes, I think here is a good place also (on ThreadMode I also suggested UsingWiki)
There was already a section here recommending that beginners rework DocumentMode text, but I’ve appended a link to BeginnersReworking. Thank you for the idea. 😊
Define external redirect: SocialPage