Good morning all,
Below are some things new Wiki editors should consider when editing any Wiki page. These have been learned by other regular Wiki editors while working to maintain a baseline level of consistency throughout the Wiki, in both presentation and navigation.
These are offered here as basic information, but not anything official. Please take them for what they are worth, but don't get upset if someone else adjusts your edits to help keep things consistent throughout the Wiki.
Use of Aliases (an alias is when you provide a link to another Wiki page, but override that link's text with different text, so the real link is obscured)
Abrreviating the word "County" as "Co."
Making large sweeping changes to pages
Another editor correcting your changes, even while you are making them
User Pages
Section-Headings
These are but a few of the things learned by regular Wiki editors.
Hope this helps,
Below are some things new Wiki editors should consider when editing any Wiki page. These have been learned by other regular Wiki editors while working to maintain a baseline level of consistency throughout the Wiki, in both presentation and navigation.
These are offered here as basic information, but not anything official. Please take them for what they are worth, but don't get upset if someone else adjusts your edits to help keep things consistent throughout the Wiki.
Use of Aliases (an alias is when you provide a link to another Wiki page, but override that link's text with different text, so the real link is obscured)
- Aliases can be useful when using an abbreviation for a page's name, like "P25" instead of "Project 25", etc.
- In general, aliases should be avoided, because in most other cases, aliases lead to confusion on several levels.
- When the text shown for the link is not the same as the title of the target page, then after clicking the link the Wiki-visitor finds themselves at an unexpected page.. This is generally bad-form because it confuses the Wiki-visitor.
- It also makes Wiki-maintenance more difficult when tracing page relationships and updating links.
- In general, for consistency in navigation, it is better to not use aliases when they significantly differ from the target-page's name.
- If the page-name is used as the link, and it needs an explanation, then it is cleaner to let the link properly represent the page's proper name, and then also, in standard text, follow the link with a comment or explanation about the page accordingly.
Abrreviating the word "County" as "Co."
- Use of the "Co." abbreviation is generally discouraged, and routinely corrected, throughout the Wiki, when it is part of a link, or part of a page-name, because the standard for naming pages is to spell-out the word "County". This ensures that the system-generated lists properly sort related pages together
- Use of the "Co." abbreviation in an alias is also discouraged, because it easily confuses Wiki-editors into thinking that it is ok to create a new Wiki page with the abbreviation (like "Los Angeles Co. (CA)"), which is not acceptable, and will be renamed (like "Los Angeles County (CA)")
Making large sweeping changes to pages
- Be very careful and sure of the impact of the planned changes before you make them.
- Don't be surprised if someone else updates the page to correct your changes.
Another editor correcting your changes, even while you are making them
- The public section of the Wiki (meaning not the "User:" pages) can be editted by anyone at anytime.
- As explained at the bottom of every Wiki page, in edit mode:
- Generally, when it is obvious that someone is currently, actively working on a page in real-time, the rest of Wiki community usually lets them do so without interruption, and waits until they seem to have stopped before other editors follow with additional changes to the page.
- Sometimes however, experienced Wiki editors see a need to undo someone's changes even while that person is still editing the page. This is done in an effort to minimize any errors that were made and to hopefully eliminate the possibility of those errors persisting or progressing.
- If you find that other regular/senior Wiki editors are editing/undoing the edits you are making, then you really need to ask yourself, "What did I miss?" "Why are my edits being reverted/undone or corrected?", and possibly should slow or stop your efforts until you can get clarification on why your edits are being adjusted.
- Learning from experiences like these on how to be a better editor can help avoid frustration on your side, and can help make your contributions to the Wiki more valuable in general, long term.
- It is best to remember that one should always remain humble, that everyone's contributions to the Wiki are done in good faith, with no ill intent, and that once you edit a Wiki page in the public section, it is not "your page", it is everyone's page, and can be edited immediately afterwards by someone else.
User Pages
- In general, user pages are not used for discussions, or communicating between Wiki editors. Sometimes a Wiki-Admin will choose to leave a note on a User's page because they cannot find another better way to communicate the message.
- User pages, though still property of Radio Reference, are generally considered as that User's development space, where pages can be developed without concern of anyone else editing them, and then when ready can be copy/pasted into the proper public page.
- Discussions should be done either in the Wiki forum, by PM or email.
- It is generally considered bad form to edit another user's "user-page" without their invitation.
- If another user's "user-page" needs to be edited, check with the Wiki Admin first.
Section-Headings
- Section headings are used throughout the Wiki in a standard manner, and are briefly explained in the official guide as to what level of heading should be used.
- Section headings help build the auto-generated table-of-contents for each page.
- "Related Wiki Pages" is a standard section-heading used near the bottom of most Wiki pages, and should not be supressed as a general-font or bold-font boiler-plate text on the page. Please follow the working standard and use the section heading as seen on most pages.
These are but a few of the things learned by regular Wiki editors.
Hope this helps,
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