What is a wiki?
From Old Bailey Wiki
Contents |
Introduction
If you spend any time browsing the Internet (or, indeed, even if you don't), you've probably encountered Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a wiki, but it's not the only Wiki, and wikis are not confined to use for online encyclopedias. A 'wiki' is more accurately a special type of software, or a website powered by that software, which is designed to facilitate collaborative online writing and editing from within your web browser. This wiki uses the same software as Wikipedia, and it's surprisingly easy to learn to use.
Who can contribute?
It depends on the wiki; some are completely open and allow anyone to contribute, while others (like this one) require users to register and log in to edit, and others may be restricted to invited members. We do not require you to give your 'real' name if you'd prefer not to; all we ask (for most of the site) is that you have a valid email address for registration.
Creating and editing content
It's very quick and easy to create and edit pages in a wiki. They employ simple markup features that can be learned very quickly and thus enable people to create and edit documents without specialist knowledge or training. For example, to display text in italics, like this, you simply enclose it in two pairs of single quotation marks: ''italics''; or to create a link to another page in the wiki, you use [[double square brackets]] (that would create a link to a new, empty page called Double square brackets).
- Creating Pages
- Editing Pages
- Quick Help
- All Help Pages
- See also this User Manual for Wikimedia Commons (which uses the same software as this wiki), which has been written with novice users in mind.
Not sure what to do? Try out the Sandbox! Go here, then click on the tab near the top of the page that says 'edit'. You'll be taken straight into the editing screen for the page (as long as you're logged in) - try out some of the formatting described in the Quick Help page. Then press the 'Save Page' button below the editing box, and see what you did. Made a mess? Just go back in to the editing screen and try again!
Organising content
Once you've created a page, you want to be able to find it again, and you want other people to be able to share the information you've contributed. The easiest way to do this is to 'tag' the page with categories that summarise the content of the page. You can use existing categories or create as many new ones as you like.
There are links to get you quickly around the main areas of the wiki in the left hand sidebar to every page.
Page history
The wiki stores a record of every page's edits, so that it's easy to 'roll back' to any earlier version of the page - useful in the event of mistakes (or vandalism). (Accessed via the 'history' tab at the top of the page.)
User discussion and communication features
Each wiki page has a corresponding 'discussion' or 'talk' page (accessed via the 'discussion' tab at the top of the page), which facilitates background discussion, queries, etc, to be pursued without disrupting the contents of the page.
You can also set up 'watchlists' to track when pages you're interested in have been changed.
There is a built-in email facility to enable other logged-in users to email you without needing to make your email address publicly accessible on the site.
