This page is written to help users learn how to make changes to this web site using the wiki system. Anyone may edit any page on the web site, including the home page, as long as they knew the password. If you know the password, you have the ability to edit the web site and should read this page carefully.
Step 1: How this web site works
This web site consists of any number of pages that can be edited, created, removed, and linked together arbitrarily by any member of the team. Any perceived structure is only a guide and there are no strict rules as to where information goes. You should use your discretion when writing and linking content and understand that anything you write can (and probably will) be edited, moved, or deleted by other people. Hence this web site is a collaborative effort and the content will be highly fluid. The proper name for these types of websites is
wiki. You can find out about wikis at
Wikipedia, another web site.
Every page on this web site has a title and some content. Any page can be created, although please take care not to use complex characters when titling pages - simplicity is the key. This page is called
Wiki Tutorial because it's contents are exactly that.
Any other page can link to this page by simply enclosing the title in square brackets, for example [Wiki Tutorial]. You can see this technique in action when you go to
Edit this page, which is shown at the bottom of every page. This is how a link appears when it is formed properly:
Wiki Tutorial. If a link is created to a page that doesn't exist, the link shows up in red, along with a question mark at the end. Here's an example of a link to a page that doesn't exist:
This link goes nowhere and does nothing?.
Clicking on a red link automatically takes you to the editor for that page, where you can start typing content. Hence the easiest way to make a page on this web site is:
- Find a suitable page that already exists.
- Edit that page, and add a link to your new page.
This is where you decide what your page will be titled
- Fill in the password and press Save
The existing page will be displayed with your new link shown in red
- Click on your red link.
- Fill in the password, type some content, and press Save.
Your new page will be shown and the previous page will now show a proper link
Note that if you forget to fill in the password, or get it incorrect, the page will not refresh.
A page edit is only accepted when the new page is shown after clicking the Save button.
There are some more advanced techniques you can use when typing content, should you need them. These are shown in the
Formatting Rules section.
Step 2: Adding yourself to this site
One of the first things you might notice is that your name will be included on every page that you've edited. That's so that people know who's done what. You may also notice that clicking on your name will take you to a blank page (probably). That's because wikis generally shouldn't be anonymous (although they can be if you want). Filling in a little bit of biographical information on your own page means that other web site contributors will know who they're working with.
Step 3: Structuring this site
Beyond this introductory tutorial, all that remains is thinking more broadly about how information is structured. As stated previously, this web site is structured only by the links people have created. If you add a link to the
homepage, the page it links to will clearly have more prominence than a page that is only linked from a less prominent page (such as your biographical page, for example). Using this simple technique, and some familiarity with using this particular wiki, it becomes easy to perceive how this web site is structured, and to know exactly where your content should reside.
And remember - you can always go back and change what you or anyone else has done! There are no limitations in your abilities to edit.