You're a part of the wiki!
When you first see a wiki, it doesn't seem like it could possibly work. If anybody can come along and change things, then how can the information be trusted? Doesn't it just get vandalized, or fall into chaos?
Once you start participating, you see that that "weakness" is actually a wiki's greatest strength. Sure, anybody can add anything -- and then everybody else gets to proofread it, and fix mistakes. Information that looks suspicious can be verified. Vandalism is almost always fixed within minutes. It's possible for someone to post errors, or nonsense -- but over time, the best wins out.
If you're reading these words, then you're a wiki editor. If you see a problem on one of the pages, don't roll your eyes and complain about it. Just fix it!
Create a user name
Log in and create a user name -- it'll help you (and everybody) keep track of your contributions. It's possible to post anonymously on this wiki, but be advised that anonymous posters are treated more skeptically. If we can see the pages you've added to, then we'll be more impressed with you, and more likely to trust.
You're also invited to post your name on your user page -- either your full name, or just a first name and an initial. It's not required, but it helps everyone get to know you and trust you.
Set your preferences
There's a lot of useful stuff on your Preferences page.
You can change your display so that links show up as blue or red words, without the underlining. You can also change your time zone, and the number of items you see on the Recent Changes page or the Category list.
Sign forum and talk posts
When you post on a forum or talk page, put an asterisk (*) at the front of your post to make a bullet. Sign talk posts with four tildes -- ~~~~ -- to automatically add your user name and a date stamp.
Identify active talk pages
When you post a question on an article's talk page, you can list it in Active Talk Pages by adding a talk box. Just add this template to the top of the article page: {{talk}} -- that'll automatically add a box pointing people to your question, and it'll list you on the Active Talk Pages. You can browse through that list to find other ongoing discussions.
History tab
Nothing is ever lost on a wiki! You can see all of the changes that have been made to a page -- and who made them -- by clicking on the "History" tab at the top of any page.
External links
The simplest way to add a link is just put it in: http://solarcooking.org. This is good if you want the link to show when the page is printed.
To hide the URL but make the link clickable, put one set of square brackets around it like this: [http://solarcooking.org]. That'll look like this: [1]
You can add a description to the link by adding a space before the description, like this: [http://solarcooking.org solar cooking archive]. That comes out like this: solar cooking archive.
Link sanity
Only link a name the first time it's used on a page. Please don't link every single capitalized word -- it makes the page confusing and messy.
Uploading and formatting pictures
Click on "Upload file" on the left navigation bar to upload pictures. You can add your image to any page using this code:
- [[Image:yourpicture.jpg|thumb|300px|Caption for your picture>]]
Images should not exceed 300 pixels wide for article tidyness.
The Wikipedia has a good succinct article on image syntax that applies to this wiki.
Categories
You can put an article into a category by adding this code: [[Category:YourCategory]] . You can change the way the article is alphabetized within the category like this: [[Category:Who's who in the solar cooking movement|Sponheim]].
Before you create a category, check the Category list to see if there's a similar category that already exists. If the category doesn't exist yet, then adding that code will create the category. Be sure to add some text to the new Category page, or the link from your new article won't work properly.
Keyboard shortcuts
There are some helpful shortcuts to navigate within a page.
Alt-T : Talk
Alt-E : Edit
Alt-H : History
Alt-R : Recent Changes
Dealing with vandalism
Vandalism isn't much of a problem on a wiki, because everybody has the power to fix it when they see it. See the Vandalism help page for instructions on how to fix vandalized pages, and how to discourage the vandals.
Some product info is okay but please not your whole catalog
We want to make it easy for people to buy solar cookers, so a brief summary of your products and your company contact information is fine - one or two entries on the Manufacturers and Vendors page and an overview of your company on your company page. Save the detailed specs for your own website.
Contact administrators
See Special:Listadmins for a list of admins on any wiki.
If you have questions or comments about the wiki, you can leave a message on an admin's talk page.
Check the Help pages for more information on contributing to this wiki!
- The first revision of this page was written by User:Toughpigs[2].