Difference between revisions of "How to Use"

Latest revision as of 19:04, 5 February 2013

[edit] To Start

First thing to do is create an account on the wiki site. There are three primary reasons to create accounts in the AAUPwiki. The first is that you are required to do so to edit this wiki, the second is so that you can track what content you have created and get credit for the content created. The third is so that people can identify the authors of content, both to inform them of desired changes, and to correct possible errors. For this last reason, within the professional realm of the AAUPwiki, it is most useful to your colleagues that your contributions be recognizable as coming from you. Though it is not necessary, we recommend the use of your full name. To create an account, access the link in the top left, "Log in / create account". At this page, enter your user name and use a simple-to-remember password. Select "Request Account" and once your information is approved by the AAUP Central Office via email, log in! You can have it remember your login information to save time in the future.

[edit] To Edit

To edit, click the edit button to the right of the article. Type in the text area. Use equal signs (=) to code headings, the more equal signs before and after the head, the smaller the head. Hit return twice at the end of a paragraph to separate paragraphs by a line space. Click the Show Preview button to proofread the text as it will appear, then click Save Page to post. Check out these Wiki Guidelines for more details on tagging Wiki text as needed.

NOTE: Currently, there is a minor bug in the AAUPwiki which will cause an error page to appear after you save edits to a page. Do not worry about this, the edits have been saved. Click on the "article" tab to see your changes live.

[edit] Use Guidelines

Of significant value to the order/structure of the wiki, is placing interlinks to tightly related documents on each page. With this in mind, it is very valuable to place the parent topic link near the top of each page, enabling the user to track back up the hierarchy, when there is one.

[edit] Article/Page Naming

Please remember that there are many people using the wiki. This means that there can be name conflicts if the name of the article is not chosen to reflect the type of information being presented.

To maintain high quality, unambiguous topic names, consider your audience and try to find the most specific name that fully covers your subject. For example, External Photo Permissions Requests rather than "Permissions" (which would be pretty ambiguous for one article).

If you find that the best name for your topic is already taken, then it's best to disambiguate it. If there's only two meanings, add a note at the top of the existing page that describes your alternate use, including the link to a new page with a name that's more specific to your intent. For example, see the Wikipedia page on Cold Fusion.

For titles with multiple meanings, a separate disambiguation page may be required. Here's another wikipedia example.

[edit] Interesting Articles on Wiki

• An interesting read on the power of wiki: http://news.com.com/Esquire+wikis+article+on+Wikipedia/2100-1038_3-5885171.html
• An interesting read on the debates surrounding the quality of information in wikis: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=91235
• A popular journalism type article about the wiki phenomenon: http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1066904,00.html
• A research paper that may or may not be worth looking at: http://www.schwall.de/dl/20030828_the_wiki_way.pdf