Basic Wiki Concepts

Why a Wiki?

What's a wiki and why use it for this kind of material? A wiki is a kind of webpage that's collaboratively built, with readers making contributions and editing content. The most well known wiki is Wikipedia. Someone creates an article that becomes a page in the wiki. Other readers can contribute to the article in three ways: commenting, editing, or annotating.

Commenting

Commenting is a response to the article, a question, a personal reflection. They are located at the bottom of each page.  These work the same as comments in a blog or forum.  In order to prevent post-spam, users must be logged in and cannot comment anonymously.

Editing

Editing is when a user actually changes an article entry. This is the feature that sets a wiki apart from every other kind of web page. A user might edit an article for a variety of reasons. It may be done to clean up the writing, making it more clear. It may be done to add information the original author left out. It may be done to add other ideas, arguments, and interpretations to the original article making it more complete. Most webpages don't allow users to freely edit them, but wikis operate on a different principle.  As more people bring their knowledge, experience and expertise to a topic, the more helpful and more accurate it becomes. We welcome anyone interested to become a contributor or editor. However, to prevent post-spam or defacing, we do have a password for editors. If you'd like to be a contributor please let us know.

Annotating & Making new pages

Annotating is when a user creates a link (like that one) in the original story, either to a new article in the wiki, or to another webpage. This link would provide additional information that deepens understanding of the original article.

How to annotate (create new links)

There are four ways you can create links in an existing article. This is also how you would create a brand new page that isn't referred to yet.

1. You can link to an existing page in the wiki.  Highlight the text you want to annotate, and then in the "Insert Links" box on the right side of the edit window, select the page you want to link to from the list of pages.

2. You can link to a new page that hasn't been created yet.  Type a line of text that you want to link to the new page you want to create, then select "Insert a link to a new page" in the "Insert link" box on the right side of the edit window.  You'll be given a change to name the new page.  Once you save the page you're annotating, you can take the link you created and create the new page.

3.  You can link to a page somewhere else on the internet.  Select the text you want to annotate, and then click the "Insert Link" button at the top of the edit window.  In the dialog that pops up, enter the URL (web address) of the page you want to link to.