More About Authoring

Remember, this whole thing is here to help authors. If all you type is "Testing", we'll still be pleased that you bothered. And we'll hope that you'll come back soon to write more.

Most people don't know what to write. And many can't even read. Of course, knowing what to write is one problem. Knowing how to write is another. And yet another problem is knowing when to write. This is my biggest problem. For instance, should I have written that? Or this? Try browsing and see what others have written that seems like what you have in mind. Write like you talk. Ideas don't have to be complete, grammatical or even spelled correctly (although that would be nice). You'll also find our GoodStyle tips for editing always handy at the bottom of the EditText pages.

Subtopics

Q: I like the transcript looking results on various pages. It seems to encourage conversation. I'd like to see a description of the server architecture.

A: See ThreadMode, MoreAboutTheServer.

Q: The lack of distinction between what I'm writing and the previous text bothers me some. What if I deleted some previous text without realizing it?

A: You SHOULD delete previous text if it is no longer relevant. See EditCopy, VolunteerHousekeeper, PromptingStatement, WikiMaster, WhyWikiWorks.

{-- KeithDawson} Or you could sign your piece at the beginning, instead of at the end.

Q: Well, checked this out a few months ago, then recently, now am ready to try my own "collaborative" writing project. But can't for the heck of it figure out how you start your own page? Is this a dumb question, or what? Thanks.

A: Just write the title for the new page in another page somewhere. It'll get turned into a link that you can follow to edit the new page.

Q: {-- KeithDawson} Any way to timestamp the contributions? Would be nice if "SomeName?/t" expanded to "SomeName? 1999-07-11 23:38:21 GMT".

A: My comments are always timeless. :-) ;-> :-) Seriously, I've seen pages where people did this by hand and it did not seem to add anything: People respond when they feel like it; the order of responses is much more important than how long it took to respond. (anonymous)

And that is the trouble: order. The original questioner probably felt a want for order, as I do. I am glad to find that to pages I have created or helped to create keep much alive during my long absences, but when I come back I find the contributions utterly unordered. I looked for a discussion on this and found only this FAQ item. -- MariusAmadoAlves

Q: Y'know what would be real nice? The ability to download - and of course upload - the source text of an arbitrary number of Wiki Pages. Then one could edit, <pre>-format and spellcheck at will in a proper text editor. That would be great if you had more than a few comments in mind. I'm talking 'bout editing a *number* of pages, all at once. -- JeanJordaan

Caution: This makes it much more likely that you will kill the contributions of others, as the "EditConflictResolution" problems have not been solved!

Yes, it can be really helpful to write long comments in a TextEditor or WordProcessor, and then go back to Wiki to append them to the page. But if you take much time in making extensive changes to existing text in recently changed pages, you're likely to wipe out other people's work.

It's a good habit to check QuickChanges after you edit a page to see if you mistakenly wiped out someone else's changes. You can then use EditCopy to grab those changes and integrate them with yours.

What about writing a multipage contribution in the first phase external to Wiki, but public (Contribution On One's Own Website, in a HyperNewsForum? or on CritLink). Such a contribution is loosely coupled by a BidirectionalLink to a WikiForum. FriendlyPeerContributors raise the value of the external contributions to each other in the second phase. This way no other people's work is wiped out and even whole dissertations (the favorite type of contributions, that WardCunningham would like to see in WardsWiki) can evolve. -- FridemarPache

There doesn't seem to be a great deal of hyper-linking to pages outside of the Wiki. Are outside links discouraged in an attempt to keep the Wiki completely self-referential (meaning content available on outside sources would be duplicated within the Wiki), or is it AOK to link to content outside? Perhaps this actually belongs in MoreAboutEditingLinks.

It is good practice to search wiki for a related link before linking outside. If a page is created to hold an outside link, please add a few words of description so that full text search will find the page when appropriate.

In addition see DeclareAndLink

CategoryWikiHelp