Difference between revisions of "Media Center Master's Wiki Editing Guide"

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This Wiki uses MediaWiki Software for it's operating platform. Individuals wishing to contribute are encouraged to consult the MediaWiki Help:Contents page for information on using the MediaWiki Software. It contains several helpful guides with examples for readers, editors, moderators, and system admins.

• Permissible material in the form of writings and images should be: creations made by the editor, or acquired from an open source having no copyright license.
• The use of copyrighted material is strictly prohibited; not allowed without, proper permission from the legal entity owning such source, and prior notice given to Media Center Master, Inc. for display consideration.

• All saved edits fall in the public domain and become readily available for viewing on the internet to: read, copy, and edit.
• If an editor does not wish to leave a contribution open, unlocked and requiring no prior consent for:

• Reproduction, or
• Revisions by minor and/or major editing;

• The editor should not submit material to this Wiki.

Intended Purpose and Requirements

The intended purpose of this page is to provide information to all individuals, readers, and editors on some common editing practices used in this wiki. It, also, attempts to demystify the enter workings of a wiki for those thinking about, or wishing to edit, or contribute material to the wiki, but are hesitant because of a lack of knowledge, and/or experience in a wiki enviroment.

This Wiki has an open registration for all individuals of the community. The only requirement to register is: an individual must have an active email account. Registration is required to edit and contribute relevant information pertaining to Media Center Master, such as, and not just limited to: Installation, Graphical User Interface Descriptions, Common Usage (Real Life) Configuration Scenarios, Technical Guides, Networked Configurations, Interfacing with Other Media Center Programs and/or Products...

Terms and Definitions

The terms and definitions listed below will apply for the purposes in this guide.

• editor - a registered user to the Media Center Master's Wiki, an individual who is able to log in and edit the wiki.
• individual - a person who is new to this environment.
• markup - specific, code, syntax, keyboard characters, used for formatting text and structuring the outline of the document as a complete package.
• reader - an unregistered individual who primarily reads the wiki.
• wikitext - what an editor enters in the wiki, markup/s with text that produces the viewable page layouts with formatted text for reading.

Some Basics on How Wiki Software Works

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• The Wiki does more than just serve the Media Center Master Community as a Reference Guide.
• The Wiki, also, introduces Media Center Master to the world.
• Therefore, all material for contributions should be constructed in a professional manner.

Unlike word processing programs (e.g., MicroSoft Office Word, OpenOffice.org Writer), wiki software requires editors to use wikitext, to create a wished for representation of the submitted material for the viewer to read.

The Wiki cannot be broken, messed up, beyond repair. Each edit is monitored by the software (down to the simple changes of single letters, a space, a period...), and the editor's user name is attached to the history record of the page's edit. Each time a revision to a page is saved the editor's keystrokes are recorded and are available for undoing an edit. The revisions can be seen on each page's "history" tab, located on the top of each page.

There is no specific area for an editor to practice editing with wikitext (i.e., a "sandbox," an area to play in).

However, each editor is provided two (2) empty pages, linked to his/her account that is not, directly, viewable in the "Reference Guide" area of the Wiki.

• These pages are formatted in the same manner as any of the other pages in the wiki.

• They can utilize all wikitext, headings, links....
• Although these pages are part of the wiki, they can be safe areas in which an editor may wish to practice (sandbox) markups in a wikitext environment, before editing in the "Reference Guide" area of the Wiki.

• There is, also, an option to use one of these pages to practice, and then choose "cancel" at the bottom to the page, thereby, not saving an edit to the server.

• The first page is titled with the editor's chosen "user name," and can be found, after logging in, at the top right of the "Main Page," in red text (links with red text indicates an empty page, blue text indicates the page contains material).

• This is a place where an editor may wish to put a short autobiography, meaningful quotes, state reasons for joining...

• The second page is titled, "my talk," and can be found after logging in just to the right of the editor's "user name" page, also in red text.

• This is a place where an editor may wish to create links to pages for: "a sandbox", notes to self about past/future revisions, a place to communicate with other editors....

• Although both pages are visible to all editors, and readers through links within the Wiki; the links to these pages are not direct links within the "Reference Guide" area of the Wiki.

Minor editing of spelling, punctuation, and grammar may be made directly to the page containing the errors.

For Major edits, it is suggested to copy and paste the area the editor wishes to make revisions to, into the editor's "my talk" page, after making all of the revision, then copy and paste back into the related area/s of the Wiki to correct and/or update it. When using this method diligent care should be taken and self enforced with any links in the area an editor is planning to edit.

For example:

• Copy and pasting an area of the "Reference Guide" containing a link to a page into a "sandbox" for editing, does not auto-update the links to that page.
• The page referred to by the link is still active within the "Reference Guide."
• Should an editor edit the link, rename it.
• The page will be available, but under the new name.
• The new page will not be available for any links that linked to the original page.

The main idea to keep in mind when starting out is all contributions should be web friendly, viewable with any browser. The Wiki is in the public domain and should be kept accessible to all individuals. This does not mean, if you use two different browsers (e.g., MS Internet Explorer, and/or Google Chrome, and/or Opera, Safari, and/or Mozilla Firefox...) to view your edit/s and the text is read able, that it is web friendly. Viewable with Any Browser also considers other issues, such as: page size, loading time, image size.... For the most part, MediaWiki Software will take care of a lot of the minor issues with basic text formatting, as long as the editor uses WikiText,⁽¹⁾ examples from MediaWiki Help:Contents. As a rule of thumb, any character other than a letter, number, or any of the characters $-_.+!*'(), should be encoded to their hexadecimal equivalents.

There are several sites on the internet with additional information on the subjects of MediaWiki, wiki, markup, and wikitext.

⁽¹⁾ This link is listed in the MediaWiki Handbook link under, Section 2 Handbook parts, 2.2 For editors, Formatting.

Examples Used in the Wiki

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• The examples shown are taken directly from the "Reference Guide." Using these examples will keep a uniform structure throughout the Wiki.
• The examples may be copied directly from these pages and pasted into a page for use, by replacing the text inside of the markups.
• Some practice with these examples may be required.

Information Boxes - designed to be used in one (1) of four (4) levels of additional need to know material pertaining to the subject at hand, but not required in the general outline on the subject. They rank in scale starting at general notices up to warnings.

Image Links - an editor may need to upload an image to the server, first, in order for it to be displayed in the wiki. A link to the "Upload file" page can be found in the editor's toolbox located at the top, left side of this page. Follow the instructions found on the page to upload an image. Careful naming of the file, with attention to details listed in the name, will assist the editor, later, in remembering what the image is, and assist other editors, who may wish to use the image. Additional information may always be added in the comment area.