PaulSank's Step-By-Step Guide to Wikidelphia Editing

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Hello! I'm Paul! When I first tried to edit, I was intimidated and stymied for a long time. I couldn't fully imagine what a Wikidelphia page of mine would look like, much less how to make one in any sort of procedural sequence. What to do? I couldn't feel confidence and motivation.

You, however, have a much better start right here! This step-by-step guide to Wikidelphia editing is written to guide you, step-by-step, in making or improving pages.

Note: This guide has you doing a format that Wikidelphia staff editor Paul eventually stopped using. But this is still a great way to do a page, even if a few adjustments are made in the future by another user or staff editor.

A First Look

First, it is recommended that you click or tap on Random Page, over on the left of your screen, in Wikidelphia's sidebar. That's the column of options below the WikiDelphia logo. Clicking Random Page will bring up a Wikidelphia page chosen at random. Look at the page's various parts for a few seconds, and then hit Random Page again. Do this again, and again, clicking Random Page, looking at each page's "look".

Soon you start to see that there's a variety of page formats, but many of the pages do look alike. You see that there is a common format.

Take a closer look at any page that fits this format. See the page title on top and the link under that. Maybe on the right of the page there's a picture. Below the link, you see the title again in boldface in the first little sentence or paragraph. There's a body of descriptive information, quoted from the website that the top link refers to. Maybe there's an Info section below that, or a See Also section. Maybe there's an In The News section or an Editor's Note. Then at the bottom, there's a little bit of space, usually about three blank lines. Finally there are the Categories.

Now that you have previewed the general layout, take another look at the Table of Contents of this page, above. See how some of the section titles match up with the format you've just seen.

It's time to get into the business of making pages.

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A Reassuring Note

Wikidelphia is always being built, grown and improved anyways, so it's okay to stop in the middle of editing and leave your page "under construction" briefly. If you only get a section or two done, and you want to take a break for a few minutes or an hour or a day, go ahead, save the page and log out!

Now, aren't you glad that you definitely do not have to follow this whole guide all at once?

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To Begin Editing

Assuming that you have already logged in, there are two main possibilities as to what you're doing:

Make a New Page

First, use the left-column, sidebar search box to poke around Wikidelphia. Look around for any entry that already exists on your subject. Try the exact spelling first. If that doesn't bring up a match, try other spellings. Try other wordings.

If you find such a page, maybe you want to update it (see next subsection). If you get to feeling sure that the subject isn't already covered, then it's time to make a new page:

  • Think of an exact title--exact--and enter it into the search box (that every Wikidelphia page has in the left column of your screen). Hit Go.
  • As we expect, the search comes up empty. "There were no results matching the query."
  • Under that, you see "Create the page '(what you typed, but in red letters)' on this wiki!" This is where Wikidelphia is giving you the option to create a page with the exact title you entered.
  • (If the red part is incorrect, just use the same search box--or the one at the top of the page--to type in the correct title this time.)
  • Click the red link in the "Create" line.
  • Your display now shows you a compose window.
  • Look up at the tabs going across the top, above the big page heading. In bold face on one of the tabs, you see "Create Source". This tells you that you're in the Source Editor, which is a plain-text kind of mode where you'll do more typing than mousing.
    • The alternative to the Source Editor is the Visual Editor, which offers tools like a word-processing program. If you'd rather try or use this alternative, you'll look to the left of the "Create Source" tab and see "Create". Select that.


Throughout these instructions, I'll assume you're using the Source Editor ("Create Source"), but I'll add some notes about how to do things in the Visual Editor ("Create"), too. Either way, we're going for the same result, a well-organized Wikidelphia page in a standardized format that puts the subject front-and-center, making it easy and convenient for readers to take advantage of all that a Wikidelphia page has to offer.

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Update an Existing Page

You are looking at an existing Wikidelphia page. You shift your gaze up to the top where it has tabs that say things like "Page", "Discussion", "Edit", "History", etc. You have two options:

  • You can choose the "Edit" tab if you'd rather use the Visual Editor.
  • Or you can choose the "Edit Source" tab to get to the Source Editor.
  • Your display now shows you a compose window.
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Note

These instructions are written as if you're making a new page. But whether you're making a new one or updating an existing one, the resulting format we want is the same. So if you're making a new page, you're probably starting with the next section, below, and working your way down in sequence. If you're doing an update, you can skip around to whichever part of these instructions is relevant to what part of the page you're working on.

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About the Visual Editor

Also please note that if you're using the Visual Editor, there is a separate set of instructions you may wish to look at. The Visual Editor is supposed to be more user-friendly, so most of it is pretty self-explanatory. But just in case, for reference, here's the Visual Editor user guide.

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Line 1: The Main Link

At the top of every standardly formatted page, below the tabs and the page title, is the main link. Whatever the title of the page refers to, the main link takes the reader there.

(I'll give you the Visual Editor instructions further below. But to understand them, it's helpful to look at this example first, because it's a breakdown of what the Visual Editor actually makes. The main concepts to grasp are "url" and "name".)

On the page as displayed for the reader, there's a simplified link, for example, "glassplategame.com". As seen in the Source Editor, it looks like this:

{{toplink|url=http://www.glassplategame.com/|name=glassplategame.com}}

This is the way to make a link at the top of the page. What the reader will actually see is just the "glassplategame.com" part, which they can click on. Now I'll explain the parts of what you see in the example:

  • First, at the very top of your page, a pair of left curly brackets "{{".
  • Next, the word "toplink".
  • Then, a vertical bar ("|"). I think it's called a pipe. Anyways, it's usually what you get when you hold Shift and hit the backward slash ("\") key. On my keyboard, the key is directly above "Enter".
  • Then, "url=", followed by the actual URL. It's the full address of the website, including all the "http" gobbledygook, and in this case, a slash at the end. This is the full address where the reader actually goes when they hit the link.
  • Next, another vertical bar.
  • Then, "name=", followed by the simplified URL. This name is what the reader will actually see, being easier to read and easier to remember. So in this example, the reader sees only "glassplate.com", and when they click it, they get taken to "http://www.glassplategame.com".
  • Finally, a pair of right curly brackets "}}".

Here are some other examples, which highlight how to use "url" and "name":

{{toplink|url=http://www.facebook.com/JewishTimesSJ|name=facebook.com/JewishTimesSJ}}

{{toplink|url=http://philadelphia.score.org/|name=philadelphia.score.org}}

{{toplink|url=http://www.sspeterpaulcathedral
.catholicweb.com|name=sspeterpaulcathedral.catholicweb.com}}

{{toplink|url=http://www.scsc.pa.gov|name=scsc.pa.gov}}

{{toplink|url=http://www.esperanza.us/understanding-esperanza/community-economic-development/work-force/|name=esperanza.us
/understanding-esperanza/community-economic-development/work-force}}

{{toplink|url=http://www.reddit.com/r/philadelphia|name=reddit.com/r/philadelphia}} 

{{toplink|url=http://www.studylove.org/18agape.html|name=studylove.org}}

Notice how we're always trying to make things easier for the reader by keeping the "name" part simple. Sometimes, though, as in the "esperanza" example, there's not much cutting you can do, because it really does take the whole long URL to get to the site's home page.

In the "studylove" example, I show another example of giving the reader direct access: If I had just put "http://studylove.org" as the full URL, the visitor would have gotten a descriptive landing page. But our Wikidelphia page is itself a good descriptive intro to the website, so the "url" part points to the actual main index of the site. If the reader likes the site, they would probably bookmark the main index, not the landing page.

Now that you have completed the toplink line, put nothing. No space. No carriage return. Whatever comes next on the page will start immediately after the right curly brackets, without anything in between.

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Making a Main Link with the Visual Editor

At the very top of the page, type two left curly brackets ("{{"). When you type the second one, a dialogue will come up. In the one blank field you see, type "toplink" and Enter. Next you see a blank for "Field name". Type "url" and Enter. A blank field will appear below "url". Into that blank put the full URL, just as discussed under the term "url" above. Then put the cursor into the box below where it says "Field name" again. This time, put "name" and Enter. In the blank field that appears below "name", put the name, the simplified URL as discussed under "name" above. When you see that you have a correct name and url, go to the top of the dialog box and hit Insert. As a result, the visitor will now see the simplified version, and when they click on that, they'll get to where the full URL points to.

Now you've made a new main link. It's probably highlighted in blue, so you'll want to click outside that blue area to move on. On the next line below the main link, you'll be putting the description, possibly preceded by a picture.

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Picture

Not every page has a picture, but if you want to add one, the first thing to do is probably to hit the Save Page button so you don't lose your work while you go find a picture.

As to the type of picture, my suggestion is to use a picture that actually pertains to your page's subject. A lot of organizations use stock photos on their sites. There are also copyright issues to consider, so the safest bet is to make sure it's a local picture. The page Ladies In Transit Holistic CDC (LITCDC) has a picture of some of LITCDC's personnel posing with their table at a local festival. The Philadelphia Jazz Project (PJP) doesn't just have a generic picture of a jazz player, it has a picture of a concert that was actually presented by PJP.

Once you've found a picture, download it to your computer, give the picture a name that matches the organization--for example, LITCDC.jpg or PhilaJazz.jpg--and save it.

Next, use the "Upload file" link under "tools" in the Wikidelphia sidebar, the left column of your screen. On the screen that comes up, the Browse button will help you select the picture on your computer. Below that, there's another filename blank. This time, it's asking what you want to re-name your picture to, for the purposes of linking to it in Wikidelphia. If you've already named it well, use the same name here. Below that, there's a bigger blank for you to fill in a full caption. This is the caption the reader will see after they click the thumbnail and see the full picture, so here is the place to put all the details. Finally, scroll down to the bottom and hit the Upload File button.

Now you'll go back to the page you're editing. (Visual Editor: [Instructions under construction.]) Go to the exact spot right immediately after the main link. On pages with no pictures, this spot would be where the description section begins. A picture is the one thing that can come between the main link and the description.

The picture link takes this form:

[[File:PhilaJazz.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Orkestra Rumpilezz presented by the Philadelphia Jazz Project.]]

Breaking it down, in sequence:

  • Two left square brackets, then "File", then a colon.
  • The file name of the picture you uploaded.
  • A vertical bar ("|") and "200px". This means, make it 200 pixels wide on the page. The usual width of a Wikidelphia thumbnail is 200px.
  • "|thumb". This means you're making a thumbnail.
  • "|right". This means that the picture will appear on the right side of the page.
  • Another vertical bar followed by the caption you want the reader to see under the thumbnail. Include a period at the end, and then the two right square brackets. Don't add any spaces or carriage returns.

After the brackets, immediately will come the description section of the page.

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Description

First: The name of the subject of the entry. For example, if the page is titled, "Glass Plate Game", then Line 3 should begin:

The '''Glass Plate Game'''

The three single quotes (or apostrophes) mean "bold". (In the Visual Editor, select the name, then hit the "A" button and pick Bold from the dropdown menu. Shortcut: Ctrl-B.) What's between these groups of marks must match the title of the page very exactly. Exception: If the page title has an acronym in parentheses at the end, e.g., "Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS)", then put the acronym outside the bolded part.

The '''Pennsylvania Horticultural Society''' (PHS)

Second: A phrase that introduces the description. This is part of a "point of view frame". When you use such a phrase, you're shifting the point of view to someone else, usually to the point of view expressed on your subject organization's or person's website.

Examples:

The '''Glass Plate Game''' gives the following descriptive information:

'''Nonprofit Technology Resources''' (NTR) describes itself this way:
 
'''Invisible River''', which uses the tagline, "Celebrating our local rivers 
through live public performance and river advocacy", gives the following 
description: 

Third: The descriptive information. First, put

<blockquote> </blockquote>

These two angle-bracketed words ("tags") will tell Wikidelphia to make a long quotation in a more indented format from the other text. (In the Visual Editor, you'll do the blockquote marking after you add the information.)

Now you want to go find some descriptive information. Open another browser window and go to the subject's website. Sometimes a good paragraph or two can be found on the subject site's home page. Maybe a good paragraph or two can be found under:

  • "About Us",
  • "Mission",
  • "Vision",
  • "Who We Are",
  • "What We Do".

When you find some good descriptive words, copy them and paste them in between the "blockquote" tags. (Visual Editor: Now that you've added the descriptive information, select it. Then hit the Paragraph button and pick "Block quote" from the dropdown menu. Shortcut: Ctrl-8.)

If the text you found has more than one paragraph, add two "<br>" (carriage return) tags in each of the spaces between paragraphs. (Visual Editor: Make sure there's a blank line between paragraphs. You're now done with the description section.)

See the tags in this full example:

'''Niche Recycling''' gives the following description:<blockquote>Niche Waste 
Reduction & Recycling Systems, Inc. or Niche Recycling, Inc. was previously known as
Maurice M. Sampson Associates, sole proprietorship founded in 1988. The company was 
built on the considerable experience of its founder, Maurice M. Sampson II, one of 
America’s first urban, municipal recycling coordinators for the Cities of Newark, 
New Jersey (1982) and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1985).<br><br>Niche Recycling was 
incorporated in May 1995 in conjunction with a Bar and Tavern Glass Bottle Recycling 
Pilot Project spearheaded by Anheuser-Busch Recycling Corporation. Well-received by 
50 establishments, the effort generated a baseline of information critical to 
commercial expansion. Commercialization was not achieved due to an unexpected 
corporate decision by Anheuser-Busch to divest of its recycling operations nationwide. 
Subsequent efforts by Niche Recycling to secure start-up financing from other sources 
were unsuccessful.<br><br>Since then, Niche Recycling has completed numerous projects 
on a city, state and national level. The company has an established record of success 
that has led to client savings in multiples of initial project investment. Niche 
Recycling is certified as a minority business enterprise by the City of 
Philadelphia.</blockquote>

As you can also see from the example, everything between the "blockquote" tags is run together. After I made my first big run-on-and-on block quote like this one, I stopped having weird problems with how the spacing comes out when the whole thing is displayed. My guess is, running it all together gives you more control. However you handle it, the main thing is to end up with good paragraph spacing.

On the next blank line right after the closing tag, </blockquote>, is a good place to put a note about location. Since Wikidelphia's main focus is Philadelphia, our visitors will think everything is in Philadelphia unless we tell them otherwise, so when I make or improve an entry about a subject outside the city, I add a one-line note here, for example:

</blockquote>
This business is based in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

</blockquote>
This organization has headquarters in San Francisco, California.

</blockquote>
The company has four locations in the USA, including a branch in Philadelphia.
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Sections

You may wish to add one or two additional sections. Each section should have a Level 2 heading, meaning you add two equals signs before and after, like this:

==History==
The museum gives the following history:<blockquote>[The historical info you find.]</blockquote>
 

(In the Visual Editor, you get a Level 2 heading by selecting the text, then hitting the Paragraph button and picking Headline from the dropdown menu. Shortcut: Ctrl-2.)

Additional Descriptive Sections

Some additional section headings might be:

==Mission Statement==

==Customer Reviews==

==Vision Statement==

==Permanent Exhibits==

==Programs==

==Projects==

==Product Lines==

==Philosophy==

==How It Works==

In all sections, it's important to keep Wikidelphia's point of view separate from others'. So, after a section heading, you write a little point of view frame, for example:

The organization states its philosophy:<blockquote>[The stuff you found on the subject site's Philosophy 
page.]</blockquote> 

PHS lists the following programs:<blockquote>
*Gardening Program
*Flower Show
*Other Program
</blockquote>

ABC gives its mission and vision:<blockquote>''Mission:''&nbsp;[their statement]
<br><br>''Vision:''&nbsp;[their Vision stuff]</blockquote>

In the "ABC" example, note the use of double single quotes, which means "Italics". And then the part with the ampersand and "nbsp" and semicolon makes a standard amount of space after the italicized heading. (Visual Editor: To get italics, select the text, then hit the "A" button and pick Italic. Shortcut: Ctrl-I. Make sure there's a space after the colon.) Italicized headings are the main way to mark minor sections in a Wikidelphia entry.

In the "PHS" example, note the asterisks. These items will appear as a bulleted list. (Visual Editor: Select the text, then hit the button that looks like a bulleted list. From the menu you can pick either Bullet list or Numbered list.)

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Editor's Notes

When you want to add a comment or something else from your own point of view as a person or as a Wikidelphia editor, add an Editor's Note section. Another use of an Editor's Note is to request a bit of assistance from the next editor that works on this page.

Side Note: Note also that the Discussion tab at the top of almost every Wikidelphia page takes you to a "talk page", which is the ideal place for you to express your informal thoughts about the subject or the page or how it's going for you making it, or perhaps to offer your intention as to the value and purpose of the page. Multiple editors could use this tab to forge consensus about a page's purpose and the way that the material is presented.

Examples of an editor's note:

==Editor's Note==
I went to this event myself and had a great time. Try the funnel cakes! The parking is a bit pricey, though. 

~~~~

==Editor's Note==
This organization is not showing any signs of recent activity and, as far as I can tell, may have shut down. 
I ask the next editor who sees this, please search the Net again for signs of current activity, and then of 
course update this page accordingly.

~~~~

When you put the blank line and then the four tildes ("~") at the end, it will do something very handy! After you save the page, and when Wikidelphia displays it, the tildes will be gone, replaced by a complete signature, including your user name, the date, and the time.

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Info Section

One type of section you'll include sometimes is "Info". This example gives ideas of the sort of items that can be included:

==Info==
*Event Calendar:&nbsp;[http://joebloe.com/events Joe Bloe's Upcoming Events]
*Twitter:&nbsp;[http://www.twitter.com/JoeBloe @JoeBloe]
*Facebook:&nbsp;[http://www.facebook.com/JoeTheBloeMeister JoeTheBloeMeister]
*Hours:&nbsp;[http://joebloe.com/hours Joe's Hours Of Operation]
*Volunteer:&nbsp;[http://joebloe.org/volunteer Make A Difference Today!]
*Volunteer Match profile:&nbsp;[http://www.volunteermatch.org/search/org98248.jsp Ignatian Volunteer Corps]

In the "Event Calendar", "Hours", and "Volunteer" examples, note that the title after the link is whatever actually appears at the top of the linked page. It should be a close match so that your reader will know the link took them to the page they were expecting.

The "Twitter" format is very specific. Follow it exactly. The link, and then a space, then the "at" sign with the username.

The "Facebook" format is also specific. First the link, and then a space followed by a repeat of whatever appears after the link's slash.

In all the examples, note that there is no "https://". If you see this, kill the "s" unless the link actually takes the reader to a site where security is especially important. An "https" site is the kind you get when you're about to log in into your credit card account, for example.

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In The News

For example:

==In The News==
*[http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2016/03/26/fans-mesh-love-of-baseball-with-love-of-running-at-annual-phillies-charities-5k/ Fans 
Mesh Love Of Baseball With Love Of Running At Annual Phillies Charities 5K], CBS-3, March 26, 2016.

So that's and asterisk, one left square bracket, the link, a space then the title, then a right square bracket, then the news source, and finally the completely spelled out date.

An "In The News" section is a great way to quickly add a whole 'nother point of view. Just by adding this link, your visitor gets a different vantage point on the subject. Use any news article that sheds light on your subject.

If there is more than one item, list them in reverse chronological order, the most recent item on top.

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Categories

Now we're about to fill out the very bottom of the page. Categories occupy the last section of every Wikidelphia entry.

First of all, save your work so far by clicking the "Save page" button. Or, maybe you'd like to hit the "Show preview" button first, which will show you what the page looks like without saving it yet. Then you "Save page", and you see the page as published.

Now hit the "edit source" tab, which will get you to the page where our Category tool is. There's a Category tool in the Visual Editor, too, but you'll be much happier using the source editor's version.

Spacing Before Categories

In the compose window of your Wikidelphia entry, scroll down to the end of the body of the entry. All the way to the bottom of what's in the compose window. If there are any extra blank lines or spaces at the bottom, delete them. The last character of the body of the entry is or becomes the last character in the window.

The goal here is to provide a consistent amount of spacing that's a minimum amount without looking weird. A workable scheme was tricky to come up with, because the body of a page has several possible endings, each of which imposes a different amount of space below it. For example, if you put one carriage return tag (<br>) after a <blockquote> tag, you get approximately three blank lines, but if you take that tag out, you have the Categories appearing with less space than what occurs between paragraphs, and it looks weird. So, finally, after a long period of trial and error, the following method was carefully developed:

On every Wikidelphia entry in the current uniform format, there's a uniform amount of spacing between the body of the entry and the Categories below. The tag to use is <br>, and you'll use it once, twice, or thrice, as follows:

  • If the end of the complete body of text is just text, add three of them. (<br><br><br>)
  • If the end of the body is a bulleted (*) or numbered (#) list item, hit Enter at the end of the item, and on the next line add two of the tags. (<br><br>)
  • If the end of the body is a </blockquote> tag, add one <br>.

After these tags, do not hit Enter. The Categories will follow immediately.

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The Category Tool

Now get out of the compose window and scroll down a bit to where you see two headings, "Add Categories" and "Update Categories".

On the right under "Update Categories", you see what categories, if any, are already on the page. There are check-boxes you can un-check if you want a category removed the next time you Save.

On the left under "Add Categories", you see two blank fields. The first, with the "Add" button next to it, is where you can put your cursor and choose from a list of existing categories. When you choose one you want, and it's appearing in the blank field, you then hit the Add button, which will add the category into the compose window.

Tip: Depending on your device, I guess, if you type the first few letters of a Category, you'll jump right to the Category. If you type fast enough, you can cut way down on scrolling.

The second blank field is for use when there's no existing Category and you need to make one. Type the new Category EXACTLY into the blank. Get the title exactly right as you intend it. You want to be very precise in order to avoid a re-do later. Don't forget to include the Top-Level word ("Is-", "Where-", "Serves-", etc). Then, when you have the Category precisely named, hit the Create button. The new category appears in the compose window.

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Doing a Good Job Categorizing

Categories in Wikidelphia are vital to helping people find what they're looking for. Please spend a good amount of time patiently looking through all the Categories that may fit your subject. Add any Category under which people would reasonably expect to find this subject's entry.

Consider all the Top-Level words, for example: What "Is" this subject? Do they write or otherwise get the word out "About" something? Whom can we say this subject "Serves"? Does it have anything we can say it "Sells"? Go through the high-level words like this in your head.

Another tip for Categories is to look in the subject's description. Are there any phrases in the description that suggest Categories you could add?

Also, there's no need to get overly detailed with Categories. For example, maybe a subject organization tells a lot of detail of little things it does, but there's a broader, single Category in Wikidelphia that clearly summarizes the details perfectly, so you just use that Category. For another example, maybe a subject "Does" something, but it's only to a minor degree that would make this entry seem irrelevant to someone searching under the category.

Overall, the number of Categories on a page is usually less than a dozen. A half dozen or so is a pretty common number. As long as they're all suitable, there's no set upper limit on how many.

One final tip: Use the Internet to improve and refine your use of Categories. For example, one subject called itself a "housing complex" in its description. We didn't have that in a Wikidelphia Category. I didn't know what that is, exactly. Maybe it's just a word that this subject organization uses, and it isn't really useful elsewhere. So I did a Web search for, 'define "housing complex"'. A definition did come up, and by learning from it I could now tell that "housing complex" is a real thing and that I'll probably see more of them. So what is a "housing" as opposed to, say, an "apartment complex"? Here it turns out, a "housing complex" has more than apartments; for example, it also has townhouses. With this knowledge gained by my looking around a little, I create "Is-Housing_Complex" and add it to the entry, because this subject's rental properties do have a mix.

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Examples

[[Category:Is-Restaurant]] [[Category:Is-Restaurant-Japanese]] [[Category:Using-Volunteers]] 
[[Category:Is-Church-Presbyterian_Church_in_America_(PCA)]] [[Category:Where-Camden_County]] 
[[Category:Serves-Children]]

Here's a real example, for Gallery Eleven One:

[[Category:Is-Tourist_Attraction]] [[Category:Is-Art_Gallery]] [[Category:Where-Camden_NJ]]
[[Category:Issue-The_Arts]]

Another real example, the categories for Collaborative Impact:

[[Category:Is-Social_Enterprise_Partnership]][[Category:Does-Management_Training]]
[[Category:Is-Nonprofit_Organization]][[Category:Does-Idea_Sharing]]
[[Category:Does-Program_Collaboration]][[Category:Where-Washington (state)]]

And one more example, the cats for Audio Post | Maja Media:

[[Category:Does-Post_Production]] [[Category:Is-Business]][[Category:Where-Rittenhouse_Square]]
[[Category:Is-Business]][[Category:Using-Audio_Equipment]][[Category:Is-Audio_Post_Production_Studio]]
[[Category:Serves-Advertising_Agencies]][[Category:Serves-Independent_Video_Producers]]

When all is done with categories in the compose window, go to the Summary blank field and write something suitable. Maybe, "Added categories". Then, finally, it's time to Save the page.

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Hooking Up Your New Category to the WCS

After you hit Save Page, look at your finished page, of course, and make sure everything's all right. Maybe you want to correct or add something.

Make sure you look at the bottom. All the Categories should appear in a bottom section, each of them being the color of a link. In most browsers I've seen, they're blue or purple.

If there's gobbledygook, or a piece of a Category is out of place on the page, perhaps you need to go back in and make sure all the brackets and colons and dashes are normal.

If any of the Category links is red, maybe you misspelled it and need to go back in and correct it to match the existing Category

Or, a red Category link could mean that it's a Category you have just created. If so, hit the red link now. A page will come up. It's the new Category's page, and it has a compose window.

In the window, put the parent category. You can use the Category tool or you can just type it. For example, if your Category page is for "Category:Serves-Little_Green_Men", you'll put "[[Category:Serves]]". Or if it's the "Category:Is-UFO_Research_Organization" page, you'll put "[[Category:Is]]".

That's it for the compose window. Next, go to the "Summary:" field below. In it, write something relevant, for example, "New category needed in creating or updating an entry". Then skip down and hit "Save page".

Check your work by using the "Categories WCS" navigation link (on the left of your screen) to browse and make sure your new Category is in the right place in the hierarchy. You'll probably want to also make sure that your subject entry is actually listed under your new Category.

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More About Categories

Category:Is

Most organizations will include a general type, for example, "Is-Business" or "Is-Nonprofit Organization". In addition to the general type, you may include something more specific, for example, you put both "Is-Business" and "Is-Restaurant", or for another example, you put both "Is-Nonprofit Organization" and "Is-Advocacy Organization". If your subject "Is-Church", you'll also want to include the denomination, e.g. "Is-Church-Roman_Catholic".

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Issue versus About

An "Issue" category is usually, not always, used by an advocacy organization, for example, "Issue:Sustainability" might be included on an environmental group's entry, or "Issue:The_Arts" would appear for a group that pushes for public policy favorable to the arts.

An "About" category doesn't involve advocacy. For example, a museum of journalism that just aims to educate people about journalism would have "About-Journalism". A magazine can simply have writers writing about higher education, so you put "About-Higher_Education".

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Other Categories

Don't forget to consider whether your subject "Does" something, for example, A gym "Does-Fitness_Classes". An evening school "Does-Noncredit_Courses".

Maybe your page is about a regularly occurring event, so you'll be sure to add "Is-Recurring_Event" and its frequency, for example, "Frequency:Monthly" or "Frequency:Annual". (On annual events, I like to add "Is-Annual_Event" because I want a simple way of getting a list of annual events.)

Consider using a newer category "Sells". Anything that your subject sells a significant amount or proportion of should be listed. For example, the nonprofit group Nonprofit Technology Resources "Sells-Computers" in its thrift store. Simple Cycle "Sells-Bicycles". Equal Dollars Food Market "Sells-Food".

"Serves" is important to remember. Imagine you're a low-income person, and you want to know every place that "Serves-Low_Income_People". Maybe your subject organization "Serves-Senior_Citizens". Many organizations serve several types of people, so their entries will have several "Serves" categories. Sometimes a person, who "Is-Individual", may also need a "Serves" category on their page.

"Teaches" is pretty straightforward. For example, Career Onestop "Teaches-Job_Readiness". Penn State Extension "Teaches-Culinary_Arts". User:Stan's wife Sally McCabe "Teaches-Gardening".

"Using" shouldn't be overused. Every organization uses technology, for example, so there's no need to include "Using-Technology" unless the subject uses technology in some special way.

A good example of how to use "Using" is "Using-Volunteers", because if we editors mark every volunteer-using organization with this category, then when a reader wants to find a place to volunteer at, they can just pull up the "Using-Volunteers" page to see a big list of organizations to consider reaching out to.

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Paired Categories

Certain categories have special pairings:

When you include Category:Using-Volunteers at the bottom of the page, please always include a "Volunteer" item in the Info section. When you browse "Using-Volunteers" to find a volunteer gig or position, it's helpful to have a direct link to the volunteers page of the subject's site. If they didn't post and don't have a page for volunteers on their site, then maybe they aren't using new volunteers enough to have this Category in their Wikidelphia entry.

When you include an Event Calendar item in the Info section, always include Category:Does-Event_Calendar in the categories at the bottom of the page. Again, it's a matter of giving the visitor quicker access to what they're looking for when they browse using the Category.

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Save the Page

Before you hit "Save page" to save your new, full Wikidelphia subject entry, do these:

  • Look over the whole page once more to check for errors and other places where a bit of the page may possibly not be displayed to your liking.
  • Please make sure there's a descriptive note in the blank "Summary:" box, telling everybody what you've just added or changed. Or, if your edit was truly minor, you may check the "This is a minor edit" box.

Then go ahead and hit the Save Page button! The computer will now show you your finished page. Give it a final look for errors and other needs of improvement. Otherwise, enjoy the fruit of your labor for a moment, and then perhaps you'd like to help us promote Wikidelphia by telling a few other people to come see your new page! :-)

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Help Keep Wikidelphia Up-To-Date!

Here are some suggestions on how to pick a page to update or improve.

Random Page

This is my usual favorite way to pick pages. It ignores my personal preferences and will put every Wikidelphia entry in front of me eventually.

Do you see the "Random page" link all the way to the left of this page? It's in the Wikidelphia sidebar. Click it, and a randomly selected page will come up. If it's old enough that the info in it probably needs a check, or if it needs changes to correct or improve its format, please do what I call a "routine update" of the page, consisting of three main tasks: (1) Check/update all the information. (2) Re-test all the links. (3) Bring the page's format up to current specifications.

Special Pages

Select "Special pages" in the Wikidelphia sidebar. It takes you to a big list of reports you can get and useful lists you can have made. More than a few of these links are useful in finding pages to improve:

  • Popular Pages: Click "Special pages" and look under "Wiki data and tools" for the "Popular Pages" link. Click that and look at some of the more popular pages until you find one that could use an update or modification.
  • Under the "Maintenance" heading of Special Pages, we find some more good ways:
    • "Broken redirects" gives you a chance to delete some, fix some, and turn some broken redirects into See pages.
    • "Short pages" gives you a lot of See pages that may need attention, and it can help you find unfinished pages.
    • "Unused categories" should either be deleted or filled. If a Category is unused or underused, maybe you'd like to make some pages for it. Or maybe you can search or browse Wikidelphia and find some pages that need this Category added.
    • "Uncategorized pages" reveal an important task. They need to have Categories added to them in order for the pages to be made browsable by the WCS (Wikidelphia Category System).
    • "Oldest pages" is a great way. If a page hasn't been updated in 5 years, there's a pretty good chance it needs your help!
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Now That You've Chosen a Page

  • Generally, look the page over to check and correct parts that don't conform to the uniform Wikidelphia format.
  • Make sure the main URL works. If it doesn't, try to search for and find a newer link to the same site. If you can't find a link at all, then change the first line of the page to:
''No Current URL''

and add a suitable Editor's Note section in the body text of the page, for example:

==Editor's Note==
I was unable to find a current URL for this organization. Maybe the next editor of 
this page should delete it.

~~~~
  • Check the body text against the subject's website to make sure everything's the latest.
  • Check every link on the whole page. Repair or delete the ones that don't work.
  • In checking links, make sure that what each link points to is still being updated. For example, in an Info section, if the subject site's event calendar hasn't been updated in many months or a year, then maybe this Wikidelphia page shouldn't link to it anymore. If the subject hasn't put out a tweet in six months, then maybe the Info section shouldn't have a Twitter link anymore.
  • Look at the Categories. A routine update is seldom done without finding that one or more Categories needs to be added, changed, or deleted. Of all we editors, our collective ability to categorize is a skill that can always use improvement, so the Categories are always worth a close inspection in any full update.
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