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

PaulSank's Step-by-Step Wikidelphia Formatting

To Begin Editing

When you get to a page you want to update, or you're making a new page, you're using either the "Rich Editor" or not. I recommend that when you have the link "Disable Rich Editor", you click it. Then you get a plain text window. The only time I use "Rich Editor" is when I add categories. So, now I'm assuming you've disabled the Rich Editor and are looking at a blank plain window.

Line 1: URL

For example:

[http://www.glassplategame.com/ glassplategame.com]

At each end is a square bracket. Inside the brackets, the first half is the full URL. In the example we assume a website for the Glass Plate Game. The first half has the whole "http://www." in the front, and maybe it ends with a forward slash, "/".

The second item inside the brackets is the URL simplified. This is only what the reader will see, so it doesn't have to be complete as if the computer was going to use it. You cut off the "http" etc in the front, and if there's a slash at the end of the full URL, you leave that off. All letters are in lower case. No capital letters. In the example above, the reader will only see "glassplategame.com" in blue letters with a little icon at the end that means it's an external link, in other words, a link to somewhere outside Wikidelphia.

Line 2: Blank

This is important for a consistent page format. The second line should be a plain blank line. There must be nothing else. Often, you'll see a "
" (carriage return) that somebody else or the computer inserted. Delete that. There must be only one plain blank line between the URL above and the description below.

Line 3: 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". Yes, the bold description should usually match the page title exactly.

Second: A phrase that introduces the description. Examples:

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

'''Nonprofit Technology Resources''' describes itself this way:

Third: The descriptive information. First, put "

", then put "

". These two words ("tags") will tell Wikidelphia to make a long quotation in a more indented format from the other text. Now you want to go find some descriptive information from the subject's website. Maybe a good paragraph or two can be found under:

• "About Us",
• "Mission",
• "Vision",
• "Who We Are",
• Or, "What We Do".
• Good descriptions can often be put together from the subject's home page itself.

When you find some good descriptive words, copy them and paste them in between the "blockquote" tags. If the text you found has more than one paragraph, add two "
" tags in the spaces between paragraphs. For 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>

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>[Historical info.]</blockquote>

Additional Descriptive Sections

Some additional section headings might be:

==Mission Statement==

==Customer Reviews==

==Vision Statement==

==Permanent Exhibits== (for a museum)

In all sections, it's important to keep Wikidelphia's point of view separate, as in the first descriptive paragraph. So, after a section heading, you write something like, "The organization states its mission:

[The subject's mission statement.]

"

Info Section

One type of section you may wish to include is "Info". We're currently using Info sections for things like event calendars. When you have a subject whose website has an event calendar, and they actually still keep it up-to-date with events, you add a "" to the entry and make an info section like this:

==Info==
*Event Calendar: [http://joebloe.com/events Joe Bloe's Upcoming Events]

Categories

Now we're about to fill out the very bottom of the page.

First of all, save your work so far by clicking the "Save page" button. Perhaps 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. Hit the "Edit" tab to get back into an editor. This time you ignore the Disable Rich Editor link, because we're now going to use the Rich Editor.

In the Rich Editor, the top line of buttons begins with the word "Wikitext" after an icon that looks like a document. Look to the right end of this row of buttons. See the one that looks sort of like a Chinese character in black and blue? Just to be sure, run your mouse over it, and if it's the right one, it'll say "Insert/Edit categories". Click it.

This brings up the Categories tool. Type a few letters into the middle blank space called "Search category". For example, I think of the subject's location, let's say Center City East, so I put "center c", and then in the window below, a list of options pops up that includes "Where-Center City", which I double-click on to include it, and I also see "Where-Center City East", which I also click on to include it.

Then I hit the OK button to see what I've done, and there they are, both categories showing at the bottom of the Rich Editor window. (It doesn't look so good, though, right? It'll look better after you "Save page".)

So that's Categories. You hit the Chinese-character-like icon, find categories, double-click to include them, and hit OK to actually add them to the page. Think of all categories that apply and include them.

Category:Where

One category that almost every page should include is one of the "Where" categories. If your subject (or their main office) is located in Philadelphia, your "Where" category should be specific to a neighborhood, for example, "Where-Brewerytown" or "Where-Old_City".

If the subject is in New Jersey or in Pennsylvania outside Philadelphia, the county is enough. For example, for a subject in Mount Laurel, NJ, choose "Where-Burlington County". Camden the city is big enough to have one of its own, "Where-Camden NJ".

Only a few Wikidelphia pages should not have a "Where". Some Internet sites, for example, make it so difficult to find their location that you'll end up leaving out any mention of their location.

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, a page that has "Is-Business" and "Is-Restaurant", or for another example, an entry that has "Is-Nonprofit Organization" and "Is-Advocacy Organization".

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".

Other Categories

Don't forget to consider whether your subject "Does" something, for example, "Does-Fitness_Classes" or "Does-Noncredit_Courses".

Maybe your page is about a regularly occurring event, so you'll be sure to add "Is-Recurring_Event" and "Frequency:Monthly" or "Frequency:Annual".

A newer category "Sells". Anything that your subject sells a significant amount 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. Imagine you're a low-income person, and you want to know every place that "Serves-Low_Income_People". Maybe your subject "Serves-Senior_Citizens". Many organizations serve several types of people, so their entries will have several "Serves" categories.

"Teaches" is pretty straightforward. For example, Career Onestop "Teaches-Job_Readiness". Penn State Extension "Teaches-Culinary_Arts".

"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.