User:Gloverepp/Lessons learned

Sites I have created: Seuil_de_Naurouze, Agde_Round_Lock, Bassin_de_St._Ferréol,   Fonserannes water slope, Ouvrages_du_Libron,   Anjodi,   category barges of france

Search at: Special:Search  Questions at Questions Sample code at User:Gloverepp/Sample_Code

Prolog
I've been "programming" computers since 1966. I can clearly remember the first computer program I wrote in 1966, the first website I created on the www in 1995, the first youtube I created in 2001, and am sure I will remember the first WikiPedia page I created in 2009. My objective here is to document some Do's and Dont's that I've learned during my first experience with WikiPedia.

First, let's discuss the paradigm of WikiPedia. This is my definition, not necessarily theirs. The owners of WikiPedia propose to build an online encyclopedia that is open to any and everyone for their perusual, but also for their input and modification. They have set high standards!
 * This is not YouTube, where anyone can display any sort of nonsense.
 * It is not Facebook, you are not creating your own personal article.
 * If you create it, anyone can change it, or even worse, comment on it and tell you what a lousy job you have done. This is not necessarily a place for "thin skinned" people.

Get an account
First, if you plan to make any updates to any pages, Create an account. If you're just viewing for the fun of it, probably no reason to.

Build a test page: Edit, Review, Save!
You can be sure that any page you view on WikiPedia is not as it seems. As a simple example, if you wanted to display "Help me!" in bold font, what you see on the page is Help me!, but what is stored in the file is actually Help me!. Thus, what you see is not necessarily what the creator actually typed. You have to learn the language of Wiki. The best way to do that is to play with it.

To create your first page, I suggest you do it in your own space rather than the "real world" of WikiPedia.
 * Signon to wikipedia
 * Click your account name on the very top line of the screen.
 * The next screen will probably say that the article "your user name" does not presently exist and give you an option to create it. Click the option to start the page.
 * The next screen is an empty box that you can type anything you want into.
 * Scroll down and click the Show preview button.
 * WP will show you what you typed and the big box is shown below it awaiting more input.
 * At any time in this process, you should click the Save page button to actually store any changes you have made. If you don't SAVE  IT, it will not be saved!  Figures, huh.

'''If you are lost, confused, whatever, at this point, drop me an email and I'll see if I can help. If you are not the type of person who likes to experiment using trial and error to get your results, then WP article creation and editing is probably not for you! '''

'''What follows are syntax specific information that assumes that you understand the concept of editing, reviewing, and saving. '''

What are those icons at the top of the input box?
There are 22 icons along the top of the input box area. I suggest that you click on each one, followed by an enter key, to see what they provide. After that, you can just cancel the edit to make them all go away. There are some pretty helpful functions there and you'll learn some of the syntax that you will need. They will be mostly self-explanatory, the first one is bolding, second italicizing, etc.

Under Construction: Get out of jail free card
If you create a page in WikiPedia, you will almost certainly be jumped on by what I lovingly call the WikiPolice. These are individuals that have powers to critique, edit, and delete your work. The best way to keep them off your back while you are creating a new page is to put in the following command at the top of your page. This is a perfect example of how a command creates a lot of text, even puts it in a box, somehow. The next thing you see is what happens when you actually type in the underconstruction tag.

Need help?
Here is the "site map" of all of the "helps".

Don't be afraid to ask questions. Some are answered in minutes, others longer. Unfortunately, sometimes, the answer is just a reference to an article that you need to read. There is no free lunch here, you will be expected to look things up yourself, but at least your answer usually tells you the right place to read.
 * Here is a good general page.
 * For new contributors. This is a page where you can put in questions and return to get the answer.  Read down until you get to Click here to ask your question about editing WikiPedia.
 * Be sure and put in the subject line in the first narrow box and then put your question in the big box. You can review what your question will look like and then be sure and SAVE IT.
 * I have found it very handy to copy the URL that appears next and paste it into a document I save outside of WP. This allows me to easily find the question later when I return for the answer.  The other way is to look down through the index at the top of the page.  By saving the URLs that appear after putting in your question, you can return to them the next day or two days to see if more answers have appeared.
 * For your first article.

Referencing
One of the things you will want to do is to reference material in your article with books/newspapers/magazines/ etc that have mentioned that part of your article. You can find detailed syntax at these locations: Samples:
 * Cite book: Cite_book
 * Cite journal: Template:Cite_journal
 * Cite news: Template:Cite_news
 * Cite web: Template:Cite_web
 * To cite a magazine:
 * To cite a book:
 * To cite a newspaper article:
 * To cite a website:

You use the above, detailed, syntax the first time you reference a source. Subsequent times, you just use where xxxx is the name you used in the first reference.

Use of words existing in WikiPedia
When you see words shown in blue within the text, e.g. Anjodi, they are created like this: Anjodi. So, if you use Canal du Midi, you should type Canal du Midi If you spell it incorrectly, it will display in red e.g. Canal du Modo.

Infobox
I need more info on infoboxes. Here are all of the choices for Ship Infoboxes: ship infobox. But what I do know is that they are a nice and consistent way to document an article. The one used in the Anjodi article, I found in the Crystal_Symphony article. I just copied and pasted it and then modified the values from Crystal to Anjodi.

Categories
You will want to provide at least one category. The syntax is or Canal_du_Midi. I created this category and it presently contains only the Anjodi. Go to Special:Categories to find all categories.

Starting a new page for a new ship. what you need?

 * Userid for WikiPedia
 * I think I "over achieved" with the number of references on the Anjodi. I would suggest you have at least three book, magazine, or newspaper articles where you can specify author, date, publisher, etc.
 * Load at least three good pictures of the boat into Wiki commons
 * Statistics on the ship. You can look at the Anjodi page on the right side columnar box.
 * If you are using the same format, have a list of towns along the path and a list of sites. Specify all of them in   .  Test all of them to make sure they branch to where you want them to branch.
 * Resist the urge to sell! This is an encyclopedia, not a sales brochure.  Don't talk about the wonderful food, great service, beautiful countryside.

Loading pictures into Wiki commons
I believe that all pictures used in WikiPedia are actually stored in Wiki commons. The login you have for Wikipedia will work there as well. Before you start, know where the picture, .jpg, file is located on your computer and exactly what you want to name. The name should be descriptive. Do not use the name that comes from the camera e.g. P103789.jpg. The words you put into the name of the picture can be used to search for it.

Click the Upload file on the left column of the first page. The next screen is a bit daunting the first time you see it. The fields you need to specify include: Much, much more needed here.

Here is the page for loading your own photos

Here are the questions you will have to answer there: With these names, anyone looking for Anjodi would find all of the pictures. Someone looking for Beziers or Capstang would find one each.
 * Filename on your computer
 * The name you want the picture to be called on wiki. This is important, because you want to allow people to find the picture.  Here are some filenames I used:
 * Anjodi_Lock_7_Beziers.JPG
 * Anjodi_on_the_Pont_Canal_de_la_Cesse.jpg
 * Anjodi_tied_up_for_lunch_in_Capstang.jpg
 * Original source - just say you took it yourself.
 * Author - the photographer's name
 * Date - in format yyyy-mm-dd
 * Description - put in as much or as little text as you desire to further describe the picture. This will be shown when someone views the picture.
 * Other versions - I have no idea what this is.
 * Permission - if someone else has give you permission to use the photo.  I don't use this.
 * Licenseing - this one is critical. Pick the one that is recommended.  No, I don't understand it either, but it works.
 * Category - use Barges of France, or create a category for the barge you are loading which is what I did for the Anjodi.

How to talk between users
Still trying to under stand this. I put a question into Nancy's discussion tab. She responded there and then put this tag into my discussion tab. .  tb stands for talkback. I put this on my discussion page so someone would know how I would handle messages.

Lead Paragraph
The first paragraph is very important. My theory is that it contains the words that are most likely to be found when searching. I think their inclusion in this first paragraph allow for a search on European Waterways or barge hotel to find the Anjodi article.

Misc

 * http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:First_steps/Upload_form#4._Set_an_appropriate_file_name
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Infobox_templates
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:New_contributors%27_help_page#How_to_search_for_Infobox
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:RecentChanges
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiGnome
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Barges_of_France