Religions Wiki:Editing guidelines: Difference between revisions

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# '''DO''' make a link out of the first occurrence of every key word that has an article attached to it, or should in the future.
# '''DO''' make a link out of the first occurrence of every key word that has an article attached to it, or should in the future.
# '''DON'T''' link subsequent occurrences of that word. Example: "I don't hate [[God]]. God doesn't even exist."  (The second time "God" is used, no link.)
# '''DON'T''' link subsequent occurrences of that word. Example: "I don't hate [[God]]. God doesn't even exist."  (The second time "God" is used, no link.)
# '''DO''' make redirection articles to link words that mean nearly the same thing as an existing entry. For instance: "Many [[apologists]] believe blah blah blah." Then click the apologists page, and add this text: "#REDIRECT [[apologetics]]".  (This is already in place, obviously.
# '''DO''' make redirection articles to link words that mean nearly the same thing as an existing entry. For instance: "Many [[apologists]] believe blah blah blah." Then click the apologists page, and add this text: "#REDIRECT [[apologetics]]".  (This is already in place, obviously.)
# '''DON'T''' create misleading links. It's occasionally okay to use this format: "[[evidence|Standards of evidence]]".  The link in the previous sentence actually links to the article on "evidence", so the text differs from the link. In general, though, you should be sparing with this technique. If the words that you want to link are a subset of the words in the text, then you can reduce the link like this: "Standards of [[evidence]]". If the link is actually a synonym for the word displayed, consider setting up a #REDIRECT page so the link will happen automatically without using redirection within the text. If a redirection page doesn't make sense, maybe you don't really need to be making a link to the article you have in mind all. Or maybe you can work in a way to display the proper term elsewhere in your article, and make a regular link out of it. Remember, you only need to link a term once in each article.
# '''DON'T''' create misleading links. It's occasionally okay to use this format: "[[evidence|Standards of evidence]]".  The link in the previous sentence actually links to the article on "evidence", so the text differs from the link. In general, though, you should be sparing with this technique. If the words that you want to link are a subset of the words in the text, then you can reduce the link like this: "Standards of [[evidence]]". If the link is actually a synonym for the word displayed, consider setting up a #REDIRECT page so the link will happen automatically without using redirection within the text. If a redirection page doesn't make sense, maybe you don't really need to be making a link to the article you have in mind all. Or maybe you can work in a way to display the proper term elsewhere in your article, and make a regular link out of it. Remember, you only need to link a term once in each article.
# '''DO''' remember to add a category to new entries. Most subjects probably have a category if you think hard enough, and maybe several. (See the bottom of this article as an example.) Try to remember if there's a category that already fits the entry. If not, make one.
# '''DO''' remember to add a category to new entries. Most subjects probably have a category if you think hard enough, and maybe several. (See the bottom of this article as an example.) Try to remember if there's a category that already fits the entry. If not, make one.

Revision as of 14:18, 22 June 2006

Here are some do's and don'ts to get you started on creating articles here on Iron Chariots. The founders are novices at wiki editing, but these are some things we've learned.

  1. DO use Wikipedia as the gold standard. They've been at this a long time. When in doubt about style, try to find an entry similar to the one you're writing, and see how they do it.
  2. DON'T plagiarize Wikipedia... unless you really want to. In general, we should avoid making duplicate entries with Wikipedia. However, sometimes those pages have good information. So try to reword them if you have to borrow something, but it's not critical. Other good mines to plagiarize things from: dictionary.com; the official site of the subject that you're writing about.
  3. DO make a link out of the first occurrence of every key word that has an article attached to it, or should in the future.
  4. DON'T link subsequent occurrences of that word. Example: "I don't hate God. God doesn't even exist." (The second time "God" is used, no link.)
  5. DO make redirection articles to link words that mean nearly the same thing as an existing entry. For instance: "Many apologists believe blah blah blah." Then click the apologists page, and add this text: "#REDIRECT apologetics". (This is already in place, obviously.)
  6. DON'T create misleading links. It's occasionally okay to use this format: "Standards of evidence". The link in the previous sentence actually links to the article on "evidence", so the text differs from the link. In general, though, you should be sparing with this technique. If the words that you want to link are a subset of the words in the text, then you can reduce the link like this: "Standards of evidence". If the link is actually a synonym for the word displayed, consider setting up a #REDIRECT page so the link will happen automatically without using redirection within the text. If a redirection page doesn't make sense, maybe you don't really need to be making a link to the article you have in mind all. Or maybe you can work in a way to display the proper term elsewhere in your article, and make a regular link out of it. Remember, you only need to link a term once in each article.
  7. DO remember to add a category to new entries. Most subjects probably have a category if you think hard enough, and maybe several. (See the bottom of this article as an example.) Try to remember if there's a category that already fits the entry. If not, make one.
  8. DO prefer to write article titles in lower case by default. It affects the way future links will work. Example: an article on "Shroud of Turin" should have an uppercase word in the middle, as should "Penn Jillette", but "Argumentum ad hominem" should not. If necessary, you can always #REDIRECT pages with different capitalization.
  9. DO read our statement on the neutral point of view. It's not the same as Wikipedia's, but we do have standards.
  10. DO feel free to edit this page and give some tips if you know something we don't. This is a community effort and we're all learning.