Wikishire:Editing Guide
Generally
Wikishire is a freely-editable wiki. We do ask that before you set forth to add and edit information that you please familiarise yourself with Wikishire's policies.
All content on Wikishire is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Licence, and by adding material you are agreeing to the application of that licence to the content. For detail, please refer to the Terms of Use.
Editing existing articles
To edit an article which already exists, click on the 'Edit' tab at the top of the screen and begin editing. If the page does not exist then you can add it by typing the page name in the box below:
Beginning a new article
Before adding an article, please check whether it is here already, with the "Search" box on the left hand side of this page.
After clicking the 'Create Article' button, you will be re-directed to a page with some instructions for adding your article.
There are two main ways to start a new article:
- If you search for an article and it is not found, Wikishire will invite you to create it; click on the words "create this article" and begin.
- If an existing article has a "redlink" (where it tries to link to another article which does not yet exist, so the link appears red), then click on the redlink and the editing screen for your new article will appear.
Article naming
For the most part the name of the article should simply reflect the common name that one would use in ordinary speech. For example, London, River Severn, Ben Nevis, &c. However there are cases where ambiguity prevents this. Usually, the addition of the county name will be sufficient. For example, Newport, Monmouthshire, River Devon, Nottinghamshire, Beinn Dearg, Perthshire. However there may still be ambiguity within the county, so a further level of disambiguation may be required. This will depend on the article in question but could include the name of the Riding, Hundred or parish, or the name of the town or city if the article pertains to a suburb.
In some cases there is a clear candidate for the "main" use of a name and this can use the unqualified name with an appropriate "hatnote" referring readers to the existence of the other articles. This policy extends to the naming of articles of county towns even where there are other, possibly larger, places that share the name. The most obvious example of this is Kincardine, where the disambiguated name would violate the policy on tautological names: Kincardine, Kincardineshire.
Specific guides for certain types of article
See:
Creating a new article
If an article you wish to see is not already in Wikishire, create it. Use the "Search" box on the left-hand side of the screen to see if the article is here already (perhaps under another name), but if it is not there, Wikishire will invite you begin it: click on "create this article" and off you go.
If an article contains a "redlink" (a link which is trying to connect to an article which is not yet here), then likewise clicking on the redlink will begin the new article.
If however the article is here already but the redlink was anticipating it under a different name, change the redlink or create the article as a "redirect": #REDIRECT [[Article name]].
Do consider though the relevant policy on Article management
Editing generally
In general, just type text into the edit screen. Always leave a line space between paragraphs.
This Guide is a general guide to the most commonly used editing elements, but the best way to become familiar with the techniques involved in producing a good-looking article is practice and investigating exiting articles.
Specific elements
Headings
Level 1 headings are done with two equals-signs either side of the name, level 2 headings with three and so forth. These will automatically generate an index at the top left of the article after the introductory paragraph, if any.
Bold and italic text
Bold text is done by adding three apostrophes each side of the text ('''Kent''' becomes Kent)
Italic text is done by adding two apostrophes each side of the text (''Kent'' becomes Kent)
Bold italic text is done by adding five apostrophes each side of the text ('''''Kent''''' becomes Kent)
Links between articles
A link from one article to another is done by placing [[ ]] around the name of the linked article, for example:
'''Little Wilbraham''' is a small village in [[Cambridgeshire]].
- produces:
Little Wilbraham is a small village in Cambridgeshire.
A link need not put the linked article's name into the text: [[Cambridgeshire|The county]] will appear as "The county" but link to "Cambridgeshire".
Bulleted lists
For a simple bulleted list, add an asterisk, "*", at the beginning of each item, and there is then no need to have a line break between the paragraphs.
A "level 2" list within the main list is possible too: for those items add two asterisks, "**", at the beginning of each line.
Pictures
When you wish to add a picture to the article, please do not upload it to Wikishire. Wikishire uses the free image library at Wikimedia Commons. Simply give the file name it has on Commons and it will appear.
If you would like to add a picture or any other media to an article but it is not already on Commons, we invite you to upload that picture to Commons (and add whatever information and categories are relevant there)
In text
An image has several properties:
- the image file itself,
- its width in pixels ("px"),
- its placing as "left" or "right" or "center", with American spelling
- whether it is to have a frame and caption ("thumb")
- the caption
The required coding is "[[File:", followed by the name of image file and the other properties separated by pipe characters "|".
For example if the article contains:
"[[File:Jonathan Trott.jpg|right|80px]]", then the result will be:
To add a caption beneath an image, add the code "|thumb|" and your text.
Thus if the article contains:
"[[File:CmwbranTownCentre.JPG|80px|right|thumb|Cwmbran]]", then the result will be:
In an infobox
Some standard infoboxes, for example {{Infobox county}}, {{Infobox town}} and {{Infobox hill}}, already have the coding for a picture at a standard size. In that case simply give the name of the image, for example:
|picture=ISH WC WimbledonCommon2.jpg |picture caption=Wimbledon Common
- or
| map=SurreyBrit5.PNG
Outside links
To link to an outside website (usually done in references or lists), add a single set of square brackets ([ ]) around the web address (include the http://) and its name or description (leaving a space after the web address).
If the web address alone is in the square brackets, a number will appear in square brackets not the web address, which is useful for brevity. If you gave the web address, a space and then the name of the website, it will appear by that name with an embedded weblink, which is elegant, for example:
[http://www.gazetteer.co.uk/ Gazetteer of British Place Names]
- will appear as: Gazetteer of British Place Names
Templates and Infoboxes
- Main article: Wikishire:Infoboxes
Various Templates are used within Wikishire, which are marked {{name}}. These are more advanced and it may take a while to become familiar with the commonly used templates.
Infoboxes, such as those appearing on the top right of county and town articles, are a form of Template. Guidance may be available separately for each type of infobox: see #Specific guides for certain types of article above.
Stubs
If an article is marked as a "stub" but your edits make it into a substantial article, please remove the code "{{stub}}", which will be found towards the end of the article.
Other help
For other hints, see MediaWiki Help pages