Difference between revisions of "Help:Using this site"

Latest revision as of 14:41, 1 April 2022

This page, Help: Using this site, gives guidance on how to use the The Falkland Historic Buildings Wiki, and also how to create new articles and improve existing ones.

For generic help on editing Mediawiki pages, see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Contents.

Understanding the entries

There are pages for people, roads, etc., but the majority of the entries relate to individual buildings.

For a particular building, the box at the right-hand side gives a summary in tabular form. Most of these should be self-explanatory; The OS Grid ref is the Ordnance Survey's National Grid Reference, sometimes called "NGR". The first two characters are always "NO" for all the locations covered by this Wiki, and are followed by two 5-digit numbers, specifying the location down to the nearest metre.^[1] The Latitude and longitude are mainly taken (for listed buildings) from the Wikipedia article "List of listed buildings in Falkland, Fife" and are given to the nearest second (about 30 metres for latitude, rather less for longitude).

Many of the buildings described are listed buildings, which have additional details in another box at the left.

Finding information

To find information about a particular person, place or other subject, type the subject in question in the search box at the top right and click "search". Note that the search facility only finds whole words.

Alternatively you could click "Random page" at the left to see an article chosen at random, or "Recent changes" to see which articles have been added or updated most recently.

You can also navigate between one article and another. Almost all articles have links to other articles. Links are shown like this - normally in blue, depending on your individual settings. If you click on a link it will take you to another article with more information about the subject in question. Links that look like this (normally red) point to articles that haven't been written yet: it's one of the aims of the project to turn all the red links blue by creating new articles!

Every article is also linked to one or more Categories (not to be confused with listed building categories!). So for example if you're looking at a page about a particular architect, you'll probably see Category:Artists and architects in a box at the bottom of the page. If you click on this it will take you to a list of articles about other architects. All the categories are arranged in a hierarchy below Category:Main categories which thus gives an overview of all the classes of information within this Wiki.

Becoming an editor

If you would like to contribute to the Wiki, you'll need to become a registered user. E-mail info@historicfalkland.scot with your name, email address, and a chosen "Username" for this site and you'll be set up as a user.

Before doing any editing yourself, it's best to look at some existing articles and seeing how they're structured. If you click the "View source" tab at the top of the page (or the "Edit" tab if you're logged in and its a page you're allowed to edit) you will see the article in the "Wiki markup language" that controls the formatting.

There's much more about editing the Wiki at Help:Editing this site.

Notes

↑ The first digit of the second part of the grid reference is normally 0 for the Falkland area. Many of the grid references quoted come from the HES listings, which confusingly omit this zero - we are gradually correcting this in our articles.

[1] The first digit of the second part of the grid reference is normally 0 for the Falkland area. Many of the grid references quoted come from the HES listings, which confusingly omit this zero - we are gradually correcting this in our articles.

[1]

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 There are pages for people, roads, etc., but the majority of the entries relate to individual buildings.
-For a particular building, the box at the right-hand side gives a summary in tabular form. Most of these should be self-explanatory; The '''OS Grid ref''' is the Ordnance Survey's National Grid Reference, sometimes called "NGR". The first two characters are always "NO" for all the locations covered by this Wiki, and are followed by two 5-digit numbers, specifying the location down to the nearest metre.<ref>The first digit of the second number is normally 0 for the Falkland area. Many of the grid references quoted come from the HES listings, which confusingly omit this zero - we are gradually correcting this in our articles.</ref> The '''Latitude and longitude''' are mainly taken (for listed buildings) from the Wikipedia article "List of listed buildings in Falkland, Fife" and are given to the nearest second (about 30 metres for latitude, rather less for longitude).
+For a particular building, the box at the right-hand side gives a summary in tabular form. Most of these should be self-explanatory; The '''OS Grid ref''' is the Ordnance Survey's National Grid Reference, sometimes called "NGR". The first two characters are always "NO" for all the locations covered by this Wiki, and are followed by two 5-digit numbers, specifying the location down to the nearest metre.<ref>The first digit of the second part of the grid reference is normally 0 for the Falkland area. Many of the grid references quoted come from the HES listings, which confusingly omit this zero - we are gradually correcting this in our articles.</ref> The '''Latitude and longitude''' are mainly taken (for listed buildings) from the Wikipedia article "List of listed buildings in Falkland, Fife" and are given to the nearest second (about 30 metres for latitude, rather less for longitude).
 Many of the buildings described are listed buildings, which have additional details in another box at the left.
@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 ==Becoming an editor==
-If you would like to contribute to the Wiki, you'll need to become a registered user. E-mail ross@foxearth.net with your name, email address, and a chosen "Username" for this site and you'll be set up as a user. If you've become an editor
+If you would like to contribute to the Wiki, you'll need to become a registered user. E-mail ''info@historicfalkland.scot'' with your name, email address, and a chosen "Username" for this site and you'll be set up as a user.
-Before doing any editing yourself, it's best to look at some existing articles and seeing how they're structured. If you click the "View source" tab at the top of the page (or the "Edit" tab if you're logged in and its a page you're allowed to edit) you will see the article in the "Wiki markup language" that controls the formatting. There's much more about editing the Wiki at the [[Help:Editing this site]] page.
+Before doing any editing yourself, it's best to look at some existing articles and seeing how they're structured. If you click the "View source" tab at the top of the page (or the "Edit" tab if you're logged in and its a page you're allowed to edit) you will see the article in the "Wiki markup language" that controls the formatting.
-Note the following examples:
+There's much more about editing the Wiki at [[Help:Editing this site]].
-*two apostrophes before and after a phrase in the markup make it display in italics, so <tt><nowiki>''something''</nowiki></tt> will display as ''something''.
-*three apostrophes before and after a phrase in the markup make it display in bold, so <tt><nowiki>'''something else'''</nowiki></tt> will display as '''something else'''
-*enclosing a phrase in double square brackets will link it to the article in question (and display in blue if the article exists, otherwise in red), so <tt><nowiki>[[Falkland Palace]]</nowiki></tt> will display as [[Falkland Palace]] and clicking on it will take you to the Falkland Palace article.
-*double equal signs before and after a phrase on a line by itself will create a section heading, so <tt><nowiki>==More information==</nowiki></tt> on a new line will create a new section headed '''More information'''.
-==Starting to edit the Wiki==
-Once you've been signed up as a registered user, it's probably best to spend some time looking at articles and improving them before you create an article of your own.
-If you find something wrong in an article, perhaps a spelling mistake, or something you know is factually wrong, click the "Edit" tab at the top of the page. This will show you the page in its markup form. Notice how this relates to the article as it's normally displayed. If you feel confident, just make the changes. To show what you've been doing, put a few words in the "Summary:" box at the bottom, to tell other editors why you made the changes. Once you're happy, click the "Show preview" box at the bottom of the screen and make sure that the article looks as you expect. If all is well, click "Save page" and the new version will be saved in the encyclopaedia.
-<!-- See also: [[LGBT Archive:Writing for this Wiki]]. -->
-==Creating a new article==
-<!-- Once you've had some practice editing articles, you may want to create a new article from scratch. Maybe there's a person, place, club, pub, group, or event, that you know about that has an LGBT UK connection and is not yet included. Maybe it's one of the "redlinked" subjects listed at [[Special:WantedPages]], or maybe it's something we haven't even heard of. -->
-Before creating an article you should search to check that there is no suitable article that already exists. If an article on the topic you want to create is there, but you think people are likely to look for it under some different name or spelling, learn how to add a redirect with that name; adding needed redirects is a good way to help improve this Wiki.
-If no suitable articles already exist, then you need to start a new article.
-In the search box near the top right of a page, type the title of the new article, then click Go. If the Search page reports :<tt>"There were no results matching the query. Create the page "[[xxx]]" on this wiki!"</tt> (where <tt>xxx</tt> is the name of your subject in red) then you can click the red article name to start editing the article.
-If you're creating a page for a specific building, start by copying the contents of the '''[https://historicfalkland.scot/wiki/index.php?title=Building_Template&action=edit Building_Template]''' page.
-Remember that others can freely contribute to the article when it has been saved. The creator does not have special rights to control the later content.
-==References==
-An article should always say where the information has come from (other than the most basic information such as the location of a street or building).Provide a source for any statement that might be contested, and for any direct quotations. Add the reference immediately after the sentence, surrounded by <tt><nowiki><ref></nowiki></tt> and <tt><nowiki></ref></nowiki></tt>, for instance:<br>
-<tt><nowiki><ref>"Obituary: Sir Paul Latham", The Times, 26 July 1955, page 11.</ref></nowiki></tt><br>
-or<br>
-<tt><nowiki><ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/consenting-adults.shtml</ref></nowiki></tt>
-The references will appear as numbered footnotes at the end of the article.
-==See also==
-See also a [[Links and sources|page of sources]] that we've drawn on to create this Wiki and some external links.
-<!--
-To start a new page, write a first sentence introducing the subject. This should normally start with the subject title (in bold) and state what sort of person, thing etc the subject is, for instance:
-:'''Somerset Lesbian Network''' ('''SLN''') is a group for lesbian, bisexual and questioning women in Somerset.
-In the case of a person, always include the dates of birth and death (if known), and what the person is noted for, for instance:
-:'''Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill''' (1874–1965) was a British writer and statesman, who led Britain to victory in the Second World War.
-Later, you'll learn how to improve the formatting (and see [[Help:Editing]] for guidance on how to use the Wiki markup).
-When you are done, press "Show preview" to take a look at how the page will appear. Try to fix any formatting errors, then click "Save page" at the bottom. Your article is now part of the Wiki and may be edited by anyone.
-==Use your own words==
-Write the article in your own words. Do not copy more than a couple of sentences from a published source, and even then give a reference, as otherwise you are likely to be infringing someone's copyright.
-==Use a neutral point of view==
-Write all articles in the third person: don't say "I", "we" or "you" except in direct quotations (help pages like this are an exception). Each page should read like an encyclopaedia page, not an advertisement. Don't give people's ages - say when they were born (their age will be different next year), and don't use expressions such as "this year", or "last year".
-== Gathering references ==
-The ideal is always to use reliable sources; that is sources that exercise some form of editorial control. Examples of reliable sources include books published by major publishing houses, newspapers, magazines, peer-reviewed scholarly journals, websites of any of the above, and other websites that meet the same basic requirements as any print-based source. In general, sources with NO editorial control are not generally reliable, for instance self-published zines, blogs, web forums, usenet discussions, BBSes, fan sites, and the like. Basically, if anyone at all can post information without anyone else checking that information, it is probably not reliable, but may be quoted if there is nothing better.
-Once you have references for your article, you can learn to place the references into the article. But do not worry too much about formatting them properly. It would be great if you do that, but the main thing is to get references into the article even if they are not well formatted.
-== Things to avoid ==
-'''Personal essays or original research'''
-This Wiki surveys existing human knowledge; it is not a place to publish new work. Do not write articles that present your own original theories, opinions, or insights, even if you can support them by reference to accepted work.
-'''A single sentence or only a website link'''
-Articles need to have real content of their own.
-== And be careful about... ==
-'''Copying things. Do not violate copyrights'''
-To be safe, do not quote more than a couple of sentences of text from anywhere, and document any references you do use. You can copy material that you are sure is in the public domain, but even for public domain material you should still document your source. Also note that most web pages are not in the public domain and most song lyrics are not either.
-'''Good research and citing your sources'''
-Articles written out of thin air are better than nothing, but they are hard to verify, which is an important part of building a trusted reference work. Please research with the best sources available and cite them properly. Doing this, along with not copying large amounts of the text, will help avoid any possibility of plagiarism.
-'''Advocacy and controversial material'''
-Please do not write articles that advocate one particular viewpoint on politics, religion, or anything else. Understand what we mean by a neutral point of view before tackling this sort of topic.
-'''Extremely short articles that are just definitions'''
-Try to write a good short paragraph that says something about the subject. We welcome good short articles, called "stubs", that can serve as launching pads from which others can take off. If you do not have enough material to write a good stub, you probably should not create the article. You should mark the article with the "stub template" by including <nowiki>{{stub}}</nowiki> towards the end of the article. Stubs help track articles that need expansion.
-== And then what? ==
-Now that you have created the page, there are still several things you can do.
-Keep making improvements.
-Generally, an article is nowhere near being completed the moment it is created. There is a long way to go. In fact, it may take you several edits just to get it started.
-If you have so much interest in the article you just created, you may learn much more about it in the future, and therefore, have more to add. This may be later today, tomorrow, or several months from now. Anytime, go ahead.
-== Improve formatting ==
-Make sure there are incoming links to the new article from other articles (click "What links here" in the toolbox) and that the new article is included in at least one appropriate category (see help:category). Otherwise it will be difficult for readers to find the article.
-Remember that others can freely contribute to the article when it has been saved. The creator does not have special rights to control the later content.
--->
 ==Notes==