Thelemapedia:Where to start

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Categories: Thelemapedia

Revision as of 02:06, 8 Jul 2005

Thelemapedia is a big site and it can be tough to know where to begin. This article is designed to get you started...

Table of contents

1 Read these pages

2 Contribution strategies

3 Where to go from here

4 References

Read these pages

If you only read two things, read these two:

Thelemapedia policies. Discusses the scope of Thelemapedia and the rules governing behavior. By signing on as members of the site, all editors implicitly agree to abide by these policies.
The Really Simple Tutorial. A brief and very easy-to-swallow tutorial on working with Thelemapedia.

Other very useful pages:

How to Contribute. The guide to adding quality content.
Common Sources. List of common books in reference format, along with another primer on citing sources.
What Thelemapedia is not. Useful essay explaining the nature of Thelemapedia.
Thelemapedia Power Structure. Who's in charge (answer: for the most part, you).

Contribution strategies

There are several ways you can contribute to Thelemapedia:

Write on a new topic. Find a red link or create a brand new topic and get writing. The beauty of the wiki is that you don't have to write a complete article. Just write as much as you know or have time for. If you do write something that has obvious omissions, just write that in the article, and someone will eventually get to it. If there is a section in your article that you know someone has more knowledge about, try leaving a note on the "discussion" page of their userpage. You can also leave a note in the Community Portal that your article needs more contributors.
Edit existing topics. Click on a blue link of your choice and see if there is anything you want to add or change. Read Thelemapedia:Editorial Policy to find out good etiquette in doing this. Oftentimes articles will have large chunks missing that you might be able to fill. Other times, you will see an article that is—let's face it—hideous. By all means clean up such entries. When you do, be sure to leave a note in the discussion page.
Fact-checking. Comb through articles and make sure that things stated as facts really are.
Correcting spelling and grammar. Pretty self-explainetory, huh?
Formatting. You don't need to change content to make it more legible. Take what's there, move it around, add headers...do what you must to make it easier to read (please!).
Adding citations and links. If you see quotes or statements that you know come from specific sources, help the article out by putting in a citation and links to relevant materials.

Where to go from here

Where to start Read this if you are having trouble with getting started
Really Simple Tutorial A friendly guide to all the basics
Editorial Policy Basic policies regarding content and behavior on Thelemapedia
How to Contribute A quick start primer for adding content to Thelemapedia
Wiki Markup Full list of all the formatting code, including text, images, sections, and links
Article Basics Find out how to write a great article
Common Sources How to cite sources (including short libers), and a list of common books in reference format
Projects Page List of needed articles organized by general topic
What Thelemapedia is not
Thelemapedia Power Structure Who's in charge
Characters How to use Greek and Hebrew letters in your article
Using Images How to upload and use images in your Thelemapedia articles
Dispute Resolution What to do when the fighting breaks out
List of boilerplate templates Automatic text messages, like the "stub" line
Comprehensive Wikipedia Help Pages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents) Everything there is to know about using a wiki

References

Some materials on this pages were taken from:

Wikipedia. (2004). Cite sources (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cite_sources). Retrieved Sept. 18, 2004.
Wikipedia. (2004). How to write a great article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_write_a_great_article). Retrieved Sept. 18, 2004.
Wikipedia. (2004). Wikipedia:Copyrights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights). Retrieved Sept. 18, 2004.

Retrieved from "http://thelemapedia.org/index.php/Thelemapedia:Where_to_start"

 Thelemapedia is a big site and it can be tough to know where to begin. This article is designed to get you started...
+==Read these pages==
+'''If you only read two things, read these two:'''
+#'''[[Thelemapedia:Editorial_Policy|Thelemapedia policies]].''' Discusses the scope of Thelemapedia and the rules governing behavior. By signing on as members of the site, all editors implicitly agree to abide by these policies.
+#'''[[Thelemapedia:Really_Simple_Tutorial|The Really Simple Tutorial]].''' A brief and very easy-to-swallow tutorial on working with Thelemapedia.
+'''Other very useful pages:'''
+#'''[[Thelemapedia:How_to_Contribute|How to Contribute]].''' The guide to adding quality content.
+#'''[[Thelemapedia:Common Sources|Common Sources]].''' List of common books in reference format, along with another primer on citing sources.
+#'''[[Thelemapedia:What Thelemapedia is not|What Thelemapedia is not]].''' Useful essay explaining the nature of Thelemapedia.
+#'''[[Thelemapedia:Power structure|Thelemapedia Power Structure]].''' Who's in charge (answer: for the most part, you).
 #'''Formatting.''' You don't need to change content to make it more legible. Take what's there, move it around, add headers...do what you must to make it easier to read (please!).
 #'''Adding citations and links.''' If you see quotes or statements that you know come from specific sources, help the article out by putting in a citation and links to relevant materials.
-==Getting information==
-===Copyrighted materials and citing references===
-Remember, you cannot take material that is copyrighted (like in a book or on a personal website) and just copy it over verbatim. However, there are ways to use such materials without violating their copyrights. Note that copyright law governs the ''creative expression'' of ideas, not the ''ideas or information themselves''. Therefore, it is perfectly legal to read an encyclopedia article or other work, reformulate it in your own words, and submit it to Thelemapedia.
-However, distinct ideas should be cited and referenced, like this (Gates, 2004). Then put in a reference at the bottom of the article linking it to the site or book, like this:
-*Gates, B. (1998). ''[http://www.opensource.org/halloween/halloween1.php The Big Open-source Advocacy Homepage.]'' Retrieved Sept. 18, 2004.
-For a complete list of citation and reference formats, see the Wikipedia page on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cite_sources Citing Sources].
-Citing sources provide references that help the reader to check the veracity of the article and to find more information. If you consult an external source while writing an article, citing it is basic intellectual honesty. More than that, you should actively search for authoritative references to cite. If you are writing from your own knowledge, then you should know enough to identify good references that the reader can consult on the subject. The main point is ''to help the reader''—cite whatever you think will be most helpful. This applies when writing about opinions, as well—beware the temptation to write weasel phrases like, "Some people say..." Who said it, and where and when?
-===Sources of content===
-There are lots of great sources of information regarding Thelema, magick, astrology, and the like. Here are some references to get you started...
-====Books====
-Naturally there is an abundant amount of information printed in books. If you want to see a basic list of books on Thelema, we recommend [[Works of Aleister Crowley (Books)|this list]] by Aleister Crowley. For more books, see the [[Thelemapedia:Common Sources|Common Sources]] article.
-====Reference sites====
-'''Thelema References'''
-*[http://oto-usa.org/ U.S. Grand Lodge]
-*[http://www.hermetic.com/ The Hermetic Library]
-*[http://outercol.org/ The A.'.A.'.]
-'''Esoteric References'''
-*[http://www.bulfinch.org/ Bulfinch’s Mythology]
-*[http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html Folklore & Mythology]
-*[http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm Sacred Texts Archive]
-*[http://www.astro.com/astrology/in_intro_e.htm Astro.com] (astrology)
-*[http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/ Skeptic's Annotated Bible]
-*[http://www.choronzon.com/tocmirror/tzimon/Magidict/magdic1.html Magick Dictionary]
-'''General References'''
-*[http://www.encyclopedia.com Encyclopedia.com]
-*[http://www.about.com About.com]
-*[http://reference.allrefer.com All Reference]
-*[http://www.bartleby.com/ Bartleby]
-*[http://www.loc.gov/ U.S. Library of Congress]
-*[http://www.refdesk.com/ RefDesk.com]
-*[http://www.infoplease.com/almanacs.html InfoPlease]
-====Open source sites====
-Open-source sites have material that is openly available. However, you need to cite properly anything you use verbatim. Use the references at the bottom of this article as an example of how.
-*[http://en.wikipedia.org/ Wikipedia]
-*[http://sourceryforge.org/ SourceryForge]
-*[http://www.occultopedia.com/ Occultopedia]
-*[http://www.internet-encyclopedia.org/ Wikinfo]
-*[http://wikisource.org/ WikiSource]
-If you use an article from one of these sources, you can do so verbatim, but you need to reference it properly. A good reference line looks like this:
-*This article was originally taken from: Wikipedia. (2004). ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley Aleister Crowley]''. Retrieved on Sept. 3. 2004.
-====Search engines====
-Do not underestimate the power of [http://www.google.com Google] to help you find information!
 ==Where to go from here==