Thelemapedia:How to Contribute

(Revision as of 13:32, 20 Sep 2004)

Key Policies

Thelemapedia is a collaborative Wiki (http://meta.wikipedia.org/) project with a central purpose:

To create the best and most comprehensive source of information relating to Thelema.

Thelemapedia is an open source project, meaning that no entry has copyright protection. This leads to the first two Prime Directives:

Prime Directive #1: Only post material that you own or that is in the public domain.
Prime Directive #2: Everyone has the right to edit your entries

You are a Thelemapedia editor. Although we do have Executive Editors, their main function is to help expand the site and monitor entries that might be inappropriate for the intended context. The vast majority of the editing will be done by the active participants. Because of the volatile nature of many in the Thelemic community, we have instituted:

Prime Directive #3: Content wars are completely forbidden.

Entering into a content war is a fast way to getting banned from contributing to Thelemapedia. This is an encyclopedia, not a platform for individual agendas. If a serious disagreement about content occurs, you may make a Mediation request.

General Principles

1. Avoid bias. Articles should be written from a neutral point of view, representing differing views on a subject fairly and sympathetically. If something is a general opinion, state it as such. Avoid speaking from the first person (e.g. "In my opinion..." or "I believe..."). Wikipedia has a great tutorial on the Neutral Point of View (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:NPOV_tutorial).
2. Don't infringe copyrights. Thelemapedia is a free encyclopedia licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html). Submitting work which infringes copyrights threatens our objective to build a truly free encyclopedia that anyone can redistribute, and could lead to legal problems. Be sure to site your sources.
3. Thelemapedia is an encyclopedia. It is not a dictionary, soapbox, discussion forum, site mirror, or link repository. It is not a place to bash other people or groups.
4. Respect other contributors. Thelemapedia contributors have widely different views. Treating others with respect is key to collaborating effectively in building an encyclopedia. For some guidelines, see the Wikipedia Etiquette Guide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiquette), and our Mediation Request page.

Other than what you see here, we subscribe to the general MediaWiki policies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Policies_and_guidelines), which we highly recommend reading.

Editing an Article

It is very easy to edit a Thelemapedia article. Simply click on the "Edit" link at the top of any page. This will bring you to a page with a text box containing the editable text of that Wiki page. Then type away! Two great places to experiment are in the Temp Zone and your own User Page—just click on your name at the top of any page to go to yours.

Here are some basic guidelines:

1. Format your articles. If you have a long or complicated article, be sure to format it. See the markup items below. They are very easy to learn and use, and formatting makes a huge difference in making an article accessable. Don't hesitate to format existing articles if they need it.
2. Note your changes. If you make any edit, you should describe the nature of the change in the field below the main editing box. If it's very small, like changing punctuation or fixing a misspelled word, just click the "minor edit" button.
3. Explain big changes. If you make a really substantial change to someone's article, it is considered good form to explain why in the article's "talk" page.
4. Mark your stubs and partials. If you write a stub (a tiny entry) or a partial (an article with large chunks missing), mark it. This is very easy. In the edit box, write out {{stub}} or {{partial}} at the top and/or bottom of the page, and the page will automatically display the stub and partial messages. If you edit one of these pages so they are no longer a stub or partial, be sure to remove the code from the page.
5. Do not sign articles. When you edit a new or existing article, do not sign it or write out the Law (this is not correspondence). If you want to take credit (which is perfectly fine), please do so in the article's talk page.
6. Cite and Attribute. If you draw from a source, such as a publication or website, be sure to cite it. Also, if you write something that is a statement or belief of a group or person, be sure you attribute that statement or belief to them. This is not necessary for beliefs that are commonly held by Thelemites or considered very common knowledge. It's your call, but be thoughtful about it.
7. Do not assume knowledge. Don't toss in a bunch of technical talk without providing some explination, or at least linking terms to their own page. This is an encyclopedia, not a graduate thesis. Remember, the object is to educate, not confuse.

Creating a New Article

First Things First

1. Search Thelemapedia to see whether someone has written a similar page before you start one yourself.
2. Review the naming conventions of the project you are working in before naming a new page or setting up a new index page. (For example: topics that relate directly to astrology might use the naming convention "Astrology: Specific topic", like "Astrology: Sextiles").
3. Read Thelemapedia Article Basics and the Thelemapedia Editorial Policy.

Ways to start a new page

1. Start a page from an existing link. If the link is red, then it links to an empty page. Simply click on that link and begin typing in the text box.
2. Create a link from an existing page. While you are editing an existing page, if a word or phrase strikes you as if it ought to have an article of its own, just put it in double square brackets, [[like this]]. When you save the present page, that word will magically link to the Thelemapedia article by the same name.
3. Start a page from the Temp Zone. Edit the Temp Zone, then create a new link. Then create/edit your new page by clicking on the link and writing new text. Note: The Temp Zone is periodically erased, so remember to bookmark the page(s) you have created, in order to edit them again in the future. If you are a registered user, it will also appear under "My contributions" in the Quickbar.
4. Starting a page in the URL address bar. Simply enter something like the following into your browser as a page address: http://www.thelemapedia.org/index.php/Sample_page_title, replacing "Sample_page_title" with whatever you want the page to be called (be sure to include the underscores). This will bring up a template page that informs you that there is currently no text in the page yet. So, click on the "Edit" link at the top of that page, and presto! you are now editing your brand new page.

Thelemapedia Markup

Wiki does not use normal HTML for most markup options. Here are the basic methods for formatting your entries. There are a lot of other of Wiki formatting options (http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_User%27s_Guide:_Editing_overview#The_wiki_markup), so be sure to check those out.

If you want to experiment with these, you can play in the Temp Zone. There, you can mess around as much as you want without worry...it will get cleaned out every so often.

== Section ==

=== Subsection ===

==== Sub-subsection ====
        

''Italics'', '''Bold''', ''''Bold Italics''''.
          

Use numbers
#like this
#example
##here

or bullets
*like this
**example
***here
          

This is how to [[make an internal link]].
            

Same target, different name: [[Billy Boy|Billy]]
          

External link: [http://www.scarletwoman.org Scarlet Woman Lodge] 
          

Or just give the URL: http://www.scarletwoman.org
          

A picture: [[Image:crowley.jpg]]
          

[[Image:wiki.png|Thelemapedia]]
          

              Web browsers render alternate text when not displaying an image
                  -- for example, when the image isn't loaded, or in a text-only
                  browser, or when spoken aloud. 

#REDIRECT [[Babalon]]

Write out formatted text
    Like what you might find in a poem
  Just write it out with normal spaces
           in the PRE tag

Make text <small>really small</small>

:Indent a first line

Write out characters that are wiki tags, <nowiki>[[like in this table]]</nowiki>.

<pre>Write out formatted text
    Like what you might find in a poem
  Just write it out with normal spaces
           in the PRE tag</pre>

Where to go from here