Okay, so I am trying to learn this system and how to do things. I've done the Wiki Basics course which got me registered and the beginnings of my character article done, but did not really help me to understand about the Wiki itself.
Now I'm here at 'getting started' and still not quite getting it.
The page says to do a search, and if the article does not exist you have the option to create it ... BUT it does not state that just because the title you searched for does not exist that the information you seek does not exist under another heading. This can be confusing.
Example: I had seen in the past the 'Dominion' map and know that it exists in the DJBWiki, so at the front page I search for "Dominion", but it says that page does not exist. Well it ends up that "Dominion" is a catagory on it's own, but if you search for "Catagory: Dominion" it doesn't come up either, and if you search for "Catagory" nothing shows as well. Funny how spelling makes a difference, but we cannot tell that in our moment of frustration.
Of course following our search and the comment that the page does not exist is a list of pages with the relevant term used, but that is not usually helpful if you have no other clues as to how to find the information.
One other example, one that I've not yet been able to find on the DJBWiki is "timeline". I did, though, find an old document in an archive somewhere that helped greatly. Is there such a thing on this wiki?
And, did I do this 'discussion' thing properly?
Q'win 10:25, 11 January 2008 (MST)
First, you are over-thinking it and making it confusing. The Wiki is very easy to use and if you passed the Wiki Basics and actually read all of the course notes it shouldn't be hard to understand at all.
Getting Started is probably the simplest of explainations - if you that is too complicated for you, then you're going to have a really hard time doing anything. I guess I could always write an article entitled Wiki for Dummies but there are several such articles already out there.
As for the Dominion, there isn't any 1 Dominion page because each clan has it's own dominion and the Dark Council has it's own and these are sub-categories of Category:Dominion. Not all pages exist, but if the information is within the Wiki, you'll see the most relevant pages listed under Page text matches.
I also did a search for Category:Dominion and it directed me straight to the Category - spelling is everything, you put in Catagory when the word is spelled Category. For a timeline it would be best to look at the Era (Dark Jedi Brotherhood Era) for a history. We also have the time periods (Example: 26 ABY to Present is our most recent timeline events, at the bottom is a box that directs to other time periods).
Yes you did do the discussion page correctly. --Tron 11:26, 11 January 2008 (MST)
I've no doubt I'm over-thinking at this point, it is my wont. I went bonkers when I first tried learning networking protocols, and HTML, and I ended up teaching them both at the college within a year. So here too, I check sources, I poke and prod, and I gain understanding :)
Spelling, yes, but it is often the case that a user believes they are spelling the word correctly. Naught that can be done about that at the moment, though. When I searched for Category: Dominion it did take me straight to the page, but not if I just typed in Dominion. How would anyone know to type in the word category? And the same thing with using Era instead of Timeline. It does not matter how good the information is if the people cannot easily find it. Is there a way to do like meta tags for additional search keywords?
I like the idea that 'everything has a category, but everything is not a category', how do we know what categories there are though?
Q'win 19:51, 11 January 2008 (MST)
- The list of categories can be accessed from the "Special pages" link at the bottom of the left-hand navigation bar. Or just go to Special:Categories. The DJBWiki is far from complete. If you feel the urge to contribute, please do - a wiki is a collaborative platform. As far as spelling goes, people just need to learn how to spell at home or go back to elementary school. Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Q'win. -- RevengeX Palpatine 19:55, 11 January 2008 (MST)
Well the thing is, you don't have to know that you have to type in Category. The reason? There is a listing of important categories (of which Dominion is included) right directly below the Featured Article. Again, you can't type in just Dominion because it's not an article - perhaps if more information was available it would become one.
If you really want to learn basics go to either of these Wikipedia pages: How to edit a page or Help Editing --Tron 20:32, 11 January 2008 (MST)
The reason that I am inquiring, and delving, is that I want to contribute, and I want to do it properly, and well. This, I feel, requires more than just a surface understanding of the Wiki we are building, so that my contributions will enhance the whole. Thank you for the links Tron, I am exploring them and finding them quite useful. RevengeX: I shall see about returning to elementary school to fix my deficiencies.
Q'win 10:01, 12 January 2008 (MST)
If you want, go to "My Preferences" (up at the top, near log out and all that), "Search" tab, and check the "Category" namespace (as well as any other kind of page you want to search by default). Then the search box will automatically search in the "Category:" pages. --BenevolentWhiner 10:33, 12 January 2008 (MST)
Links Addition
...You know... wouldn't it be a good thing to include the interlinks here? That way the newer users aren't external linking their dossier's or Wookiepedia. --Anubis 04:51, 26 December 2009 (UTC)