User:Adam mugliston/Adopt/Joseph Steven

Joseph Steven (talk · contribs)

Hi Timeweaver, and welcome to your adoption center. I've substituted across a lesson for you and I thought you'd like to know that you do now have your own official page. As you can see from User:Adam mugliston/Adopt, I've created an adoption HQ, where you can read ahead in the lessons. I haven't finished them all as yet - the deletion one is not quite ready yet, but feel free to read ahead - it might help. I also have a few more "advanced optional lessons". The tests might include a couple of extra unique questions if I see an area that you might need a little extra development - don't take it as a negative, it should help. Also we now have a talk area for us to use, away from the more public areas - if you would like to use it - it's at User Talk:Adam mugliston/Adopt/Joseph Steven. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to see. Adam Mugliston Talk 07:02, 24 May 2012 (UTC)

I have put in your first lesson. There's no test, and considering you already have some experience, I'm sure you'll whizz through. Let me know when you're ready for the next part. Why don't you do it on our new talk page?

Lesson 1 - How do Edit - Wiki Markup

How to Edit - Wiki Markup

So by now you know how to edit pages, one of the most important features of Wikipedia. The interesting bit, however, is getting things to look, well, interesting. There are a number of different bits of code that you can use in your editing to create different effects when the page is saved - they can be as simple as bold text or italics, but different bits of code can be combined to make a very appealing layout.

I should warn you that in most cases, special formatting is frowned upon in articles. It should only be used in certain situations, and when it is necessary to illustrate a particular point. Aside from those cases, text in articles should be just as you see it in this sentence - plain black, with only the occasional wikilink to spice things up.

The old editing toolbar - a few less buttons!

Here, I'm going to show you what each of the buttons on your editing toolbar does and how to use the particular bit of code it produces. There are rather a lot of them, so what I'm going to do first is show you where you can go to test all this out while you're reading. There are two places: you can go to the main sandbox that everyone can use at Wikipedia:Sandbox. This is a special page that is cleaned out every 12 hours automatically, that gives editors a place to play with new code and vandals a place to vandalize other than our articles. The only problem with the sandbox is this: Whatever you save there isn't likely to stay for long, and there is a high chance of you getting hit with a few edit conflicts. So, to avoid that, you can create your own sandbox! On Wikipedia, you are able to tack "subpages" onto your main user page to use for testing things out, writing new articles, or other projects like what we're doing here. This page (User:Adam mugliston/Adopt) is a subpage of User:Adam mugliston, and the source of this lesson (User:Adam mugliston/Adopt/Wiki Markup) is a subpage of that subpage. You can create user subpages by searching for the page you want to create in the search box. It won't find it, of course, however a red link will appear at the top of the page. Click on that, and edit away! For example, try searching for User:Adam mugliston/Example and creating it.

To make your sandboxes, we're going to skip a few steps. This is a handy little box that we can use to start making a new page. It will bring you to your own personal sandbox, which you can start using right away.

Now that you have somewhere to test all this code out in, let's start showing you what all it does. Here we go!

Toolbar Button	What it does	The code it makes	Short description	What it looks like	Notes
	Bold text	'''Bold text'''	Three apostrophes (') on either side of the bold text	Bold text	The title of an article is always in bold the first time you see it.
	Italic text	''Italic text''	Two apostrophes (') on either side of the italic text	Italic text
	Internal, or "Wiki" link	[[Link Title]]	Two square brackets on either side of the link	Link Title OR Wikipedia OR User:Adam mugliston/Adopt/Joseph Steven	Pages that do not exist appear in red (Hence the name "red link"), blue if they do exist, and in bold if they link to the page they are on.
	Internal link, but this time with a twist	[[Link Title\|displayed text]]	An internal link, with a pipe (usually found under the backspace) separating the title and the text to be displayed	The free encyclopedia	By inserting a pipe, you can make different text appear. Clicking on the link to the left will bring you to Wikipedia.
	External link	[http://www.example.org link title]	A single square bracket on either side of the URL and title. The URL and link title are separated by a space.	link title	The arrow you see indicates an external link. Other symbols represent other types of pages: A lock for an https:// or "secure" site, an Adobe PDF logo for .pdf extensions, a smiley-face speech bubble for irc:// channels, among others.
	Level 2 section heading	== Headline text ==	Two equals signs on either side of the headline.	To avoid breaking the Table of Contents, I will not demonstrate this here. The heading with your username is a level 2 header, and the heading above this table (Wiki Markup) is a level 3 (=== level 3 ===)	Lower-level headers can be created with more equals signs. Only one equals sign on either side makes a level 1, usually only found in the title of the page. Level 2 headers are most common, and levels 3 and lower allow more specific divisions.
	Insert image	[[File:Bad Title Example.png]]	Exactly the same as an internal link, however the pipe works differently. The Image: prefix and .jpg (or whatever) extension MUST be present.		The image size, framing, location, and captioning can all be controlled using the pipe character mentioned before. The most common application is [[File:Bad Title Example.png\|thumb\|caption here]], which produces a captioned thumbnail as you see in the picture of the toolbar above. Further settings are described in Wikipedia:Extended image syntax.
	Insert media	[[Media:Example.ogg]] OR [[File:Example.ogg]]	Exactly the same as an internal link, however pipes should not be used. The "Media:" OR "Image:" prefix and ".ogg" extension MUST be present.	Media:Example.ogg OR	Sound files are always in .ogg format, for reasons we'll get to later on. Don't worry if you've never heard of it before, the MediaWiki software features a built-in player, which you can get to appear by using the "Image:" prefix instead of "Media:". It doesn't make any sense to me, but that's how it works.
	Mathematical formula	<math>Insert formula here</math>	Two math "tags", a technical term (not really) for two angle brackets surrounding the word "math". A closing tag is indicated with a slash.	$Insertformulahere$ $a^{2}+b^{2}=c^{2}$	This gets super-complicated and math formulas are only used on a limited number of articles anyway, so I won't go into too much detail. If you really want to play with it, there's an index of character codes at Help:Math. If these formulas do not display properly, please let me know. Oh, and yes, I know it's American :(
	Ignore wiki formatting	<nowiki>[[Insert]] '''non-formatted''' ''text'' here</nowiki>	Two "nowiki" tags.	[[Insert]] '''non-formatted''' ''text'' here	This code I've been using throughout the table to show you the code. Any wikimarkup inside a nowiki tag is ignored and displayed as written.
	Signature with time stamp	--~~~~	The operative bit of the code is four tildes (that squiggly bit next to the 1 key). The two dashes don't do anything.	-- Adam Mugliston Talk 21:20, 10 May 2012 (UTC)	Three tildes (top) only display your signature. Four tildes (middle) show your signature with a timestamp, and are most commonly used. Five tildes (bottom) give only the timestamp.
	Horizontal line	----	Four dashes.		Please use sparingly.
Buttons shown below this line are only used on Wikipedia. While the code will do the same thing on other wikis, you may not see a button for it on your toolbar.
	Create a redirect	#REDIRECT [[Insert title]]	The phrase "#REDIRECT" followed by a wikilink to the target page.	Preview "Acidic", a redirect page	Redirects are intended to correct spelling and capitalization mistakes in searches (since the search sucks) and reduce confusion over related terms. Any link to a redirect page will send you instead to the target - for example, click on Acidic and see where it takes you. WARNINGS: The code must be on the first line of a page to operate. Also, NEVER redirect to a redirect. This creates a "double redirect", which can screw up the server, your browser, and your brain, if you're the one trying to search for something.
	Strike-through text	<s>Strike-through text</s>	This is one of the few active HTML tags. It's two "s" tags around the text.	~~Strike-through text~~	This is usually used when someone is retracting a comment they made in a discussion or talk page, but wishes to leave the comment visible as a matter of record. Note that even if something is removed on Wikipedia, you can still find it in the history.
	Line break	Before<br />After	Again, an HTML tag. A single tag with two variations: <br> or <br />. I haven't been able to find any difference between the two.	Before After	Useful on Wikipedia because simply hitting "Enter" doesn't work. You have to hit enter twice to make a new paragraph, or use this to knock it down a line.
	Superscript	x<sup>3</sup>	HTML "sup" tags	x³	Not much to say here. This is NOT what you use to make footnotes, though. That button comes later. This also doesn't work in math formulas, so don't try it.
	Subscript	H<sub>2</sub>O	HTML "sub" tags	H₂O	See above.
	Smaller text	<small>Small Text</small> Big text	HTML "small" tags	Small Text Big text	Nothing to say here either.
	Comment	<!-- Comment -->	Same as the HTML code for comments. Angle bracket, exclamation point, two dashes, your comment, two dashes, closing angle bracket.		Note how nothing appeared in that box. There is something there, it just didn't print. These are usually used to leave unobtrusive messages to editors about articles.
	Picture gallery	<gallery> Image:Example.png\|Caption1 Image:Example.png\|Caption2 </gallery>	Two "gallery" tags, which enclose a list of images to be included in the gallery. Captions can be added by inserting a pipe after the image name, followed by the caption.	Demonstration not possible here. Click the link to the left to see an example.	Galleries are a way to show several pictures in an article without cluttering them up, but they have been criticized for being "tacky," and really should be used sparingly.
	Quoted text (appears indented)	other text<blockquote> abc </blockquote>other text	Two "blockquote" tags around the quote	other text abc other text	Should be used for extended quotes. If you use this, make sure to provide a source for the quote, and to use direct quotes as little as possible to avoid copyright infringement.
	Insert table	{\| class="wikitable" \|- abc \|}	Table syntax is complicated, and we'll cover that later on.	This is a table.	If you would like to learn how to make and use tables, please tell me and I will organise a lesson for you.
	Add a reference (footnote)	blah blah<ref>Reference</ref>	Two "ref" tags around the reference text.	blah blah^[1]	References are displayed using the code <references />. There's a fancy bit of coding you can do to make the same reference appear multiple times, demonstrated in the second line. By adding a `name="blah"` parameter to the first instance of a reference, you can make the same reference appear more than once. I have these footnotes displayed below the table so you can see how they appear.
	Add a duplicate reference	blah blah<ref name="copy">Duplicate</ref> blah blah<ref name="copy"/>	The duplicate reference has a slash at the end of the tag.	blah blah^[2] blah blah^[2]

The references

(That was a level 4 header, with four equals signs)

^ Reference
^ ^a ^b Duplicate

Other stuff

You can make lists and indents by adding characters to the beginning of a paragraph, like so:

A space before your paragraph will make the paragraph display in a box with machine font, and will cause it to run off the page if it is long enough.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

A colon (:) will cause a block indent, with all lines starting away from the edge of the page.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

An asterisk (*) will make a bullet.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

A pound or number sign (#) makes a numbered list.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Curabitur pretium tincidunt lacus. Nulla gravida orci a odio. Nullam varius, turpis et commodo pharetra, est eros bibendum elit, nec luctus magna felis sollicitudin mauris. Integer in mauris eu nibh euismod gravida. Duis ac tellus et risus vulputate vehicula. Donec lobortis risus a elit. Etiam tempor. Ut ullamcorper, ligula eu tempor congue, eros est euismod turpis, id tincidunt sapien risus a quam. Maecenas fermentum consequat mi. Donec fermentum. Pellentesque malesuada nulla a mi. Duis sapien sem, aliquet nec, commodo eget, consequat quis, neque. Aliquam faucibus, elit ut dictum aliquet, felis nisl adipiscing sapien, sed malesuada diam lacus eget erat. Cras mollis scelerisque nunc. Nullam arcu. Aliquam consequat. Curabitur augue lorem, dapibus quis, laoreet et, pretium ac, nisi. Aenean magna nisl, mollis quis, molestie eu, feugiat in, orci. In hac habitasse platea dictumst.

You can mix and match the last three characters to get several different effects. The only caveat, though, is that you must have a continual line of #'s in order to maintain the numbering. This does not mean, however, that the numbered list has to be displayed at all times. See below for an example:

This code	Produces this
`:Lorem :Ipsum :#Dolor :#Sit :#Amet :#Consectetur Adipisicing :::Edit`	Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet Consectetur Adipisicing Edit

Note that you don't have to hit enter twice when starting a new line from one of these types of paragraphs. However, when you don't use them, you do. Those last two sentences are on a different line from this one in the editing box, but there is no line break when they are displayed.

Have fun!

Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing.

User:Jimbo Wales

The Five Pillars

One of the most important essays in Wikipedia is WP:FIVEPILLARS which is designed to eloquently sum up what we're here for.

Pillar one defines Wikipedia as an encyclopedia. It suggests some things that we are not. Thoughts about what we are not are covered in the deletion lesson.
Pillar two talks about neutrality, a concept that this lesson will be concentrating on.
Pillar three talks about free content. The Copyright lesson will go into this in more detail.
Pillar four talks about civility. Wikipedia is a collaborative working environment and nothing would ever get done if it wasn't. I'll go into civility more during the dispute resolution module.
Pillar five explains that Wikipedia does not have firm rules. This is a difficult concept and will be covered in the Policy and consensus lesson.

Once you get your head around these five pillars, you will be a Wikipedian and a good one at that. All 5 are covered in my adoption school, though at different lengths. Be aware that I don't know everything and I would doubt anyone who said they did.

How articles should be written

The articles in Wikipedia are designed to represent the sum of human knowledge. Each article should be written from a neutral point of view – personal opinions such as right and wrong should never appear, nor should an editors experience. Neutrality also means giving due weight to the different points of view. If the broad scientific community has one set of opinions – then the minority opinion should not be shown. An example is in medicine – if there was an article on say treatment of a broken leg, a neutral article would not include anything on homeopathy.

To ensure that the information in an article is correct, Wikipedia has adopted a policy of verifiability. Anything written in Wikipedia should be available to confirm by looking at the associated reliable source. Wikipedia should not include anything not verifiable by seeing it is published elsewhere; in other words, it should not contain anything original.

Reliable sources

So what is a source? Wikipedia uses the word source for three interchangeable ideas – a piece of work, the work's creator or the work's publisher. In general, you would expect a reliable source to be published materials with a reliable publication process, authors who are regarded as authoritative in relation to the subject, or both. This doesn't mean that a source that is reliable on one topic is reliable on every topic, it must be regarded as authoritative in that topic – so whilst "Airfix monthly" may be a good source on the first model aeroplane, I would not expect it to be authoritative on their full size equivalent.

A source that is self-published is in general considered unreliable, unless it is published by a recognized expert in the field. This is a very rare exception – so self publishing is generally considered a no-no. This means that anything in a forum or a blog and even most websites are considered unreliable by default. One interesting sidepoint is on self-published sources talking about themselves. Obviously, a source talking about itself is going to be authoritative, but be careful that the source is not too self-serving – the article really should not be totally based on a direct source like that.

Mainstream news sources are generally considered reliable... but any single article should be assessed on a case by case basis. Some news organizations have been known to check their information on Wikipedia – so be careful not to get into a cyclic sourcing issue!

There's a lot more about what makes a source reliable here.

Questions?

Any questions or would you like to try the test?

[1] Reference

[copy-2] Duplicate

[1]

[2]