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Note on creating new articles
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Do's and Don'ts
From help.energypedia.info
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Revision as of 12:04, 12 August 2011
Ten things you should do and ten you should not while being on energypedia:
- Start writing! If you have practical information or experiences to share then just start writing a new article or edit an existing one. A wiki article will never be completed and is always work in progress, so do not think that your knowledge is not worth to be written down. But remember what energypedia is and what it is not.
- Keep it short! Focus on the relevant information and avoid unnecessary empty phrases and passages like prefaces or acknowledgments. Instead of writing a long article rather try to split it into several interlinked shorter ones which will help the readers to quickly find the exact piece of information that they are looking for.
- Choose a precise title! Most users will find your article via a title search, so find a concise but meaningful title which reflects the article's subject as precise as possible.
- Structure your article! Give your article a usefull structure by including headlines and bullet points.
- Design your article! Make your article visually more attractive for the reader by including informative tables, pictures and graphes.
- Link your articles! Instead of writing the same information again in your text (for example, definitions or procedures), simply link to existing articles which already explain the relevant point in detail. This will not only increase the information value of your article but also the likelihood of people finding it on energypedia.
- Catagorize your article! All articles should be categorized with one or more category. This will help users to find your article and more generally will give energypedia an underlining structure.
- Keep editing articles! To continiously improve energypedia, its users have to fill content gaps, correct typing errors or change outdated information if they come across them. That is why editing articles is so important for the quality of a wiki.
- Be rational! While working collaborativley with others on an article you might disagree about some passages. Avoid constant reverting of other people's edits which will lead into edit wars. Rather start a discussion explaining your thinking and reasons for edits and allow others to response. Thereby keep in mind that you argue facts not personalities.
- Be polite! Above all, whatever you are doing - be it writing on somebodies wall or responding to a discussion - be always polite and treat your counterpart with respect. Even in disputes try to stay calm and work constructively towards agreement amongst all involved actors.
- Simple uploading of files! Rather summarize relevant content in a wiki article or link directly to a file on another homepage as energypedia is not a file sharing plattform.
- Copy and paste! The advantage of energypedia is that it collects, summarizes and combines knowledge. Hence copy and paste of whole publications does not offer any additional value for energypedia readers (besides that it is probably an copyright violation). Rather ask yourself which parts of a publication are relevant and in which existing articles you might be able to integrate them (Don't forget to citate and reference correctly!).
- Links to closed systems! If you link to a file, make sure that it is an open (password unprotected) website since otherwise energypedia users will not be able to access these documents.
- "Further Readings" sections! All important information should be included in wiki articles making "Further reading" obsolete
- Complaints about poor content! If you think that an article is incomplete or even incorrect then do not simply complain about it but help to improve energypedia's content: start a discussion about questionable statements, rate articles or mark them Wartungsbaustein, .... edit existing articles or even create a new one on topics which have not yet been dealt with.
- Slang or colloquial language! Energypedia's claim is to offer quality information on renewable energies, do not let people think you have nothing important to tell by using sloppy expressions in your article.
- Unspecific titles! An overly unspecific title makes it very difficult for readers to identify if an article is interesting for them or not. Moreover, due to technical reasons, no articles can have an identitical title which makes specific enough article titles a necessity.
- Arbitrary content! Energypedia aims at compiling information on renewable energy and all related issue (for example, social and environmental impacts). So think first if your content fits on this platform.
- Personal insults! Energypedia will not tolerate personal insults against other users or social groups in any form! Violations of this rule might lead to exclusion from energypedia!
- Edit wars! The ability to change articles on energypedia is a core advantage over ordinary webpages, however it can cause so-called edit wars when editors disagree about content and repeatedly rewrite each other's contributions. Such a series of back-and-forth reverts is very unconstructive for the whole community and destroys the working atmosphere amongst its users. If you realize that there is disagreement about content, do not just re-edit but rather start a discussion to solve the dispute in a civilized manner.
