[RK]

Now that it's all up and running I thought it might be a good idea to introduce the Wiki Support Team to you all.


The Wiki Support Team is a group of TSR members who have put a lot of effort in to editing the site's wiki and know how the wiki works. They have a few extra powers on the wiki, like being able to protect a page from editing or deleting a page.

The team currently consists of these members

Ana
beach surf babe
BlackHawk
bright star
Crisps
daniel_williams
dillie
generalebriety
Nefarious
Noxid
randdom
RK
wes
Wildebeest
~Kirsty~

You do not have to be a wiki support team member to edit the wiki - any member is able to edit the wiki - that is what it is there for!

As well as editing the wiki, team members are here to help you. If you have any problems or questions regarding editing and content of the wiki side of the site please ask them in this forum and a team member (or anyone else) will be able to help you out. Please do not contact at team member directly - make your point in this forum

OK, there we have it, the Wiki Support Team. Let's all get out there now and start editing the wiki to make it the best student resource on the web, all written by students!

[RK]

I'm now going to write a few guidelines on various areas of the wiki, starting with deleting pages, in order to make sure things run as smoothly as possible over there.

All what I write are just guidelines and will probably evolve over time through discussions with other people and through practical experience


Deleting Articles

Only Wiki Support Team Members can delete pages.

Generally, not many pages will need deleting.

If you see an article which you think needs deleting, edit the page to add [[Category:Delete]] to the bottom of the article. This will flag the article up in the delete category and some one can look at it to see if it does need deleting.

If necessary, a discussion in this forum could take place to decide if the article needs deleting.

Deleting should be a last resort and if it is sensible to do so, the page should be re-directed to another article.

If it is decided to delete the page, the 'What links here?' page should first be checked to make sure no other article links to the one being deleted. If they do, then the links should be sorted out appropriately. This should also flag up any redirects to the page you are deleting which would also need deleting/redirecting appropriately.

[RK]

Protecting and Unprotecting Pages

Protecting a page means that it is locked from editing by everyone except the Wiki Support Team.

An article could be locked for three reasons:

1. the page could be one of the main navigational pages of the site (there are about 16 such pages).
2. the page could be subject to an edit war (like wikipedia has) and so the page it temporarily locked to stop the editing until an agreement has been found.
3. the page could be a widely used template, edits of which could cause serious changes to a large number of articles.

The only pages currently locked from editing are the Wiki Home Page, the Channel Pages and images used on the Home and Channel Pages.

Generally a user will have little need to request a page locked or unlocked. But if necessary (such as in a edit war) please report such pages in here for some one to take a look at.

An article should not be locked to preserve content or prevent further edits, even if the article is considered 'complete'. This would go against the spirit of the wiki.

[Ana]

Originally Posted by Roger Kirk

Protecting and Unprotecting Pages

Protecting a page means that it is locked from editing by everyone except the Wiki Support Team.

An article could be locked for two reasons:

1. the page could be one of the main navigational pages of the site (there are about 16 such pages)
2. the page could be subject to an edit war (like wikipedia has) and so the page it temporarily locked to stop the editing until an agreement has been found.

The only pages currently locked from editing are the Wiki Home Page, the Channel Pages and images used on the Home and Channel Pages.

I locked a few of the design templates, after we agreed they were OK - the rational was that pages like that which so many pages include, are actually quite vulnerable to malicious editing - if someone blanked them, they could make large sections of the wiki look a mess with little to no effort.

[RK]

Originally Posted by Ana

I locked a few of the design templates, after we agreed they were OK - the rational was that pages like that which so many pages include, are actually quite vulnerable to malicious editing - if someone blanked them, they could make large sections of the wiki look a mess with little to no effort.

That's a good point

[Aquillyne]

Just wondering at what point I ceased to be an administrator/Wiki Support Team member. Wasn't even notified.

[RK]

Originally Posted by axios

Just wondering at what point I ceased to be an administrator/Wiki Support Team member. Wasn't even notified.

When the whole system was overhauled and the nature of the things on the wiki changed and inactive people on the wiki were removed from the groups.

[Juno]

if it's taken you this long to notice then you weren't very active and I don't see why you care

[~Kirsty~]

Originally Posted by Juno

if it's taken you this long to notice then you weren't very active and I don't see why you care

Because they no longer have a nice name under their name - I know they used to be active at one time, but all the inactive people were taken off months ago!

[Aquillyne]

Actually I cared because a few days ago I tried to do some more work for the wiki and found I couldn't because I no longer have admin privileges.

[~Kirsty~]

How long has it been since you tried to edit the wiki? Its been ages since the privileges were changed, it was before the wiki was locked for weeks.

[Crisps]

Um, I think the list at the top of this thread needs updating

[Ana]

Originally Posted by Crisps

Um, I think the list at the top of this thread needs updating

Done

[PQ]

Why is http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki...to_results_day locked so it can't be edited? There are actually a few things on there that should be changed (eg. advising students to phone universities before checking track is just going to clog the phone lines up with people who are wasting everyone's time) but I can't edit the page.

[Juno]

Originally Posted by PQ

Why is http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki...to_results_day locked so it can't be edited? There are actually a few things on there that should be changed (eg. advising students to phone universities before checking track is just going to clog the phone lines up with people who are wasting everyone's time) but I can't edit the page.

It's my page, and I can't edit it either