Wild Wacky Wiki Writing

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alasizon
FSAirlines DB and Wiki Admin
Posts: 865
Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2008 2:08 am
Location: PHX

Wild Wacky Wiki Writing

Post by alasizon » Sat Mar 07, 2009 5:09 pm

BAM! Bulletin Board Notice!
Have you always wondered where those neat words in the FSAWiki come from? Well, they come from editors, like you!

The FSAWiki is the FSAirlines wiki, a publicly editable community resource written and maintained by interested volunteers.

Q: Wow Matt, sounds like fun! But how do I get involved?
A: Go to school, learn about Java, PHP and XML programming, then come back here
Q: Oh? Well, in that case.....
A: Yeah, I'm just kidding. It's really easy. You don't need a lot of programming knowledge to edit because all the instructions are clearly laid out, there's over 200 pages of content on the FSAWiki to read about and make better, and best of all we want you to come do it!

A wiki thrives on it's local community designing, writing, and editing pages or else the resource fails and then it is useful to no one.

The Scoop

Everytime you navigate to the FSAWiki, you see a featured article on the main page. The featured article is a short summary of a larger article that the FSAWikiis trying to draw attention to. Right now, the featured article is on features of FSAirlines as we are trying to draw in new members. We would like to open up the opportunity to write the featured article summary to everyone in this contest. It won't be hard as the template will all be laid out for you and there will be prizes.

Q: Ooooh, what kind of prizes?
A: That's not your next question, try again.
Q: So where do I begin?
A: Well, I am glad you asked.

The Directions

Step 1: Step 2:
  • In your browser's navigation bar, replace the word USERNAME with your wiki user name (which should be the same as your forum user name). Then replace the word ARTICLE_TITLE with the name of the article you are summarizing and hit Enter.
    (Please note: All underscores and capitals should be retained to ensure proper name filing. Do a search for the article you want to summarize and take note of the capitalization of the title.)
Step 3:
  • You have the path file name for your article started, at the top of the screen hit the edit tab. Then copy and paste the following template into the edit screen:


    {{Template:Featured_article_contest_entry
    |user=USER NAME
    |title=ARTICLE TITLE
    |articlebody=SUMMARY BODY
    }}


    The places you see in capitals will be where you fill in with your information. Where you see USER NAME please enter the user name you used in the url line above. Under ARTICLE TITLE, enter the title of the article you are summarizing (case sensitive). Then enter the main body where you see SUMMARY BODY. This should be a good, solid summary of the main article we're trying to draw attention to. For example:


    {{Template:Featured_article_contest_entry
    |user=Alasizon
    |title=Rainy Spain Airlines
    |articlebody=The rain in Spain falls mostly from the sky...
    }}
Once you're done completing your article, save the page and you're set. Everything else is done automatically through the template.

Q: Sounds pretty easy, so can I write about anything?
A: Just about, there are a few ground rules though that must be adhered for you article to receive consideration.

The Rules
  1. The article shouldn't be about an individual airline, pilot, or alliance. A good current suggestion would be the PIREP article since we recently had new releases pertaining to it.
  2. The article should be at least 200 words in length and be no more than 300 words.
  3. The article must adhere to FSAWiki style requirements and have proper spelling, grammar, syntax, and phrasing. In other words, it must be readable. For more information on wiki writing, see the style guide.
  4. The featured article is meant to be a portal to not only the article it summarizes, but articles related to the feature. Every possible topic in the article that can be linked, should be. See here for more information on word linking.
  5. You may enter and are encouraged to enter as many articles as you would like to write. Writing more articles will not guarantee you a winning spot for a month and likewise writing less will not reduce your chance of winning. All winners will be chosen based on the merits of the article alone.
Q: That's not so hard, how are the winners chosen?
A: The FSAWiki is a collaborative effort, these articles that are created will benefit every new user that stumbles across the wiki on their quest to learn more about FSAirlines. Anyone can and is encouraged to vote. Votes will be held on the talk page.

In other words, this is a constantly running competition with a new winner once a month. What this means for you is even if you don't get chosen the first time, you may the next time. So you have the opportunity to refine your article or write another one on a completely different subject.

Q: Cool, so what do I get if mine gets chosen?
A: The satisfaction of knowing that your words are some of the first things every visitor to the FSAWiki will see for the next 2 weeks.
Q: Laaaamme.
A: Alright, the winner will either have an aircraft donated to the airline they are a part of or have 1.000.000v$ tipped to them once the feature is designed.

Think of this as an opportunity to get your feet wet in wiki editing. It's easy, it's fun, and you might just win an aircraft of your choice for it.

Any questions, feel free to message Alasizon on the FSAWiki.

Have fun and happy wiki-ing!

~The Wiki Admin
Matt-FSAirlines DB Admin
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