Wikipedia: The Missing Manual John Broughton Beijing • Cambridge • Farnham • Köln • Paris • Sebastopol • Taipei • Tokyo Wikipedia: The Missing Manual by John Broughton Copyright © 2008 O’Reilly Media. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472 O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://safari.oreilly.com). For more information, contact our corporate/ institutional sales department: (800) 998-9938 or corporate@oreilly.com. Editors: Nan Barber and Peter Meyers Copy Editor: Sohaila Abdulali and Jill Steinberg Production Editor: Nellie McKesson Proofreader: Nellie McKesson Indexer: Dawn Frausto Cover Designer: David Freedman Illustrators: Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read Printing History: January 2008: First Edition Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O’Reilly logo are registered trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Wikipedia: The Missing Manual, The Missing Manual logo, Pogue Press, and the Pogue Press logo and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Many of the designations uses by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O’Reilly Media, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information con- tained herein. TM This book uses RepKover™, a durable and flexible lay-flat binding. [M] Table of Contents The Missing Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Part I. Editing, Creating, and Maintaining Articles 1. Editing for the First Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The Wikipedia Way of Editing 3 Practicing in the Sandbox 4 Starting, Previewing, and Saving Your Edit 5 Dealing with an Edit Conflict 11 Wiki Markup: From Edit Box to Screen 14 Editing Article Sections 18 Editing the Lead Section 20 Editing for Real 21 2. Documenting Your Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Documentation Guidelines 25 Adding an External Link 30 Citing Sources 31 Creating Footnotes 33 Advanced Citation Techniques 40 3. Setting Up Your Account and Personal Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Why Register? 45 Picking a User Name 48 Registering 50 Setting Up Your User Page 53 Personal Subpages 56 v 4. Creating a New Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 What Makes a Good Article 62 What Articles Don’t Belong on Wikipedia 67 Tutorial: Creating a New Article 69 Ideas for New Articles 78 Resources for Writing Articles 78 5. Who Did What: Page Histories and Reverting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Understanding Page Histories 81 Reverting Edits 90 Advanced Techniques 96 6. Monitoring Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 The User Contributions Page 99 Wikipedia’s Standard Watchlist 101 Multiple Watchlists 115 Real-Time Monitoring Alternatives 117 7. Dealing with Vandalism and Spam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Lines of Defense 122 Reverting Vandalism and Spam 122 Issuing Warnings 130 Requesting Assistance of Administrators 133 Don’t Get into a Revert War 138 Part II. Collaborating with Other Editors 8. Communicating with Your Fellow Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Identifying Yourself 143 Article Talk (Discussion) Pages 145 User Talk Page Postings 156 Communicating via Email and IRC 162 9. WikiProjects and Other Group Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 WikiProjects 165 Collaborations 175 Less Formal Working Groups 177 10. Resolving Content Disputes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Why Editors Disagree 179 Avoiding Content Disputes 181 vi | Table of Contents Reviewing Content Changes: A General Plan of Action 184 Resolving Content Disputes Informally 188 Resolving Disputes with Assistance 191 11. Handling Incivility and Personal Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Enforcing Norms of Conduct 195 Dealing with Incivility and Personal Attacks 200 When You Get Irritated (or Worse) 210 12. Lending Other Editors a Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Answering Questions 213 Showing Appreciation for Other Editors 218 Reviewing Articles and Images 219 Coaching Other Editors 223 Helping Resolve Disputes 223 For Experienced Editors 227 Choosing Where You Want to Help 228 Part III. Formatting and Illustrating Articles 13. Article Sections and Tables of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Getting Sections Right 233 Getting Headings Right 242 Improving the Table of Contents 245 14. Creating Lists and Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Creating and Editing Lists 253 Editing and Creating Tables 262 15. Adding Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Uploading Images 271 Finding Images 284 Placing an Image in an Article 284 Questions or Problems with Images 287 Uploading a Non-free Image 288 Part IV. Building a Stronger Encyclopedia 16. Getting Readers to the Right Article: Naming, Redirects, and Disambiguation . . . 295 Naming and Renaming 295 For Old Names and Bad Spellers: Redirects 303 Table of Contents | vii For Multiple Meanings: Disambiguation 313 17. Categorizing Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 Fundamentals of Categorization 323 Category Links in Articles 324 Category Pages 331 Building Out Categories 335 Discussing Categories 336 Categories, Lists, and Series Boxes 336 18. Better Articles: A Systematic Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 Avoid Surprises 339 Don’t Suppress or Separate Controversy 342 Reorganize and Edit Existing Content 343 Don’t Take Article Scope as a Given 346 Improve the Citation of Sources 348 Build the Web 351 Look for Guidance and Examples 352 Add Sourced Content 353 Remove Cruft and Duplication 355 Get the Wording Right 356 Make the Article Look Appealing 357 19. Deleting Existing Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359 Responding to Problem Articles 359 Alternatives to Deletion 362 Three Ways to Delete an Article 363 After an Article is Deleted 379 Part V. Customizing Wikipedia 20. Customizing with Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383 User Profile 383 Skin 388 Math 390 Files 391 Date and Time 391 Editing 393 Recent Changes 395 Watchlist 395 Search 396 Misc 397 viii | Table of Contents Gadgets 399 21. Easier Editing with JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401 Setting Up Your Browser 401 Adding and Deleting Scripts 402 Fixing Problems 409 Resources 410 Part VI. Appendixes A. A Tour of the Wikipedia Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413 B. Reader’s Guide to Wikipedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 C. Learning More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457 Table of Contents | ix The Missing Credits About the Author John Broughton John Broughton has been a registered editor at Wi- kipedia since August 2005, with more than 15,000 edits by the time he wrote this book. His biggest Wikipedia endeavor has been the Ed- itor’s index to Wikipedia (just type that in the “search” box at the left of any Wikipedia page). This index lists every important reference page on Wikipedia, as well as hundreds of off-Wikipedia Web pages with useful information and tools for Wikipedia editors. John’s first experience with programming computers was in a 1969 National Science Foundation program. Since then, he’s held various computer-related management po- sitions in the headquarters of a U.S. Army Reserve division, worked in internal audit departments as a Certified Information Systems Auditor, and was the Campus Y2K Coordinator at U.C. Berkeley. A Certified Management Accountant, John has B.S. in Mathematical Sciences from Johns Hopkins University; an M.B.A. from Golden Gate University; an M.S. in Edu- cation from the University of Southern California; and a Masters in Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley. About the Creative Team Nan Barber (editor) has worked with the Missing Manual series since its inception. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and G4 Macintosh. Email: nanbarber@oreilly.com. Dawn Frausto (editor) is assistant editor for the Missing Manual series. When not working, she rock climbs, plays soccer, and causes trouble. Email: dawn@oreilly.com. Nellie McKesson (production editor) is a graduate of St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She currently lives in Cambridge, MA, where her favorite places to eat are Punjabi Dhaba and Tacos Lupita. Email: nellie@oreilly.com. xi Sohaila Abdulali (copy editor) is a freelance writer and editor. She has published a novel, several children's books, and numerous short stories and articles. She recently finished an ethnography of an aboriginal Indian woman. She lives in New York City with her husband Tom and their small but larger-than-life daughter, Samara. She can be reached through her Web site at http://www.sohailaink.com. Jill Steinberg (copy editor) is a freelance writer and editor based in Seattle, and has produced content for O'Reilly, Intel, Microsoft, and the University of Washington. When she's not working with words, Jill takes Italian classes, practices opera singing, and helps create urban parks. Email: saysjill@mac.com. Daniel Mocsny (tech reviewer) discovered Wikipedia editing in April, 2006. He edits as an ordinary user, and as of late 2007 had the second-highest edit count on the Wi- kipedia Help desk. In addition, he is an administrator on two other public wikis and three corporate wikis, with a real-life involvement in software development, docu- menting, and technical support. You can contact Daniel via his Wikipedia user talk page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Teratornis. Godmund Schick (technical reviewer) is an avid coffee drinker who periodically spends time baking, quilting, running, reading, and experiencing new things. Email: godmschick@gmail.com. Acknowledgements This book would not have been possible without the encouragement, support, and assistance of my wife Joan. I want to thank Pete Meyers, who responded so positively to my proposal for the book; Nan Barber, my editor, whose help and patience made the writing process much easier and the words in this book so much better; and the technical reviewers, Daniel Mocsny and Godmund Schick, whose comments on the first draft I found invaluable. —John Broughton The Missing Manual Series Missing Manuals are witty, superbly written guides to computer products that don’t come with printed manuals (which is just about all of them). Each book features a handcrafted index; cross-references to specific pages (not just chapters); and RepKover, a detached-spine binding that lets the book lie perfectly flat without the assistance of weights or cinder blocks. 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Saving Your Edit | 5 Figure 1-2 The sandbox, in edit mode The text in the box (the edit box) is only an example—what you see will depend on what the other editors have just done to the page The edit toolbar along the top of the edit box is standard; it provides one-click options for the most common kinds of formatting of content Also standard is all the text between the sentences “It will be deleted”... found along the top and left of the screen, not in menus These can change; what you see depends on the type of Wikipedia page, and whether or not you’re logged in In addition, the content of a page may have links, typically to content on other Wikipedia pages Appendix A covers every single link and action at the top and left of your screen The search box on the left side of the screen is the primary . Conner Excel 2003: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald Excel 2007: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald Facebook: The Missing Manual by E.A. Vander. iDVD: The Missing Manual by David Pogue iMovie ’08 & iDVD: The Missing Manual by David Pogue iPhone: The Missing Manual by David Pogue iPhoto 6: The Missing