altnetpedia

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Contributing

Anyone can contribute to altnetpedia by clicking on the Edit This Page link in the top right corner of an article.

It is important to realize that in contributing to altnetpedia, users are expected to be civil and neutral, respecting all points of view, and only add verifiable and factual information rather than personal views and opinions.

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Buckets vs Focus

One of the key things we're trying to accomplish with the wiki is to provide a comprehensive "Wiki of Knowledge" as it relates to the ALT.NET space. Rather than creating large buckets of content with links to all sorts of places, we tend to favor more focused content with relevant links.

Originally we set out to create things like an Articles page, Resources, and Tools. These are pages that were created as large buckets to collect anything and everything about ALT.NET. Unfortunately these pages have grown to be a little unmanageable and not very useful to the end user.

Recently we've introduced a Values and Practices page where specific values and practices of ALT.NET in general are listed. Each link navigates to its own page on the subject where more specific and relevant links to the tools, articles and other resources live. We favor this approach over the large bucket one so please consider this model when adding content to the wiki.

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Images

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Images as a Metaphor

Images are a strong factor in getting a message out and we like to see them on the wiki. What's just as strong as say an image of a screenshot of a tool is a metaphor for that tool. For example, on the Continuous Integration page, rather than a screenshot of CC.NET or TeamCity there's a picture of a team of cyclists all working together towards a common goal. Cyclists will continuously improve the speed of the pack as they make their way through the course. This resonates with the idea of Continuous Integration and makes the image that much more powerful as a metaphor.

Images should be 300px wide and generally can be aligned to the right of the page. This will put them in a box next to the content of the page. Wider images can be used inline but will break up the flow of the page. Using the Preview option when editing is helpful in seeing how the page will look when saved.

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Image Sources

Of course, with great power comes great responsibility. Images on the internet are always a point of order. Google image search and Flickr are your friends. Some (most?) images on Flickr are released under a Creative Commons license, in which case they're fine to use here. Google images may have issues with copyright so check first before you use one on a page or article here. It's a good idea to credit the source if needed. iStockPhoto is a great source and fairly inexpensive. If you have images from them and are willing to share them with the wiki, please do.

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Standards and Consistency

A few items around the formatting of pages that will help us keep the wiki in order.

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Page Header

Please include a table of contents by entering the following wiki markup as the first item on a page:

{toc}

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Headings

Label appropriate sections of a page using headings (H2-H4). These will show up in the table of contents. Only use H1 for the first heading if it makes sense (sometimes for an Introduction section) as it tends to overpower the page and page title.

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Page Footer

If you feel you want the page to be rated by others, please include the rating stub:

(rating)

  • Replace "()" with "{}" (the wiki wants to process this so it's hard to write out correctly here)
  • Surround the rating tag with a "sub" pair.

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Continous Improvement

The wiki is far from done (and probably won't really be "done"). There are inconsistencies that exist today and we look to add more useful content as time goes on. However a distributed model works here as we can all pitch in. A few minutes here and there adds up when dozens or even hundreds of people are doing it. Please respect other peoples work but look at helping out if possible here and there. Every little bit helps and we're always open for improvement.

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Thanks

Without your support, this wiki doesn't survive. It's only by the continuous improvement through contributions of each of us that it grows and becomes more and more useful. Thank you for adding your content and making this a great toolset for the ALT.NET developer!

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