Difference between revisions of "Tips for contributing to the SVR Wiki"

Editing and Formatting

Below are a short selection of tips about editing this site, which are hopefully enough to get you started.

For the more advanced editor, the manual can be accessed by clicking the "Help" button at the left (fourth entry down), or by following this link. The software this site uses is Mediawiki, which can be found on many other websites, including the well-known Wikipedia. If you have a question which neither this page nor the manual seems to answer, you can probably find answers to most questions by searching online (e.g. on Google), using a query such as "Mediawiki Add Bold Text".

Linking between pages

You can create a link to another page on the wiki by placing the title of the page inside two square brackets, e.g. [[Alveley Sidings]], which shows up as Alveley Sidings. If you wish to link to a page, but display some text other than the page title, you can do this by placing a vertical bar after the page name, and then entering your text, e.g. [[Alveley Sidings|coal sidings at Alveley]], which would display as coal sidings at Alveley.

Note that you must use the same capitalisation as the title of the page you're linking to - so [[alveley sidings]] will not work.

Linking external pages

If you wish to link to a page on another website, place its address inside a single set of square brackets, e.g. [http://www.svr.so.uk]. As with internal links, you can display custom text, although the method is slightly different - simply place the text after the link, e.g. [http://www.svr.co.uk SVR Official Site]. This displays as SVR Official Site.

Please note that it is necessary to include the http:// at the start of the link - the wiki may not detect the address otherwise, and won't create the link.

Creating a new Page

To create a new page, you need to add a link to it from another page. Once you have done this, the link will show up in red, to indicate that the page does not yet exist - clicking a link like this, such as Nonexistent Page, will allow you to start creating that page, identically to how you would edit any normal page.

Sections, Titles, and Tables of Content

You can add a new section by placing its title between double equals signs, e.g. == Example Title ==. You can also create sub-sections by adding titles inside three (or more) equals signs, e.g. === Subsection Title ===.

In general, you should start a page with a short introductory paragraph, and only after that place a section - this is because the page title itself is displayed at the top already, so you would display two titles in a row! Additionally, the wiki will automatically generate a Table of Contents, listing each section, just before the first section - this is designed to go after the introductory paragraph. See the top of this page for an example!

The Table of Contents is automatically generated once a page has enough length and sections to warrant it.

Lists

You can create a simple set of bullet points by placing an asterisk at the start of each line, e.g. * List Item. This will appear as:

• Item 1
• Item 2
• Item 3

Bold and Italic Text

Text between two apostrophes will be displayed in italics, e.g. "''Italic''", and text between three apostropes will be bold, e.g. "'''Bold'''". These will display as Italic and Bold.

Style Tips

Some attention should be paid to making your pages easy to read, and also easy to navigate. Below are some simple points which can make life much easier for readers!

Include the basics

Whilst most of us here know that Arley is between Bewdley and Highley, there may well be readers of this site who don't! The introductory paragraph to each page is an ideal place to set the scene - where a location is, the date that something occurred, the owner of a piece of rolling stock, and so on. Don't be afraid to add too much information - if it comes to it, you can always add a new section or even a new page to hold the information.

Use links

Your page should include at least one link to another page - even if that's just a link from a station page to the list of stations. Without this, readers will end up in a dead end, which can be awkward.

Equally, be sure at least one other page links to yours. Without that, the only way anyone will find it is by a lucky search! The simplest way to do this is to add it to a "list" page. You might also want to edit other existing pages to link to your newly created one, such as adding a link from the Highley station page to your newly created Highley Mining Company page.

If you happen to mention Bridgnorth in your page, why not create a link to the page for Bridgnorth? This means that anyone who is interested in Bridgnorth can simply follow the link, without having to use the search function. However, there's no need to link to the Bridgnorth page each time you mention it - usually, only linking on the first mention is good enough.

You can also create links to non-existent pages that you don't intend to add. For example, you might know that the Highley Mining Company existed, but not know enough to create a page. If you leave a link to a non-existent page (which displays in red), you will be prompting knowledgeable readers to create that page, hopefully meaning the information will be added soon.

Pictures, Sources, and Copyright

Before adding any picture to the site, please be sure that the owner of the picture is happy for you to do so. The vast majority of people will respond kindly to a simple request, as long as they are acknowledged as the picture's author. If you are unable to get permission for a picture you've found online (e.g. because the author's account is no longer active), an easy solution is to create a link to the page with the picture on - it's slightly less pretty than having the picture itself, but it does avoid copyright issues!

Similarly, you should avoid copying text from a source such as a website, book, magazine, or so on, and definitely shouldn't do so without acknowledging where you got it from. If you do need to copy a section, you should make it very clear that it is a quote (e.g. by italicising it), and by crediting the source. Otherwise, you should attempt to rewrite the information in your own words - this often makes for a better quality page anyway - and mention your source. This also means that anyone wishing to research a subject in more detail then knows where to start looking, and often a source of information for one page can be used as a source for another.

Of course, not everything can be sourced, as not everything about the SVRSevern Valley Railway was written down, especially in early days (both original and preserved). Whilst memory isn't always perfect, and stories change with each telling, we do still accept un-sourced material - it's preferable to have an almost correct record of an event than no record at all!